Interpretation II

What word is missing?

"[T]oday... genuine dramatists [ ] continue to work in airless rooms or in the museum of the past; for them too 'the scene becomes a tribunal!' [...] The stage becomes the conscience of the age?"

Friedrich Wolf, "Art is A Weapon!" (CR 63)

Filling in German Details

Oskar Schlemmer, "Costumes for a Triadic Ballet"

from "Bauhaus Boys" in Professor Moeller's Image Bank: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/~rmoeller/HCC_Lectures/Bauhaus_boys.html

Please post 6 C's of your choice from reader, from Professor Moeller's Image Bank, or from any other relevant place below. CHOOSE one of the C's that you think is most important, tell us why and emphasize this aspect in your discussion of the image you have chosen. Please give as much citation material as possible and link to site when available. Use analytic terms if appropriate: line, composition, color (b/w), orethos-logos/historia-pathos.

The Art Scab

John Heartfield, Adolf, the Superman, swallows gold and speaks junk/rubbish/nonsense

This was a cover in 1932 of the Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung. The KPD sought to make use of a mass media--the illustrated newspaper--that had a very large following among the working class.

Please post your 6 C's for "The Art Scab" here.

mAnifestoRT?

Jackson Pollock, in action
The Pollock Manifesto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVE-WQBcYQ

What counts as Art? post below. Include reference to one of the materials from the Reader.

Assignments Week Four

Monday January 28
Reading: HCC Reader (the Blue One) pages 35-84
Writing: Final Draft due (with Pre-writing Grid, Ideas Draft, Working Drafts, Peer Reviews & Writer's Note/Acknowledgments); please upload to http://www.turnitin.com/ (check email for course number and password)

Wednesday January 30
Reading: continue and reread HCC Reader (the Blue) pages 35-84
Writing: POST TO BLOG: 6 C's for Art Scab + one document from reader OR any of the images/artworks anywhere + mAnifestoRT? post, begin glossary work

Friday February 1
Reading: Print out and Read Essay 5 Prompt; Moeller Glossary, Blog Posts (on 3 art blogs)
Writing: Post Blog Question, Post 3 Responses to other comments, Continue to add to Moeller Glossary
***In-class: Painting Presentation (Sarah, Shannan, Rani, Jill)

Also this week: Scheduled showings of Kuhle Wampe (optional)

Mon, Jan 28: 2:00-3:20, HH 262 (max cap 82)

Tue, Jan 29, 2:00-3:20, HH 108 (max cap 25)

Thu, Jan 31, 2:30-3:50, HH 108 (max cap 25)

Fri, Feb 1, 1:00-2:20, HH 242 (max cap 25)

COMING NEXT WEEK: MIDTERM FRIDAY feb 8 2008.

melodrama?

Opera Japonica, A Midsummer Night's Dream

mel·o·dra·ma /ˈmɛləˌdrɑmə, -ˌdræmə/
–noun
1.
a dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization.
2.
melodramatic behavior or events.
3.
(in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries) a romantic dramatic composition with music interspersed.
[Origin: 1800–10; < style="FONT-VARIANT: small-caps" href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=drama" minmax_bound="true">drama

from: www.dictionary.com

Beyond the Five Paragraph Essay

The Five Paragraph Burger, adaptations mine.

From Cal State LA: Going beyond the 5-paragraph essay (which is not a bad thing in itself, but perhaps just time to think differently):
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/fivepara.htm


So, what to do then?

1. Begin with your thesis.

Example: i will use Pr.Lupton's from class today, that the violence in Botticelli's Primavera (she was talking about the rape of Chloris by Zephyr, the wind god) leads to consent.

2. Ask yourself: what is the first thing I need to show in order to start?

Example: that there is violence

3. What is the next step in the argument that i need to show?

Example: that then there is consent

4. What do I need to show next in order to demonstrate my interpretation?

Example: that in some way (and showing how might be several other sub-steps) violence has caused or changed into consent

AND SO ON.....
last you might consider: (What in the text challenges or presents a problem for my interpretation? What other passages/aspects of staging or interpretation do I need to consider in order to develop and complexitize my interpretation? ) ThIS step is somewhat arbitrary--could be conclusion, etc...

