AESTHETICS Fall
2007
Dr. Christine A. James
Philosophy 3110-A TR 12:30pm-1:45pm WH 104
80386
This syllabus is available online,
and will be updated often, at http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/AESTHETICSFall2007.htm
Office: 110 Ashley Hall
Office Hours: MTWR 2:00pm-3:00pm, and after classes and by appointment as
needed.
Telephone: 259-7609
Mailbox: Philosophy Department Office
Fax: 259-5011
E-mail address: chjames@valdosta.edu
Course content: This course
provides an introduction to aesthetic theory.
We will address questions about how we define “art,” what we mean by
“having aesthetic taste,” what “creativity” is, and if an artist’s intentions
matter in the interpretation of a work.
The class will incorporate a variety of media, and we will address how
visual arts, music, poetry, and even scientific images and models relate to
human emotions. This is a reading
intensive course, so it will require you to read, think about, and write about
a considerable amount of material.
Requirements: Class participation, two written
examinations, two papers, presentations.
Required Text:
Aesthetics, by Susan Feagin and
Patrick Maynard, eds.,
How grades will be calculated:
A =
100 - 90% Class
participation, attendance = 20%
B =
89 - 80% 2
Exams at 10% each = 20%
C =
79 - 70% 1
First Paper at 20% each = 20%
D =
69 - 60% 1
Presentation or 1 Final Paper at 40%
F =
59 - 0% Total
= 100%
*****Please note that I am not
obligated to accept late work or to allow exams after the date given.*****
Exams and Papers: The exams in our class will be “short
answer” written exams. Usually I ask six
questions and a complete answer should be no less than four complete
sentences. These exams are “objective”
in the sense that the answers can be directly related to class discussions and
the textbook.
Secondary source material from
academic journal articles is always a good idea in any philosophy paper. Here are two links where you can begin to
look for interesting journal articles:
http://books.valdosta.edu/gal1.html (click on “Full Text Journal Title List”) and
http://www.valdosta.edu/library/learn/guides/philosophy.shtml
The direct
link for the database (Academic Search Complete)
http://www.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=zbac
http://www.libs.uga.edu/ejournals/locators/acadsearchframe.html
Attendance Policy: I do care
that you attend class regularly. As you
know, VSU policy is that missing 20% of class meetings results in an automatic
grade of “F”. Faculty can also institute
added attendance policies in their syllabi. Our class will have a 10% rule for
absences. You can miss up to 10% of the
class meetings with no grade penalty.
10% of our 40 class meetings is 4.
On absence number 5, your final grade for the course will be reduced by
one whole letter grade; on absence number 6, your final grade for the course
will be reduced by two whole letter grades; on absence number 8, you will
automatically fail the course. Be considerate
of your fellow students – don’t be late, and don’t leave your cell phones and
pagers on. Note that if you are
regularly late to class, or leave class early, I will begin to count each as an
absence. Please note that this policy
makes no distinction between excused and unexcused absences.
Participate!
Once you
arrive at class, make an effort to get involved in the conversation. Don’t
hesitate to ask questions if you need clarification or would like more
information: if you are confused, it is likely that others are too! The
participation percentage you receive will depend on a variety of factors,
including (but not limited to) the frequency and helpfulness of your
contributions to class discussions and the care you take when peer editing.
Pop Reading Quizzes:
If I notice
that there are many students who are not keeping up with the reading, I may
periodically administer reading quizzes in class. These will not be announced
in advance. No “make-up” quizzes will be given, and a missed quiz will result
in a grade of zero. These quizzes are a solid reward for attending class,
participating, and keeping up with the readings.
Online Discussions:
(Special Thank You to Richard Amesbury and other faculty members who
teach using WebCT Vista, and the eCore staff!)
During
certain times of the semester, you also will be expected to participate
regularly in on-line discussions using WebCT Vista. Use this opportunity to
comment on the week’s readings, ask questions, raise objections, and respond to
what others have written or said in class.
To use
To log in
to Vista and the course “shell,” go to the VSU homepage and click on the words
WebCT Vista in the upper right-hand corner. Your username and password are the
same as for your BlazeNet e-mail account. For instructions on getting started,
go to: http://www.valdosta.edu/vista/
When
posting in an online bulletin board, like those in the Discussion area of WebCT
Vista, you must (1) post at least one original message of your own, (2) read
all the messages posted by others, and (3) respond substantively to at least
one message from another student. Your postings are due the same day as the
readings are listed in the schedule below (i.e., no later than 11:59 p.m. on
the relevant dates.)
