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Introduction to American Art is an undergraduate level survey course designed to provide students with a foundational knowledge of the art produced in the United States through 1945. Throughout the semester, we will consider American art in a variety of contexts, including politics, nationalism, geography, gender, class, and race. By considering art in context, students will develop the tools to analyze American painting, prints, sculpture, and material culture.

Is worldly success possible without a pact with the devil? Can you achieve greatness without selling your core values? Your soul? And what was the original Faustian bargain? We will follow the development of various devilish pacts through the characters of Job (The Book of Job), Satan, Adam and Eve (Milton's Paradise Lost) and Doctor Faustus and Mephistopheles (Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Goethe's Faust). We will also examine the fate of the characters who confront the Grand Inquisitors and assorted devils of 20th century totalitarian states (The Third Reich in Mann's Mephisto and the Soviet Union in Bulgakov's Master and Margarita). In the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to explore devilish pacts in their own culture, major, or other interest, from Milton to Bulgakov, visual and performing arts to film, music, and gaming by doing a presentation and research paper.

3 s.h. German/Russian; GE Literary, Visual, Performing Arts; German/Russian major/minor elective; Honors credit option. Taught in English.

This course explores the role of the performing arts in the human experience, and examines the nature of the creative impulse in different performance media, cultures, societies and historical contexts.  Much of the class work is based on attendance at live performances of theatre, music, and dance on campus and in the community.  Readings, films and videos will augment live performances. Emphasis is on analyzing performance and the experience of the audience through writing and in-depth class discussions. 

Virgin.? Whore.? Angel.? Witch.? Good girl.? Femme fatale.? As both writers and heroines, women have carried and confronted these labels, and this course will explore the vast and various positions of women as depicted in literature and experienced in the world.? By taking into account myriad differences like class, race, time, place, and culture, we will consider women?s performance of gender and identity.? How do heroines fall into or break out of prescribed social roles as they fall in love, express their sexuality, assert their independence, or pursue careers? ?How do women reveal, craft, represent, and even invent identities through narrative?? By the end of this course, we will shatter the stereotypes above and appreciate the complexity of female experience that literature can reveal.

Native American Art is a survey of the visual arts of indigenous peoples in North America, with emphasis on those in the regions that have become the United States. Considering many different types of objects in an array of contexts, from the techniques used to produce them, their use, the ideologies and cosmologies they represent, and the evolving circumstances of their creators, this course will help students understand the remarkable characteristics, variety, and importance of Native imagery as vivid expressions of identity, creativity, resistance, and resilience over centuries, even as Native cultures have undergone extraordinary hardships and devastating change over the past several hundred years. Focusing especially on architecture, ceramics, sculpture, textiles and clothing, painting, and performance from the PreContact period to the present, we will explore rich artistic traditions and their legacies as well as transformations that have resulted from involvement with non-Native cultures.

This course is an introduction to basic sculptural concepts and processes. Emphasis is placed on developing personal ideas, and acquiring basic skills and knowledge of materials. Each assignment builds upon the others, creating a solid conceptual/technical foundation. Instruction includes readings, discussions, demonstrations, and slide presentations. Attendance is mandatory and grades are based on personal development and class participation. This is a fundamental 3D art course that introduces students to a wide array of hands-on fabrication techniques including, wood assemblage, plaster/wax mold-making and fabricating with wire/metal.

Visual analysis, media and techniques, artistic subject matter and aesthetic issues; historical periods and movements from ancient times to present; provides strong orientation to visual aspects of humanities, background for other art history courses, and introduction to visual arts for personal enrichment; for students new to art history.

Art and Visual Culture is an introductory course designed for students who have had no previous art history courses.  Throughout the course students learn to analyze visual objects, become familiar with media and techniques that artists have used over time, explore different approaches to artistic subject matter and aesthetic issues, and develop an acquaintance with the dominant historical periods and movements from ancient times to the present.  Writing about art and its history will also be emphasized.  Focusing especially on art of the western world, this course provides a strong orientation to the visual aspects of the humanities, good background for additional art history courses, and an understanding of the visual arts for personal enrichment.  

What makes us laugh?? Why do we cry?? And why does the line between laughter and tears so often become indistinguishable?? In this course, we will explore the extremes of comedy and tragedy and determine how fine the line between the two actually is.? We will attempt to expose the dark underbelly that comedy often masks and the hope that tragedy sometimes conceals.? Throughout, we will turn the questions upon ourselves, looking at the emotional responses evoked by comedy and tragedy, from joy to grief and embarrassment to pity, investigating what it is that so arrests our imaginations?what keeps us watching, even as Oedipus stabs out his own eyes.?

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Western literature and culture has been, for millennia, enormously influenced by myths, stories, poems, and drama of the biblical and classical ages.? This course will examine some of the ancient texts of Jewish, early Christian, Greek, and Roman civilizations.? We will discover common themes like the concept of fate, and the interactions between the human and divine worlds.? Our studies will also be enhanced by considering modern reworkings of these foundational stories in both textual and visual formats.? While we will always be thinking critically about biblical and classical texts, we will also discuss their immense cultural and historical value.?

This course fulfills the general education requirement in Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts. 

The course is given in English, the readings and class work are all in English, and the class assumes no previous knowledge of Latin America or Spanish. 

The United States and Latin America are connected by a lot more than being neighbors in the hemisphere. Latin American countries generate the most important new immigration into our country, and what goes on in Latin America has a much bigger influence on our nation than we sometimes realize just from the news headlines. Every Latin American country has a long and rich history which has been commented on and sometimes even shaped by their literatures. This class is a chance to become better acquainted with some of that history and culture influencing our country. 

We’ll look at some of the political causes of social violence in Latin America, at the way race, sexuality, and gender have been constructed in the region, and at what the Latin American experience looks like from the United States. Readings will include Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh (a creative non-fiction work about the early days of military government in Argentina), Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya (a novel about the aftermath of civil war in Guatemala), Claire of the Sea Light (a novel about Haitian immigration to the United States), The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferré (a novel that tells the history of Puerto Rico through the story of a family), Out of Their Minds: The Incredible and (Sometimes) Sad Story of Ramon and Cornelio (a road-trip novel by the Mexican writer Luis Humberto Crothswaite), and Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco (a novel about the explosion of money and violence which came to Colombia along with cocaine trafficking). 

Student will be graded on a series of small writing assignments, an oral presentation, and class participation and attendance.

Books for the class will be on order at the Prairie Lights bookstore in downtown Iowa City.

This class is an introductory survey of ancient Greek literature in translation. We will survey famous works from the earliest days of archaic Greece, the rise and fall of classical Athens, and the Hellenistic kingdoms. We will read broadly, including the epic poetry of Homer, Athenian theater, the origins of western historiography and philosophy. We will explore the problems of culture and ‘culturedness’ that are tangled up in the practice of reading of these texts (that is, reception) and our class discussions will necessarily entangle contemporary and historical issues, attitudes, and politics. Through these texts we will wrestle with the problematic categories of genre, canon, value, truth, and beauty. We will examine the role of the reader in reading, consider how literature can be used, and practice the development, articulation, and examination of personal opinion and response. The student will gain a broad exposure to the literature of ancient Greece and an appreciation for why it has been (and is still) read. Lectures will include brief introductions on Greek civilization, culture, and life. Writing assignments will encourage students to develop self-awareness as readers, and to practice articulating and supporting personalized reactions to, and opinions about, literary works.

This course introduces students to music history and the pleasures of active listening through the study of public concert performances. An examination of select premieres—the first concert performances of Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World), Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Bernstein’s West Side Story among others—will better acquaint students with fundamental musical concepts (i.e., rhythm, melody, harmony, style, etc.), and underscore the changing meanings and functions of European and American “Classical” music over time. No previous musical knowledge or abilities are required.  Students will complete regular reading and listening assignments, actively participate in class discussions, and work collaboratively on a final project of their own design.

This course is intended for students who are not theatre arts majors. The course is an introduction to the elements of performance, including exercises in concentration, imagination, observation, communication, relaxation, and sensory awareness. Classes are designed to promote toning the voice and body, freeing creative expression, and developing an understanding of the dramatic situation. This is primarily a lab class; appropriate casual clothing is necessary. Play attendance with written critiques, a journal, and a final performance project with written character and scene analyses are required. The course enhances interpersonal communication and presentation skills required for a successful career in occupations such as Engineering, Business, Medicine, Marketing, Mass Communications and Education to name a few.

Intermediate technique and performance training in jazz dance, including hip-hop; flexibility, strength, body alignment, and coordination as foundation for more advanced dance artistry, including mobility, musicality, style; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz and hip-hop dance.

Overview of German cinema; expressionist film of the Weimar Republic; Nazi cinema; post-war cinema; East German film; New German Cinema; post-unification and contemporary cinema.  Taught in English.

This course introduces students to the history of German cinema, from the expressionist films of the Weimar Republic to contemporary film production. Students will learn to analyze different periods, film genres and cinematic styles, including expressionist cinema (such as Lang’s murder mystery M and Metropolis). Lang’s representation of urban economic disparity in Metropolis inspired science-fiction films such as Bladerunner. We will also examine early and later cinematic attempts to come to terms with WWII and the Nazi past, in films such as Staudte’s post-WW II rubble film Murderers among us and Fassbinder’s classic The Marriage of Maria Braun. We will also analyze post-unification film (such as Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others), German-Jewish films and German-Turkish cinema (e.g., by the director Fatih Akin). Students wishing to sign up for a 4 s.c. hour will need to complete additional assignments. Conducted in English. No prerequisite.

For the 4 s.h. option students will write an additional 10-page paper in German.

A new cultural phenomenon began in 1997 when Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released. Copies flew off store shelves as readers of all ages were captivated by Harry’s story. It was as though the novel had been rediscovered and reading became everyone’s favorite activity. Subsequent volumes continued to mesmerize readers, and soon thereafter they listened to audio versions and watched cinematic adaptations. Why was the Harry Potter series so appealing? What was it about Harry’s story or that of Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Dobby, or Neville Longbottom’s that resonated with such a diverse populace? How and why did readers develop deep personal connections to the series? How was Pottermania created and sustained?

In this course we will analyze the Harry Potter series for the insights it provides on friendship, loyalty, finance, the law, social justice, ethnicity, social media, sports (Quidditch), music (The Weird Sisters), and our relationship with animals and their world. Through a close reading of the novels we will consider their place in the literary canon. We will also pinpoint where influences from this canon can be found in the novels. Finally, we will study the Harry Potter series as a cultural phenomenon. We will analyze the impact the series had on readership and popular culture in America and Great Britain.

This honors course is taught by lecturer Donna Parsons (http://music.uiowa.edu/people/donna-parsons). 

This course (General Education - Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts) provides an introductory overview of global cinema since the late 1960s. We’ll explore the sociocultural and technological changes that have impacted various film cultures around the world, as well as the ways in which mainstream, independent, and international cinemas have intersected with issues of race, gender, sexuality, national history, globalization, and new media technologies. Topics will also include introductions to genre, auteur, adaptation, and documentary theories.

“King Arthur through the Ages” explores the nearly 900-year history of the Arthur legend, examining the various guises assumed by the “Once and Future King” in distinct times and cultures. The first half of the course considers Arthur’s appeal during the Middle Ages via Arthurian classics from English, French, German, Italian, and Hebrew literature. The second half of the course focuses on modern adaptations of the Arthurian tradition in literature and film, which reshape the story of Arthur and his retinue to treat more contemporary concerns such as modernity, feminism, and fascism. Required assignments include four reading responses, two 5-page papers, a midterm exam, and a final exam.  Taught in English

The 4 s.h. option is for students who wish to apply the course to their requirements for the major or minor in German. It requires an additional research component for the course, usually a separate or longer paper or presentation (in English) than that required for non-majors. Students should expect to spend app. 3 hours per week towards the completion of their research project, including both independent library work and supplemental meetings with the instructor. There is a limit of two courses taught in English for the major in German and one such course for the minor in German.

Hercules, Odysseus, Achilles and Oedipus all share one major characteristic: they are all heroes whose adventures and stories are chronicled in timeless Greek and Roman sacred stories, or myths. This course looks at these heroes (and more!), in addition to the gods and goddesses whom these peoples believed ruled their world. The study of Greco-Roman mythology offers an excellent window into the past by providing us with a unique opportunity to examine how the Greeks and Romans attempted to answer questions about the nature of the universe and mankind’s place in it.  The myths of any people betray attitudes concerning life, death, life after death, love, hate, morality, the role of women in society, etc.; we will pay particular attention to how Greco-Roman mythology addresses these important issues.
This course is designed to offer a general introduction to the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Because ancient myths have come down to us in various works of literary and physical art, this course will also introduce you to some of the most influential works produced in ancient Greece and Rome. Moreover, because the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome have exercised such an influence in the shaping of the modern western world, we will equip ourselves with the background necessary to make modern literature, philosophy, religion, and art intelligible and meaningful. By examining and scrutinizing the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans, we will learn not only a great deal about their cultures, but we will also put ourselves in a position from which to question, criticize, and (hopefully) better understand the foundations of the world in which we find ourselves.
This course meets the Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts general education requirement, as well as the Values and Culture requirement, through its use of ancient works of art (literary and visual) and focus on the ways in which ancient Greek and Romans managed the human experience.

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of modern dance.  It is intended to enhance the beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through modern dance technique.  Activities will include warm-up, locomotion and center combinations.  Content may include the history of modern dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

Continuation of DANC:1010.

This course explores various currents, themes and functions of Chinese popular culture through history, with an emphasis on traditional foundations, modern transformations and global influences. Students will be introduced to theories and research on the study of popular culture in general and within the specific context of China. Topics include: different conceptions of folk, mass and popular cultural forms and genres in different periods of Chinese history; traditional life-ways, myths and lore and their lasting influence; the passage from orality and performance to writing and mass media; the advent of urban print culture and popular literature; the modern discovery of folklore to express the nation in China; the invention of revolutionary popular culture; the impact of mass and new media forms of cinema, radio, television and internet; local and global influences in music, fashion and youth culture; social, economic and political dynamics of production, consumption and regulation of popular culture.

NO PREREQUISITE. No prior knowledge of Chinese language is required.

This course has been approved for the GE area of Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts; and for students admitted before Summer 2011 in Foreign Civilization and Culture.

Continuation of DANC:1040; skills necessary for the technique and performance of modern dance; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of modern dance.

This course is a continuation of DANC:1040, building a foundation of skills necessary for the technique and performance of modern dance.  It is intended to enhance the continuing student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through modern dance technique.  Activities will include warm-up, locomotion and center combinations.  Content may include the history of modern dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the Instructor’s discretion.  

A beginning-level course for nonmajors, this course is designed to encourage students who have had little or no formal studio experience. Drawing is the principal means for considering a range of expressive opportunities. Using wet (e.g., ink) and dry (e.g., charcoal) mediums, students work from the human figure (clothed and unclothed), still life, and landscape. Students are given instruction in the skills of representation and principles of abstraction as an introduction to form, creativity, and greater discrimination of the visual world.

Native American storytelling consists of a wide range of voices and themes across different tribes, times, and places.  In this class, traditional aspects of Native American literature -- vibrant oral histories, myths, and stories -- will be paired with writings by modern writers who wrestle with personal and tribal identity, the challenges of reservation life, and negotiations with non-Native American culture.  Because of the traditionally rich oral and visual components of Native American storytelling, materials for the course will likely be drawn from several media, including audio recordings, film, poetry, fiction, essays, and drama.

