Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0255 - Angels and Ghosts: Walter Benjamin, Paul Klee, Wim Wenders

This seminar is based on a close, comparative reading of the critical theorist Walter Benjamin, the artist Paul Klee and the filmmaker Wim Wenders. Linking history, tragedy, desire and hope to the figures of the angel, the ghost, the puppet, the trapeze artist, and the automaton, these three authors open up an examination of materiality, abstraction, representation, the seen and the unseen, the purposeful, the ephemeral, the accidental, the heartbreaking and the playful. Their comparative treatments of cities, arcades, towers and streets will also be used to explore both the sensations of place and the operations of memory in images, texts, artifacts, and in architecture. Students will create a series of artworks, creative texts, critical reviews and analytical essays. (keywords: art history, art, architectural studies, history, film studies, critical theory, criticism, memory)

Time and Narrative This course includes both in-person and remote elements, but can accommodate fully remote students In this course, students can expect to spend 6 to 9 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.