Your first
message on a given topic should be about 200 words in length. That is roughly
the length of two medium-sized paragraphs (e.g., this one and the next). Your
second (response) posting can be about half that length, but it should be
substantive (i.e., involving serious content). Try not to simply repeat what
others have said already. Additional postings can be as long or as short as you
desire. Be sure to give the first message an interesting title in the “Subject”
line. This will help alert the rest of us as to what it will be about.
When you
are ready to respond to someone else, do so by opening their message and
hitting the “Reply” button. This will create a “thread” that others can add on
to. Keep in mind that although it is fine to disagree with what someone else
has said, it is important to do so in a way that is polite and constructive. If
someone says something that makes you angry, pause and take a breath before
firing off a reply! You can preview your message before you send it, but once
you have hit “Post,” your message will no longer be editable.
Academic Honesty:
Members of
the
E-Mail:
VSU policy
mandates that all official communication by e-mail take place through VSU
e-mail accounts or through the WebCT Vista Mail tool. Please check your
VSU (@valdosta.edu) e-mail account regularly.
Note: This syllabus is not a legal
contract; the content of this course is subject to revision by the professor.
Special
Needs:
Students requiring classroom accommodations or modification because of a
documented disability should discuss this need with me at the beginning of the
semester. If you are such a student, but
you are not registered with the Access Office, you should contact them
too. Students requesting classroom
accommodations or modifications because of a documented disability must contact
the Access Office for Students with Disabilities located in room 1115 Nevins
Hall. The phone numbers are 245-2498 (voice) and 219-1348 (tty).
Schedule
Month/Day Topics for
discussion and assignments
8/14 T Introduction to the class
Syllabus
First
reading together: Academic Integrity
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/acin.htm
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/acin.doc
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/acin.pdf
8/16 R Feagin and Maynard, Introduction and I.a. The
Aesthetic
Clive Bell, The Aesthetic
Hypothesis
Paul Ziff, Anything Viewed
Frith, Paddington Station http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/fourpaintings/pissarro/railways/iron_veins.html
Fildes, The Doctor
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=4277&searchid=8021&tabview=image
Romanesque Churches in Poitiers: Notre
Dame La Grande
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/inventai/itiinv/ntredam/ph3.htm
http://www.bernezac.com/ArtRoman_Poitiers_NotreDame.htm
T’ang Dynasty poetry and
painting
http://www.npm.gov.tw/exhbition/mih9908/english/01/01.htm
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/art/tang.htm
Grünewald, Crucifixion
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/grunewald/crucifixion/
Picasso,
http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso34.html
http://www.terra.es/personal/asg00003/picasso/grguer2.html
Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra di Benci
http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=arte&scheda=leonardo_ginevra&lingua=ita
Henry Moore, reclining figure sculpture at
http://www.nycjpg.com/2003/pages/0611.html
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/moorenyc/moorenyc.html
Pollock
http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/pollock2.html
http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/pollock1.html
Mondriaan
http://www.devalk.com/kunstenaars/mondriaan/mondriaan3.jpg
Klee, Twittering Machine
http://bfewster.members.gn.apc.org/twitter.jpg
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~pex/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/paulklee.jpg
Albers, Hommage to the
Square
http://www.neuegalerie.at/01/czerny/alb01.html
http://www.balkon.hu/balkon04_06/images/albers13.jpg
http://container.zkm.de/fbb/img/albers.jpg
8/21 T Special new items: Artists and Athletes: http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/artsport.doc
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/artsport.pdf
News
about what Philosophy majors are up to:
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/philnews.doc
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/philnews.pdf
Continue
I.a. The Aesthetic:
Allen Carlson, Aesthetic
Appreciation of the Natural Environment
Oscar Wilde, The New
Aesthetics
John Dewey, The Aesthetic in
Experience
Brancusi, Bird in Space
http://www.uploadworld.nl/users/frank%20waaldijk/1520e492cbfe2bd0a1d085d1849bc93c_brancusi_bird1.jpg
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/grisham/1d_dadaism.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=26850&searchid=6524/
Landscapes: Corot
http://www.nd.edu/~sniteart/collection/euro/
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/rm_corp.html
Daubigny
http://www.artunframed.com/images/NewFolder17/daubigny14.jpg
http://przeslanie.nd.e-wro.pl/wkamin3/galeria/daubigny%20zniwa/harvest%20daubigny.jpg
Monet
http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/images/monet_sunrise_l.jpg
http://www.ex-art.it/magazine/Claude%20Monet.jpg
http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/images/(monet)-wheatstacks-end-of-summer.jpg
http://images.google.com/images?q=monet&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title
Pissarro
http://www.mystudios.com/art/impress/pissarro/pissarro-haystack-1873.jpg
http://praxeology.net/pissarro-lazare2.jpg
http://www.lemondedesarts.com/images/Pissarro29.jpg
http://www.kiwi-us.com/~k_saitoh/ryutatu/pisaro.jpg
Turner
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/turner/
http://www.geocities.com/uttamkumar44/turner.html
René
Vautrin
Cuyp
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cuyp/
http://www.latribunedelart.com/Nouvelles_breves_2004/janvier_2004/Albert_Cuyp_-_LACMA.JPG
Rousseau
Theodore : http://nga.gov.au/Exhibition/FrenchPainting/Detail.cfm?IRN=126620&ViewID=2
http://www.ogl.cz/obr/rousseau.jpg
Henri : http://www.artofeurope.com/rousseau/rou15.jpg
Hokkei
http://www.estampes-japonaises.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/hokkei-mt-fuji.jpg
http://aggv.bc.ca/cgi-bin/acdis.dll?cmd=see&fp=/is-pix/DSCN2065.JPG&h=350&w=350
Hokusai
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Jdolls/hokusai.jpg
http://www.andreas.com/hokusai.html
8/23 R I.b. Many Aesthetics
Kakuzo
Okakura, The Tea-Room
Jun’ichiro
Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
Friedrich
Nietzsche, The Dionysian
Sukiya
http://www.lankhor.net/jeux/petitimages/petit27.jpg
http://www.rothteien.com/landing/architecture/sukiya.htm
http://www.izunotabi.com/blog/abroad/shared/images/hotel_large/htl_27.jpg
http://flickr.com/photos/44538772@N00/242868225
Rikyu
http://www.urasenkeuk.btinternet.co.uk/EUsite/rikyu.gif
Golden
Hall of Horyuji
http://www.columbia.edu/~hds2/horyuji/18.htm
Pagoda
of Yakushiji
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/94/YakushijiPagoda.jpg/250px-YakushijiPagoda.jpg
http://www.taleofgenji.org/images/yakushiji_west_pagoda.jpg
http://www.kippo.or.jp/culture_e/build/build/img/yakusi-1.jpg
Dionysius
http://www.eyeconart.net/history/ancient/Mosaic/Dionysian.jpg
http://www.historyguide.org/europe/dio_apollo.html
8/28 T Continue I.b.
Many Aesthetics
Joshua
C. Taylor, Art and the Ethnological
Artifact
Linda
Nochlin, Women, Art, and Power
Michael
Roemer, The Surfaces of Reality
Haida relief-carved chest
http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/fp/images/fpz2b16a.jpg
http://www.georgestorry.com/images/Salmon%20Chest.JPG
Chou
bronzes (
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/history/pictures/westernchou.jpg
1100 BC
http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu/courses/ARTH250/FA04/zapotec%20xipe%20totec.jpg
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/zapotecs.htm
300 BC - 700 AD
David, Oath of the Horatii
http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/jwss/bath2004/images/Louvre%20Oath%20of%20the%20Horatii%2001.jpg
Delacroix, Death of Sardanapalus
http://art.pro.tok2.com/D/Delacroix/dela14.jpg
Sir Joseph Noel Paton, In
Memoriam
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Joseph_Noel_Paton_PAS003.jpg
Francisco Goya Lucientes,
And They are Like Wild Beasts
http://www.napoleonguide.com/images/goya5.jpg
Rixens, Death of Cleopatra
http://images.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/1/0/Jean-Andre-Rixens-The-Death-Of-Cleopatra-102104.jpg
Gérôme, The Artist’s Model
http://www.kudzumonthly.com/kudzu/feb03/poetry2.jpg
Dreyer, Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue4/falconetti.html
Kurosawa, The Seven Samurai,
Rashomon
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=kurosawa+seven+samurai&btnG=Search+Images
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=kurosawa+rashomon&btnG=Search+Images
Vigo, L’Atalante
http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,4135,36066,00.html
http://www.nicksflickpicks.com/atalante.html
Fellini, Notti di Cabiria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nights_of_Cabiria
Cezanne, still lifes
http://www.harley.com/art/abstract-art/images/(cezanne)-apples-peaches-pears-and-grapes.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/sl/
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/sl/cezanne.skull.jpg
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/sl/cezanne.pyramid-skulls.jpg
Chaplin
in The Gold Rush
Bergman,
Wild Strawberries
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005UQ7T.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/bergman.html
Dreyer,
Vampire
http://www.carldreyer.com/resources/dreyerbypaulmoor51.htm
8/30 R II. Why
Identify Anything As Art?
