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AESTHETICS
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AESTHETICS
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Articles on Electronic Reserve
Connect to Electronic Reserves
Painter. Photographer and Filmmaker Resources
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism
Many of the strategies by which we have been taught to
look at images have their origin in a definition of the
picture first articulated in the Italian Renaissance: a
framed surface or pane situated at a certain distance from
the viewer who looks through it to a second world. How well
does this model hold up? Is Dutch painting of the seventeenth
century no more than a portrait of Holland? Is the
relationship of art to the world like that of the eye
itself?
We shall discuss the nature of representation in
painting, photography, and film, looking closely at examples
from the seventeenth century, at the work of Rembrandt,
Velasquez, and Vermeer, as well as later works by Manet,
Courbet, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso, and the abstract
expressionists. We shall also look at the photographs of
Atget, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Walker
Evans, Diane Arbus, Alfred Stieglitz, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
and Richard Avedon and at films of Antonioni, Renoir, and
Hitchcock. Use will be made of the collections of art in the
Fogg Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Primary texts will be available at the University Book Store:
There will also be a number of articles on electronic reserve and on reserve at Goldfarb. See list of Articles on Electronic Reserve below. The course is divided into three sections of approximately five weeks each. Reading assignments are blocked out week by week for each of the three sections. BR>Barthes, CAMERA LUCIDA, Hill and Wang
The following articles are available on the WEB through
Electronic
Reserve (ELRS) accessible by Password. To reach Electronic
Reserve, you may click here:
III. Photography and Representation
IV. Seeing the World Through Photographs
V. Viewing the World Through Movies
I. CLASS TIMES
The course meets on Tuesdays and Fridays: 1:40 PM to 3:00 PM.
II. WRITING
Three papers are required on topics growing out of the readings and class discussions. The papers should be about 7 pages in length, preferably typewritten. Paper topics will be available at least ten (10) days before a paper is due. Projected dates for paper topics are October 1st, November 1st, and December 3rd. Papers will be due on October 12th, November 12th, and December 13th.
III. EXAMINATIONS
There will be a quiz in class on Friday, December 3rd. There will be no other written
examinations, final or otherwise.
IV. GRADING
Grading will be broken down as follows: 35% for your strongest essay, 30% for your next best effort, and 25% for the essay which is least successful of the three. The quiz will count 10%.
V. ATTENDANCE
Although class attendance will not be taken directly into account in
considering an overall grade for the course, attendance is required,
and failure to attend may result in a lowering of your grade. You are
allowed two unexcused absences.
VI. OFFICE HOURS
I will hold office hours from 3:00 to 4:00 PM on Tuesdays and Fridays and by appointment. My office is located in RABB, Room 306. If you wish to leave messages for me, you may do so at the Philosophy Department Office, RABB 305 (Tel. 736-2788) or send me an e-mail at 3teuber@binah.cc.brandeis.edu2
MUSEUMS & ARCHIVES:
ARTIST RESOURCES:
| WEEK 1
Sept. 2 |
Introduction and Organization
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| WEEK 2
Sept. 7th |
Reflections on Photography
Roland Barthes, CAMERA LUCIDA, pp. 3-60 Svetlana Alpers, THE ART OF DESCRIBING, pp. 1-118
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| Sept. 10th | Stubborn Objects
Susan Sontag, "In Plato's Cave," ON PHOTOGRAPHY, pp. 3- 24 Susan Sontag, "Melancholy Objects," ON PHOTOGRAPHY, pp. 51-82
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| WEEK 3
Sept. 14th |
Photography: History
Trachtenberg, CLASSIC ESSAYS ON PHOTOGRAPHY: Edgar Allan Poe, "The Daguerreotype" Charles Baudelaire, "The Modern Public and Photography" Anonymous, "Is Photography a New Art?" Paul Strand, "Photography and Photography and the New God" Berenice Abbott, "Photography at the Crossroads" Walker Evans, "The Reappearance of Photography" Walter Benjamin, "A Short History of Photography"
Allan Sekula, "On the Invention of Photographic Meaning" (ERES) |
| Sept. 17th | Reality and Representation
Nelson Goodman, "Reality Remade"(ERES) John Searle, "Las Meninas and the Paradoxes of Pictorial Representation"(ERES) Joel Snyder, "Las Meninas and the Mirror of the Prince"(ERES) Svetlana Alpers, "Interpretation without Representation, or, the Viewing of Las Meninas" (JSTOR)
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| WEEK 4
Sept. 21st |
More Reflections on Photography
Barthes, CAMERA LUCIDA , pp. 63-109
Susan Sontag, "The Heroism of Vision," ON PHOTOGRAPHY
, pp. 85-112 Note: Class will not meet on Tues., Sept. 21 (Brandeis Monday) |
| Sept. 24th | Photography and Representation Roger Scruton, "Photography and Representation" (ERES) Rudolf Arnheim, "On the Nature of Photography" (ERES)
Trachtenberg, CLASSIC ESSAYS ON PHOTOGRAPHY:
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| WEEK 5
Sept. 28th |
Seeing the World Through Photographs
E. H. Gombrich, "Standards of Truth: The Arrested Image and the Moving Eye" (ERES) Kendall Walton, "Transparent Pictures: On the Nature of Photographic Realism" (ERES) Edwin Martin, "On Seeing Walton1s Great-Grandfather" (ERES) Kendall Walton, "Looking Again Through Photographs" (ERES) |
| Oct. 1st | Another Way of Telling?
