Course detail

Art Inspires Art: Visual Art in Fiction, Film, and Sound

FaVU-2AIAAcad. year: 2025/2026

This interdisciplinary seminar will explore how other art forms, especially literature, represent and interpret visual art. Through readings from fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, we will examine how the visual arts inspire and shape cultural narratives and culture more broadly. The course aims to support a deeper understanding of the meaning of fine arts, as well as to develop students’ analytical and interpretive skills.

Each session will include an introduction to the topic, a discussion of literary texts, or a presentation of individual readings. Selected excerpts from music and film will accompany the discussion.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Mgr. Sylva Ficová

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

No prior knowledge is required to participate in the course.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Credit is awarded based on active participation in seminars and submission of a final assignment, which may be either a paper or a project (assignment details will be specified in the final part of the semester).

Aims

– Introduction to the history of the representation of fine arts in literature, music, and film.

– Reflection on the “artistry” of literary, musical, and film narration.

– Development of interest in broader cultural contexts.

– Inspiration for students’ own artistic work (including poetry).

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Barthes, Roland: Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. (EN)
Berger, John: Ways of Seeing. London: BBC and Penguin Books, 1972. (EN)
Eagleton, Terry: How to Read Literature. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013. (EN)
Frye, Northrop: Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957. (česky: N. Frye: Anatomie kritiky. Překlad Sylva Ficová. Brno: Host, 2003.) (EN)
Solnit, Rebecca: A Field Guide to Getting Lost. New York: Viking/Penguin, 2005. (EN)
Sontag, Susan: Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2001). (EN)

Type of course unit

Seminar

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Sylva Ficová

Syllabus

Selected prose texts: Marine Bramly: Artemisia. Bohumil Hrabal: Něžný barbar / The Gentle Barbarian. Tracy Chevalier: Girl with a Perl Earring. Alessandro Sanna: The River. W. G. Sebald: Austerlitz. Ali Smith: How to Be Both. Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc. Selected authors of poetry: W. H. Auden, Carol Ann Duffy, Mila Haugová, John Keats, Jiří Kolář, Rainer M. Rilke, Jan Skácel, Wisława Szymborska.

Individual preparation - study of study materials

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Sylva Ficová

Individual preparation for excercises

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Sylva Ficová

Individual preparation for an ending of the course

18 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Mgr. Sylva Ficová