HUX 504 - Defining the Humanities: Art


[Assignment Summary] [Assignment I] [Assignment II] [Assignment III]

ASSIGNMENTS

Assignment Summary

These assignments are explained in more detail below. Important Note: If you do not have access to the internet or to a library that has or can get scholarly journal articles, you will not be able to complete Assignment Two as described below. Contact your instructor at your earliest convenience to discuss options.

Assignment One: 2-3 pages 15% of course grade Due Week 7
Write a comparison of two works of art in terms of formal stylistic analysis
and subject matter.

Assignment Two: 5 one-page abstracts 25% of course grade Due Week 7
Read five online journal articles and write abstracts, one each for the categories of
Marxist, iconographic, feminist, semiotic and psychoanalytical.

Assignment Three: 8-10 pages 60% of course grade Due Week 15
Write a critical review of the literature for either Velazquez’s Las Meninas
or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Each assignment is due in the instructor’s mailbox during the week indicated below. Count Week 1 as the first week that classes begin and Week 15 as the final week of the term.

Trimester dates are listed at the upper left hand corner of your registration form.

All papers must be typed, with endnotes or parenthetical citations (your choice) and bibliographies where appropriate, and mailed in before the assignment deadline. Send in an extra copy, marked “For HUX Files” (unless you are in an online section of this course and sending your essay via email), and keep a copy for yourself. Also, keep a copy of the title page of the paper returned by the instructor which contains your grade, comments, and date. Send a self-addressed, stamped (with adequate postage) envelope for the return of each assignment. If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, mail or e-mail your questions, as directed in the letter from your instructor. Students will be held accountable for academic integrity – to include but not limited to plagiarism – as set forth on p. 14 of the 2006-07 CSUDH Catalog.

NOTE:

See Instructions for Sending in Assignments from the Humanities M.A. Degree Online Catalog for specific details regarding approved methods of turning in assignments.

If you do not fully understand the assignment or need help, telephone the instructor during office hours, or mail in your questions.

University regulations forbid assigning a grade of "I" (Incomplete) unless at least one course assignment has been received by the instructor. Instead, we must assign a "U" grade (Unauthorized Incomplete), which is equivalent to an "F."

[E-mail] ASSIGNMENT I Essay (2-3 pages) 15% of course grade Due Week 7

Read:

Pick two works of art from Adams’ Art Across Time and write an analytical comparison in terms of their subject matter and formal style. This first assignment does not involve any other research beyond the readings listed above. However, it would be wise to consult the text in Adams’ Art Across Time or another source to see if you are going in the right direction with your analysis.

 

[E-mail] ASSIGNMENT II 5 one-page Abstracts 25% of course grade

Due: Week 7

Read the remaining texts of Adams’ Methodology and Minor’s Art History’s History.
 
Listed below are several pages of journal articles divided into categories. Read only one journal article from each of the following categories: Marxist, Iconography, Feminist, Semiotics and Psychoanalytical.
 
For the first section, review the chapters in Adams’ Methodology and Minor’s Art History’s History on Marxist contextual approaches. Read your chosen “Marxist” journal article carefully. Identify the thesis statement and write a short abstract (approximately one page) explaining what aspect of the paper is consistent with a Marxist approach. Repeat the same procedure, reading the chapter selections in Adams and Minor on Iconography, Feminist, Semiotic and Psychoanalytic, and then choosing from the lists of coordinated articles, and writing four more abstracts.
 
You may wonder why I have listed one article in the Iconographic category rather than the Feminist or Semiotic. In reality, most art historical writing is a mix of methodologies, but one strategy may predominate. The articles listed together in the Semiotic category are especially difficult to fathom as having anything in common: linguistic theory is variable, abstruse and there isn’t a transparent connection to its actual practice in art writing; moreover, much of it overlaps or is combined with feminist, Neo-Marxist or psychoanalytical approaches. See if you can determine the author’s combination of critical techniques.
 
Adams’ Art Across Time is a useful resource for color reproductions of works discussed in the articles, as well as a general reference for art historical context.

[E-mail] ASSIGNMENT III 8-10 page Literature Review 60% of course grade

Due Week 15

In the CD-ROM to Adams’ Art Across Time read “Research and the Internet;” and also“Chapter Resources,” which applies different methodologies to Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait.

Choose either Velazquez’s, Las Meninas, or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and read all five articles listed for that work, then write an 8-10 page critical review of the literature. The journal articles discuss the paintings from different theoretical perspectives and/or methodological strategies and are sufficient for this assignment. You may seek further resources, but they must be appropriate for graduate-level study. While the point of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the differing methodologies, you do not have to discuss every type of methodology in your paper. And do not write about both paintings!

Make certain you have a thesis statement in your first paragraph. When discussing your sources’ ideas, state their basic thesis and methodological standpoint. This is to be written in your own words. Make certain you give proper citations in the text, and not only when you use direct quotations, which should be kept to an absolute minimum. You must have a Works Cited page and conform to the MLA regarding citations and formatting: Use 12 pt type, double-spaced, preferably Times New Roman, no bold-face type, with 1” margins. Do not make personal comments in your paper, as if you were writing a letter to me. Art historical writing is traditionally third-person (Do not use “I” or “me”).