We may not all believe that it’s better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all, but the experience of love is hard to imagine without the experience of loss. This course will look at the human experience of love, loss, and longing across a wide variety of traditions and time periods. The idea will be to glance into a number of literatures without having to identify a single thread or story among them other than our own responses and reflections. This will be an exercise in reading for better living, in learning a bit about how others have thought about love and loss in order to expand our own ways of seeing the world. There won’t be any books to purchase. The readings will be available online. We will work on paying close attention to short texts through simple readings. Our aim will always be to engage the imagination. There will be a series of shorter written assignments, an oral presentation, and a final written project. Some of the readings will be drawn from the likes of Homer, Sappho (the only ancient Greek female poet we know by name), Plato, the anonymous authors of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the (also anonymous) early Spanish-language texts known as jarchas, the Roman poets Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus, the Medieval troubadour poets of southern France, Baroque Spanish and Italian verse, and the writings of the great seventeenth-century Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. We’ll think a bit about different kinds of love, what it means to feel so strongly the presence of something that no longer exists or that is far away, about the nature of life, death, joy, sorrow, that sort of thing. Along the way we’ll also pause to consider what it means to read things in translation, what it means to read a text of something which was originally meant for oral performance, and how it is that some things have survived the ages and come down to us as important.

This course examines writing strategies (word choice, in particular) within the context of literary analysis. We will study the origins of English words and especially the Latin components that make up the majority of English words—sixty percent of all words and ninety percent of those over two syllables. We also will look closely at three tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, tracing adaptations of Midas, Pyramus and Thisbe, and Pygmalion from antiquity to the present day in poetry, drama, art, and film.

Class will be a combination of lecture, discussion, video clips, writing exercises, and word games. Some of the writing assignments will be creative, some will be more traditional, but all will be related to what we have just read or viewed. In order to focus on writing at the word and sentence level, the emphasis will be on shorter writing efforts as opposed to long papers. Grades will be based on writing assignments, quizzes, and three exams.

Translations of Ovid, Stanley Lombardo’s in particular, will serve as a point of departure. Other readings/viewings will include the works of canonical authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shaw, as well as those of present-day poets, playwrights, and filmmakers. We also will examine how the English language has changed over time and how an author’s background (era, culture, race, gender, etc.) may have influenced different adaptations of the same story.

Satisfies one of the requirements for the Undergraduate Certificate in Writing.

Why are haunted houses, disembodied voices and the living dead as prominent in U.S. mass culture today as they were in the 19th Century? Gothic literature and visual arts takes us back to places in U.S. society where silence or repression have left their mark – but where something slips out. This course investigates gothic literary and visual arts by focusing on issues that have been addressed by American artists for over two centuries -- the relationship of race, gender and sexuality to the domestic fantasies of "American" middle-class family life; the traumatic memories of colonialism, war and slavery; the status of science and technology in a faith-filled world. Students learn to identify varieties of gothic fiction and film (settler colonial or "frontier" gothic, female gothic, Afro-futurist and Black gothic, Native American gothic, suburban and science fiction gothic). Films include Robert Egger, The Witch: A New England Folktale (2016); Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980); Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, The Blair Witch Project (1999); William Friedkin, The Exorcist (1973); Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017); David Robert Mitchell, It Follows (2014). 

Books available at IMU Hawkship include Shirley Jackson, Haunting of Hill House and Hannah Crafts, The Bondwoman's Narrative.

This course fulfills a Literature, Visual and Performing Arts CLAS General Education Requirement. Students learn to identify the basic, formal elements of aesthetically and historically important works of U.S. literary and visual art.

Want more detail? --Through group discussion, creative writing and short essay assignments, students develop a vocabulary for asking and answering interpretive questions: How are we to understand the unsettling mixture of attraction-and-repulsion so typical of gothic horror? How do historical, soci-political, environmental and regional situations help us to explain the meaning of individual works of gothic art? Does the Gothic preoccupation with monstrosity and boundary-crossing allow us to express the “unspeakable,” or does it ultimately re-affirm prevailing social and cultural norms? Above all, how do gothic literary and visual arts offer insight into the historical anxieties and desires that have haunted U.S. cultural production into the 21^st Century?

Organized around a series of case studies of exemplary objects, the course explores the wide range of Asian art across different times, regions, cultures, materials, and themes. Special attention will be placed on interactions and influences between different regions through religion, war, travel, and trade. Each class will start with a formal analysis exercise on the key object, followed by a lecture that contextualizes the object, and then online discussion based on required readings

Since World War II, jazz has spread to every corner of the globe producing unique interpretations and practices as it interacts with local traditions. Similarly, jazz musicians in America have found musical sources for their compositions outside of the traditional jazz mainstream. This course will investigate a number of ways that jazz music is interpreted with particular attention to the contexts in which music is created, transmitted and received. Each year the class compares the American jazz tradition to a unique international region that has a strong jazz scene. 

This course surveys selected folk and popular musical traditions within their historical and social contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean. Students examine the three principal musical sources of indigenous America, Europe and Africa, and the ensuing stylistic mixtures and combinations through select music cultures from the region, including the indigenous music of the Andean highlands, musics of the Afro-Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Trinidadian calypsos and steel pan, and samba and bossa nova in Brazil. The course is designed to broaden students' exposure to other musical systems and explore the interrelationship of music and its social meaning.

Continuation of THTR:2410; 1700 to 1960; revolutionary and modern European theatre and culturally diverse postwar U.S. theatre. Offered fall semesters.

