Course Description: The Arts in New York City
This seminar explores the diversity of arts available in New York City. In the course of the semester, students will attend performances and exhibits on offer during the fall 2013 season. We will be working with a variety of textual, visual, musical, and performance genres. Questions that we will pursue include ones about genre, intellectual and creative meaning, the role that art plays in the social and cultural makeup of the city, the role of criticism, and the relevance of the arts in the contemporary world.
Our section will be collaborating closely, and meeting regularly with, two other sections during the course of the semester. During the semester, a different seminar professor will lead an extended segment of the class in order to focus in-depth on music (Wollman), visual art (Sheehan Saldaña), and performance (Tenneriello). Please be aware that some of the class meetings will take place in alternate classrooms. All alternate meeting sites are listed below and will be posted on the class website.
Required Texts
The following book is available at the Baruch College bookstore (and Amazon, etc.):
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (Penguin 2008 edition, translated and with introduction by Hofmann)
The following text will be made available to you:
Nikolai Gogol, The Nose (short story and opera libretto)
You are responsible for reading the arts section of The New York Times every weekday for the duration of the semester. The newspaper is available in print or electronic edition from the Baruch College library (for online access please click here) or via subscription at a 50% student rate here, and on newsstands across this great city.
Attendance Policy
Students are required to attend all classes and all scheduled outings. Any student accruing more than three unexcused absences will be withdrawn from this class. Lateness to class will adversely affect your final grade, as will unacceptable or uncooperative behavior. Examples include texting, web-surfing, sleeping, leaving the room, and talking out of turn.
Course Assignments, Grading Percentages, & academic integrity
25%: three pieces of critical writing
25%: three creative projects
25%: final projects
25%: Ongoing class contributions (blog contribution; participation; attentiveness & constructive presence)
We fully support Baruch College’s policy on Academic Honesty, which states, in part:
“Academic dishonesty is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Cheating, forgery, plagiarism and collusion in dishonest acts undermine the college’s educational mission and the students’ personal and intellectual growth. Baruch students are expected to bear individual responsibility for their work, to learn the rules and definitions that underlie the practice of academic integrity, and to uphold its ideals. Ignorance of the rules is not an acceptable excuse for disobeying them. Any student who attempts to compromise or devalue the academic process will be sanctioned.”
Academic sanctions in this class will range from an F on the assignment in question to an F in this course. Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office of the Dean of Students, the Baruch Honors Program, and MHC Deans. Additional information and definitions can be found on the link above.
Assignments
Downloadable versions of both the syllabus and your first three assignments can be found here.
