The purpose of this seminar will be to examine the main intellectual currents of the twentieth century. The goal is to present an encompassing and balanced panorama of the terrain of artistic theory: its premises as well as the various approaches that have been adopted, discarded, or assimilated into contemporary discussion. One-half of the seminar will consider the genesis and development of modernism as an ideological concept. The other half will consider the postmodern critique of this paradigm. Works and writings of architecture will be used as an illustration of how theory affects practice and vice versa. Thus we will consider the lines of criticism found in theories of the Avant-Garde, Hermeneutics, Semiotics, Structuralism, Poststructuralism, Feminism, and Deconstruction then view these ideas translated into built form. Readings will be extensive and include writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Simmel, Adolf Loos, Walter Benjamin, Sigfried Giedion, Theodor Adorno, Martin Heidegger, Francois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, Bernard Tschumi, Beatriz Colomina, Manfredo Tafuri, Peter Burger and Jurgen Habermas. Requirements include extensive and informed seminar discussions and a paper of twenty pages on one area of specialization.

Hour: MALLGRAVE