David Harvey: The Crises of Capitalism

This is the video that I showed you on Thursday/ Friday. This is a pretty good example of how a Marxist critic would analyze the most recent financial "meltdown."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

Painting Imitation Project

Details, Details, Details!

(Painting Imitation Project)

You are urged to read for details because authors put details in their work for a reason. And you are told to write details to help bring your words to life. Now I want you to both look at details and replicate them in a new visual piece of your own.

1. Select a piece of art that has one or more people in it.
2. Replicate that piece of art with you as the subject(s). You may use more than one person in your own “art,” but you will find that the more people you have, the harder it is to replicate the original.
3. You will present the replication in the form of a photograph. You may use a film or digital camera,.
    you may NOT copy anything about the people themselves in the piece of art. In addition, your entire head must be in the replication, with enough of your face visible that we can tell who it is. You must also turn in a color picture of the original piece of art (same size as your replication—see information in final due date below).
4. You will complete a short writing component—a questionnaire—for this assignment. Number and write the question before typing your answer under it:
1. What is the title of the work, who is the artist, when was the piece made, and where—web site or book—can a picture of the original piece be found?
2. Why did you choose this particular piece of art?
3. What were the major details you noticed?
4. Describe the process of preparing to take the photo replicating the art. Among other things, include how long it took you to shoot the photo, the problems (if any) that you encountered, and who your photographer was.
5. Did you use computer enhancement for your replication? If so, what did you specifically do with the computer to make the replication better?
5. On Monday, October 11, at the beginning of class, you will turn in a picture of your original art, your replicated piece (4” by 6” is the minimum size), and your completed questionnaire. In addition to turning everything in, you will show your replication to the class and briefly talk about the process of replicating it. You may also include photos you took during the process of making your final product. (These process pictures do not have to be the same size as the original and replication.) Mount all pictures attractively on one piece of paper/poster board/etc. so you can use them as you discuss your replication with the class. Include the title of the artwork and the name of the artist on the front, too. (The original art and final replicated piece must be on the front of the piece of paper/poster board; if you have process pictures, put them on the back.) This assignment is a major grade.

Here are a couple of Internet sites that might help you get started in yoru search for a piece of art to replicate: www.bertc.com and www.artprintcollection.com.

Schedule for October 4th to October 8th AND Blog post assignment for the week.

Ok, so I was out for the last three days (bronchitis, I have a doctor's note if you care) so I am assuming that we all got a little dumber in my absence. I know that's the case for me. So, this week we are going to be firing on all cylinders.

Monday: Introduction to the Art Imitation Project. This is going to be due a week from today (next Monday)and it will be awesome. We'll also be looking at art through the ages and discussing what art says about the culture from which it emerges.
Simon Schama's "Caravaggio"

Tuesday: Introduction to different ways of interpreting "quality" in art. Simon Schama's "Bernini"

Wednesday: Introduction to "Marxism" (both the philosophical position, the economic system, and the method for interpreting art), Simon Schama's "David"

Thursday: Introduction to Freud/ Psychoanalytic Art Criticism. Zizek on Hitchcock

Friday: In-Class Essay applying a Marxian or Freudian analysis to Fritz Lang's Metropolis


BLOG POST ASSIGNMENT FOR THE WEEK


It is always said that "art imitates life," but how true is this cliche? Why do human beings feel the need to express something about their lived experience through artistic expression? How has this changed throughout the ages?

Quiz on Existentialism on TUESDAY!!

I just got an email requesting some clarification on what I mentioned in class last week regarding a quiz. Thanks for the heads up Daniel and to the rest of you, never hesitate to email me if you have any questions about the class. I try and respond to everything you send me.

Anyway, just so you know, the quiz will be on Tuesday. Monday we will review. The quiz will cover all of the existential concepts and themes. It will include Nietzsche and Kierkegaard as well so make sure you get the notes. It will be a fill-in-the-blank format.

So don't disappoint "Baby Nietzsche"

Schedule for September 27 to October 1 AND Blog Response for Friday at midnight

Monday: We will be talking about Kierkegaard and also introduce the research paper assignment that will dominate our consciousness for the rest of the semester.

