Iconoclasm

“One can see that the iconoclasts, whom one accuses of disdaining and negating images, were those who accorded them their true value, in contrast to the iconolaters who only saw reflections in them and were content to venerate a filigree God.”

Jean Baudrillard

This four-part course will examine one of the deepest anthropological, religious, political, and aesthetic aspects of human existence: the question of images, their effect on us and what use we make of them. Iconoclasm, the prohibition and/or destruction of images, is no mere historical phenomenon. While in the West there appears to be a total disinhibition of images – after all, hardcore pornography is widely available, and images of horror, violence, and murder, fictional and real, are freely shown – we have nevertheless witnessed flashes of a new iconoclasm, perhaps as a response to the now-overwhelming flood of visual stimuli afforded by contemporary media.

This course, through collective reading and discussion, will seek to understand this deep human impulse, tracing it from the beginning of image making 45,000 years ago to religious and political controversies that persist today. Special mention will be made of the Eikonomachía (icon struggle) of the Byzantine period, and we will discuss various strategies adopted by Christianity, Islam, and Eastern modes of thinking in relation to prohibition and the seduction of human image-making.

The course will arrive at the modern day. Do we have any capacity left to critically analyse the power of images, or are we crushed by their weight? Is the recent spate of politically motivated destruction or sabotage of statues best understood as iconoclasm or do we need different approaches?

COURSE STRUCTURE

Iconoclasm is a four-part video series based on an in-person course held in London in August 2024.

Each of the four module of the course consists of reading materials and a recorded video lecture. Modules begin with a list of questions to guide your reading.

You can return to these materials at your own pace, without a time limit.

INDICATIVE READING LIST