Art and Cultures of Modernity (ACM-UF)

This course explores the arts from the late17th/early18th-century to the post-World War II era, examining how they define and reflect both local cultural views and rapidly shifting global understandings of the world. The course considers how the diverse conceptions and conditions of modernity both shaped and were shaped by the arts around the world. Many of the issues pertinent to the course -- industrialization/urbanization; the dislocations, disasters, and opportunities that followed cross-cultural contact; colonialism, decolonization, conflicts of political ideology, and liberation struggles; fundamental redefinitions of mind, language, gender, and sexual identity -- have had very different effects in various parts of the world; instructors encourage students to explore what it means to study the arts from global perspectives and what "globalization" itself has meant and means in the context of the arts.

This course focuses on the world’s great traditions in literature, music, and the visual and performing arts from the Enlightenment through Modernity. It familiarizes students with the impact of the colonial and post-colonial eras on global developments in culture. The course covers such literary works as; A Grain of Wheat, the poetry of Adrienne Rich, and;Crime and Punishment; films like;The Battle for Algiers; the art of Picasso and Hokusai; and musical works by Stravinsky and Ali Akbar Khan.