John Berger & Jean Mohr, ANOTHER WAY OF TELLING (entire) Paper topics for the first paper will be handed out on Friday, October 1st. The paper is due on Tuesday, October 12th.
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| WEEK 6
Oct. 5th |
Discussion Week
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| WEEK 7
Oct. 12th |
Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966)
Noel Carroll, "The Power of Movies" (ERES) Christian Metz, "Photography and Fetish" (ERES) First Paper is due on Tuesday, October 12th, in class. |
| Oct. 15th | The Ontology of Film
Stanley Cavell, THE WORLD VIEWED: An Autobiography of Companions, pp. 3-15; Sights and Sounds, pp. 16- 23; Photograph and Screen, pp. 23-25; Audience, Actor, and Star, pp. 25- 29; Types; Cycles as Genres, pp. 29-37; Ideas of Origin, pp. 37-41; Baudelaire and the Myths of Film, pp. 41-46; The Medium and Media of Film, pp. 68-74
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WEEK 8
Oct. 19th |
Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939)
Alexander Sesonske The World Viewed(ERES) |
| Oct. 22nd | Renoir's Genius
Stanley Cavell, THE WORLD VIEWED: More of The World Viewed, pp. 162-230
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| WEEK 9
Oct. 26th |
Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954)
Stanley Cavell, THE WORLD VIEWED: The World as Mortal: Absolute Age and Youth, pp. 74-80; The World as a Whole: Color, pp. 80-101; Automatism, pp. 101-108; Excursus: Some Modernist Painting, pp. 108-118; Exhibition and Self-Reference, pp. 119- 126; The Camera's Implication, pp. 126-133; Assertions in Techniques, pp. 133-146; The Acknowledgment of Silence, pp. 146-160 |
| Oct. 29th | Feminist Readings of the Male Gaze
Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (ERES) Tania Modleski, "The Masters Dollhouse, Rear Window"(ERES)
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| WEEK 10
Nov. 2nd |
Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959)
Marian Keane, "The Designs of Authorship: An Essay on North by Northwest" (ERES) |
| Nov. 5th | Film Itself
Stanley Cavell, "North by Northwest" (ERES)
Paper topics for the second paper will be handed out on Friday, Nov. 5th. Papers are due on Tuesday, November 16th, in class.
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WEEK 11
Nov. 9th |
Versions and Visions
Gombrich, ART AND ILLUSION: "Psychology and the Riddle of Style," pp. 3-30, "From Light into Paint," pp. 33-62, "Truth and the Stereotype," pp. 63-90, "Pygmalion's Power," pp. 93-115. |
| Nov. 12th | Worldmaking
Goodman, WAYS OF WORLDMAKING: "Words, Works, Worlds," pp. 1-22 "The Status of Style," pp. 23-40 "When is Art?" pp. 57-70
Alpers, THE ART OF DESCRIBING:
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| WEEK 12
Nov. 16th |
Words and Images
Gombrich, ART AND ILLUSION: "Formula and Experience," pp. 146-178 "The Image in the Clouds," pp. 181-202 "Conditions of Illusion," pp. 203-241 "Ambiguities of the Third Dimension," pp. 242-287 "The Analysis of Vision in Art," pp. 291-329
Goodman, WAYS OF WORLDMAKING:
Alpers, THE ART OF DESCRIBING: The Second Paper is due on Tuesday, November the 16th, in class.
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| WEEK 13
Nov. 23rd |
Works of Art vs. Mere Real Things
Danto, THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE COMMONPLACE: Preface, v-viii "Works of Art and Mere Real Things," pp. 1-32 "Philosophy and Art," pp. 54-89 "Aesthetics and the Work of Art," pp. 90-114 |
| Nov. 26th | Transfigurations
Danto, The Transfiguration of the COMMONPLACE: "Works of Art and Mere Representations," 136-164, "Metaphor, Expression, and Style," 165-208
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| WEEK 14
Nov. 30th |
Representation and Reality Revisited
Foucault, THIS IS NOT A PIPE (entire) |
| Dec. 3rd | Quiz
There will be a quiz in class on Friday December 3rd
Paper topics for the final paper will be handed out in class on Friday, Dec. 3rd after the quiz. The paper is due on Monday,
Dec. 13th, by 4:30 p.m. in the Philosophy Department Main Office, Rabb 305.
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| WEEK 15
Dec. 7th |
Discussion
Tuesday is the last day of class for the Fall Semester
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| WEEK 16
Dec. 13th |
Final Paper
The third and final paper is due on Monday, December 13th by 4:30 PM in the Philosophy Department Main Office in Rabb 305.
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