Course Description
Treating the Millennium as a symbolic and literal event, this course considers how the idea of the year 2000 shaped culture both before and after the millennium's ultimately uneventful passing. Special attention will be paid to the concept of the inhuman, as conjured in contemporary art, film, television, and advertising.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to produce an extensive
research paper on specific works or issues related to the field
and the methodologies appropriate to the topic under
consideration in the course. This paper will be a detailed,
in-depth consideration of the student's chosen theme requiring
not only a demonstration of advanced research skills, but also
an articulation of the student's ability to understand and
manipulate the critical apparatus of art history.
Athena Title
MILLENNIAL CULTURE
Prerequisite
Two ARHI 3000-level courses and permission of major
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is designed to deepen students' understanding of contemporary culture and its relationship to the concept of the Millennium. Special attention will be paid to the idea of the inhuman (on film and in reality) and the relationship of this idea to the concept of the apocalypse.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction: 3 Essential Concepts: Humanism, Posthumanism and the Inhuman 2. Humanism under Fire: Inhuman Facts and Fantasies A. Vampires and the Resurgence of the Gothic B. Aliens and Abductees: Ufology, Skeptics and Hollywood C. Cyborgs: Fact, Fiction and Inevitability D. Genetic Engineering and the Image of the Replicant E. Cloning: The Double Revisited 3. The Millennial Moment in Theory, Fact and Fiction A. Millennial Cults: From Christianity to Heaven’s Gate B. The Millennium on Film: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 C. 9/11: An Apocalyptic Substitute and its Aftermath 4. After the Orgy: Some Millennial and Post Millennial Phenomena. A. The Murder of the Real: Planned Communities and the Truman Show B. The Ascension of the Virtual: Cyberspace, Videogames and Cellphones
Syllabus