II.a.
Ideas of Art
Paul
Oskar Kristeller, The Modern System of
the Arts
Abbé
Batteux, The Fine Arts Reduced to a
Single Principle
Jean
Le Rond D’Alembert, The Arts and Fine
Arts
Clifford
Geertz, Art as a Cultural System
Quattrocentro painting
http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/archive/peru.htm
http://www.coursework.info/i/32300.html
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/grisham/1b_italren.html
http://www.abcgallery.com/P/perugino/perugino.html
Islamic
poetry
Classical:
http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/material.htm
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/ent/A0804478.html
http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_201_250/islamic_concept_of_poetry.htm
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/arablit.htm
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/haza.gif
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/abuala.gif
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_7-5-2003_pg9_13
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=illuminated+quran
Recent:
http://www.muhajabah.com/poetry.htm
9/4 T Review Day THE REVIEW NOTES: http://teach.valdosta.edu/phi/AestheticsNotes.htm
This
week, Dr. James will be presenting a paper at a conference in
9/6 R First Exam due in WebCT Vista as a Word .doc in the Assignment Tool.
After you finish your first exam,
please prepare the paper due on 9/25 with this handout in mind: http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/papers3000.htm
For
a preview of the grading rubric and points: http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/gradingrubric.doc
9/11 T II.b. The Arts in Society
Mark
Sagoff, On the Aesthetic and Economic
Value of Art
Whitney
Chadwick, Women Artists and the
Institutions of Art
Griselda
Pollock, Modernity and the Spaces of Our Lives
Kathleen
Marie Higgins, The Music of Our Lives
Ivan
Karp, How Museums Define Other Cultures
Ojibway totems http://www.geocities.com/miigitotempoles/
Angelica
Kauffmann and Mary Moser http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?submit-button=search&search-form=theme/theme.html&_IXTHEME_=SING7
Johann
Zoffany, The
Academicians of the Royal Academy http://www.uic.edu/depts/ahaa/classes/ah111/L26/26-0.jpg
Manet
A bar at the Folies Bergère http://p.giroud.free.fr/manet/bar_folies_bergere.jpg
Mary
Cassatt http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/images/cassatt_bath_l.jpg
Picasso, Demoiselles d’Avignon http://www.cssh.qc.ca/ecoles/simon/museedesenfants.quebec/Peintres/Picasso/Posters/Picasso_big/avignon.jpg
Berthe Morisot http://artroots.com/art/morisot.jpg http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/morisot/
The harbour at
On the balcony, http://www.abcgallery.com/M/morisot/morisot3.html
On the terrace http://69.20.65.141/paintings/artists/m/berthe_morisot/big/On_the_Terrace__1874.jpg
Monet,
Garden of the Princess http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/artists/m/claude_monet/big/Garden_of_the_Princess__1867.jpg
Music:
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Sex Pistols, Lou Reed, John
Cage 4’33”, Navajo medicinal music,
Quranic singing, Japanese folk music (Ainu of Hokkaido Island), Kate Bush
(whalesong in Moving)
9/13 R, 9/18 T http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/AestheticsNotes2.htm
Music
examples from Shape Note Singing, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Kate Bush
9/20 R III. What Do
Artists Do?
III.a. Expression
Clive
Bell, The Metaphysical Hypothesis
John
Stuart Mill, What Is Poetry?
9/25 T First Paper Due
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/AestheticsNotes3.htm
(Papers will be turned in by WebCT Vista Assignment Tool.)
9/27 R Leo Tolstoy, What
Is Art?
John
Hospers, Art As Expression
On
this date, Dr. James will be presenting a paper at a conference in
10/2 T III.b. Artistic
Freedom and Creativity
Meyer
Schapiro, Diderot on the Artist and
Society
Immanuel
Kant, Art and Genius
G.W.F.
Hegel, Art, Nature, Freedom
The
artists’ role in society – examples from architecture
Compare
and contrast social and psychological effects of space (living space, museum
space)
Mies
van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, I. M. Pei, Frank Gehry
How
does Frank Gehry’s work relate to his own personal psychological development?
Do
Gehry’s structures reflect the type of genius that Kant described? Do Gehry’s structures involve some aspect of
the sublime (greatness,
beauty combined with elements of trepidation, fear, awesomeness)
Hegel
describes development of architecture through various ages – how do these
different time periods resonate with the work of modern and postmodern
architecture that developed long after Hegel’s life?
A
link to an article on Hegel’s definition of architecture:
http://www.jstor.org/view/08893012/sp040002/04x0003c/0
Hegel
on architecture: "[Architecture's] task consists in so manipulating
external inorganic nature, that, as an external world conformable to art, it becomes
cognate in spirit.” The architecture of a society
reflects its spirit and values. In this
sense, does the architect
have a social responsibility to create architecture that brings about certain
goods in society?
10/4 R Continue III.b.
Artistic Freedom and Creativity
Warren
L. D’Azevedo, Sources of Gola Artistry
Xie-He, Six Canons of
Painting
Su Shih, Painting Bamboo
Wang Ch’Inch’En, Spiritual
Excellence
Edgar Allen Poe, The
Philosophy of Composition
R. G. Collingwood, Art and
Craft
Art in cross-cultural context – the example of the Bollywood film
industry.
How do the tropes
of American film get taken up in Hindi language film? Is the cultural transference going in both
directions? Reflect on the experience of the
actors who were raised in Western culture, but in families who had immigrated from
In Edgar Allen
Poe’s reading he describes his process of writing The Raven (finding rhymes,
recollecting specific experiences that he used in the poem) Does this process sound accurate, or does it seem
like a “rational reconstruction” that makes the process of writing the poem
more linear and rational
and procedural than it really was? How
does the artists’ process affect their work?
How does Poe’s life, context, previous experiences influence and enrich his
work?
10/9 T IV. Can We
Ever Understand an Artwork?
Introduction
Monroe Beardsley, The
Artist’s Intention
Stephen Davies, Authenticity
in Musical Performance
Richard Wollheim, Criticism
as Retrieval
Does the artist’s intentions matter in evaluating a work of
art or a musical performance?
Examples from the Harlem Renaissance, a time of incredible
creativity and artistic achievement among African Americans.
Individuals
involved: poets such as
Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer, novelists like Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale
Hurston, musicians like Duke Ellington
and Charlie Parker, and performance artists such as Lena Horne and Paul
Robeson; through leaders such as James Weldon Johnson,
A. Philip Randolph, and W. E. B. Du Bois, it laid the foundation for what would
grow into the extraordinary Civil Rights Movement of
the 1950s and 1960s.
“What is possibly less evident is that the
leaders and followers of the Harlem Renaissance were every bit as intent on
using black culture to help make the United States a more functional democracy
as they were on employing black culture to “vindicate” black people. If
the founding fathers and mothers had presented America with a good start in
those goals and principles stated so eloquently in the U. S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence,
and the Emancipation
Proclamation, then women and men such as journalist Ida B.
Wells-Barnett, historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois, performing artist
Florence Mills, author and political activist James Weldon Johnson, philosopher
Alain Locke, sociologist Charles S. Johnson, and author Langston Hughes all
thought the first half of the twentieth century a good time to put such goals
and principles into life-saving practice.”
http://www.authorsden.com/categories/book_top.asp?catid=10&id=13370
10/11 R Continue IV. Can
We Ever Understand an Artwork?
Michael
Baxandall, Truth and Other Cultures
Susan Sontag, Against
Interpretation
http://www.abcgallery.com/P/piero/piero14.html
Michael
Baxandall:
Understanding
an artwork does depend on cultural background
Participants
understand their culture immediately, spontaneously
Mere
observers of a work with a different cultural background will have to
“reconstruct” categories for perceiving what would have been obvious or natural
to the viewers of the same socio-historical time as the artist
Piero
della Francesca, Baptism of Christ (linked above)
Religious
image (243), altarpiece, context of patronage system, skills – perspective,
proportion – seeing for the artist is “theory-laden” (244)
Painting
known for its excellent “commensurazione” – profiles and contours in proper
place, in proportion, plus mathematical and language reference (248)
Susan
Sontag:
Art is
to be perceived, not merely intellectualized
Not in
favor of conceptualized views on art, values the experience on non-cognitive
grounds
Would
argue against: Freudian interpretations of Leonardo portraits, Feminist
analysis of Titian nudes, Marxist analysis of Renaissance altarpieces
These
interpretations do not help us to understand the work of art - it just inserts “content” where there might
not be any
Better
to appreciate the “lived experience” of the art work
Interpretations
seek to revamp old “texts” to fit the needs of current times – attempt to
resolve a discrepancy 250
Interpretations
became more aggressive in recent times – contempt for “appearances”, assuming
that there must be more content in a work than just its appearance 251
Refusal
to “leave a work of art alone” 252
To avoid
interpretation, art may become:
Parody
Abstract
Decorative (no content)
Pop art – blatant content, nothing
left to say other than what is there 254
10/16 T Fall
Break Holiday, No class meetings
10/18 R Continue IV. Can
We Ever Understand an Artwork?
