University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 10.00am Tues and 10.00am Wed (lectures) and either 10.00am or 11.00am Thurs (seminar)

Paul Gauguin's (1848-1903) influential career and unconventional life continue to provoke both admiration and controversy. This module examines his painting, sculpture, graphic art, and writing, in the context of European modernism?s obsession with the 'primitive'. It explores how Gauguin and associated artists including Van Gogh, the Nabis, and Picasso projected mythical values onto non-Western and rural cultures in their search for difference and 'authenticity'. Focusing on Gauguin's travels to Brittany, Arles, Martinique and Polynesia, we will examine his self-construction as an outsider in self-portraiture and autobiographical writing, his use of deliberately naive and anti-academic media and techniques, and his exploitation of both colonial and indigenous sources. We will pay particular attention to shifts in his critical reception, from his glorification as a ?noble savage? in early biographical accounts, to his exposure as a cultural and sexual tourist in feminist and postcolonial readings.

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 x 1-hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour seminar.

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100% (including Time-Restricted Written Assessment = 25%)


Re-assessment: 1 x Written Assignment to be agreed by the Board of Examiners

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor L J Goddard
Module teaching staff: Dr L Goddard
Module coordinator email ljg21@st-andrews.ac.uk