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Apr 19, 2024
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Goucher College 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalogue PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived catalog. Programs are subject to change each academic year.
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CPEC 251 - The Responsibility of the Artist (4 Cr.) (GCR Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies area)
Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Even the lightest or fluffiest forms of entertainment ultimately have an underlying point. This course asks students to question the responsibility of the artist, of writers in particular. Do writers have a responsibility to their audience? Should their texts provide philosophical and political lenses that can help readers navigate complicated societies? Should their texts introduce audiences to complex problems and solutions, help their readers understand difficult questions about race and class? Or does literature exist outside of any prescriptions? This course will examine the difficulties inherent in producing art that has a purpose. We will look at the differences between art and agitprop, between subtlety and didactic rants. And we will discuss the purpose and meaning of contemporary literature, delving into questions of craft and art. Students will write traditional academic essays and original creative works. Students will read examples of texts that successfully merge art and politics, as well as essays that discuss these questions. Texts include The Essential Gesture, by Nadine Gordimer, What is Literature? by Jean Paul Sartre, and Being and Race, by Charles Johnson. Restricted to first-year through junior students and others with instructor permission. Students are limited to one CPE course per semester. Poliakoff-Chen.
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