HISTORY OF BOOKS AND PRINT CULTURE IN EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA

LIS 350

Framed by a question about what books are, what books have been, and what books might be: past, present, and future. It assumes that "book" is a placeholder term for an object that becomes the site of questions and debates about a variety of media, expressions, and recording practices. A goal of the class is to understand the book as an active technology that shapes peoples, perceptions, and cultures rather than serving as a passive receptacle of them. This course will approach the book from a number of perspectives including book history, digital humanities, media studies, and human computer interaction, as well as examining industry-oriented interests such as e-reader manufacturing, book retail, and publishing.

ILS 204

The development of literature and the arts from the Renaissance to the modern period, including such figures as Shakespeare and Michelangelo through T.S. Eliot and Picasso. Literature and art in the context of society and ideas.

ARTHIST 202

Examine the arts and culture of Europe and North America from the Renaissance through the present. Explore important fine art, architecture, decorative arts, and photographic masterpieces by artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Learn how works of art were valued from the moment of their making, fought over by different nations, bought, sold, stolen, or ignored for centuries and revived only recently for study through the political, historical, social and cultural contexts of their making. Critically examine the concept of artistic genius; the influence of colonialism and imperialism on artistic production and consumption; the role of the patron and the art market in art's production and circulation; the relationship of fine art and popular culture; and the idea of globalization as it relates to "western" artistic traditions. Develop skills in visual analysis to understand artistic production.

ILS 203

The development of literature and the arts in the ancient and medieval world, including Akhenaton's Egypt, Homer's Troy, Euripides' Athens, Virgil's Rome, and Dante's Florence. Literature and art in the context of society and ideas.

LIS 950

An in-depth examination of some aspect(s) of the historical and philosophical foundations of LIS as it has been transformed through time and space, within the broader cultural context.