ICS Calendar Title: Creative Communication: Culture, Art and Politics
ICS Course Code: ICSD 130709 F13
Instructor: Dr. Allyson Carr
Term and Year: Fall 2013
Last Updated: September, 2013
Everyone participates in the arts and culture, but who can say why? This course asks why the arts are important and addresses issues that face contemporary creators and interpreters of culture. Our aim is to develop imaginative, faith-oriented participation in the arts and culture. We will consider such topics as artistic freedom and social responsibility; communication through the arts and culture; the impact of globalization on cultural communities; the ethics of mass entertainment; the aesthetic quality of urban environments; and the role of arts in worship and interreligious dialogue. In addition to class sessions, students will use database research to enrich presentations and add to class discussions. Students who do not already have access to the University of Toronto library system will need to secure such library privileges for database access. Please contact the ICS librarian if you need access.
Theme One: Culture and the Arts
Week one orienting issue: The relationship of art and culture
Hans Georg Gadamer, “The relevance of the Beautiful” part I
Adrianna Cavarero, “A Stork for an Introduction” from Relating Narratives, pp. 1-4.
Week two orienting issue: Entertainment and the arts as a cultural good
Hans Georg-Gadamer “The Relevance of the Beautiful” parts II-III
Week three orienting issue: The arts as sources for cultural and hermeneutical tools
Richard Kearney, On Stories chapters 1, 3-5, “Where Do Stories Come From,” “Whose Story is it Anyway? The Case of Dora” ; “Testifying to History: The Case of Schindler” and “The Paradox of Testimony.”
Week four orienting issue: Artistic freedom, social responsibility and the arts
Hilary Brand and Adrienne Chaplin, Art and Soul: Signposts for Christians in the Arts chapters 14 and 15, “Art and How it Works” and “Art and Interpretation”
Lambert Zuidervaart, Art in Public, chapter 8: “Authenticity and Responsibility”
Weeks 5-13: To be discussed first week of class. Readings will be decided and assigned during the third week of class, based on class discussions. The list will be updated here; see “required readings” for a sampling of other books which will appear in these weeks.
a. Total reading: 1250 pages total, including research for project, of which approximately 40-60 pages per week is required to prepare for class.
b. In-seminar leadership: Weekly reflections by each student.
c. Description of course project: research paper, video production, or other media.
d. Description and weighting of elements to be evaluated:
Class participation: 20%
Reflections: 30%
Research project: 50%
a. Critical understanding of the role of the arts and culture in contemporary society
b. Ability to think creatively and constructively across different fields of arts-related discourse
c. Knowledge of how to participate imaginatively and faithfully in the arts and culture
Anker, Roy, et al. Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.
Brand, Hilary, and Adrienne Chaplin. Art and Soul: Signposts for Christians in the Arts. 2d ed. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2001.
Derrida, Jacques. On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. New York: Routledge, 2001. [ICS Library: JV6346 .D47 2001]
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. “On the Course of Human Spiritual Development” in Literature and Philosophy in Dialogue. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. [ICS Library: PT75 .G3 1994]
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. The Relevance of the Beautiful Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Kearney, Richard. On Stories. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Kristeva, Julia. Hannah Arendt: Life is a Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. [ICS Library: JC251 .A74 K743 2001]
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993. [ICS Library: PS3562 .O92 G5 2002]
Nussbaum, Martha. Love’s Knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. [ICS Library: BJ46 .N87 1992]
Seerveld, Calvin. Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves: Alternative Steps in Understanding Art. Toronto: Tuppance Press, 2000.