Tuesday: Marx and Freud, Art and Aesthetics, Looking at the "Painting Imitation Project" Due next week

Wednesday: Today is a structured study hall. I have to take the morning to go to a few doctor's appointments so I won't be on campus until noon. You will need to bring work to do during class. This is not the time to catch up with your pals in class. This is a "pressure valve" intended to help you.

Thursday: More discussion about the "Painting Imitation Project" develop a timeline for the research paper and a look at some different ways yo interpret art.

Friday: Wrap up of "Free Will and Determinism"

OK, so here's the blog posting assignment for this week.

In many Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto traditions, importance is placed on living life as if you were creating art. That is, one should conduct themselves with a consciousness targeted towards aesthetics, ethics, and beauty. Now we are moving into a short unit on art interpretation, and to tie the "ethics heavy" discussions we've had these last weeks, I thought it would be useful to ask, "What does it mean to live your life as a work of art?"

Blog response assignment for the week of September 13th to the 17th, and a little note on Grading

This week we have a simpler, but deeper, question for your examination.
How have the choices you have made created the person you are now? And... What choices do you think you'll be faced with in the future that will affect your identity?

On Grading: I have had a raging headache all weekend and so I have not finished the essays you wrote on Friday, therefore they will not be reflected on the progress reports. I will have them done by this coming Friday. I am reasonably confident of that.

Preliminary Schedule for the Week of September 13th to the 17th

Monday:   Greek notion of Fate, how that's different than Karma, and how it's embodied in the film Protagonist


Tuesday: "Existentialism is a Humanism," Introduction to Existentialism (Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche)

Wednesday: "Existentialism is a Humanism" Continuing Existentialism (Sartre, Camus, Maslow, Rodgers, Solomon, Paul Newman??)

Thursday: What does the "Existentialist" life look like? Reading "The Myth of Sisyphus" and talking about Cool Hand Luke


Friday: Cool Hand Luke

ONLY 15 MINUTES LEFT TO RESPOND FOR FULL CREDIT!!!!!

Interesting Zizek speech on "Toleance

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2530392910118230001&ei=fbCJSZKLCZPiqQK6y-3GCw&q=slaoj+zizek&emb=1&dur=3#

Preview: In-Class Essay Topics

Bakkhai Essay Prompt

In a two to three page essay, answer one of the following prompts thoroughly.  Your essay should be well organized and written in sophisticated language.  It should work towards demonstrating one specific thesis.  Your thesis should be reasonably complex (“Pentheus is wrong for not worshipping Dionysos” won’t cut it).  Quote and analyze evidence from the text to prove your point. Write in the present tense. Your essay should be typed and double-spaced, in 12-point font.  Give your paper an original title (not “Bakkhai Essay”).  

1. Who is the tragic hero of The Bakkhai? Recall the qualities that make up a tragic hero in Greek drama, specifically. What character traits and actions make this character the hero?

2. Many scholars claim that the classical (Greek and Roman) world values reason more highly than emotion.  Do we find evidence of the interplay of these values in The Bakkhai? What point does the play make about the interaction between reason, or the rational values of society, and emotion?

3. In ancient Greece, women were seen as far inferior to men in intellect, physical attributes, and even spirit. Do the Theban maenads reinforce this viewpoint, or not? More specifically, what does Euripedes’ portrayal of the maenads indicate about women, as opposed to men? Consider why Dionysos may have chosen women to worship him, what worship of Dionysos indicates about a person, and why their rituals are secret.

4. Are the actions of Dionysos just?

Change in schedule, no quiz on Thursday

Owing to how long the performances are taking, the quiz is going to be on Friday.
It will cover the following:
The content of the Bacchae
Themes in the Bacchae (we'll discuss these in class on Thursday)
Greek Religion
Greek Stagecraft/ Theater
Also, that day we'll have an in-class essay, co come prepared to do some work

Tentative schedule for the coming week

Monday: No school
Tuesday: Bacchae performances, discuss blog post assignment for this week, Discuss in-clas writing later this week and quiz
Wednesday: Bacchae performances, paragraphs on mask symbolism, Lecture on Bacchae themes, Greek theater, Apollonian/ Dionysian, Apollo
Thursday: Finish lecture from Wednesday, Quiz over Bacchae content, themes, Greek theater
Friday: In-Class Essay

Blog response for the week of September 7th to the 10th (due by midnight on the 10th)

On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates, a Houston woman with a history of mental illness, drowned her three children while her husband was at work. During her trial Ms. Yates successfully pleaded insanity and is currently housed in a treatment facility near Kerrville.

