Form and Formlessness: Practices and Theories of Meaning

4 credits · Undergraduate

We commonly understand things-- both things available to our senses and “mental objects"--by imposing a system of meaning on them. Aesthetic thinking demands we grapple with what an object means based on our engagement or confrontation with the object, rather than through a theory or pre-conceived idea. This class offers an exploration of (and a training in) our aesthetic relationship to things (written, visual and musical) in the world—things made by people worthy of close attention (works of art and human thought, including literature, visual arts, music, dance, and philosophy), and things in the world not wholly made by us but inspire human attention (including nature). The objects will come from East Asia and elsewhere around the globe.