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Home , Gothic architecture

Art, , and the Built Environment from to Van der Rohe St. Augustine’s Center-, Spring 2020

Instructor: Dr. Gracjan Kraszewski , Director of Intellectual Formation, UI Vandal Office Hours: TBA; 6-8 hrs/weekly at St. Augustine’s Catholic Center, Univ. Idaho Classroom and Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30-9 am at St. Aug. Catholic Center-UI

Course Description and Approach A class that, after introducing students to basic concepts in design and giving them a brief look at some early structures and ideas, will dive headlong into the very Catholic architecture of the —Romanesque, Gothic, and , among others—on to modernity and post-modernity guided by the fundamental questions of what constitutes design value and how do people proclaim what they believe via the they construct?

Grading Scale and Percentages Critical Essay 20% Project 50% Final Exam (Comprehensive) 30%

Required Books 1. Tom Wolfe, From to Our House 2. James Howard Kunstler, The Geography of Nowhere 3. Michael S. Rose, Ugly as Sin

Week by Week Lecture Themes plus Reading Selections

Jan T-14: Introduction, Design Theory (What is Design?) R-16: preamble A. –Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt T-21: preamble B. –Persia, Greece and Rome R-23: Romanesque Design: European from the 8th through the 11th century T-28: Gothic Architecture and Design, Europe 1100-1500 R-30: The Renaissance

Feb T-4: The Renaissance, part II. R-6: Baroque design and the -Counter Reformation T-11: Baroque design and the Reformation-Counter Reformation, part II. R-13: The in early America, between the Revolution and the Civil War T-18: Design and antebellum America; 1789-1860. (Greek and Gothic revivalism) I. R-20: Design and antebellum America; 1789-1860. (Greek and Gothic revivalism) II. T-25:. Europe from the to the Revolutions of 1848; Neo- R-27: The American Civil War (1861-65); changes in meaning and freedom

Mar T-3: America: Reconstruction & the Gilded Age (1865-90); Late Victorian R-5: The Beaux-Arts style in Europe; Europe from 1848-1890. T-10: Fin de Siècle Europe, in particular , up to the Great War. R-12: The 1893 Chicago World Fair, TR, Beaux Arts-America, ‘American Renaissance’ Spring BREAK March 16-20: no class T-24: The Church in America (and abroad) at the fin de siècle/turn of the century Book 1 discussion-Wolfe.

R-26: World War I, 1914-1919, and a psychological design bomb of full severance. T-31: : (USSR+) the 1920s, Frank Lloyd Wright & , American Arts &Crafts

April R-2:The Inter-War period, 1919-1939, the world over + & a brief note on WWII, 1939-45. T-7: Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus School R-9: Bauhaus II. and design in the Soviet Union through World War II. T-14: Immediate post-War America: suburbs, interstates and the codification of Modernism (the ‘International Style’) R-16: The and Church design, etc. Book 2 discussion-Kunstler T-21: The 1960s and early 70s in Europe (+USSR) and the U.S. R-23: The proto-seeds of post-modernism in Europe (+the USSR) and the U.S., 1970s through 1990s T-28: All bets are off?: Design value, constructed meaning, and objective standards (or the lack thereof) in the 21st century and beyond; theological as well as design- oriented Book 3 discussion-Rose. R-30: In class comprehensive review

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Supplementary Information:

Monthly Lectures List

Each month, I will present a lecture in support of VandalCatholic Encounter, in coordination with Campus Ministry Here are the tentative themes, subject to change.

January 2020 Chernobyl on the Palouse; or, Любовь и Искупление в свете трагедии на Черно́быльской АЭС (fiction piece).

February 2020 Title TBA, topic: Gothic Architecture in light of Modern and Postmodern Design

March 2020 Title TBA, topic: Catholicism and the Civil War South

April 2020 Stupid, Silly Superheroes: Why comic book heroes and silver screen strongmen are woefully inadequate substitutes for men and women of heroic virtue; the