This course offers an overview of French film history and culture from 1980 to the present. Along with considering developments that shaped the French film industry in this period, we will examine how leading feature and documentary filmmakers have grappled with pressing societal concerns such as modernization and the progression of consumer society, the legacy of France’s colonial empire and decolonization struggles, and the French experience during World War II. Other topics of discussions will include the “Cinéma du Look,” the heritage film (cinéma de patrimoine), and various expressions of the youth cinema (jeune cinéma) that has flourished in France since the early 1980s. We will also take up questions of a) gender and sexuality, b) trans-national cultural flows and globalized film culture, c) national cultural memory formation, d), the crisis conditions that have prompted politically and socially minded filmmakers to examine the effects of neoliberal globalization and the xenophobic nationalism to which it has given rise and d) French contributions to the global eco-cinematic activism combatting both the denial and growing perils of climate change. Directors to be studied will include: Claude Berri, Louis Malle, Claire Denis, Luc Besson, Olivier Assayas, Laurent Cantet, Nicolas Philibert, Céline Sciamma, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Olivier Nakache & Eric Tolendo, Dany Boon, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Cyril Dion & Mélanie Laurent, Lucas Belvaux and JR & Agnès Varda.

NOTE TO FRENCH MAJORS AND MINORS: French majors may take one course in English that counts for the major. If you wish to take this course as your one major course taught in English, and you wish to enroll for only 3 semester hours, this is the section in which you should enroll (FREN 4100:001). If you have already taken a course in English and wish to earn French major and minor credit for this course, including credit that meets the French major’s upper-division requirement (that is, the 2 required courses numbered “above FRENCH 4000”), you should enroll under the 4-semester hour course listing (FREN 4100:002).

This course is a survey of Major 20th-century styles, artists, seminal works, and recordings; developments between 1900 and today. Course materials include a written text, ICON listening list, films and live performances. Requirements include online quizzes, two exams and writing assignments.

Drama makes use of sight, sound and language both on the stage and the page, but theatre involves live, public enactments of stories that we experience collectively.? Beginning with the ancient Greeks and extending into the complexities of post-modern theatre, this class will investigate how drama interacts with and influences its multiple audiences that reside both in the private space inhabited by readers and in the public space of the theatre.? It will also explore the relationship between plays and the cultural moments in which they were produced.

This is an undergraduate introduction to the visual arts of Africa. No prior study of art history is necessary. This is a one-semester study of the sculpture, pottery, weaving, architecture, and other art forms of Africa from the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope. The focus is on arts in cultural context. That means you will learn a great deal about the lives and history of many African peoples. You will see many, many slides of objects being made and used by African peoples to understand what the objects meant to the people who created them, and how the objects mirrored their social, educational, political, and economic systems.

Requirements for the online class include written participation in discussion sections, a midterm exam,  a final exam, several short quizzes and a short paper.  All readings will be available on ICON. Please note: There is a lot of writing in the discussion sections, and it will be very difficult for late enrollments to catch up after the first week of classes.

Continuation of DANC:1030; skills necessary for technique and performance of ballet; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; barre and center combinations; terminology; may include history of ballet.

This course is a continuation of DANC:1030, building a foundation of skills necessary for the technique and performance of ballet.  It is intended to enhance the continuing student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through ballet technique.  Class is structured around barre and center combinations.  Terminology will be stressed during class, detailed in handouts, and included in exams.  Content may include the history of ballet.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

Survey of the Western world's visual arts from Renaissance (ca. 1400) to present; major movements and principal masters of Western Europe and the United States in their social and historical contexts; focus on stimulation of visual literacy and familiarity with outstanding cultural monuments.

This is the foundational course for the study of art history.  No prior study of art history is necessary. The course is a survey of Western Art from the European Renaissance to the contemporary world. It introduces some of the most famous and exciting works of art produced in the West from the Renaissance to the present day, including works of painting, sculpture, architecture, prints, photography, performance and installation art. We follow artistic developments through the centuries, looking at major artists and works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, 18^th and 19^th-centuries, and from the world of modern and contemporary art.  Art is presented in historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts.

This course serves as an introduction to the ceramic arts and focuses on hand-building techniques and surface decoration. Students will learn to create original work through five assignments. Students load and fire electric and gas kilns, with occasional wood, soda, and raku firing as time and scheduling permit. Students mix glazes and make clay throughout the semester. There are lectures on artists relevant to the field of ceramics, basic glaze and clay formulation and preparation, along with lectures on technical information and contemporary ceramics discourse. Short papers may be assigned for research. Several critiques concerning class assignments will be conducted throughout the semester.

Elementary techniques, steps, and performance skills for rhythm and show tap styles; enhancement of rhythmic ability through exercises, improvisation, creative activities; may include history of tap. Tap shoes required.

The course is for non-music majors only and consists of one half-hour weekly lesson plus a weekly seminar. 

While exact requirements vary by discipline (e.g. piano, voice, cello) students should expect to rehearse a minimum of three hours a week.

For permission to register please email the Course Supervisor listed for the specific instrument of interest. Registration is under separate section numbers for bassoon, cello, clarinet, composition, euphonium, flute, horn, oboe, organ, percussion, piano, saxophone, string bass, trombone, trumpet, tuba, viola, violin and voice. 

Unless noted it is the responsibility of the student to arrange lesson times with the instructor before the end of the first week of classes. 

Students enrolling for Voice will be contacted by the Instructor to arrange the private lesson time no later than the first week of classes. 

The German-speaking countries are well-known for their great musicians and composers as well for their long-standing musical traditions and institutions. This course examines how German musicians, writers, and philosophers have explored the meaning of music, or sounded its depths. Drawing on short-stories, novellas, critical essays, as well as operas, we consider how German authors have sought to affirm and to gauge the significance of musical experience by viewing it through a variety of lenses ? moral, social, political, historical, philosophical, and religious. Texts by Rousseau, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Kleist, A.B. Marx, Kierkegaard, M?rike, Nietzsche, Th. Mann, Kafka, and Adorno. Operas by Mozart, Wagner, and Brecht/Weill. Conducted in English. No musical background required. Freshmen and sophomores welcome.

