FSEM 100 KK 01 BANNED AND DANGEROUS ART Fall 2009
Instructor: Prof. Nina Mikhalevsky
Office: Trinkle B 48
Phone: (540) 654-1295
Email: nmik (at) umw.edu
Office Hrs: Tuesday 2-3:30 and by appointment.
Course Description
Can a work of art be dangerous? Why do we ban some art? How can works of art be politically subversive? Socially destabilizing? Ethically undermining? Scandalizing?
This course will consider these and other philosophical questions about art, particularly art that has been judged dangerous, or has been censored or banned. We will engage in a study of aesthetic theory and its relationship to social, ethical, religious, and other values that prevail when works of art come to be considered threatening. The works of art we will examine and discuss range across periods, genres, and cultures, and include works from Classical Greece, 10th century Islamic Art, 20th century Europe, Africa, and contemporary American art, and include works by writers, painters, musicians, dancers, playwrights, and film makers. We will read some fundamental works on aesthetic theory, including texts by Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Sontag, and others. We will consider what artists themselves say about their art. We will also look at current government and other public policy documents that seek to define and regulate works of art. The goal of this course is that each of you learn to develop and argue for your own views in the context of our study, discussion, and evaluation of major theories and specific works of art.
Required Text
Aesthetics, edited by Susan Feagin and Patrick Maynard (Oxford University Press)
Additional readings posted on the course website and available on line.
Course website and blog
The course website is http://bannedart.umwblogs.org/ Please check the website frequently as this will be one of our primary environments for out of class communications, sharing documents and other materials, posting assignments, etc. You will also use the course website to comment on works of art, respond to questions, and post your own materials and ideas.
Course Requirements
Short Papers: Two short papers (3-4 pages) on banned or censored works of art—one on a piece of banned visual art or music, one on a work of banned theatre or film. For each paper you will provide a brief description of the work, where, when, and by whom the work was banned/censored, and a concise reconstruction, analysis, and evaluation of the argument that was used to justify the action. Short papers due as follows: first paper, September 29; second paper October 29.
Final Paper: A final research paper (8-10 pages) on a work of art that was banned or censored in the Commonwealth of Virginia or in your home state or country. Your paper will analyze the arguments used to ban or censor and provide an evaluation for those arguments, drawing from your own theory about the nature and value of art. See Paper Guidelines on the course website for details. The final paper due 12 noon, Friday December 4.
If you need additional help with properly citing sources, please do not hesitate to ask me. Information is also available on the Simpson Library website: http://www.umw.edu/library/research/guid...
Exams:
Midterm Exam, October 8
Final Exam, Thursday, December 10, 12 noon-2:30
All exams will be essay exams
Grade for the Course
Two short papers: 15% each
Final Paper: 20%
Midterm Exam: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
Seminar participation: 10%
COURSE OUTLINE
I. THE NATURE OF ART AND THE ARTIST
Aug. 25 Introduction to the Course
Aug. 27 Plato, Republic Book II, 376d-383c; Book III, 386-403d
Sept. 1 Plato, Republic Book X,595-608c
Sept. 3 Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book VII 1032a-1034b
Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1094a-1094b10
Sept. 8 Clive Bell, The Aesthetic Hypothesis, The Metaphysical Hypothesis
Paul Ziff, Anything Viewed
Sept. 10 Oscar Wilde, The New Aesthetics
John Dewey, The Aesthetic in Experience
Sept. 15 Tolstoy, “What is Art?”
Hospers, “Art as Expression”
Sept. 17 Collingwood, “Art and Craft”
Okakura, The Tea Room
Tanizaki, “In Praise of Shadows”
Sept. 22 Xie-He, Six Canons of Painting
Su Shih, “Painting Bamboo,” “Genius”
Ch’Inch’en, “Spiritual Excellence”
Sol LeWitt, “Sentences on Conceptual Art”
Http://www.altx.com/vizarts/conceptual.h…
Sept. 24 Geertz, “Art as a Cultural System”
Azevedo, “Sources of Gola Artistry”
Sept. 29 Sagoff, “On the Aesthetic and Economic Value of Art”
Karp, “How Museums Define Other Cultures”
FIRST PAPER DUE
II. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE ARTIST TO THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORDER
Oct. 1 Milton, Areopagitica
Available on line—recommend that you use the “print page” version; other versions here
September 26-October 3 is Banned Books Week: find out more on the ALA website.
Oct. 6 Schapiro, “Diderot on the Artist and Society”
Kristeller, “The Modern System of the Arts”
Oct. 8 MIDTERM EXAM
Oct. 15 Chadwick, “Women Artists and the Institutions of Art”
Pollock, “Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity”
Andre Breton, Leon Trotsky, Manifesto: Towards A Free Revolutionary Art
http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/art.html
Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism”
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto...
Gustav Metzger, Manifesto Auto Destructive Art http://www.luftgangster.de/gmetzger.html
III. THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AND THE MEANING OF ART
Oct. 20 Aristotle, “The Emotions Proper to Tragedy” “Emotions and Music”
Nussbaum, “Luck and the Tragic Emotions”
Oct. 22 Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart (selections)
Recommended: Poe, “Descent Into the Maelstrom”
Oct. 27 Cohen, “Jokes”
Elliott, “Aesthetic Theory and the Experience of Art”
Oct. 29 Baxandall, “Truth and Other Cultures”
SECOND PAPER DUE
Nov. 3 Beardsley, “The Artist’s Intention”
Danto, “Deep Interpretation”
Nov. 5 Goodman, “Art and Authenticity”
Nov. 10 Sontag, Against Interpretation
Nov. 12 Barthes, “From Work to Text”
IV. THE EVALUATION AND VALUE OF ART
Nov. 17 Hume, Of the Standard of Taste
Nov. 19 Public Funding of the Arts, Comments on Andres Serrano
by Members of the United States Senate, Congressional Record
Nov. 24 Berger, “Lessons of the Past”
Ducasse, “Criticism as Appraisal”
Dec. 1 Appiah, “The Postcolonial and the Aesthetic”
Dec. 3 Art from Africa–go to the on-line African Art Museum –consider the art of several tribes including Asante, Bembe, Yoruba
Dec. 4 12 noon FINAL PAPER DUE
Dec. 10 FINAL EXAM 12:00 noon-2:30 pm
Please indicate that you have upheld the Honor Code on all submitted work.
The Office of Disability Services has been designated by the University as the primary office to guide, counsel, and assist students with disabilities. If you already receive services through the Office of Disability Services and require accommodations for this class, make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your approved accommodation needs. Please bring your accommodation letter with you to the appointment. I will hold any information you share with me in the strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise. If you have not contacted the Office of Disability Services and need accommodations, (note taking assistance, extended time for tests, etc.), I will be happy to refer you. The office will require appropriate documentation of disability. The phone number is 540-654-1266.