Knowing what we know of Mrs. Yates' psychological history, it is easy for us in contemporary American society to accept that her mental state led to this heinous event. However, looking through the lens of history, we find many examples of murderous mothers.

One of the most famous is of course Agave in The Bacchae. In fact, it is a theme we find popping up in other Greek tragedies of the period. In Medea (also by Euripides) a mother murders her children as revenge against her husband's infidelity.

Legend offers even more examples. "La Llorona" (The Weeping Woman), a Mexican folktale (with many variations according to location) La Llorona is a beautiful woman who kills her children in order to be with the man she loves, who subsequently rejects her. After which she commits suicide and is damned to wander, searching for her lost children and calling their names.

The question of the week is...how can we account for such similar stories emerging from such disparate times and places?

Correction: The Thirty Six Dramatic Situations

Uggh, sorry about the formatting issues. Here's hoping that this works better...


This weekend, between attending my cousin's wedding, driving to and from Kerrville, and eating too much, I took some time to read one of my favorite film blogs Film School Rejects. One "project" on the site is a film retrospective based upon a nineteenth century work by Georges Polti called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. In this work, Polti asserts that dramatic works can be assigned to one of thirty six plot categories. Each posting of this project takes one of Polti's categories and examines a film that they believe epitomizes that category.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, so I am incorporating it into this week's blog posting assignment.
The assignment is to take ONE category, choose ONE dramatic work (literature, cinema, or theater) and tell me how that work fits that category.

I've taken the list from the Wikipedia site so there are links to some of the concepts.

So, for your education, here they are...

The 36 Dramatic Situations

 (Polti, Georges (1921) [1916]. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Franklin, Ohio: James Knapp Reeve.)

1.              Supplication

A Persecutor; a Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful.

2.              Deliverance

An Unfortunate; a threatener; a Rescuer

3.              Crime pursued by vengeance

A Criminal; an Avenger

4.              Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

Guilty Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a relative of both

5.              Pursuit

Punishment; a Fugitive

6.              Disaster

A Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger

7.              Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune

An Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune

8.              Revolt

A Tyrant; a Conspirator

9.     Daring enterprise

A Bold Leader; an Object; an Adversary

10.           Abduction

An Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian

11.           The enigma

A Problem; an Interrogator; a Seeker

12.           Obtaining

(A Solicitor & an Adversary who is refusing) or (an Arbitrator & Opposing Parties)

13.           Enmity of kin

A Malevolent Kinsman; a Hated or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman

14.           Rivalry of kin

The Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry

15.           Murderous adultery

Two Adulterers; a Betrayed Spouse

16.           Madness

A Madman; a Victim

17.           Fatal imprudence

The Imprudent; a Victim or an Object Lost

18.           Involuntary crimes of love

A Lover; a Beloved; a Revealer

19.           Slaying of kin unrecognized

The Slayer; an Unrecognized Victim

20.           Self-sacrifice for an ideal

A Hero; an Ideal; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

21.           Self-sacrifice for kin

A Hero; a Kinsman; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

22.           All sacrificed for passion

A Lover; an Object of fatal Passion; the Person/Thing sacrificed

23.           Necessity of sacrificing loved ones

A Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice

24.           Rivalry of superior vs. inferior

A Superior Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry

25.           Adultery

Two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse

26.           Crimes of love

A Lover; the Beloved

27.           Discovery of the dishonor of a loved one

A Discoverer; the Guilty One

28.           Obstacles to love

Two Lovers; an Obstacle

29.           An enemy loved

A Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the Hater

30.           Ambition

An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary

31.           Conflict with a god

A Mortal; an Immortal

32.           Mistaken jealousy

A Jealous One; an Object of whose Possession He is Jealous; a Supposed Accomplice; a Cause or an Author of the Mistake

