Modern cultural theory distinguishes two major "turns" since the crystallization of the humanities as disciplines in the 19th century. These are the "linguistic turn" which occurred in the first half of the 20th century, primarily inspired by the concepts of Ferdinand de Saussure; and the "pictorial or iconic turn" which emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. The chief theoreticians of the latter were the American W. J. T. Mitchell and the German art historian, Hans Belting. It is quite obvious that our contemporary, digitalized and visuality-oriented culture cannot be examined without taking into consideration the above theoretical concerns, but this has to be completed by case studies, too, drawn from various media of cultural representations.

The course is divided into four sections. Weeks 1-3 introduce some basic questions about the mediality of culture and the theoretical and methodological turning point which is now identified as the emergence of Visual Studies. Weeks 4-5 examine the relationship between words and images and concentrate on the question of the emblematic way of seeing which dominated Western visual culture over many centuries and is still effective in our modern world. Weeks 6-8 revisit how the "old iconology" of traditional art history (Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky, Ernst Gombrich) tried to decipher the meaning of images and how this methodology became problematized by the new, poststructuralist iconology (Mitchell and Belting). Finally, weeks 9-12 offer case studies demonstrating the contemporary concerns of visual culture studies, such as the impact of popular culture and film; digital culture and hypertext; museum studies; and the feminist and postcolonial perspectives.

Needless to say, the course is heavily based on visual illustrations taken from various media and all periods of human civilization; these will be analyzed and discussed during the classes (slide shows will be given to the students). The topics also need theoretical background knowledge, this will be provided by course readings and also discussed in the classes. One of the goals of the course is to establish connections to the topics of the students' research fields (journal exercise, see under assignments), thus utilizing the course as a mandatory exercise of combining theory, practice and interpretation.

The learning outcome should consist of 1/ an accumulation of theoretical and historical knowledge about the mediality of culture and the uses of different media for cultural representations in different periods; 2/ students should get familiarized to reading scholarly discourse  representing semiotic, art historical and cultural-historical problematization as well as formulating their own opinions about representations of visual culture.