Schedule note: Tuesday sessions will be 75 minutes long (4:30-5:45 p.m.), except for four dates (to be determined), when they will be 135 minutes long (4:30-6:45). On these occasions, we will view feature-length films depicting German operas, followed by discussion. Thursday sessions are always 4:30-5:45, as shown.

German majors and minors may apply this course to their requirement for literature or elective courses taught in German if they complete additional tasks in German as assigned by the instructor. There is a limit of two such courses for the major in German and one such course for the minor in German.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Why are we so fond of figures of cyborgs and monsters in literature and film? And why are we drawn to stories about the fantastic, the supernatural, stories that creep up on us and make us shudder? This course examines how cyborgs and monsters challenge the boundaries of what it means to be human and what promise they hold for redefining the future. In many ways, encounters with monsters and monstrous bodies investigate our relationship with ‘the Other’—which, as it turns out, is often part of ourselves. In this course we examine some of the foundational texts that have provoked in readers and viewers the affect of the uncanny, from Kafka’s short story “Metamorphosis,” to E.T.A Hoffmann’s writings on automata and the story “The Sandman” that was the basis of Freud’s essay on the uncanny. As we trace the uncanny as an aesthetic concept that conveys eerie, creepy, unsettling and haunting feelings, we will also discuss how literary representations of the uncanny were translated in architecture, especially memorial architecture (Jewish Museum Berlin). Early representations of automata in E.T.A Hoffmann raise the question of why we find human-like robots so creepy. To explore these questions we will read short texts from Mori and Baudrillard to complement Freud’s analysis of the uncanny. We will also investigate the gendering of cyborg bodies by analyzing such classics as Lang’s Metropolis and Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto. Then we will analyze how the genre of horror films evolved from early classics such as Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) and Wegener’s The Golem (1920) to the later series of Dracula and Frankenstein film by directors Whale and Branagh. Finally, we will also discuss Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and its most recent sequel Bladerunner 2049 (2017).

Course taught in English. Students can enroll for a 4th credit hour if they are majors/minor and complete additional assignments (research paper) for the 4th credit hour. Satisfies the GE requirement in Literary, Visual and Performing Arts.

Themes in Global Art is designed for students with no art history background. It is a cross-cultural course that explores key themes in art from a global perspective. We will be comparing and contrasting the many ways that different nations and ethnic populations throughout history have expressed their social, political, and religious values in visual form. Some of the international themes in art that we will study include: propaganda and power, social functions of art, ritual and self-expression (such as tattoos and body mutilation), and religion and the divine realm. The course requirements include unit assessments that are partly multiple-choice and true/false questions and partly short-answer essays.

This course has online proctored exams, all of which will be administered via Proctorio, an online proctoring service. Generally, students will need: a computer with 2 GB of free RAM a reliable internet connection a webcam capable of scanning the testing environment a working microphone a quiet, private location the Google Chrome browser with the Proctorio extension installed. More information will be available on the syllabus.

Italy is home of an estimated 60% of the world’s art treasures. It is also the 8^th largest economy in the world by GDP. How are these two factors related? How do the Italian art and business spheres interact? This course will explore Italy’s centuries-old artistic tradition with a twofold purpose: first, to familiarize students with some of the most important manifestations of Italian culture; second, to help them reflect on how the arts have been informing business initiatives. By encompassing different periods and forms of expression, this course will investigate the works that have made Italy synonymous with beauty and will examine how Italy’s artistic tradition has influenced the country’s industrial and business development. Through detailed analyses of literary and visual texts, students will learn how to critically approach a work of art and will consider how arts-based inquiry can enhance value-creation capacity and business success."

No previous knowledge of art or business is required

Introduction to growing literary production of varied Latino communities (e.g., Chicano, Puerto Rican American/Nuyorican, Cuban American) that have a strong presence in the United States; recent literary production from borderland transcultural spaces with physical, cultural, economic, political, and mythical elements; visions of the United States from contemporary Latin American writers who recently have become U.S. residents. Grading is based on participation, written responses to readings, a group presentation, two midterms and a final exam. Taught in English.  This course counts toward the Latina/o/x Studies minor.  See the Latina/o/x Studies website for more information about the minor.

For non-art majors. It covers fundamental 3-D design principles and appreciation of contemporary jewelry and metal art works. Students will learn fundamental techniques and materials in jewelry and metal arts, as well as experimentation with diverse media.

Visions of Life across Cultures

We will read works of poetry and fiction by modern and contemporary authors from four continents, who write about the self in relation to society, nature, history, and even the universe. Translators of several if the works will join our discussions and help us understand how they have crossed cultures when recreating the works in English. The assignments for the course will encourage creative responses to the readings. Texts include Hotel Tito, Perfect Cemetery, Diaries of Exile, and Difficult Light.

This is the foundational course for the study of Art History, the discipline devoted to the skillful wrapping of words around images. The class surveys the history of western art, from pre-historic cave paintings through the age of Gothic cathedrals, touching along the way on the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the early medieval world. In richly illustrated lectures and weekly discussion sections, students will be invited to consider big questions such as: What do we really mean by “art”? What roles has art played in pre-modern societies? How can study of ancient and medieval art contribute valuable perspectives on modern art and culture? Or, more specifically, why was the Old Capitol in Iowa City designed to look somewhat like a Greek temple? By the end of the course, students will have gained familiarity with the broad outlines of western artistic tradition through the late Middle Ages, and they will also have developed valuable skills in decoding and writing about visual imagery, which can be useful in analyzing everything from political advertisements to website design.

