Syllabus -- Summer 2004 -- MLA 613

This interdisciplinary course will explore competing theories of human nature and their diverse manifestations in great works of art. Do different eras and styles of art express different ideas about being human?

Each class session will be devoted to a specific view of human nature and to a related art movement. Although there will be an emphasis on the visual arts, there will be opportunity to explore the main themes in relation to literature and, where appropriate, music.

We will focus on Greek antiquity, Renaissance humanism, the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Related art movements will include Greek sculpture and tragedy, the Italian Renaissance, the paintings of Vermeer, the music of Beethoven, Romantic painting, surrealism, and abstract art. These European perspectives on what it is to be human will be contrasted with selected non-Western ideas, specifically Confucianism.

The course will be conducted as a seminar, not a lecture, and all students will be encouraged to share their views about the material.

No specialized knowledge is required. To keep textbook costs reasonable, the required readings will be supplemented by readings posted online. (Students without Internet access can be supplied copies of these readings upon request.) Each student will be required to select one artist, composer, or writer as the topic of a research paper.

Participation is not the same as attendance. It involves thoughtful and constructive participation in classroom discussion, indicating your having prepared the assigned material.

Daily summaries are due at the start of each class. You will be sharing these with everyone, so you must bring enough copies for everyone. They are to be typed. They must not exceed 200 words. The purpose is to state, clearly and concisely, the main idea that you would like to discuss that day. The goal of this writing is to summarize the one idea from the readings that most interests you, and then to state why it interests you.

The research paper will be on a topic of your choice, focusing on one artist, composer, or writer as an example of the human spirit (as understood by that individual's contemporaries). The essay is to have a critical examination component, following the model of the critical examinations at the end of each chapter of Stevenson & Haberman. More information will be provided. It will be due on July 9.

Required Texts:

Leslie Stevenson and David L. Haberman, Ten Theories of Human Nature, Fourth Edition (Oxford University Press)
Lu Chi , The Art of Writing (Milkweed Press)
Peter and Linda Murray, The Art of the Renaissance (Thames & Hudson)
William Vaughan, Romanticism And Art (Thames & Hudson)
Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (Dover Publications)
Also available online

Reading Assignments:

Thursday, June 3	Stevenson & Haberman, Chapter 5 Aristotle's Poetics, selections online.
Tuesday, June 8	Stevenson & Haberman, Chapter 1
Thursday, June 10	Lu Chi: The Art of Writing Selected Chinese poems, selections online
Tuesday, June 15	Pico della Mirandola's "Oration" -- Available online Walter Pater: Pico della Mirandola -- Available online Handout distributed in class on June 3
Thursday, June 17	Murray, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8. Vasari: Leonardo -- Available online
Tuesday, June 22	Stevenson & Haberman, Chapter 6 & pages 117-18 (on Rousseau) Vaughan, Chapter 1
Thursday, June 24	Vaughan, Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8.
Tuesday, June 29	Kandinsky: On the Spiritual in Art
Thursday, July 1	Stevenson & Haberman, Chapter 7 OR 8 (choose one)

I have compiled a guide to additional online resources.

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Last updated June 2, 2004