Arthur
Danto, Deep Interpretation
Nelson Goodman, Art and
Authenticity
Roland Barthes, From Work to
Text
Arthur Danto
Deep Interpretations – reveal meanings that are more than
the speaker realizes
Some meanings have to be hidden deep for a work to mean what
it does
Provides two different surface interpretations reflecting
different intentions
“deep” does not mean profound 257
Prophetic revelation – religious, Moses, Hermes 258
Kledon = utterance that means more than the speaker realizes
258
Divination of these concealed meanings would destroy them –
hiddenness secures their position, and the position of the
interpreters/diviners 259
Marxist – kledons of class strife, instruments of the forces
of history in which classes are the true “agents” who make things happen
Vesting economic decisions in humanitarian terms
Freudian – masking unconscious feelings/desires 260
Structuralism – discourse – structure of the unconscious
must be the structure of language
The linguistic unconscious – marriage as a kind of language
or communication – exchanging women as one would exchange words 261
Last Judgment – Leonardo – reverted to stains over time 262
http://www.cassiopaea.org/images/da_vinci_flood_2.jpg
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/fulcanelli_da_vinci_code.htm
Surface interpretation – knowing what was depicted 263
Responding to the work is separate
Deep interpretation presupposes that the surface
interpretation is already done 263
Counterargument to Sontag
Nelson Goodman
Why these differences are so important – artworks must be
understood in the context of art in general, art works are not separate from
other artworks, nature, or other artifacts
Rembrandt’s Lucretia and its forgery (a very good forgery)
264
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=Rembrandt+Lucretia&btnG=Search
How do we determine authenticity?
What are the relevant aesthetic differences between the two,
for any given viewer? For a viewer who
cannot see the difference?
Goodman argues that our ability to perceive the difference
is not relevant at all 267
Value, and aesthetic significance, and authenticity are all
dependent on historical context, the period in which the work was done, its
membership in a class (the genuine works of Rembrandt) 268-269
The idea that we should experience a work of art purely by
senses is absurd – part of our common nonsense 270
Roland Barthes
A text has a plurality of meanings
Every text can have meanings extracted from it
Creating meaning in a text is the responsibility of the
reader
(the death of the author!)
Our view of language and literary text is changing 270
Linguistics, anthropology, Marxism, psychoanalysis have all
changed how we see text
Interdisciplinarity has revitalized how we look at the
scriptor (writer)—reader—critic relationship 271
http://www.earthwidemoth.com/mt/archives/000979.html
The Text is not a defined object.
The Text is constituted by its subversive force – challenges
old classifications
The logic that governs the Text is metonymic (meaning that
terms that are connected can substitute for each other – the Ivory Tower means
higher education, the Big Apple refers to
The Text is radically symbolic 271
The Text is plural and has an irreducible plurality of
meanings 272
The work is caught up in a process of interpretation that
implies familial relationships – author as father and owner of the work
But the Text is linked to enjoyment, to pleasure, without
separation, in a social utopia of its own 274
The Text asks the reader for an active collaboration 273
10/23 T Review Day (Please note that
these are dates in the advising and registration week, see your advisor to
register for next semester!)
10/25 R Second Exam
Are you anticipating having a job
interview? Here’s a document that might
help!
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/jobsearch.pdf
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/jobsearch.doc
10/30 T V. Why
Respond Emotionally to Art?
Introduction
R. K. Elliott, Aesthetic
Theory and the Experience of Art
Kendall L. Walton, Make-Believe
and the Arts
Elliott:
Artwork often relies on the emotional response of the audience
Empathy
Experiencing
the work of art from the inside or from the outside
Inside
– emotional connection to the work, fellow-feeling with those performing
particular roles, for example
Outside
– comparable to surface interpretation; does not rely on emotional connection
of the audience
Walton:
representation
Work of
art should inspire a “self-imagined” sensory representation, which goes beyond
mere sensory experiences
Sensory
experience is already theory-laden, each sensory experience is related back to
our feelings of empathy – imagining ourselves in another’s position
Examples
from class: children’s letters and cards for persons in the service; references
and examples from the musical Rent
11/1 R Continue V. Why Respond
Emotionally to Art?