Intermediate technique and performance training in modern dance.  Flexibility, strength, body alignment and breath lay a foundation for the introduction of more advanced aspects of dance artistry including musicality, mobility, balance, and improvisation.  Variations in timing and changes of facing are also explored.  Students are graded on the basis of classroom work (including expressiveness, growth, consistency, retention of corrections, focus, musicality, attendance, and attitude), performance critiques, movement and/or written exams.      

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of ballet.  It is intended to enhance the beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through ballet technique.  Activities will include barre and center combinations.  Terminology will be stressed during class, detailed in handouts, and included in exams.  Content may include the history of ballet.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques. 

This course provides an overview of relief and monotype printmaking. We will learn basic techniques, the operation and use of tools and materials to craft multiple and reproducible works of art. We will also discuss the history of printmaking by looking at works by professional printmakers, both historical and contemporary, for inspiration. Through the process of printmaking, we will also learn to combine the elements of design and principles of art to create successful and thoughtful compositions. There are usually 4-5 projects completed over the course of the semester and most of the work happens in a communal print studio setting.

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of jazz dance.  It is intended to enhance beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through jazz technique.  Class is structured around a warm-up leading to locomotion across the floor and center combinations.  Content may also include the history of jazz dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  

This course provides an introduction to the craft of playwriting.  Students will focus on the fundamentals of writing for the stage, including playwriting structure, creating characters, writing dialogue and building plays.  Coursework includes in-class writing, regular writing assignments, and the reading of plays.

Engineering students, as well as students of other disciplines, are encouraged to enroll.

Representative plays as performed in social contexts of ancient Egypt; classical Greece, Rome, India, and Japan; and medieval and early modern Europe. Duplicates THTR:2410.

This course offers a fun and exciting way to learn about world history through the theatre. We study plays not just as texts on the page but as performance events that reveal a great deal about how people in different societies through time saw themselves and their world. Considering Ancient Egyptian influences and moving into Classical Greece, Rome, India, Japan, and Medieval and Renaissance Europe, we read plays–including works by Aeschylus, Shakespeare, and Aphra Behn, one of the earliest known women playwrights–that range from shocking tragedy to bawdy comedy. Course material is covered through lectures accompanied by audio/visual presentations and once-weekly discussion sections. Special attention is given to helping students improve their writing as they fulfill course requirements. Primary assignments include a mid-term and a final exam in short-answer and essay format, attendance at two University Theatre productions, and a five-page analytical paper.

Theories related to human development and visual arts; use of visual arts to make meaning out of experience; ways to integrate visual arts into everyday life; cognitive and physical processes involved in making, understanding, and looking at visual art; theories of cognitive development; role of visual art in education; introduction to art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics.

For more than a thousand years, the literature of ancient Rome has wielded a major influence over Western culture. From Dante and Shakespeare to J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins, Western authors have continually returned to the masterpieces of Roman literature for edification and inspiration. In this course, we will study many of these works, including Vergil’s Aeneid, the Roman national epic, Cicero’s Pro Caelio, a famous defense speech by Rome’s greatest orator, and Livy’s History of Rome, the major source for the myths and legends of early Rome. By studying these and other works, we will gain a better understanding not only of Roman history, culture, and society, but of the numerous ways in which Roman literature has influenced—and continues to influence—the modern world.

What makes music great? What makes a great musician? The concept of “great musician” and the consequent notion of “good music” is central to how we experience and talk about music and musical performance. This course aims to both survey a wide variety of “great musicians”—from Bach to Fatboy Slim—and encourage critical assessment of how we determine “greatness” in musical expression. Selected musicians will be studied within the framework of four themes: Music and Religious Life, Music and Theater, Music and Politics, and Music and Place. 

Course requirements include one 5-minute presentation, three short writing assignments, listening quizzes, and two exams.

What is this thing called jazz, and why is it important? Despite what you’ve heard, it’s not just for grandmothers anymore! This course will serve as a guided introduction to jazz, allowing students to acquaint themselves with the anatomy of the music, explore its cultural context and develop the skills to become an informed listener.  How does one tell the difference between the trumpet of Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, or the saxophone of Charlie Parker and Kenny G?  The class will cover the process of performing jazz music, the music’s connection with Black culture, and focused listening/analysis of the work of prominent jazz artists from past and present, which will include the intersection between jazz and hip hop. No formal music experience/training necessary to enroll.

Exploration of creative nonfiction genres through readings, discussion, and writing exercises; introduction to workshop environment.

A course exploring genres of creative nonfiction through readings, discussions, writing exercises, and writing itself. Students experience a workshop environment in which class members read, discuss, respond to, and critique the drafts their fellow students produce. Course readings, assignments, and exercises model the many modes of nonfiction for student writers. For beginning non-English majors.

Representative plays as performed in social contexts of revolutionary and modern Europe and postwar United States. Duplicates THTR:2411.

