Critical Histories of the Art

This course explores visual, material, literary and performing arts through case studies of a range of historical and geographical settings, emphasizing the west, but engaging a global scope: Classical, Renaissance, and Modern European as well as Asian, African and Central American. Methods of inquiry stress both traditional notions of the humanities as essential manifestations of the human condition, and simultaneously, critical stances that prioritize economics, class, race and gender as inescapable issues in interpreting human creative production. Students will do weekly readings. Graded assignments will include both short writing assignments and collaborative creative work. The class will have a midterm and a final.