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4.608

Seminar in the History of Art, Architecture, and Design

Units arranged · Graduate

Examination of historical method in art, design, and/or architecture, focusing on periods and problems determined by the research interest of the faculty member leading the seminar. Emphasizes critical reading and viewing and direct tutorial guidance. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Limited to 15.

Spring 2003 · Topics in the Avant-Garde in Literature and Cinema

Topics

  • Avant-garde
  • Manifesto of the Communist Party (1872)
  • Futurism
  • Eisenstein
  • Kandinsky (1886-1944)
  • Mass Culture and Woman
  • Autonomous Art Movements & the Historical Avant-garde
  • Georges Bataille (1897-1962)
  • Mary Ann Caws, “The Poetics of the Manifesto: Nowness and Newness.”
  • Theory of the Avant-garde (Bürger, 1974)
  • Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

Readings

  • Jünger, Ernst. The Storm of Steel . New York: Penguin USA, 2004.
    Listed reading
  • Breton, André. Nadja . New York: Grove Press, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Ernst, Max. Une semaine de bonté, a Surrealistic Novel in Collage. New York: Dover Publications, 1976.
    Listed reading
  • Bataille, Georges. Story of the Eye. San Fransisco: City Lights Books, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Brecht, Bertolt. Measures Taken and Other Lehrstucke. New York: Arcade Books, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Beckett, Samuel. Endgame and Act Without Words. New York: Grove Press, 1970.
    Listed reading
  • For background on the principles of literature and cinema studies, please consult Frank Lentricchia, Critical Terms for Literary Study and James Monaco, How to Read a Film , as well as Robert Nelson, Critical Terms for Art History:
    Listed reading
  • Thomas McLaughlin and Frank Lentricchia. Critical Terms for Literary Study . Chicago: Chicago Press, 1995.
    Listed reading
  • James Monaco. How to Read a Film . Oxford: Oxford Press, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff. Critical Terms for Art History . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • 2 · Karl Marx, “ The Communist Manifesto .” Marshall Berman, Introduction to All That Is Solid Melts into Air . Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.” Igor Stravinsky, The Soldier’s Tale , The Rake’s Progress . Arnold Schönberg, Pierrot Lunaire . ↗
    Listed reading
  • 3 · Umberto Boccioni, Selected Works, In-class Viewing. Giacomo Balla, Selected Works, In-class Viewing. Ernst Jünger, The Storm of Steel .
    Listed reading
  • 4 · Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin . Sergei Eisenstein, “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form.” David Bordwell, The Cinema of Eisenstein , Selections.
    Listed reading
  • 7 · Fritz Lang, Metropolis . Andrew Hewitt, “Avantgarde and Technology.” Andreas Huyssen, “Mass Culture as Woman: Modernism’s Other.”
    Listed reading
  • 9 · Andrew Hewitt, “Avantgarde and Technology.” Andreas Huyssen, “Mass Culture as Woman: Modernism’s Other.” André Breton, Nadja . Hannah Höch, Selected Works, In-class Viewing.
    Listed reading
  • 10 · Max Ernst, Une Semaine De Bonté . Paul Wood, “The Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: Dada, Constructivism, and Surrealism.” Marcel Duchamp, Selected Works, In-class Viewing. John Heartfield, Selected Works, In-class Viewing.
    Listed reading
  • 11 · Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye . Luis Buñuel, Un Chien Andalou .
    Listed reading
  • 13 · André Breton, The Surrealist Manifesto . Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto.” Antonin Artaud, “The Theater of Cruelty: First Manifesto.” FT Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism.” Mary Ann Caws, “The Poetics of the Manifesto: Nowness and Newness.”
    Listed reading
  • 15 · Peter Bürger, “Theory of the Avant-Garde and Critical Literary Science.” Bertolt Brecht, The Measures Taken.
    Listed reading
  • 16 · Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch.” Samuel Beckett, Endgame.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Subject meets with 4.609 Prereq: Permission of instructor Acad Year 2027-2028: Not offered Acad Year 2028-2029: G (Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.

Sources