“But then, art is peculiar. I won’t speak of concert music, which is obviously peculiar, and which thousands every evening listen to, and evidently get satisfaction out of. But even a painting is a strange thing. That people will look at some dirt on a canvas, just a little rectangle on a wall, and get all sorts of exalted feelings and ideas from it is not at all natural, it is not at all obvious. Why do they prefer one picture so much to another? They will tell you and get very eloquent, but it does seem unreasonable. It seems unreasonable if you don’t see it. And for all the other arts it’s the same. The difference between the ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ and a letter on the editorial page of the Daily News isn’t so great if you look at both of them without reading them. Art is certainly even more mysterious and nonsensical than daily life. But what a pleasure it can be. A pleasure much more extraordinary than a hydrogen bomb is extraordinary.
“There is nothing everyday about art. . . .”
Edwin Denby, “Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets,” 1954
This Seminar
No one has written more acutely than the poet and dance critic Edwin Denby about New York as an aesthetic subject. And yet his writing does give one pause: “Art is certainly even more mysterious and nonsensical than daily life. But what a pleasure it can be.” Many of the New Yorkers I know who are involved with the arts today as a profession do not use adjectives of that kind. They talk about technique and effects. They talk about how much X’s sculpture brought at auction. They talk about health insurance and dental. They talk about their therapists or their psychoanalysts (if they struck it rich on Broadway or in Hollywood—rich enough to engage a psychoanalyst). They talk about their ex-es and how they have no time for anything resembling the “everyday” that Denby invokes. They talk about who won the big prizes and awards this year. Every so often, a museum—such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art—lures them in to make a short film about a work in their field from the past that they admire and to say why. But that’s exceptional, and it’s not going to pay the rent or support those lessons in how to act with a Southern accent or underwrite the cost of six daily classes every week, just to maintain the dancer’s body one has worked so hard for so many years to craft into a professional instrument.
No, working artists do not often have the time or resources to think about the difference between a hydrogen bomb and the mysteriousness and nonsensical nature of art. In fact, most people who are trying to earn a living of any sort rarely have the time to ruminate for the sake of thinking freely.
But you, dear students, are not only in a position to let your thoughts run wild: you are obliged to start thinking out of the box. This course exists to offer you the mandate and the resources to do it.
Although it happens that a portion of this particular section of the Arts in New York program concentrates on the historical record of the Underground Railroad and some art inspired by the thought of it (music, a novel), our readings and excursions will range beyond any individual subject. My hope is that, by the end of the course, you’ll be practiced in and confident about experiencing art works of different traditions and genres and in reporting your perceptions of them: what they sound like, what they look like, what the performers did, what the tone of the work suggested, what might be considered its cultural context, and, most important, specifics of how the work made you feel and what elements in it (as well as in you) that you think account for your feeling from it. You will be asked to take responsibility for describing what anyone might perceive in the presence of the work as well as what you, alone, may have been moved by (or resisted). In order to be swept away by art—to take pleasure in it—one must be emotionally immersed; however, in order to analyze what, specifically, leads to a response or strong feeling, one requires emotional distance. Attempting to deal with this paradox, which makes art interesting, can also help to keep your thinking flexible in other intellectual arenas quite outside aesthetics.
Course Requirements
Attendance at all classes and outside events is required; more than three unexcused absences from classes or excursions (performances, field trips to museums, etc.) can lower your final grade. If you are ill, however—especially with fever—please stay home and get well. In that case, you must notify me by E-mail at least two hours in advance of the class or trip you know you’ll miss.
If you’re not present when I begin to take attendance in class and call your name, you’ll be marked absent.
Participation in class discussions is required (20 % of the grade).
One or two paragraphs of composed writing (around 150-250 words) on assigned topics that are relevant to readings, excursions, or materials presented in class will be required to be placed on the class Web site by Tuesday at midnight (30 % of the grade). For several of these assignments, five students will be asked, rather than to write a comment, instead to read and report on the other 17 entries.
A five-page paper, double-spaced in a hard copy, will be required at midterm (20% of the grade).
This paper will be a practice run, in miniature, for the final research paper. The structure of this paper and possible topics for it will be discussed in class. Anyone who, upon receiving my comments and grade, wishes to try a revision of the paper, my carrot will be that, should your revision demonstrate improvement, you’ll receive the grade for the improved paper: That is, the grades of the two drafts would be separate, not averaged.
An eight-to-ten-page research paper, double-spaced in a hard copy, will also be required in two drafts at term’s conclusion (30 % of the grade). You’ll receive a provisional grade on the first draft with my comments during an individual conference; then you’ll have two weeks to turn in a revision.
I do not average grades: If your revision is an improvement, you’ll receive the improved grade. A list of topics to choose from will be distributed early in the term.
Grading will be based on your initiative, the scope and invention of your thinking, factual accuracy, and the clarity and quality of your writing and speaking.
