| ■ Courses Offered in 2003-2004 Academic
Year |
| Art History 17:
Sacred Art and Architecture of Japan (Fall, 2003) |
| This course examines Shinto and Buddhist architectural,
sculptural and painting tradtions from the prehistoric to
the early modern era. The emphasis will be on the relationship
of these arts to the doctrinal, ritual, social and political
contexts in which they were created and utilized. |
| |
| Art History 03: Monuments
of Asian Art (Fall, 2003) |
| This course is designed as a general introduction
to the visual cultures of Asia through representative examples
of architecture, sculpture, painting, and prints. The emphasis
will be on India, China and Japan but it will include some
examples of the art and architecture of other Asian cultures.
In addition to study and analysis of the formal qualities
of the art, this course will emphasize the relationship between
the arts and the social, political, religious, and philosophical
contexts in which they developed. |
| |
| Art History 17: The
Camera in Ninteenth-Century Asia (Winter, 2004) |
| This course examines the history of photography
and its use by colonial governments, anthropologists, commercial
photographers, tourists, and both Western and indigenous artists
in nineteenth-century Asia. The material is organized and
presented as a series of case studies each of which raises
specific historical and critical issues students will be expected
to apply to their own research. |
| |
| COCO 15: Sacred Rituals,
Arts, and Pilgrimage, East and West (Winter, 2004) |
| Sacred rituals, arts, and pilgrimage were integral
to religious practice in both medieval Europe and Japan. While
there are differences between these two cultures, the commonalities
are especially striking considering that they stem from radically
different belief systems (Buddhism and Shinto in Japan, Catholicism
in Western Europe) and a complete lack of interaction between
the two cultures. We intend to explore various cultural and
artistic aspects of Japanese and Christian religious ritual
practice from a comparative perspective in order to understand
and explicate the similarities and differences between the
two. A series of case studies juxtaposing European and Japanese
examples will be organized around such themes as pilgrimage
experience and narrative, construction and ideology of sacred
space, devotional icons in a variety of media, and the politics
of religious practice. By juxtaposing a variety of visual
and textual sources, our interdisciplinary approach is designed
to raise issues about the nature of religious doctrine, belief,
practice, and especially culture. |
| |
| ■ Japanese Art History Courses Offered
in Previous Academic Years |
| Art History 17: The
Japanese Print Tradition |
This course will survey
the Japanese print tradition from its inception in the 17th
century through to the early 20th century. The range of
visual material will include courtesan imagery, actor prints,
erotica, illustrated fiction, warrior imagery, comic prints
and landscapes. Emphasis will be on the relationship between
the prints and the many social, political and cultural milieux
in which they circulated. This course will include applications
of recent critiques and theoretical approaches from fields
as diverse as sexuality and gender studies, mass culture
and media studies, aesthetics of popular arts, and the sociology
of consumption.
This course will be taught in conjunction with the exhibition
Inside the Floating World: Japanese Prints from
the Lenoir C. Wright Collection, at the Hood
Museum of Art, March 25 - May 25, 2003. |
| |
| Art History
82: Women in the Arts of Japan |
| This course examines
representations of women in Japanese art. In particular, it
will address the way images of women were used to construct
gender in a variety of historical, social, political and cultural
milieux. This course will survey a wide diversity of visual
material including prehistoric figurines, Buddhist and Shinto
sculpture, paintings, prints, photographs and modern performance
art. |
| |
| Art History
16: The Japanese Print |
| This course will survey the Japanese print tradition
from its inception in the 17th century through to the early
20th century. The range of visual material will include courtesan
imagery, actor prints, erotica, illustrated fiction, warrior
imagery, comic prints and landscapes. Emphasis will be on
the relationship between the prints and the many social, political
and cultural milieux in which they circulated. This course
will include applications of recent critiques and theoretical
approaches from fields as diverse as sexuality and gender
studies, mass culture and media studies, aesthetics of popular
arts, and the sociology of consumption. |
|
| Art History
17: The Japanese Painting Tradition |
| This course provides a comprehensive survey
of Japanese painting from the prehistoric to the modern era.
The course will include such topics as Buddhist mandalas,
Yamato-e hand scrolls, Zen ink-monochrome painting, and Ukiyo-e.
The intention is to define the unique aesthetic experience
offered by Japanese sacred and secular painting. It will explore,
in particular, the dynamic between the traditions Japanese
artists borrowed from continental Asia and the West and their
own indigenous sensibilities. |
| |
| Art History
81: Prints and Photographs of the Bakumatsu-Meiji Period |
| After more than two hundred years of virtual
isolation, Japan opened its ports to foreigners in the mid-19th
century. As Americans and Europeans took up residence in Japan,
they became a new subject for Japanese woodblock print artists.
At the same time, the new arrivals explored the people and
culture of Japan through the lens of the camera. This seminar
will focus on prints and photographs produced in this context.
Specifically, it will examine the motives and attitudes behind
the making of these popular arts. Recent scholarship in the
fields of tourism, Orientalism, and popular culture will provide
a theoretical basis for this inquiry. |
| |
| Art History
7: Heroes and Heroines in Japanese Popular Art |
| Every nation has its heroes and heroines,
but the way heroism is characterized in art and literature
varies considerably from one culture to the next. This especially
true in pre-modern Japan where the perceived difference
between god and man was less distinct than in other cultures.
Taking into account Japan's unique definition of heroism,
one that was diverse enough to include writers, warriors,
lovers, monks, and prostitutes, this course will examine
the way heroes and heroines were portrayed in the popular
arts. It focusses on how the popular arts struck a balance
between the heroic ideal and the ethos of the people for
which they were made. |
| |
| Art History
17: Pilgrimage, Travel and Tourism in Japanese Popular Art |
| This course will examine the traditions of pilgrimage,
tourism and travel in Japanese art. It will include both paintings
and prints from the Kamakura to the Meiji periods. Anthropological
and theoretical models will form the basis of our study. The
course will be a combination of lectures, seminar-style discussions
and student presentations. |
| |
| Art History
61: The Arts of Japan |
| A survey of Japanese art from the prehistoric
to the modern era. Particular emphasis will be placed on the
development of Buddhist art (including Zen painting), the
evolution of indigenous Yamato-e traditions, and Ukiyo-e prints
and paintings. |
| |
| ■ Other Asian Art Courses
At Dartmouth |
| COCO 15: Comparative Pilgrimage:
The Arts and Experience of Pilgrimage in Medieval Japan and
Medieval Europe |
| Pilgrimage as a religious and social phenomenon was integral
to religious practice in both medieval Europe and Japan. While
there are differences between these two pilgrimage cultures,
the commonalities are especially striking considering that
they stem from radically different belief systems (Buddhism
and Shinto in Japan, Catholicism in Western Europe) and a
complete lack of interaction between the two cultures. We
intend to explore various aspects of Japanese and medieval
Christian pilgrimage from a comparative perspective in order
to understand and explicate the similarities and differences
bewteen the two. A series of case studies juxtaposing European
and Japanese examples will be organized around such themes
as pilgrimage as tourism, the economic and political aspects
of pilgrimage, the arts of pilgrimage, pilgrimage guidebooks,
and pilgrimage narratives. The emphasis will be on working
with primary visual and textual sources. This approach is
designed to raise issues about the nature of religious doctrine,
belief, practice, and especially culture. (Co-taught with
Cecilia Gaposchkin, History Department) |
| |
| Art History
60: The Arts of China |
| This course is a selective introduction to the
major artistic developments in the history of Chinese art.
Topics include: ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou periods;
funerary art of the Han dynasty; Buddhist arts; and the development
of various painting traditions from Han to Qing periods. |
