HUM 146 Introduction to Humanities II

Third Quarter Review

The Belle Epoque

Belle Epoque
Impressionism (Monet, Renoir, Degas, et al.)
Post-Impressionism (Cezanne, van Gogh, Gauguin)
Pointillism (Seurat)
Futurism (Severini, Boccioni)
Cubism (Braque, Picasso)
German Expressionism (Nolde, Kandinsky)
Fauvism (Matisse)
Art Nouveau (Huarta, Gaudi)

*Be familiar with the paintings/artists in our text that are associated with the above art movements.

Symbolist literature/music (e.g., Mallarme and Debussy)
Naturalist literature (Chopin, Ibsen)
Nietzsche and the Ubermensch
Freud and the tripartite psyche (id, ego, superego)

 

China and Japan (as we did not have time to cover music and prose literature, you will not be responsible for these topics)

Elements of traditional Chinese perception/worldview

Basic elements of Confucian thought

Basic elements of Taoist thought

Landscape painting (features, elements, contrast with Western traditions, etc.)
Beijing Opera

Elements of traditional Japanese perception/worldview

Basic elements of Shinto thought

Haiku
Noh
Kabuki
Bunraku

Russia

Eastern Orthodoxy
Theotokos
Iconostasis
Kreml
Characteristics of Moscow vs. St. Petersburg
Literature:

Music and Dance:

The Russian Revolution (1905/1917: should be familiar with the basic circumstances and events)
The Communist Manifesto
Pre-and-post-Stalinist Soviet art:

Film: Sergei Eisenstein ("The Battleship Potemkin")

Africa and Latin America

Colonialism (characteristics, effects)
Primary visual art forms: sculpture and mask
Characteristics of traditional African music and its influences
African literature (Achebe: Things Fall Apart)
The Mexican Mural Movement (Rivera, Siqueiros)
Frida Kahlo
Latin American literature (Jorge Luis Borges:The Garden of Forking Paths)
 

Discussion/Essay Questions; students will answer two of the following:

1. Define/explain "Impressionism."  What were the Impressionist artists trying to achieve or depict in their work that was different than what had been done before?  How did Impressionism influence subsequent Post-Impressionists in particular to assert that a picture/painting is meant  to be a "plane" and not a "window?"

2. Both Romantic and Symbolist literature/music are concerned with "feeling."  Using examples from music and/or literature, explain how they are different from one another.

3. Compare and contrast the traditional perceptions and worldviews of Chinese and Japanese culture.  How do they both differ from the traditional perception/worldview that has shaped the Western consciousness?

4. In traditional Chinese landscape painting, what is emphasized/affirmed? Why?  Based on those paintings that we examined in class, how does the style change?  How does it remain the same?  How is the traditional Chinese approach to landscape painting different from that of the West?

5. Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto.  Imagine that you are called upon to explain the basic beliefs, perspectives and tenets of one of these traditions to someone who has never heard of any of them.  What would you say?  Again, choose one only.

6. Outline the development and evolution of Russian post-revolution visual art.  What prior and/or concurrent European movements influenced it?  How did Soviet artists before the Stalinist era see their work in comparison/contrast to "bourgeois art (define)?"  Describe the changes that took place in Soviet visual arts during the Stalinist regime (1924-1953).

7. Based upon the material covered in the chapter on Africa and Latin America, write an essay on the various dimensions of colonialism (e.g., social, political, religious, aesthetic, etc.).  What sort of effect does colonial occupation have on indigenous culture/cultural identity? Are there positive effects as well as negative?  Feel free to use other cultural/geographic venues (i.e., in addition to Africa and Latin America) as examples.

 

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