Aristotle,
The Emotions Proper to Tragedy
Aristotle,
Emotions and Music
Martha C. Nussbaum, Luck and
the Tragic Emotions
Susan L. Feagin, The
Pleasures of Tragedy
Aristotle sets up the idea of catharsis with regard to ancient
Greek tragedy
Tragedy
involves an audience reaction that is not merely fellow feeling, it also
involves pity and fear
Nussbaum
clarifies this – pity is the audience response for undeserved suffering, and
fear is the response when we see that the same thing could happen to us, given
different circumstances in life
Examples
of cathartic moments from films (struggle is to find examples of tragedy for
different ages and different experiences in the audience)
The Fox and The Hound
Old Yeller
Bambi
Dumbo
Dead Poets Society
Love Story
Brian’s Song
The Color Purple
11/6 T Continue V. Why
Respond Emotionally to Art?
Ted
Cohen, Jokes
Edmund Burke, The Sublime:
Of Delight and Pleasure
Jerrold Levinson, Music and
Negative Emotion
Cohen
argues that jokes can involve more than mere amusement, they reflect background
beliefs, assumptions, and prejudices, and as such, they set up and reinforce a
sense of community
Jokes
can also be used to exclude those who simply don’t get it or who are not in on
the joke (consider the film The Aristocrats, which is the ultimate in-joke for
stand up comedians)
Dave
Chappelle, Chris Rock, Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller
Burke
discusses the feeling of delight that some works of art give the audience. Delight involves merely removing pain – not a
pleasurable feeling on its own. Burke is
also writing from the context of the late enlightenment period, and he was deeply
concerned with the “revolutions” occurring throughout Europe and America – his
political and aesthetic theories often reflect a need for peace or a desire to
cease struggle – almost reactionary in his need for comfort, I think examples
like Fargo and Notti di Cabiria would relate to his theory. When we have this feeling of delight, and we
realize that the danger is not real, that we will be alright, it is associated
with the “sublime.” (Note, you could do
a great paper comparing and contrasting Kant and Burke on the sublime.)
Levinson
discusses feelings of sadness and melancholy that certain types of music can
inspire in us. He seems to imply that
his main examples are classical music, without an implied or explicit narrative
(i.e., no lyrics, with content to interpret.)
He gives a theory of why we might want to seek out sad music, in a way
related to the need for carthasis or emotional release going back to Aristotle
and Nussbaum. I think we could also
apply Levinson’s theory to some of the music we have considered earlier, from
traditional shape note music, to Rufus Wainwright’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s
Hallelujah, to Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry about his memories of Trenchtown.
The
overall theme again is emotional reactions to works of art, and the possible
benefits of these emotional reactions.
11/8 R VI. How Can We Evaluate Art?
Introduction
Curt Ducasse, Criticism as
Appraisal
Meyer Schapiro, On
Perfection and Coherence in Art
David Hume, Of the Standard
of Taste
This section discusses key issues of “taste”. What is good taste, and how is it developed? Most of the theories rely on some notion of
experience. This is a tradition that
comes from empiricism, the position that all knowledge comes from experience. This experience may be sensory or
cognitive.
Ducasse argues that all aesthetic judgments are
subjective. Art critics are more
experienced at describing why they like or dislike a work of art. The judgment
of taste (whether you like it or not) is a separate question from whether or
not the work of art is successful, if it expresses what the artist intended,
and so on.
Schapiro values the variety of tastes, the fresh points of
view that each person brings to a work.
In a sense this is like John Stuart Mill’s work in On Liberty; a wide
range of opinions is necessary, and a free market of ideas should be
respected. It is difficult to perceive
the “relevant” qualities of a work of art, it is a skill that is developed with
practice.
Hume also described the specific experiences that are
necessary to develop one’s taste. Specific perceptual skills, and freeing
oneself from prejudices and habits of thought, are necessary to develop
taste. Hume concludes that taste is best
understood as intersubjective, not objective or subjective.
