History of Art

Introduction to the histories of art and the practice of art history. You will encounter a range of arts (including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, prints) and artistic practices from diverse historical periods, regions, and cultures. Faculty members of the Department of Art and Archaeology lecture in their fields of expertise; precepts balance hands-on work, readings, and student projects.

A survey of architectural history in the West, from ancient Egypt to 20th-century America, stressing a critical approach to architectural form through the analysis of context, expressive content, function, structure, style, and theory. Discussion will focus on key monuments and readings that have shaped the history of architecture. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course examines how environmental factors (acid, rain, ice, salts, biota) damage sculpture and monuments made of stone and masonry, paintings on wood, and sculptures in bronze. It examines campus buildings that illustrate each type of damage and uses a visit to the Cloisters Museum to learn how those medieval buildings are protected. Lectures on structure and properties of materials and mechanisms of attack. Labs include quantifying water movement through stone, damage from freezing and salts, strength of mortars, protective effects of sealants and consolidants, effect of moisture on wood. Two lectures and one three-hour laboratory.

The art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Egypt from the end of the prehistoric period, ca. 3000 B.C., to the beginning of the Iron Age, ca. 650 B.C. Focus on the rise of complex societies and the attendant development of architectural and artistic forms that express the needs and aspirations of these societies. Occasional readings in original texts in translation will supplement the study of art and architecture. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course will examine the architecture of the Romans, from its mythic beginnings (as recounted, for example, by Vitruvius) to the era of the high empire. Topics will include: city planning; the transformation of the building trades; civic infrastructure; and the full breadth of Roman structures, both public and private. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement.

Roman painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts from the early Republic to the late Empire, focusing upon the official monuments of Rome itself and the civic and private art of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Emphasis on historical representation, imperial propaganda, portraiture, narrative technique, and classical art theory. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean and Eastern Europe ca. 600-1500. The course will focus on the art of the Byzantine Empire and its capital, Constantinople, and on its broad sphere of cultural influence (Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Sicily, Venice, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania). An examination of principal factors that shaped the artistic legacy of eastern Christendom during the Middle Ages. Offered in alternate years. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course surveys major changes in European Art from the end of the Renaissance until the Age of Revolution c. 1800. Paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, and architecture by such artists as Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Velazquez, and Bernini will be considered in their political, religious, social and intellectual context. Extensive study of works of art at first hand in the Princeton University Art Museum, and in New York.

A selective overview of key figures from the 18th to the 20th century, with each lecture devoted to a single painter, architect, or sculptor as representative of significant themes in the history of American art. Among the artists considered are Copley, Jefferson, Cole, Homer, Eakins, Richardson, Saint-Gaudens, Olmsted, and O'Keeffe. Two lectures, one preceptorial. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement.

A broad study of European painting and sculpture from the French Revolution to 1900 with special attention to art's relationship to social and cultural changes. Lectures will explore a range of themes including art and revolution, the rise of landscape, shifting conceptions of realism, and the birth of "modernism" and the avant-garde. Emphasis on major figures including David, Canova, Goya, Ingres, Turner, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Rodin, Van Gogh, and Cézanne. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A critical study of the major movements, paradigms, and documents of modernist art from fauvism to art brut. Among the topics covered are primitivism, abstraction, collage, the readymade, machine aesthetics, photographic reproduction, the art of the insane, artists in political revolution, anti-modernism. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

A critical study of the major movements, paradigms, and documents of postwar art--abstract-expressionist, pop, minimalist, conceptual, process and performance, site-specific, etc. Special attention to crucial figures (e.g., Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Robert Smithson) and problems (e.g., "the neo-avant-garde," popular culture, feminist theory, political controversies, "postmodernism"). For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Thematic introduction to the role of painting in Chinese cultural history, with attention to the interaction of stylistic standards, materials, and techniques; the impact of regional geographies on landscape painting; the influence of class, gender, and social behavior on figure painting; the engagement of art with traditional philosophies and 20th-century socialism; and the shape of time in art-historical development. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Three lectures.

Surveys arts of Japan from the pre-historic period through the present day. Painting, sculpture, and architecture form the core of study. Examines critical role of other forms, including calligraphy, lacquer, and ceramics. Takes close account of the broader cultural and historical contexts in which art was made. Topics include ongoing tension in Japanese art between foreign and indigenous, role of ritual in Japan's visual arts, re-uses of the past, changing loci of patronage, and formats and materials of Japanese art. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1, 2, or 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Painting, sculpture, and architecture in the Spanish-speaking world from 1492 to 1810. The great flowering of Spanish art, as represented by such figures as El Greco, Velázquez, and Goya, in its cultural and historical context, including developments in Latin America. Some attention to the art of Portugal. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course examines the comic book as an expressive medium in Japan. Reading a range of works, classic and contemporary, in a variety of genres, we consider: How has the particular history of Japan shaped cartooning as an art form there? What critical approaches can help us think productively about comics (and other popular culture)? How can we translate the effects of a visual medium into written scholarly language? What do changes in media technology, literacy, and distribution mean for comics today? Coursework will combine readings, written analysis, and technical exercises. All readings in English. No fine arts experience required.

In twelve weeks this course will examine major art works from the twelve centuries (300-1500 CE) that encompass the European Middle Ages. Presenting works from Europe and the Middle East, the course will introduce students to the art of Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam; the great courts of the Eastern- and Holy Roman Empires, and the roving Vikings, Celts and Visigoths. Students will not only be invited to consider how art can represent and shape notions of sacred and secular power, but will also come to understand how the work of 'art' in this period is itself powerful and, sometimes, dangerous.

What was the Renaissance? This class explores the major artistic currents that swept northern and southern Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries in an attempt to answer that question. In addition to considering key themes such as the revival of antiquity, imitation and license, religious devotion, artistic style, and the art market, we will survey significant works by artists and architects including Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, Jan van Eyck, Dürer, and Michelangelo. Precepts will focus on direct study of original objects, with visits to Princeton's collections of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, books and maps.

This surveys history of African American art during the long 20th-century, from the individual striving of late 19th century to the unprecedented efflorescence of art and culture in 1920s Harlem; from the retrenchment in Black artistic production during the era of Great Depression, to the rise of racially conscious art inspired by the Civil Rights Movement; from the Black feminist art in the 1970s, to the age of American multiculturalism in the 1980s and 1990s; and finally to the turn of the present century when ambitious "postblack" artists challenge received notions of Black art and racial subjectivity. AAS Subfield: AACL, GRE

A survey of photography from its multiple inventions in the early 19th century to its omnipresence (and possible obsolescence) in the 21st. Themes will include photography's power to define the "real"; its emulation and eventual transformation of the traditional fine arts; and its role in the construction of personal and collective memories. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course focuses on the networks, imaginaries, and lives inhabited by Black artists, makers, and subjects from the 18th through 19th centuries, revolving around the Caribbean (particularly the Anglophone Caribbean), North America, and Europe. We will reflect on how pre-20th-century Black artists are written into history or written out of it. We will explore the aesthetic innovation of these artists and the visionary worlds they created and examine their travels, their writings, along with the social worlds and communities they formed. The course incorporates lectures and readings and, if possible, museum visits. AAS Subfield: AACL, GRE

This course acquaints students with the art, architecture, and archaeology of ancient Mexico and Central America. The course considers a wide range of cultures spanning from the first arrival of humans at the end of the Upper Paleolithic period through the 16th century Spanish invasion. Major culture groups to be considered include Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec. Precepts will include theoretically-focused discussions, debate regarding contested scholarly interpretations, and hands-on work with objects at the Princeton University Art Museum. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement.

What is the role of photography in contemporary society? By looking at photographic forms, ranging from commercial portraits, ID cards, family albums, and fashion and advertising photography to newspaper and magazine illustrations, this course explores diverse ways that photographs have come to define and challenge the "real." Students will talk with professionals in fields of journalism and fashion, examine controversies over digital manipulation and politically charged photos, and consider historical sources of contemporary styles. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

A study of major German philosophers and religious and social thinkers from the Reformation to the present. Selected works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, or German-Jewish thinkers will be read together with contemporary interpretations. Two 90-minute seminars.

In this class we will examine the history, function, theory and meaning of the icon. We will also examine the icon's influence upon the discourses of Modernism. A more practical aspect of this class is that participants in the course will work with the Princeton University Art Museum's icon collection and with its collection of icon painter's preparatory drawings. The class will provide participants with a broad grounding in questions pertaining to the icon.

This course explores the technology and function of books in historical perspective, asking how illuminated manuscripts were designed to meet (and shape) cultural and intellectual demands in the medieval period. Surveying the major genres of European book arts between the 7th-15th centuries, we study varying approaches to pictorial space, page design, and information organization; relationships between text and image; and technical aspects of book production. We work primarily from Princeton's collection of original manuscripts and manuscript facsimiles. Assignments include the option to create an original artist's book for the final project.

Art in late antiquity has often been characterized as an art in decline, but this judgment is relative, relying on standards formulated for art of other periods. Challenging this assumption, we will examine the distinct and powerful transformations within the visual culture of the period between the third and sixth centuries AD. This period witnesses the mutation of the institutions of the Roman Empire into those of the Christian Byzantine Empire. The fundamental change in religious identity that was the basis for this development directly impacted the art from that era that will be the focus of this course.

Painting and sculpture of the formative years of the early Renaissance in Italy (ca. 1250-1400) with emphasis on the cultural, social, and religious concerns that found expression in art. Topics include the relationship between art and piety, the effect of the Black Death, and the rediscovery of the classical heritage. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The class surveys connections in art of different cultures and continents throughout the world from the first civilizations to the present. Attention will be paid to distinctive and related forms of culture and their expression in art and architecture that includes trade, migration, gift exchanges, war and economics.

The 18th century saw the emergence of the first architectural and engineering schools. Architects and engineers started to compete all over Europe in a time when technical knowledge and efficiency were becoming as important as experience and learnedness. This course provides students with a survey of 18th-century European architecture in the light of the rivalry between two trades on the verge of professionalization. The first weeks will be devoted to the actors of the building world before focusing on the fields of contest between architects and engineers and how this battle defined the nature of each profession, between art and science.

This course will focus upon prints or drawings studied from original works of art. All periods of European art may be considered along with occasional Asian objects. Classes will be conducted in the Princeton University Art Museum, New York (museum and dealer and/or auction house), and possibly Washington D.C. (National Gallery of Art). For fall 2016 the course will study drawings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

Architectural theory, criticism, and historiography from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing the transformations of the classical Vitruvian tradition and theories of modern architecture from the end of the 17th century to the 1930s. Architectural thought in its institutional and cultural context and as it relates to design method and practice. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

The visual arts in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). Works of art, cinema, and literature in historical context. Topics include: modernism and modernity; Expressionism, Dada, New Objectivity in painting, photography, cinema, and literature; historical conditions of bodily experience and visual perception; emergence of new artistic and technological media; expansion of mass culture; place of politics in art; experience and representation of metropolitan life; changes in the conceptualization and representation of individuality, collectivity, embodiment, race, class, gender, sexuality. Two 90-minute seminars, one film screening.

European architecture from 1420 to the mid-18th century with particular emphasis on its historical and social background. The various architectural movements--Renaissance, baroque, and rococo--are studied in terms of important architects and buildings especially of Italy, France, and England. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An introduction to the literature of the Renaissance in Europe and in England. Emphasis upon major genres--lyric, drama, pastoral, and prose-fiction--as they arise in Italy, France, Spain, and England. Readings from Boccaccio, Castiglione, Lope de Vega, Sidney, Shakespeare, Erasmus, Rabelais, and Cervantes. Two 90-minute seminars.

Painting, sculpture, and architecture in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Russia, ca. 1450-1800. Special emphasis is placed on the changing roles of court, city, cloister, and aristocracy and the relation of local styles to international trends, including art elsewhere in Europe. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Offered in alternate years. One three-hour seminar.

An often interdisciplinary study of themes and problems in 19th-century art with special attention to recent writing in the field. Possible topics include: the persistence of realism, Impressionism and its aftermath, shifting representations of masculinity and femininity, and the formation of the first European avant-gardes. The course may also center on a particular artistic medium or geographical location. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An often interdisciplinary study of themes and problems in 20th-century art with special attention to recent writing in the field. Possible topics include: models of abstraction, critiques of the traditional mediums of art, artistic responses to technological transformation and/or political revolution, and artistic explorations of the unconscious. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two 90-minute classes.

By focusing on six major figures (such as Stieglitz, Weston, Moholy-Nagy, Evans, Frank, Sherman), this course examines the ways that photography was transformed from a poor stepchild of the fine arts to a staple of museum exhibitions. Topics will include the impact of abstraction on photography; the interactions between art photography and the new print and cinematic mass media; and the development of photographic collections and criticism. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two 90-minute classes.

This seminar uses the prevailing analytical tools and critical perspectives of African American Studies to consider comparative approaches to groups, broadly defined. Students will examine the intellectual traditions, socio-political contexts, expressive forms, and modes of belonging of people who are understood to share common boundaries/experiences as either (1) Africans and the African Diaspora outside of the United States; and/or (2) non-African-descended people of color within the United States.

A period, problem, or theme in ancient history or religion with critical attention to the ancient sources and modern discussions. The topic and instructor vary from year to year. Format will change each time, depending on enrollment.

An introduction to the history of art in the United States from the colonial period to 1900. Works of art will be examined in terms of their cultural, social, intellectual, and historical contexts. Students will consider artistic practices as they intersect with other fields, including science and literature. Topics include the visual culture of natural history, fashioning the self, race and representation, landscape and nation, art and the Civil War, gender politics, art and medicine, and realism and deception. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Focusing on the mutual reception of Italian and American architecture 1920-2018, we take into account divergences of urban form and architectural tradition that separate the two cultures alongside convergences of theory and practice. Starting with the impact of Wright on Mollino and Moretti, we move to the critical fortune of Organic Architecture in the postwar work of Scarpa and to the diverse roles of Ponti and BBPR in the USA, culminating with the dialogue between the New York Five and Italy in the 1970s. The course ends with an overview of contemporary dialogues between Italian and American architects, theoreticians and critics.

An introduction to the history of African American art and visual culture from the colonial period to the present. Artists and works of art will be considered in terms of their social, intellectual, and historical contexts. Students will consider artistic practices as they intersect with other cultural spheres, including science, politics, religion, and literature. Topics and readings will be drawn from the field of art history as well as from cultural studies, critical race theory, and the history of the Atlantic world. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

As articulated by Thelma Golden, postblack refers to the work of African American artists who emerged in the 1990s with ambitious, irreverent, and sassy work. Postblack suggests the emergence of a generation of artists removed from the long tradition of Black affirmation of the Harlem Renaissance, Black empowerment of the Black Arts movement, and identity politics of the 1980s and early 90s. This seminar involves critical and theoretical readings on multiculturalism, race, identity, and contemporary art, and will provide an opportunity for a deep engagement with the work of African American artists of the past decade. AAS Subfield: AACL, GRE

Exemplary encounters between photography and literature in the 20th century. After providing students with a basis in the theory of photography, the course focuses on intersections between literary and photographic forms, producers, and movements. Topics will include modernism in New York (Williams, Strand, and Sheeler) and Mexico City (Lawrence, Bravo, Weston, Modotti), the New Photography and the photo essay in Germany (Benjamin, Moholy-Nagy, Renger-Patzsch, Sander), social criticism (Evans and Agee), surrealism (Breton), and the American road (Kerouac and Frank). Two 90-minute seminars.

What is film? Is it a language? Can one speak of cinematic literacy? Does film transform perception? Is there filmic thinking? This seminar on the theory and poetics of cinema will examine the varieties of ways -- semiotic, psychoanalytic, narratological - that filmmakers, philosophers and critics have analyzed film form, the cinematic experience, the construction of cinematic subjectivity, questions of aesthetic politics and notions of medium specificity.

The production and reception of art in the Federal Republic of Germany from c. 1960 to now, situating episodes in the history of painting, sculpture, and photography in relation to developments in literature and cinema. Topics include the problem of coming to terms with the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung); the West German economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunder) and the functions and meanings of art in consumer society; violence, politics, and representation; abstraction and figuration in painting, sculpture, and photography; history, memory, and artistic tradition; art as a vehicle of socio-political critique. Two 90-minute classes.

A required seminar for art and archaeology Program 2 majors and visual arts certificate students emphasizing contemporary art practices and ideas. The course addresses current issues in painting, drawing, sculpture, film, video, and photography, with an emphasis on developing a studio practice. Critiques of students' work, and excursions to artists' studio round out the course. One three-hour seminar.

The Junior Seminar is an introduction to the myriad subjects, methods, and strategies of art history. The course examines the different kinds of evidence and methodological tools that have been used to identify, explain, and contextualize works of art as well as other kinds of objects, artifacts, and cultural phenomena. In other words, this seminar considers what art historians do, and how and why they do it. In addition, majors will learn how to use resources such as the library and the museum, and how to undertake substantive written research projects. Students begin their Junior Independent Work in this seminar. One three-hour seminar.

Introduces students to the methods and thinking of archaeologists and prehistorians. Topics include the concept of prehistory; ethnographic analogy and the interpretation of material remains; relating material culture to texts; schemes of cultural interpretation; and how to read an excavation report. This seminar is required for the Certificate in Archaeology. One three-hour seminar.

Topics of Greek art and architecture that will normally deal with the Hellenistic period (323-31 B.C.). Depending on student interest, special subjects may also be treated in relation to the Hellenistic period, such as classicism, or the course may concentrate on thematic studies, such as architectural sculpture. Two 90-minute seminars. Prerequisite: a course in ancient art or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1 distribution requirement. Offered in alternate years.

A topic in Chinese or Japanese art, explored in depth. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 1, 2, or 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar. Prerequisite: a course in Asian art or the instructor's permission.

An examination of Japanese woodblock prints from the 17th through the 19th century. This seminar considers formal and technical aspects of woodblock prints, and the varied subject matter, including the "floating world" of prostitution and the theater, Japanese landscape, and burgeoning urban centers. Students explore the links between literature and prints, especially the re-working of elite classical literary themes in popular prints. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 or 3 distribution requirement. Prerequisite: at least one course in art history or Japanese studies, or permission of instructor. One three-hour seminar.

Topics in medieval art and/or architecture. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

Topics in 15th- and 16th-century art. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

The study of techniques, functions, and connoisseurship of drawings, and their place in the interpretation of the history of art. Drawings ca. 1400-1800 will be the major objects considered. Extensive use of the resources of the art museum. For department majors, this course satisfies either the Group 2 or 3 distribution requirement. Prerequisite: a course in Renaissance or baroque art or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

Examines the global exchange in art and architecture between and among the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the period 1492-1800. The course focuses on the geographical, historical, religious, anthropological, and aesthetic aspects of issues such as cultural encounters, diffusion, transculturation, regionalism, and related topics. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

Topics will focus on major figures, such as Palladio, Wren, and Piranesi; centers, such as Rome and Venice; or themes, such as architectural theory, the legacy of classical antiquity, and the villa. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

Topics in 17th- and 18th-century art and architecture. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

This seminar will focus in depth on a specific aspect of art, history, theory, and criticism in Europe between 1789 and 1914. Possible topics include French painting and its critics, portraiture and sociability, shifting conceptions of realism and naturalism, the onset of modernism, and representations of interior space. Prerequisites: a course in the art of this period or permission of the instructor. Visits to area museums. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

Topics on the aesthetic and stylistic development of photography, including the study of movements and related critical theory, and on the artistic achievement of particular photographers. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

Topics in contemporary painting, sculpture, or criticism in Europe and America since World War II. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

An intensive interdisciplinary study of the evolution of a city, such as Athens, Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Alexandria, or Antioch, where Greek civilization flourished through successive periods, from antiquity to the present. A study of the form and the image of the city as seen in its monuments and urban fabric, as well as in the works of artists, writers, and travelers. Prerequisite: instructor's permission. Two 90-minute classes.

An in-depth exploration of the history, theory, and interpretation of American art and visual culture from the colonial period to the present day. Topics covered will include race and representation in American art and culture; art and science; landscape art and theory; the Harlem Renaissance; and the art and artists of the Stieglitz circle. Visits to the Princeton University Art Museum as well as to other area museums (such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) will be an integral part of this course. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.

This seminar explores the history of early modern European printing and its materials, with a focus on Albrecht Dürer. An underlying assumption of the course is that art-making materials and practices are linked to contemporary conceptions and theories of nature. From 1450 to 1850, the natural resources most commonly deployed for printing were wood, metal, and stone. Their use was shaped by environmental conditions, and had an impact on the ecology of their places of origin. While the course will focus on European print culture, and Albrecht Dürer when possible, it also will refer to early modern print materials and practices from East Asia.

Apartheid, the political doctrine of separation of races in South Africa (1948-1990), dominated the (South) African political discourse in the second half of the 20th century. While it lasted, art and visual cultures were marshaled in the defense and contestation of its ideologies. Since the end of Apartheid, artists, filmmakers, dramatists, and scholars continue to reexamine the legacies of Apartheid, and the social, philosophical, and political conditions of non-racialized South Africa. Course readings examine issues of race, nationalism and politics, art and visual culture, and social memory in South Africa. AAS Subfield: GRE

In 19- and 20-c. debates that crossed borders among disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, art history, philosophy, and political theory, empathy and alienation emerged as key terms to describe relations among human beings, works of art, and commodities. This seminar addresses the dynamics of empathy and alienation across a range of discourses and artifacts in European culture. Our explorations of how relationships between empathy and alienation were variously conceptualized in psychological aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and critical theory will aim to open up new perspectives on recent debates about identity and affect.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.