FRS 001I —
Sec. 001 —
(1 unit) — CRN 55875 — R 2:10-3:30 pm — 27 Wellman
Art and the Miseries of War (Art Holds a Mirror to
War)
Instructor: Almerindo Ojeda, Department of Linguistics,
College of Letters
and Science
Description: The purpose of this seminar is to
explore the miseries
of war as depicted in the arts – to hold up, in fact, the mirror of Art
to the miseries of war. The art to be examined will come in a wide variety of
forms (prose, poetry, painting, engraving, film, architecture, and music), and
its content will reflect the atrocities committed in a wide variety
of armed conflicts
(The Trojan War, the Thirty Year War, the Napoleonic Wars, The American Civil
War, World War I, The Spanish Civil War, World War II, The Vietnam
War, the conflict
in Palestine, and the Civil strifes in Bosnia and El Salvador). Pedagogically
the goal of the seminar is to provide the participants with a deeper
appreciation
of the construction and the historical context of a number of major
works of art,
and to use this appreciation to develop a more balanced attitude
towards war then
the one widespread today.
Format: The seminar will meet once a week for one
hour to discuss
the artwork of the week. In the case of the two performances - the film in (7)
and the three-piece concert in (8) - we would meet out of class to experience
them before the day it is scheduled for discussion (so as to satisfy
the 10 contact
hour requirement by the eighth week).
Grading: The grade
for the course will be computed as follows: 50% participation, 25%
weekly reaction
pieces to each of the works assigned, 25% analysis of a work of art
not discussed
during the seminar. In this analysis, the student will offer a brief analysis
of how the work was put together, describe the historical context of the piece.
and identify the miseries of war reflected in the piece chosen.
About the Instructor: