Madness has been of interest to philosophers, psychologists, social scientists – as well as to artists. The history of art, culture and literature is filled with “mad or romantic geniuses.”, This course proposes a comparative examination of the transition of “marginalized” forms of representation from “insanity” into the field of aesthetic and cultural practice by a consideration of the art and drawing of the insane (from asylums), short story (Edgar Allen Poe), poetry (Sylvia Plath), painting (Van Gogh, Surrealism, de Kooning), and film (Ingmar Berman’s ”Through a Glass Darkly”). The course seeks a balance between critical theory (Plato, Romanticism, Avant-Garde, Feminism), close reading (engaging each person’s affective response), and developments in the changing status of the scientific, social and intellectual situation of works. Course credit may be used as English or Philosophy.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Take one 3.0 credit, 200 level course from one of the following subjects: DAH (Art History), DEN (English), DAS (Academic Studies), DVC (Visual Culture).