Hunter’s Academic Integrity Policy (from the college Web site)
“Academic integrity is a guiding principle of the Hunter College learning community because all students should have the opportunity to learn and perform on a level playing field.
“Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, obtaining an unfair advantage, and falsifying records or documents (see examples) whether intentional or not.
“Hunter College upholds the right to promote academic integrity on its campus as an educational institution of the City University of New York. The College has the responsibility to review all charges of academic dishonesty and implement sanctions, including, but not limited to, failing the course, official transcript notation, suspension or expulsion from the College when it has been determined that academic dishonesty did occur.”
Required Texts
Copies of these on paper have been ordered for our class at Shakespeare and Company, 939 Lexington Avenue (between 68th and 69th Streets). Please see the several purchasing options in the “Readings” section of this class Web site:
==New Deal Photography 1935-1943
==American Rhapsody by Claudia Roth Pierpont
==The Park and the People: A History of Central Park by Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar
**Please note: This history of Central Park is 500 pages. I’ve assigned it to help you think
about your final research paper on an element of the park. It is very readable, and we won’t
be discussing it until November 30th, the class where you also hand in your first draft of your
final paper. It’s up to you to apportion a reading schedule for the book. I suggest 40-50 pages
per week, if you can. You won’t be tested on it; it is, despite its length, a gift to your
inspiration and/or motivation to write the large paper.
This book has been placed on reserve in Hunter Main:
F128.65 .C3 R67 1994
==The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts by William Still
==The Underground Railroad (novel) by Colson Whitehead
==The MLA Handbook
Course Schedule (provisional): N.B. One excursion still TK: Date for visit to Plymouth Church, in downtown Brooklyn, which was active in the Underground Railroad. (Hour-long tours are conducted on Sundays @ 12:30 p.m.)
August 31: Introduction, Life and Art
Distribution and discussion of Edwin Denby essay “Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets”
Tommy Wu, our class’s ITF, will explain how to place your writing on the class blog.
Some short films
In-class writing: Choose one film and answer the question, “Is it art?” and why you think so.
Grammar Moment (“that” and “which”): Ten or 15 minutes of each class will take up a grammar topic.
September 3rd (Saturday), by midnight: Commenters file on blog (Group 1): Pick one photograph from New Deal Photography and say what elements of it are immediately visible and what element requires a bit of time to emerge.
September 5th (Monday) by midnight: Five “critics” file their critiques on the Group 1 blogs.
September 6th (Tuesday) by midnight: Commenters file any ripostes they might have to critics.
September 7: Visual Analysis and “Content” of Images
Readings for this class:
John Berger’s Ways of Seeing
New Deal Photography (both photographs and brief explanatory comments for each section)
Oral reports by five critics on the class blog (Group1) comments.
Discussion of New Deal Photography in light of Berger
Grammar Moment
September 14: Theories of Photography: Do They Help Us to See?
Reading for this class: the Susan Sontag and Walter Benjamin essays on the class Web site.
Further discussion of Berger and the New Deal Photography.
Topics distributed for five-page essay and final research paper on aspects of Central Park.
(The short essay—on a topic chosen from a list of 20 New York landmarks—will be a literary rehearsal for writing the final one—on a topic chosen from a list of elements relating to Central Park.)
Discussion of:
==a) how to gather information from written sources and a personal visit to the element of the park you chose to research;
==b) of how to organize your information into a brainstorming list and then, through analysis of patterns in your thoughts and observations, into a structure with major and minor points;
==c) of how to develop a question for yourself about your topic to which you do not know the answer and then how to develop that question into a thesis.
Formatting: Footnotes and bibliography
Grammar Moment
September 14: 6:30-9:30 p.m., Evening at the Brooklyn Museum
September 17th (Saturday), by midnight:
September 19th (Monday), by midnight: Five critics file on blog (Batch 2).
September 20th (Tuesday), by midnight:
September 21: Photography as Fine Art: Exhibition of Young, Cutting-edge Photographers Using Older Techniques.
3 – 4 p.m.: Visit Howard Greenberg Gallery of fine photography in The Fuller Building,
41 East 57th St., Suite 1406.
September 26th (Monday), by midnight: I’d like you to explore the limits of Instagram or other photo apps. Using a photo app, please try to reproduce a photographic image of a famous New York landmark, chosen by us from a small group to be uploaded to our class Web site. (Tommy Wu will explain.) The group of possible images will also be from different times of the day.
September 28: The American Character on the Page and the Stage in the Early 20th Century
Reading for this class: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. [**PDF is on class Web site.]
American Rhapsody to p. 88 (Introduction, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bert Williams and Stepin Fetchit)
Films to be shown in class of Bert Williams and Stepin Fetchit
Discussion of some of the New York City worlds one could find during the first half of the 20th century.
