ARTH 402(S) Monuments and The Art of Memorial
The urge to commemorate individuals, heroic acts or historic events whether unspeakable or splendid is both human and timeless. This seminar will document and explore the concepts behind and the nature of monuments, both commemorative ones, and those that admonish or inform without commemorating a specific event or individual. Students will study and analyze monuments and memorials from the ancient Mediterranean (Egypt; Mycenae; Greece of the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods; Imperial Rome) and chart their their influence on monuments in later history, especially those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The current trend towards countermonuments, or anti-monuments, such as Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial or the Gerzes' vanishing "Monument Against Fascism, War and Violence and For Peace and Human Rights" in Hamburg/Harburg will be discussed in light of the monumental tradition of combining word, image, and architecture to create memorials that will endure in both spatial and temporal terms. Ongoing discussions of Holocaust memorials and the problems inherent in the design of the monument for the WTC will also be addressed. Students will be asked to design a commemorative monument for the final class meeting.
Format: seminar. Requirements: participation; two presentations that provide material for a major term paper; short design project.
Prerequisites: ArtH 101-102 or permission of the instructor. Students of History and Anthropology are also encouraged to enroll. Enrollment limit: 14.
Hour: MCGOWAN