W 4:00PM-6:30PM LEC FA 308A
Prof. Anna Brzyski
Office Hours: W 12:00 – 1:00 pm and by appointment
Phone: 859 388-9899 (no calls after 10:00 pm)
E-mail: anna.brzyski@uky.edu
website: http://www.uky.edu/~abrzy2
Course Description:
This reading and writing intense seminar will examine the relationship between primitivism, a tendency to see positive values in earlier or less advanced cultures, and the notion of decadence, a perception that a particular culture (usually one’s own) is in the state of decline, across a wide range of texts and works. Among others, we will examine the development of the idea of cultural progress, the impact of socialist theories on various critiques of bourgeois culture, the influence of Sigmund Freud and Claud Lévi-Strauss on the perception of cultural and individual ‘authenticity,’ the ramifications of the ethical relationship between primitivism and modernism, and the redefinition of primitivism and decadence within the scope of postmodernism.
Course Materials:
Burke, Edmund. Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)
Gombrich, E. H. The Preference for the Primitive. New York: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002
Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo. Translated by James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1950
Flam, Jack, and Miriam Deutch, eds. Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art: A Documentary History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Kubler, George. The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962.
Students’ Responsibilities:
Attendance:
Attendance is mandatory. Every absence will be noted and will reflect on the final grade.
Engaged Participation:
Students must come to class prepared and must regularly and meaningfully contribute to the class discussion. Failure to do so will result in a failing grade, no matter how brilliant one’s performance in the oral examination.
Oral Exam:
Students will have to take a comprehensive, oral examination during the exams week. The exam will take between 20 minutes. Student will be given 3 questions based on the readings and class discussions.
Graduate students only:
Graduate students will be required to lead discussion on assigned days.
Academic Integrity
Part II of Student Rights and Responsibilities (available online at http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Code/ part2.html) states that all academic work, written or otherwise, submitted by students to their instructors or other academic supervisors, is expected to be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression. In cases where students feel unsure about a question of plagiarism involving their work, they are obliged to consult their instructors on the matter before submission.
Final Grade:
A is for excellent work. This means mastery of the course material, excellence in execution and expression of various assignments (all completed conscientiously, skillfully, and on time), perfect attendance (no unexcused absences), and consistency in class participation and preparedness.
B is for good work. This means demonstrating good knowledge of the course material, completing all assignments proficiently, on time, and well above average, and consistent attendance, active class participation and good preparedness.
C is for average work. This means demonstrating basic knowledge of the course material; assignments are decently done; most work is finished, classes have been attended.
D is for poor work. This means poor attendance, being routinely unprepared, below par work on the assignments, non-participation in class.
E is for failing work. This means poor attendance (3 or more unexcused absences), very poor work, being routinely unprepared, non-participation in class, missing the field-trips, or blatant plagiarism.
(Guidelines adopted from a syllabus developed by Suketu Bhavsar for the UK Honors Proseminar)
This syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor to accommodate instructional and/or student needs. All changes will be posted on the course website. The course website offers the most accurate and most current information.
Schedule of Reading Assignments:
Week 1 / January 14 Introduction
Week 2 / January 21 Classical Antiquity
Gombrich, pp. 7-41
Boas, George, and Arthur Lovejoy. Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1935.
Week 3 / January 28 Christianity
Boas, George. Primitivism and Related Ideas in the Middle Ages. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1948
King James Bible, Genesis, sections 1-19: http://etext.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html
Week 4 / February 4 Development of Art
Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Artists. Translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella, Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
Winckelmann, Johann Joachim. "On the Imitation of the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks." In German Essays on Art History, edited by Gert Schiff, 1-17. New York: Continuum, 1988
Week 5 / February 11 Beautiful & Sublime
Gombrich 43-86
Burke, Edmund. Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757).
Week 5 / February 18 The 19th Century
Gombrich 87-176
Riegl, Alois. "Late Roman or Oriental?" In German Essays on Art History, edited by Gert Schiff, 173-90. New York: Continuum, 1988.
Grigor, Talinn. "Orient Oder Rom? Qajar "Aryan" Architecture and Strzygowski's Art History." Art Bulletin 89, no. 3 (2007): 562-90
Week 6 / February 25 NO CLASS
Week 7 / March 4 Degeneration
Nordau, Max. Degeneration. Lincoln, N.E.: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Week 8 / March 11 Hidden Primitive
Freud, Sigmund. Totem and Taboo. Translated by James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1950.
Week 9 Spring Break
Week 10 / March 25 Formalism & Primitivism
Gombrich 177-297
Week 11/ April 1
Primitivism in 20th c., part 1
Week 12 April 8
Primitivism in 20th c. part 2
Week 13 April 15 Apocalypto
Week 14 / April 22
Primitivism in 20th c. part 3
Week 15 / April 29
Primitivism in 20th c. part 4