Grammar Moment
September 28: 7:30 p.m. Poetry Recitation: Carvens Lissant, Macaulay Central, West 67th Street
October 1st, (Saturday) by midnight: Commenters file on blog (Group 2) (**two paragraphs): If Edith Wharton were to invite Carvens Lissant to coffee to discuss what makes writing powerful, what do you imagine she would say to him (paragraph 1) and what might he say to her (paragraph 2).
October 3rd (Monday) by midnight: Five critics file on blog (Group 2)
October 4th (Tuesday) by midnight: Any Commenters’ ripostes are due (Group 2).
October 5: Music and Dance: To Infinity. . .and Beyond!
Reading for this class:
American Rhapsody 89-170 (George Gershwin, The Chrysler Building, Dashiell Hammett, Peggy Guggenheim)
The Symposium by Plato (on class Web site) as preparation for ballet by Alexei Ratmansky at ABT.
Synopsis, libretto, and comment on cultural context for the Puccini opera we’ll be seeing at the Met.
Report by five students on the class blog comments (Group 2).
Films in class: Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin
Grammar Moment
October 6: 7:30-10:30 p.m., Metropolitan Opera House, La Bohème by Giaccomo Puccini.
October 11: Remember: YOUR PHOTO ASSIGNMENT is due for “Snapshot NYC”
October 12: YOM KIPPUR (no class)
October 19: 2 p.m., Visit to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center, The third-floor Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Presentation by librarian Arlene Yu.
We’ll assemble by the information desk, just inside the Plaza entrance, at 1:45 p.m. (If you do not have an NYPL library card, you’ll get one here. Please be sure to bring a picture identification with your permanent address.)
October 19: 7:30 p.m., David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, American Ballet Theatre: Serenade after Plato’s Symposium by Alexei Ratmansky, Symphonic Variations by Frederick Ashton, The Brahms-Haydn Variations by Twyla Tharp
October 26: Claudia Roth Pierpont, author of American Rhapsody, visits our class
Reading for this class: American Rhapsody 171-289 (actors: Katharine Hepburn, Orson Welles, Lawrence Olivier, Marlon Brando, plus writer James Baldwin and singer Nina Simone)
Also, essays by James Baldwin.
*N.B.: This will be the first reading assignment since the class of October 6th. Sometime within those 20 days, please also screen the following films on reserve at the Hunter Library:
==Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront
==Orson Welles in Citizen Kane
And please listen to several songs performed by Nina Simone, on YouTube (“Summertime,” “I Loves You Porgy,” “Strange Fruit,” “Mississippi Goddamn,” and “Satin Doll”).
Grammar Moment.
**Five-page essay due.
November 2: 2 p.m., Tour of The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street (at Fifth Avenue) with Rika Burnham, Head of Education
November 5th (Saturday) by midnight: Commenters file on blog (Group 3): From our visit to the Frick, pick one art work that surprised you and say what about it continues to tease your memory. Be sure to include two elements or aspects of the work that anyone could see.
November 6th (Monday) by midnight: Five critics file on blog (Group 3).
November 7 (Tuesday) by midnight: Any Commenters’ riposts due (Group 3).
November 9: The Underground Railroad in History and Art (1 of 2)
Reading for this class: The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts by William Still
Report by five critics on the class blog comments (Group 3).
To be shown in class: PBS film dramatizing William Still’s participation in helping slaves travel out of bondage.
Discussion of oral history as a process for archiving first-hand memories.
Grammar Moment.
Five-page essays will be returned. Remember, if you’d like to try a second draft, you’re welcome to hand it in any time up to and including class on November 30th.
Sunday, November 13: 4 p.m., The Metropolitan Opera House: Kathleen Battle, The Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey.
November 23: THANKSGIVING WEEK (no class)
November 30: The Underground Railroad in History and Art (2 of 2)
Reading for this class:
The Underground Railroad (novel) by Colson Whitehead
Brief interview with Colson Whitehead (on class Web site)
Discussion of Whitehead’s novel for its storytelling, writing on the sentence level, structure of its fantasy, and connection to issues of our own time.
**FIRST DRAFT OF FINAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE, double-spaced hard copy
Sign up for conference time next week.
December 5-8: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.: INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES of 15-to-20-minutes each, to give you feedback on the first draft of your final research paper.
December 10th (Saturday) at midnight: 19 Commenters file on class blog (Group 4): Describe the emotional tone and, to your best ability, the character of the melodies and lyrics of the Spirituals performed by Kathleen Battle.
December 12th (Monday) at midnight: 3 Critics file on class blog (Group 4);
December 13th (Tuesday) at midnight: Any ripostes to the Critics.
December 14th : Discussion of the rest of The Park and the People
Three Critics report on class blog (Group 4).
December 19: **FINAL DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER DUE, double-spaced hard copy
