Art and Cultures across Antiquity (ACA-UF)

This course introduces the arts from their origins to the end of antiquity, as defined for these purposes by the roughly coincident dissolutions of the Gupta, Han, and Western Roman empires, focusing on how individuals and social relations are shaped in literature, the visual, plastic, and performing arts, and through music. Conceptions of the divine, the heroic, power and disenfranchisement, beauty, and love are examined within the context of the art and literature of East and South Asia, the Mediterranean world, and contiguous regions (such as Germania, Nubia, and Mesopotamia). Instructors prepare the way for Cultural Foundations II by giving some attention to the modes by which cultural transmission occurred across these regions prior to the rise of Islam.

This course focuses on the world's great traditions in literature, music, and the visual and performing arts from the most ancient civilizations to the Middle Ages. It familiarizes students with the earliest foundations of the world's major cultural traditions and the connections between these cultures. The course includes such literary works as The Odyssey, The Ramayana, andthe Shih Ching; students personally encounter foundational achievements of visual art in museums as well as learning about them in art history texts.