Example: that consent also involves "agreeing" or giving into the violence (this might redefine violence, etc....)

2 important notes:

• the STEPS, as I am calling them, are logical steps--certain parts of the argument might take more space, more text, more evidence to demonstrate, and therefore might take more than one paragraphs. so there might be SUB-steps, or something of the like. Steps do not have to equal paragraphs, but they also can.
• Along the way, you will need to consider how you have developed and been able to draw new conclusions about the thesis idea with which you began. These developments will lead to the conclusion.

Please post your thesis statements below as comments with questions, if you have them.

Assignments Week Three

Monday January 21
Writing: email to peer (identify their concept/idea and proceed to object to their interpretation) cc to me: etrapp@uci.edu

Wednesday January 23
Reading: Alberti, chapter 3
Writing: WD due (Bring 3 copies to class), post response to one (1) of the artworks and provide an explanation of Alberti's criteria for painting and evaluate how well this painting works with it (or say why it's a good thing it doesn't)
***optional: post thesis to "Beyond Five Paragraph Essay" blog

Friday January 25
Reading: Peer drafts
Writing: Peer Review

ALSO THIS WEEK: CONFERENCES!?

Alberti I

Paul Klee, Structural II (1934)

Select one of the paintings posted and review it according to Alberti's criteria for painting. First, decide how you understand Alberti's criteria. Then, talk about the painting and the ways that it appeals to its viewers.

Alberti II

Jan van Eyck, The Betrothal of Arnolfini (1434)

Select one of the paintings posted and review it according to Alberti's criteria for painting. First, decide how you understand Alberti's criteria. Then, talk about the painting and the ways that it appeals to its viewers.

Alberti III

Hieronymous Bosch, detail from Garden of Earthly Delights (1504)

Select one of the paintings posted and review it according to Alberti's criteria for painting. First, decide how you understand Alberti's criteria. Then, talk about the painting and the ways that it appeals to its viewers.

Funny:
http://michellesmentalclutter.blogspot.com/2007/05/hieronymus-bosch-action-figures.html

More Information:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/delight/

Celibate dilletante talks about Painting

Leon Basista Alberti, portrait

searchable Web Gallery of Art website--find images of art from 1100-1850:
http://www.wga.hu/

Link to "Women in Art" by Philip Scott Johnson. 500 years of Female Portraits in Western Art History:
http://videos.emule.com/play/women-in-art-(nUDIoN-_Hxs

Interpretation I

The Interpretation of Dreams by Rene Magritte

Visual Theses

Arthur Rackham, Midsummer Night's Dream Fairies (1908)

Here are links to a variety of posters for performances of MSND. Think about what aspect of the film seems to be emphasized through the design of the poster, and what kind of interpretation (or interpretive staging) might take place.

A Mangasummer Night's Dream
A ballet production, pink and flowers
A bit rustic and Bottom on the bottom
A wide variety of play posters--MSND at the bottom
Bottom over the Rainbow!
Community theatre goes to Decadent Paris!
Mangasummer Optional
Newspaper, geometric montage approach
Pencil drawing and lettering for poster
Scroll down for a description of a production that is "urban and gritty."
Scroll down to May 3-19 for a MSND description and poster
The forests have eyes....
Very crafty stampwork!

Links collected and organized by Dr. Brook Haley. Many thanks to him. Many: it's a great collection of MSND images.

