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VISST-3000-4: Grotesque in Art

Fall 2020

Subject: Visual Studies
Type: Seminar
Delivery Mode: Online
Level: Undergraduate

Course Dates: September 02, 2020 — December 15, 2020
Meetings: Tue 4:00-07:00PM
Instructor: Thomas Haakenson

Units: 3.0
Enrolled: 14/15 Closed

Description:

VISST-3000 seminars continue developing students' visual analysis and research skills while providing students the opportunity for in-depth study of the visual/structural artifacts associated with a particular topic, region, or movement. Students will also engage with the relevant primary/secondary literature for the specific topic/theme. Courses will pay particular attention to the larger cultural, historical, and theoretical/ideological contexts in which the visual artifacts and structures under consideration were created. This course cannot fulfill the VISST-2000 requirement.COURSE DESCRIPTIONBizarre? Freakish? Just plain weird? What does the term "grotesque" really mean? Is there an art or a science to creating and to analyzing the grotesque? Since its invention as a term for subterranean decorative paintings, the label "grotesque" has come to describe not only the abject, but also a plethora of critical artistic practices and unusual scientific phenomena, from supposed monstrous births to the slapstick films of Charlie Chaplin. By exploring an interdisciplinary array of figures and theories, our course will challenge prevailing assumptions about the relationships between art and science, and seek to understand the critical potential of the grotesque.

Pre-Requisites and Co-Requisites:

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