Special in class work on taste and
interior design professionals, to give you more material for papers and
presentations. Given that Hume
believes taste is related to experience (and his empiricist
philosophy) use the materials given out in class to address examples of
design professionals and learning taste through experience:
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/dheight.pdf
http://teach.valdosta.edu/chjames/dheight.doc
Extra notes:
John Berger, Lessons of the
Past
Kwame Anthony Appiah, The
Postcolonial and the Aesthetic
Isenberg holds that the judgment of taste cannot appeal to
reasons, that it is not within the bounds of rational, logical
argumentation. Note that this inherently
challenges what the art critic can do or say regarding taste.
Berger argues that works of art have the ability to depict
broader issues, that they are not limited to particular times, histories,
cultures. For example, Goya’s depiction
of war can be used to understand the greater issues of war and loss of human
potential in any historical period. The
emotions involved are greater than specific human lives, for example the fear
we feel in response to Goya’s work can be compared to the sublime of Kant and
Burke.
Appiah discusses the postmodern, recent perspectives on art
that avoid cross-cultural metanarratives, and that emphasize cross-cultural
borrowing. Cultures “contaminate” one
another, bringing up new commonalities and new possibilities for cultural
comparison.
11/13 T Second Paper
Drafts Due (for anyone choosing the Paper option instead of Presentations)
REMEMBER,
you must use the readings and give notes and citations from our textbook in any
Paper or Presentation.
Ideally,
you should use two readings and discuss their differences, create a debate
between two different theories.
First Presentation today by Walker Gross
11/15 R Second Presentation day with Pamela Johnson and Maranda
Rumph
11/20 T Third Presentation day with Clyde Harrison, Kyle Hicks,
Roger King, Nick Ekblaw
11/22 R Thanksgiving
11/27 T Fourth
Presentation day with Wayne Rogers, Mike Yarber
11/29 R Fifth
Presentation day with Julie Kongeskov, Shari Ford, Salcharika “Cherry” Wilder
FINAL VERSIONS OF YOUR PAPERS, PRESENTATION POWERPOINT, HANDOUTS,
ETC. DUE AT THE FINAL EXAM SCHEDULED TIME: Thursday, December 6 at
2:45pm-4:45pm.
If you are not sure about how the final exam times are assigned
for your other courses, use this link, and check the Final Exam Schedule on
page 3 of the document linked here:
http://www.valdosta.edu/it/eas/sis/documents/RG_Fall_07.pdf
Tips for doing well in Philosophy classes, adapted from a handout by Robert
Scott
1.
Read text with a pencil, underline the important ideas and key concepts.
Write down technical ideas, key terms, key distinctions between two terms,
definitions, diagrams, etc. to help you remember them.
2.
Write questions or reactions you have to the text in the margin of the
book. Ask about these questions in
class, and keep them in mind, since they may provide good points to make about
that author in papers you will write for class.
3.
Read ahead to see the ultimate objectives of the chapter and of the
individual readings. Keep in mind the
overall picture of the chapters given in the introductory sections to each
chapter in the book.
4.
Work with the new terminology frequently, and try to apply it to
situations outside of class. I would
recommend flash cards to help you memorize the meanings of new terms quickly.
5.
For longer readings, be sure to review the reading as a whole after you
have read it section-by-section. What
was the main question the author wanted to address? What were the answers? What
concepts were used to make the points?
6.
When confronted with a difficult reading or question, break it down into
parts, and into individual ideas. This
will at least help to clarify the question, even if it might not give the
answer. And for philosophy, clarifying
the question is really half the battle!
7.
Ponder an unsolved problem and return to it every so often to see if it
will give. Inspiration may happen at an
unexpected time, and the subconscious mind does work on problems even when we
aren't consciously aware of it.
8.
Begin work on all the class tasks early, and spread out your work over
time so as to maximize your chances for comprehending the readings accurately,
memorizing the information, and grappling with the questions for papers.
9.
If you do need to meet with an instructor outside of class, be sure to
have your questions for the instructor planned out ahead of time, to make the
meeting as productive as possible.
10.
Always think about the philosophical issues for yourself, rather than
waiting to be told what to think or believe.
11.
Study for all exams on a daily basis, for at least a week before the
exam date. You will need to know who said what, from memory.
12.
Try to anticipate the questions that will be asked on an examination
beforehand. Questions may come from the
readings or from lectures and class discussions, but in either case, certain
terms and concepts will be emphasized more than others.
13.
Listen carefully to different points of view, and actively respond (when
you read, when you are in class, and when you write your philosophy papers)!
14.
Philosophy involves skills, like learning to appreciate a good debate,
learning to imagine the world differently than we assume it to be, and
appreciating the world with a sense of wonder.
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