WESTERN CULTURE: LITERATURE AND THE ARTS II

ILS 371

Selected interdisciplinary topics in literature and art with emphasis on social, historical and political contexts.

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.

CLASSICS 206

Explores the legacy of ancient Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern art and science in later historical periods of Western culture. Identify, analyze and critique the roots of western culture and to understand and interpret how classical cultures influence global arts and sciences past and present.

ENGL 242

Considers a period of unparalleled tumult: a time of vast world empires and startling new technologies, revolutions that radically redefined self and community, two cataclysmic world wars, the emergence of ideas of human rights, and the first truly global feelings of interconnectedness. How has literature captured and contributed to these dramatic upheavals? Some writers worldwide have struggled to invent new forms, new words, and new genres to do justice to a world in crisis, while others have reached back in time, seeking continuity with the past. Explore enduring traditions of poetry and drama and think about experiments in the new, globally popular genre of the novel. Develops skills of critical reading and writing that are essential to majors and non-majors alike.

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.