| WEEK # | LECTURE TOPICS | RECITATION TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modernity, Modernism, Modernization Lecture 1: Introduction to Theories of Modernism and Modernity Lecture 2: Introduction to Theories of Mass Culture | Discuss Readings and Video (View Excerpt in Recitation?) [Marxism's Blindness to Feminism; The Woman "Arranged for the Gaze," Conflation of Subject-in-Representation with the Real, Marxism as theory and interpretation as practice] | |
| 2 | Post-Revolutionary France Lecture 3: Eugéne Delacroix, or How to Imagine Liberty Lecture 4: Caricature and the Safehouse of "High Art" | View and Discuss Video: Pictures Beneath the Cobblestones: July 28, 1830, Liberty Leading the People Discuss writing strategies for first paper | |
| 3 | Realism and The Painting of Modern Life Lecture 5: Courbet, Realism, and Popular Images | Discuss Realism How does allegory function in Courbet's Modernism? | |
| 4 | Impressionism, Photography, Serialism Lecture 6: Manet and Modernization Lecture 7: The Impressionist Eye as Camera | Discuss Clark's Concept of Urban Spectacle, and Baudelaire's Modernism How do photography and fashion function for both thinkers? | Paper 1 due |
| 5 | Modernist Anxiety: "Where are we going?" Lecture 8: Serial Impressions (Print and Eye) | Two Field Trips in place of Recitations | |
| 6 | Primitivism / Woman / Mass Culture Lecture 9: Woman and the Modern City Lecture 10: European Orientalism and Gauguin's Skirt | Exam Review and Preview (bring questions) | |
| 7 | Cubo-Futurism and the Sign Lecture 11: Picasso's Cubism: Politics and/or Semiosis Lecture 12: Futurism's and Dadaism's Popular Mechanics | Discuss the Persistence of Orientalism through early Picasso | Midterm exam |
| 8 | Commodities Lecture 12 (cont.): Bauhaus Film | Discuss Theories of the Fetish and Commodity Culture Did Bauhaus Artists develop a Utopian Theory of the Commodity? | Paper 2 due |
| 9 | Photography, Propaganda, Montage Lecture 13: (Sur)realism and Photography Lecture 14: The Soviet Avant-Garde | Meet at Busch-Reisinger Collection (Harvard Art Museums) for discussion of Montage, Graffiti, and other "Mass Cultural" Influences in modern art | |
| 10 | Postwar Primitives Lecture 15: Anti-culture? Dubuffet, Graffiti, and Art of the Insane Lecture 16: The Jackson Pollock Case | Discuss Readings - How does Culture become Marketable, and how do market goods become cultural? Review strategies for Final Paper | |
| 11 | Marketing Mass Culture Lecture 17: Robert Rauschenberg's "Coca-Cola Plan" | Paper 3 due | |
| 12 | Pop Art and Popular Culture Lecture 18: International Pop and Anti-Pop Lecture 19: American Pop and the "Business Art Business" | Discuss Horkheimer and Adorno (from week 10) Screen Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" (if possible) Discuss Readings | |
| 13 | Postmodernism and Mass Media Lecture 20: Postmodernism and Institutional Critique Lecture 21: Postmodernism, Feminism | Discuss Readings and "Map" Postmodernism Exam Review | Paper 4 due |
| 14 | The Collapse, or Renewal, of Aesthetic Distance? Lecture 22: Report on the Present: Fashion Culture, Culture Fashion Lecture 23: Last class, Discussion and Review | No recitation this week, but there will be exam review sessions | |
| 15 | Final exam |