First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-20)
Topic
Artists in Dialogue: Literature, Music, and Painti
Instructors
Fay E Rosner
847/467-1448
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-133
Office Hours: M 2 - 3PM & Fri 11 - 12PM
Meeting Info
University Hall 121: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
What do poetry, music and painting have in common? Can a painting be musical? Can music paint a scene? In this seminar, we will immerse ourselves in the works and criticism of several influential figures of modernity whose artistic visions often overlapped. Through close readings, we will take our time enjoying the works of artists from these different genres, as we seek to understand how these writers, painters and musicians echo, support, and challenge one another in their work and criticism. As we examine the turbulent social and political contexts in which these works emerged, we will also explore how and why the works of these artists caused such moral and critical outrage in audiences of the time.
Learning Objectives
1. Students will understand the importance of artistic collaborations between painters, musicians, performers, and poets of the period.
2. Students will gain an understanding key historical, political, and social forces of the period and how they inform artistic production and reception.
3. Students will learn about the major aesthetic movements of the period, including realism, naturalism, symbolism, and impressionism.
4. Students, through close readings, will be able to analyze and interpret several major modern works of art in their historical context.
Class Materials (Required)
Required:
Baudelaire, Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies, translated and edited by Wallace Fowlie (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides, 1992) ISBN-10: 0486270920
Suggested:
Schwartz, Vanessa R. , Modern France: A Very Short Introduction,
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011
ISBN: 9780195389418
All other readings will be made available on CANVAS and/or will also be distributed in class.
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar