PAINTING/PRINTMAKING ART 588b, Enigmatic Bodies: Rethinking Identity & Art
Alluding to Jean Louis Schefer’s The Enigmatic Body: Essays on the Arts, this course explores various models of authorship practiced by artists in the post-World War II period. After a brief introduction establishing themes of authorship beginning in the Renaissance, declarations or occlusions of identity in art will be examined in a historical context from the 1950s to the present. Key questions include: What is a subject position? Who gets to speak authentically and also universally? How do some identities appear invisible, visible, or super-visible? Through reading, discussion, and presentation, this course will expand students’ understanding of individual identity (as defined by race and biography), group cultural identities, gendered identities, and even virtual ones by challenging their perceived parameters of authorship. Readings will include Roland Barthes, Claire Bishop, Darby English, Frantz Fanon, Michel Foucault, N. Katherine Hayles, Pamela Lee, Jean Paul Sartre, Christopher Wood, Jeffrey Weeks and others. Meets 6x for 1.5 credits: 1/27, 2/17, 3/2, 3/30, 4/13, 4/27.Editor details
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