Wagner and Modernism
ARHA 339
Spring 2014
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
GRST 239, GELT 239, FRST 339, COL 349, MUSC 285 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
This course focuses on Richard Wagner and his complicated legacy to modernism in Europe from the 1860s through the 1920s, before his art was co-opted by totalitarian regimes in Europe. Wagner's work stands at the crux of debates surrounding a modernist aesthetic. Key questions raised by his work are the relationship between poetry, music, dance, and the visual arts; art and religion; art and racism; art and a mass audience; art and politics; synaesthesia; and the relationship between abstraction and figuration.
We will begin by analyzing Wagner's music and writings, and especially his idea of the GESAMTKUSNTWERK. The core of the course, however, will consist of looking at how visual artists in France, Germany, and Italy responded to Wagner's art and ideas. Artistic movements that we will examine include symbolism, German expressionism, the German werkbund, Italian futurism, and the Bauhaus. We will also look at the influential writings on Wagner by Stéphane Mallarmé and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as post-Wagnerian theories of stage design by Adolphe Appia, Georg Fuchs, and Edward Gordon Craig in so far as these helped shape visual arts production. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ART |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ARHA-MN)(ARHA)(ARST)(FRST-MN)(FRST)(GRST-MN)(GRST)(RMST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Articles and book chapters made available through E-reserve
Patrick Carnegy, WAGNER AND THE ART OF THE THEATRE, Yale University Press, 2006
Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, THE BLAUE REITER ALMANAC, ed. Klaus Lankheit, MFA Publications, 2005
Lawrence Rainey, Christine Poggi, Laura Wittmann, eds., FUTUREISM: AN ANTHOLOGY, Yale, 2009
Richard Wagner, WAGNER ON MUSIC AND DRAMA, eds. Albert Goldman and Evert Sprinchorn, Da Capo, 1988
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short weekly response papers and oral presentations, research presentation, 15 page research paper. |
| Instructor(s): Kuenzli,Katherine M. Times: .M.W... 11:00AM-12:20PM; Location: WYL113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 6 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 4 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 0 | FR: 0 |
| Web Resources: Syllabus |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 1 |
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