33.           Erroneous judgment

A Mistaken One; a Victim of the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the Mistake; the Guilty One

34.           Remorse

A Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an Interrogator

35.           Recovery of a lost one

A Seeker; the One Found

36.           Loss of loved ones

                  A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

This weekend, between attending my cousin's wedding, driving to and from Kerrville, and eating too much, I took some time to read one of my favorite film blogs Film School Rejects. One "project" on the site is a film retrospective based upon a nineteenth century work by Georges Polti called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. In this work, Polti asserts that dramatic works can be assigned to one of thirty six plot categories. Each posting of this project takes one of Polti's categories and examines a film that they believe epitomizes that category.

I thought that was a brilliant idea, so I am incorporating it into this week's blog posting assignment.
The assignment is to take ONE category, choose ONE dramatic work (literature, cinema, or theater) and tell me how that work fits that category.

I've taken the list from the Wikipedia site so there are links to some of the concepts.

So, for your education, here they are...

The 36 Dramatic Situations

 (Polti, Georges (1921) [1916]. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Franklin, Ohio: James Knapp Reeve.)

1.              Supplication

A Persecutor; a Supplicant; a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful.

2.              Deliverance

An Unfortunate; a threatener; a Rescuer

3.              Crime pursued by vengeance

A Criminal; an Avenger

4.              Vengeance taken for kin upon kin

Guilty Kinsman; an Avenging Kinsman; remembrance of the Victim, a relative of both

5.              Pursuit

Punishment; a Fugitive

6.              Disaster

A Vanquished Power; a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger

7.              Falling prey to cruelty/misfortune

An Unfortunate; a Master or a Misfortune

8.              Revolt

A Tyrant; a Conspirator

9.     Daring enterprise

A Bold Leader; an Object; an Adversary

10.           Abduction

An Abductor; the Abducted; a Guardian

11.           The enigma

A Problem; an Interrogator; a Seeker

12.           Obtaining

(A Solicitor & an Adversary who is refusing) or (an Arbitrator & Opposing Parties)

13.           Enmity of kin

A Malevolent Kinsman; a Hated or a reciprocally-hating Kinsman

14.           Rivalry of kin

The Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object of Rivalry

15.           Murderous adultery

Two Adulterers; a Betrayed Spouse

16.           Madness

A Madman; a Victim

17.           Fatal imprudence

The Imprudent; a Victim or an Object Lost

18.           Involuntary crimes of love

A Lover; a Beloved; a Revealer

19.           Slaying of kin unrecognized

The Slayer; an Unrecognized Victim

20.           Self-sacrifice for an ideal

A Hero; an Ideal; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

21.           Self-sacrifice for kin

A Hero; a Kinsman; a Creditor or a Person/Thing sacrificed

22.           All sacrificed for passion

A Lover; an Object of fatal Passion; the Person/Thing sacrificed

23.           Necessity of sacrificing loved ones

A Hero; a Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice

24.           Rivalry of superior vs. inferior

A Superior Rival; an Inferior Rival; the Object of Rivalry

25.           Adultery

Two Adulterers; a Deceived Spouse

26.           Crimes of love

A Lover; the Beloved

27.           Discovery of the dishonor of a loved one

A Discoverer; the Guilty One

28.           Obstacles to love

Two Lovers; an Obstacle

29.           An enemy loved

A Lover; the Beloved Enemy; the Hater

30.           Ambition

An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary

31.           Conflict with a god

A Mortal; an Immortal

32.           Mistaken jealousy

A Jealous One; an Object of whose Possession He is Jealous; a Supposed Accomplice; a Cause or an Author of the Mistake

33.           Erroneous judgment

A Mistaken One; a Victim of the Mistake; a Cause or Author of the Mistake; the Guilty One

34.           Remorse

A Culprit; a Victim or the Sin; an Interrogator

35.           Recovery of a lost one

A Seeker; the One Found

36.           Loss of loved ones

                  A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner