First-Year Courses in RC Humanities (Division 865)

Fall Term, 1999 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Most RC courses are open to LS&A students and may be used to meet distribution requirements. In most instances, RC students receive priority for RC course waitlists.

Creative Writing

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Warren Hecht (whecht@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Suggested assignment: 1250 words of prose fiction every two weeks. Rewriting is emphasized. The class meets as a group up to two hours per week. Collections of short fiction by established writers are read. Every student meets privately with the instructor each week.

Creative Writing

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Ken Mikolowski (mikolows@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The amount of poetry each student is required to submit is determined by the instructor. The class meets three hours per week as a group. In addition, each student receives private criticism from the instructor every week. Contemporary poetry is read and discussed in class for style. Students are organized into small groups that meet weekly.

Creative Writing

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Carolyn Balducci (balducci@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Individualized instruction, group discussion, and readings aim at the development of original story ideas and the perfection of narrative techniques relevant to the authorship of children's books. Preliminary assignments – picture book, folklore-narrative, and media – prepare each student for a self-directed final project. No prerequisites; however, a thorough reading background in children's books – or the willingness to compensate for its lack – is presumed. Please do not take this course expecting "lectures" about children's books or child development. This is a writing course emphasizing story-writing skills and aesthetics.

Comparative Literature

Section 001 – Mandatory Film Viewings Wednesday evenings from 7-9:00.

Instructor(s): Fred Peters (fgpeters@umich.edu) , Hugh Cohen

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

In this course we shall study foundational texts from the Greek, Old Testament, New Testament, and Medieval worlds and a number of modern works – books, essays, and films – that employ the themes and situations originally set forth in these classical works.

First, we shall examine literature central to the world view of four cultures that have helped shape and continue to inform modern Western consciousness and art. Our focus will be on questions and perspectives concerning the individual’s relationship to the divine order, to earthly society, and to the private self that are embodied in such works as: (I) Greek literature: Homer (The Iliad or The Odyssey); Sophocles (Oedipus, Antigone); Euripedes (Medea), Plato (Socratic dialogues); (II) Old Testament: (Genesis, Job); (III): The New Testament (The Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John); (IV): Medieval literature: Dante’s The Inferno, Gottfried’s Tristan.

In conjunction with these works, we will examine, where feasible, modern counterparts (or adaptations or recreations) of the classic stories or conflicts found in these classical texts. We will read essays and novels, and see films which deal with the same or similar-and perennial-ideas and conflicts. (We will also examine those values and experiences expressed in the original works that seem alien to modern consciousness.) Some of the modern works we will scrutinize are Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, Max Frisch’s Homo Faber, Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.

The chief merit of our approach, besides giving the student the opportunity to read and see important and exciting stories, is in the juxtaposing of the old and the new so as to make the student more appreciative of the rootedness in the past of many of our current ideas, problems, and situations. There will be two papers and a midterm and final exam.

Arts and Ideas

Section 001 – Students are Required to Attend Film Viewing on Tuesday and Thursday Evenings Between 7-9 PM or 9-11 PM. Students Must also Register for Friday Afternoon Discussion Section.

Instructor(s): Hugh Cohen

Credits: (4).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($45) required.

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See Film and Video Studies 236.001.

Music

Section 001 – Instrumental. (Drop/Add deadline=September 28).

Instructor(s): Maria Barna (barkar@umich.edu)

Mini/Short course

Credits: (1-2; 1 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

No audition required. All students who are interested in participating in instrumental ensembles may enroll for one or two hours of credit. The second hour of credit is at the discretion of the instructor. Every student must elect section 001 for one hour; those students who will fulfill the requirements for two hours of credit MUST also elect Section 002 (with an override from the instructor) for the additional hour of credit.

For one hour of credit students must participate in two ensembles; for two credit hours, students must participate in the large ensemble and two smaller ones. Responsibilities include three to four hours of rehearsal time per week per credit hour (i.e., 6-8 hours of practice and rehearsal for 2 credits) and participation in one or more concerts per term, if appropriate. Course may be used to fulfill the Residential College's Arts Practicum Requirement.

Ensembles have included: mixed ensembles of strings and winds; brass quintet; intermediate recorders; string quartet; woodwind quintet; and some other duos and trios, including piano and harpsichord.

Music

Section 001 – The Blues As Music, The Blues As Life: Issues in Study of Blues in American Culture.

Instructor(s): Tamar Barzel (tamab@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/1999/fall/lsa/rchum/251/001.nsf

This discussion-based course takes the approach that in order to appreciate blues music deeply, you must understand its place in American culture – and in order to appreciate American culture, you have to understand the blues. With its cultural foundations in the African American experience, the blues is more than just sounds – it is also a philosophy, an aesthetic system and a potent social force. To achieve a deeper understanding of the power of blues music in America, this course offers interested students an opportunity to listen to and reflect on a wealth of great music. Listening tapes will include:

• Bessie Smith singing Classic blues
• Robert Johnson singing Delta blues
• Muddy Waters singing Urban blues

Finally, while no musical experience is required, students are invited to play and discuss their own music as it relates to issues raised in class. A combination of listening, lectures, journals, discussion, and student presentations will make this course a multi-faceted learning experience that encourages respectful engagement – both with other students and with the complex and compelling music called the blues.

Music

Section 001 – Music of Southeast Asia. This course meets the RC's Arts Practicum requirement.

Instructor(s): Susan Walton (swalton@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Bali, Java, Thailand, and many other areas in Southeast Asia have for years held a fascination for Western social scientists, travelers and artists. This area of the world is especially renowned for the richness and variety of its performing arts traditions. These include social, court and ritual dances, music of bronze and bamboo ensembles, and elaborate theatrical traditions – all of which arise from complex mixes of Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, and animist traditions.

This course consists of two parts: surveying the major musical genres of SE Asia (in an RC classroom) and learning to play the music of the Javanese gamelan orchestra in my home, 12 minutes by foot from the RC. This course meets the RC's Arts Practicum requirement.

The survey part of the course will show how music, dance, and theatrical forms are linked to the cultures from which they spring and how they both express and challenge traditional values. The complex and shifting relationships between the performing arts, religion, and ritual will be a major focus of our inquiry. We will ask the following kind of questions: What impact has Westernization and industrialization had on traditional musical forms, especially in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand? How do Indonesian youth transform American rock music into musical idioms expressive of traditional Islamic values? How are the ambiguities between spectators and performers and between the past, present, and future related to Burmese cosmological concepts? The musical cultures of Indonesia (Bali, Java, and Sumatra) will be the main focus of our inquiry, but the musics of Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, and the Philippines will also be surveyed. Video tapes, cassette recordings, and slides will complement the lectures.

In the musical practice part of the course, students will learn to play many of the instruments of the gamelan: gongs and racks of horizontally suspended gongs, metallophones and drums. Since the intervals and scales used are entirely different from western ones, learning to sing with this ensemble will be especially interesting. We will learn many of the pieces orally, as the Javanese do, but we will also learn to read the Javanese cipher notation system. Javanese music is structured in cycles. Part of the function of the course is to show how the specific musical elements are expressive of basic cultural views. Cycles are evident not only in the musical system but also in calendric and cosmological concepts. All are welcome: no prerequisites and no prior experience expected.

Music

Section 001 – Mixed Choral Ensemble. (Drop/Add deadline=September 28). This course meets the RC Arts Practicum requirement.

Instructor(s): Katherine Fitzgibbon

Mini/Short course

Credits: (1).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Four-part works from a variety of musical styles are rehearsed and prepared for performance in concert. Meets twice weekly. Vocal skills, sight singing, musicianship, and ensemble singing are stressed. No prerequisites, but a commitment to the group and musical growth within the term are required. No audition necessary. Meets the RC Arts Practicum requirement.

Music

Section 001 – Basic Technique for Singers and Actors, Including the Alexander Technique.