Zuidervaart, Lambert. Art in Public. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. [ICS Library: NX720 .Z85 2011]
Anker, Roy, et al. Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture and the Electronic Media. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991. [ICS Library: HQ799.2 .M35 D36]
Begbie, Jeremy. Beholding the Glory: Incarnation through the Arts. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000. [ICS Library: NX660 .B44 2000]
Brand, Hilary, and Adrienne Chaplin. Art and Soul: Signposts for Christians in the Arts. 2d ed. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2001. [ICS Library: BR115 .A8 B73]
Cashell, Kieran. Aftershock: The Ethics of Contemporary Transgressive Art. London: I. B. Tauris, 2009. [ICS Library: N6497.c39 2009]
Cavarero, Adriana. Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood. New York: Routledge, 2000. [ICS Library: PN212 .C3813 2000]
de Gruchy, John W. Christianity, Art and Transformation: Theological Aesthetics in the Struggle for Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. [ICS Library: BR115 .A8 D44 2011]
Hamera, Judith. Dancing Communities: Performance, Difference, and Connection in the Global City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Kearney, Richard. On Stories. New York: Routledge, 2002. [ICS Library: PN3353.K43 2002]
Kristeva, Julia. Hannah Arendt: Life is a Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. [ICS Library: JC251 .A74 K743 2001]
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1993. [ICS Library: PS3562 .O92 G5 2002]
Newton, Adam Zachary. Narrative Ethics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. [ICS Library: PS374 .E86 N37 1995]
Nussbaum, Martha. “Perception and Revolution: The Princess Casamassima and the Political Imagination.” In Love's Knowledge, 195-219. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. [ICS Library: BJ46 .N87 1992]
Romanowski, William D. Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2001. [ICS Library: BR526 .R64 2001]
Seerveld, Calvin. Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves: Alternate Steps in Understanding Art. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2000. [ICS Library: N72 .S6 S43 2000]
Seerveld, Calvin. “Cities As a Place for Public Artwork: A Glocal Approach” (forthcoming).
Seerveld, Calvin. “Glocal Culture.” In That the World May Believe: Essays on Mission and Unity in Honour of George Vandervelde, edited by Michael W. Goheen and Margaret O'Gara, 45-66. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. [ICS Library: BX9422.5 .T53 2006]
Seerveld, Calvin. “On Identity and Aesthetic Voice of the Culturally Displaced,” In Towards an Ethics of Community: Negotiations of Difference in a Plualist Society, edited by James H. Olthuis. Waterloo, ON: Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion by Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2000. [ICS Library: BD394 .T68 2000]
Seerveld, Calvin. Rainbows for the Fallen World: Aesthetic Life and Artistic Task. Toronto: Tuppence Press, 1980. [ICS Library: BH39 .S432 1980]
Sfar, Joann. The Rabbi’s Cat. New York: Pantheon Books, 2005.
Smith, David, and Barbara Carvill. The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality, and Foreign Language Learning. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000. [ICS Library: P53.76 .S66 2000]
Spackman, Betty. A Profound Weakness: Christians and Kitsch. Carlisle, UK: Piquant, 2005.
Tehanu (Erica Challis). “In Defense of Fantasy.” In The People’s Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Erica Challis, 18-23. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Open Road Pub., 2003. [ICS Library: PR6039 .O32 L6368 2003]
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Art in Action: Toward a Christian Aesthetic. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980. [ICS Library: BR115 .A8 W64]
Zuidervaart, Lambert. “Aesthetics.” Entry for New Dictionary of Theology (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 2010, forthcoming). Revision of an entry first published in 1988.
Zuidervaart, Lambert. Art in Public: Politics, Economics, and a Democratic Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. [ICS Library: NX720 .Z85 2011]
Zuidervaart, Lambert. “A Tradition Transfigured: Art and Culture in Reformational Aesthetics.” Faith and Philosophy 21 (July 2004): 381-92. [ICS Library: PER]
Zuidervaart, Lambert. “Creative Border Crossing in New Public Culture.” In Literature and the Renewal of the Public Sphere, edited by Susan VanZanten Gallagher and Mark D. Walhout, 206-224. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Zuidervaart, Lambert. “Postmodern Arts and the Birth of a Democratic Culture.” In The Arts, Community and Cultural Democracy, edited by Lambert Zuidervaart and Henry Luttikhuizen, 15-39. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. [ICS Library: NX180 .S6 A773 1999]
Zuidervaart, Lambert, and Henry Luttikhuizen, eds. Pledges of Jubilee: Essays on the Arts and Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995. [ICS Library: BR115 .A8 P54]
Other Resources
Adamson, Andrew, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, Donald M. McAlpine, Harry Gregson-Williams, C. S. Lewis, and Walt Disney Home Entertainment (Firm). The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2006. Videorecording.
Lin, Maya Ying. and Freida Lee Mock. Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. Santa Monica, CA: American Film Foundation, 1994, 2003. Videorecording.
Sweet Honey in the Rock. “I Remember, I Believe.” Track 1 on Sacred Ground. Earthbeat! Records, originally released 1995.
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