Focusing on the romantic and rebellious impulses of theatre artists and audiences, this course explores how plays in performance have both revolutionized and reinforced social structures, perceptions, and values from the early modern era to the present. Course units cover plays dealing with rebellions of and within the middle and lower classes from the French to the Russian Revolutions; modernist revolts against artistic and social conventions in the decades around the world wars; and diverse challenges to the American dream in the postwar period. Course material is covered through lectures, audio/video presentations, group discussions, and attendance at University Theatre productions. Grading is based chiefly on the quality of essay assignments and exams, and participation in class discussion.

Where does music come from? When, why, and how did people first start making music? How do music creators turn raw inspiration into finished pieces? How do improvisers create music on the spot? Can anyone create music, or is that something only for composers?  This course will provide answers to these questions and more, tracing the development of music creation from long ago up to the present day.  The course will include presentations by a number of guest composers and performers who will demonstrate how they compose or improvise music their music. Course work will include reading articles and selections from books, viewing videos, and listening to audio track.

Assessment will be through daily assignments, quizzes, and midterm and final projects. There will be two lecture/presentation sessions plus one discussion/workshop session each week. Workshop session will often be experiential, providing direct experience into what it’s like to be a composer and an improviser.

This course is intended for non-music majors only. 

The Beatles are arguably the most influential popular music artists in history.  In many ways, their careers reflected and shaped the culture of their time.  In this course students will explore the impact influences such as rock ‘n’ roll, gigs in Hamburg, world tours, the drug culture, the Avant Garde, non-western instruments and philosophy, anti-war sentiments, and world politics had on the Beatles’ music. We will examine the development, maturation, and demise of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership as well as the role George Martin and his engineers played in turning the Beatles’ sonic explorations into hit singles and groundbreaking records. Concurrently students will critique the impact Beatlemania had on British and American cultures as well as its role in opening up Eastern Europe to the West.  Innovations made in the recording and marketing of albums and films, and the difficulties the group encountered in managing royalties, copyrights, and various business ventures are covered.  Students will view several of the Beatles’ various television appearances and films and develop an in-depth understanding of their music.  Students will gain knowledge of British and American cultural history through the “window” the Beatles and their music provide. 

This course is open to all students; including non-music majors.  

Continuation of DANC:1020; skills for technique and performance of jazz dance; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz dance.

This course builds on the foundation of skills necessary for the technique and performance of jazz dance.  It is intended to enhance the continuing student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through jazz technique.  Class is structured around a warm-up leading to locomotion across the floor and center combinations.  Content may include the history of jazz dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

This course examines how theater has both reflected and created social structures, perceptions, and values in ancient Egypt; classical Greece, Rome, India, and Japan; and medieval and early modern Europe. Representative plays, ranging from shocking tragedy to bawdy comedy and including works by Shakespeare and the earliest known women playwrights, are analyzed as performed events within their respective historical contexts. Course material is covered through lectures, extensive use of audio/visual presentations, and group discussions. Assignments include weekly play and text readings, a research paper, and periodic exams, including a final exam. Grading is based chiefly on the quality of papers, exams, and participation in discussion.

Introduction to filmmaking principles; how to shoot and edit short videos utilizing smartphone technology; methods to produce high-quality work without professional equipment.

Everyone writes little plays in their head – what will you talk about on your date tonight, what are you going to say to your boss about that mistake you made? Sometimes we even act them out – we flatter that person we see in the mirror or imagine ourselves winning an argument with an unseen opponent. In this course, The Art of the Theatre, you’ll discover new ways of writing and acting. You’ll spend about six weeks learning the fundamentals of acting, five weeks focusing on dramatic writing, and four weeks working in small groups to create short, theatrical pieces that you’ll present for the class. You‘ll attend three theatre productions, read and discuss two or three plays, and complete short written assignments. You’ll also look at the role of the arts in society and how theatre explores social and personal issues. The course is taught in groups of about 16 by graduate students under the supervision of a faculty member. Regular attendance is required.

Scandinavian crime fiction has attracted global attention, and the works of many contemporary Scandinavian mystery novelists have been translated into English. Scandinavian mysteries range from police procedurals to psychological thrillers and typically provide a window into the culture, environment, and geography of their settings and offer an underlying commentary on political, social, and economic issues. The exploration of Scandinavian mystery novels and film adaptations will introduce students to the genre of crime fiction, provide them with an overview of mystery writing in Scandinavia, and introduce them to the work of contemporary authors. It also serves as a medium for acquiring knowledge about the geography, culture, and society of the countries of Scandinavia. Taught in English.

The cultural narrative of popular women musicians offers a unique view from which to study American and British history and society.  From Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith to Madonna, the Spice Girls, Alanis Morissette, Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Pink and Adele, female performers have challenged and redefined the manner in which the music industry and fans respond to issues of gender, sexuality, identity, authenticity, and artistry.  In this course students examine the history of popular women musicians and the influence their lyrics, music and performances have had on American and British culture.  Concurrently students explore the impact which civil rights, the British Invasion (i.e. the Beatles and the Rolling Stones), second wave feminism, the counterculture, social injustices, war, music education, rock festivals and charity concerts have had on women’s music careers.

Our exploration cuts across cultures and ethnicity as we analyze the rise and fall of early girl groups such as the Shirelles, the Supremes, and the Ronettes, the dynamics of mixed gender groups including The Mamas and the Papas, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, and Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, and the social lyricism of Joan Baez, Sinéad O’Connor, Suzanne Vega, and Tracy Chapman.  Through the lens of female performers’ unfamiliarity with their precursors, the construction of canon will be critiqued.  

Literary history of Iowa City from the founding of Writers' Workshop to its designation as a UNESCO City of Literature.