Instructor(s): Jane Heirich (jheirich@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is open to students who want to develop their voices for speaking and singing, to sing more comfortably, and to maintain vocal health. The course is directed towards singers (with or without previous vocal training), speech, and acting students, and those who want to find out if they can sing. Most voices are undeveloped (or under-developed), and we can learn how to develop our vocal equipment for whatever our own purpose. Because our voices are housed within us, we must consider the whole voice-body-mind as the subject of our study.

Ms. Heirich is a STAT and NASTAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, and this body of work will inform all that we do in the course. The class meets together on Mondays and Fridays from 1-3 P.M. Your schedules should TEMPORARILY remain flexible between 12-5 on Wednesdays for scheduling of small group sessions. This scheduling will be completed by the end of the first class meeting – Friday, September 11.

There will be one required text, some optional readings, daily preparation, and an individual or team project required. LS&A guidelines for 4-credit courses expect 3 hours of work per credit, hence, you should be prepared accordingly. With more than 4 hours in “class” (a weekly average of 6.25 hours, which includes the small group and individual lessons), there will be proportionally less expected of you outside of class. The required reading will be Miracles Usually Can’t Be Learned, a basic vocal text by Jane Heirich, available as a course pack.

Arts and Ideas

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Beth Genné (genne@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is an introduction to the study of dance history, criticism and aesthetics. What is dance? How can we analyze it in terms of form and “content”? What is the role of the dancer and choreographer? How can we distinguish different styles of dance? This introductory course is a basic survey of American and European dance concentrating on nineteenth- and twentieth-century dance forms including French and Russian classical ballet, American and European modern dance, African American jazz forms, and dance on film. Choreographers and dancers considered will include Coralli and Perrot, Marius Petipa, Mikhail Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Katherine Dunham, Merce Cunningham, Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson, John Bubbles, Gene Kelly, Twyla Tharp, and Mark Morris. Texts will include Selma Jeanne Cohen’s Dance as a Theatre Art, Deborah Jowitt’s Time and the Dancing Image and Susan Au’s Dance and Ballet and we will also read some dance critics including Gautier, Levinson, Martin, and Croce.

Drama

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Bert Cardullo (cardullo@umich.edu)

Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course aims to introduce students to the power and variety of theatre, and to help them understand the processes which go toward making a production. Five to seven plays will be subjects of special study, chosen to cover a wide range of style and content, but interest will not be confined to these. Each student will attend two lectures weekly, plays a two-hour meeting in section each week; the latter will be used for questions, discussions, exploration of texts, and other exercises. Students will be required to attend two or more theatre performances, chosen from those available in Ann Arbor. Three papers are required plus a final examination.

Arts and Ideas

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Beth Genné (genne@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The nineteenth century was marked not only by revolutionary changes in society but by artistic revolution. By the beginning of the twentieth century the conventions of style and subject matter of virtually every major art form – painting, music, dance, and literature – had been radically altered and the role of the artist in society had been radically redefined. This interdisciplinary course will examine some of these changes and offer an introduction to major movements in European art and cultural history of the nineteenth century – Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism – by analyzing and comparing representative works of literature, dance, music, and the visual arts. Among possible works studied will be paintings by Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh, novels by Zola, Brontë, and Flaubert, music of Berlioz and Debussy, and ballets of Perrot and Bournonville.

We’ll be asking some of the following kinds of questions: What is the revolution of style and subject matter brought about by Romantic art? How do Coralli and Perrot’s ballet Giselle and the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz reflect these changes and the new attitude of the artist towards himself and his art? Can we find similar aims in certain realist novels of Zola and the realist painting of Courbet and Manet? Can we compare the revolution in the structure and subject matter of painting brought about by the Impressionist and Symbolist painters to the revolution in form brought to music by Debussy? What can we learn about the evolving view of women’s place in society by comparing the portrayal of women in paintings by Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet and the portrayal of women in literature by Ibsen and Edith Wharton? These and other questions will be considered by Beth Genné and class.