PHR 2017H - WHY DOES ART MATTER?

credits: 3.0
Crosslisted/Same As: ARH 2017H
Crosslisted/Same As (2): HIS 2017H
ARH 2017H-HIS 2017H-PHR 2017H Developed as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions Grant Program, explores a question that is central to the history of Western thought and culture: why does art-defined broadly to include literature, the visual arts, and theater-matter? We begin with an overview of the historical debate about the meaning and value of art: What is art? How is art valued? What is the relationship between art (and the artist) and society? We will go on to consider the ways in which taste in art has been positioned as a standard of social (or cultural or moral) uplift and as an expression of political and nationalist agendas, with case studies drawn from the New York City theater riots, the Degenerate Art exhibit in Germany, and American responses to modernism from the Armory Show through the Cold War. We will conclude with an exploration of contemporary episodes of the debate over the value of the arts in American society. Objectives: A) Describe key claims about the value of art from the classical period to the present; B) Compare and contrast arguments about the value of art within and across historical contexts; C) Analyze a case study relating to the debate over the value of the arts; D) Synthesize their own argument about the value of art in their personal and professional lives; E) Express themselves effectively in writing and oral communication. Method of Instruction: Occasional lecture; primarily discussion-based. Method of Evaluation: Discussion of assigned readings (in class and on-line discussion forum), Three five to seven page papers on assigned readings, Final presentation. Meets *WEP Distribution Requirement.

Prerequisite(s): Enrollment in the Honor’s Program or Permission of the Instructor.