Analyzing Drama

first poster for production of Die Dreigroschen Opera (1928), Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

I take Brecht and his notion of "epic theater" and the "alienation-effect" as my example of the genre of drama. Brecht also used the elements of drama--language (tone, word choice, pun, irony, rhetoric, imagery), gesture and physical movement, costume, lighting, scenery, and props--to create stagings of his numerous plays, such as the Three-penny Opera. Brecht developed "epic theater" as a type of "didactic theater," which would teach the audience to think for themselves about the social issues in Germany and the world with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to power, through the war, and after the war with East Germany's state-sponsered arts. The "alienation effect" involved the idea that the actions on the stage should be exposed as theatrical actions, that the "suspension of disbelief" should itself be eliminated, and that the audience should think critically about the actions they view on stage, to evaluate how the representations relate to the reality of the external world.

See review of the staging of the 2006 production of Three-penny Opera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk4_Ld6uC9k

Making Theses

Below is the sample thesis I read to you in class. We talked briefly about the concepts/themes that the thesis deals with--power struggle, control, unruly masses, the role of the leader, authority... You might notice that 1) that the thesis also provides you with an interpretation of the play and of the scene and that 2) it refrains from mentioning language and staging elements at this point.

Of course you can think anything you would like in relation to the thesis, but here are some questions you might consider. Please post in the comments if you have things to say or questions.

• What does it tell you instead?
• Is there an argument or a claim yet?
• Can you imagine how the author will be able to move towards making a more specific claim during the drafting and revision project?
• What things do you expect to find a discussion of in the essay?

The sample:

"MSND shows us on many different levels the exercise of power by a single male authority figure in a community -- and that community's resistance or reservations. We see Theseus, Oberon, and Egeus exerting their power in different ways, and the difficulties they experience. In Act One, Scene Two, the authority figure in control is supposed to be the director, Peter Quince, but he has his difficulties, too. My staging will emphasize his efforts to control his unruly cast." [from Vivian Folkenflik, sample thesis]

Ideas-ing for Essay #4

You might consider this humorous version of Shakespearean restaging:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/unconventional_director_sets

and here is a site that contains reviews of difference performances of Shakespeare's plays by someone who is trying to see them all. Scroll down to see A Midsummer Night's Dream--there are several stagings reviewed:

http://www.osmond-riba.org/lis/shakes.htm

Week Two: Assignments

Monday January 14
Reading: reread MSND
Writing: Ideas Draft Essay #4

Wednesday January 16
Reading: Alberti, from On Painting (39-40, 63-85)
Writing: Continue to work on Group Stagings and your own staging/essay ideas
**Group Presentations/Stagings In class

Friday January 18
Reading: Continue Alberti, review Reader Chapter 11 (Genre)
Writing: What you have so far Draft of Essay #4 due

Staging A Keyword

Compile an outline of the play through key phrases. For example:

I.i. "fit your fancies"
I.ii. "most lamentable comedy"
II.i. "forgeries of jealousy"
II.ii. "nature shows art"
III.i. "the person of Moonshine"
III.ii. "for fear lest the day should look their shames upon"
IV.i. "half-sleep, half-waking"
IV.ii. "to discourse the wonders"
V.i. "bodies forth the form of things unknown"

Fancy Question

Nick Bottom, Royal Shakespeare Company Production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005)

Please post your questions in the comments. Remember we talked about three types of questions:

• content questions, i.e. what is going on in the text (questions of doing)
• theme-oriented questions, i.e. related to the more general questions posed by the play (questions of thinking)
• interpretive questions, i.e. about specific passages, phrases or concepts used in the play (questions of making)
  

Week One: Assignments

Monday January 7, 2008
Reading: Syllabus; Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Acts I & II)
Writing: Making Associations

Wednesday January 9, 2008
Reading: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Acts III, IV, V); Reader chapter 12 (The Active Reading Process) 98-102; Reader Chapter 14 (Analyzing Drama) 105-111.
Writing: In-Class Diagnostic; post question to Noteboard; eee Information Literacy Quiz

Friday January 11, 2008
Reading: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Essay #4 prompt; Reader chapters 11-14 (genre, the active reading process, textual analysis, analyzing drama)
Writing: Study Questions (A Midsummer Night's Dream); Pre-writing Grid and post your "Staging a Keyword" Outline to Blog