MUSC 0021: Manifestos: Art, Politics and the Idea of Progress

Meeting times: Tues/Thurs 2:30-3:50 Location: Granoff Center, Room N430 Professor: Dana Gooley Email: [email protected] Office hours: Monday 11:30-1:00, Thursday 4:00-5:00, and by appointment

Summary: Ever since Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their “Communist Manifesto” (1848), artists, activists and politicians have used manifestos to announce radical change and justify provocative new ideas or practices. This seminar examines the manifesto as a genre of writing with a particularly strong influence on artistic movements in 20th century modernism, such as Futurism, , and . Looking at examples by poets, musicians, and visual artists, we consider how manifestos are informed by visions of progress, social action, political efficacy, and artistic or historical necessity. Authors include Karl Marx, Richard Wagner, Edvard Munch, F. T. Marinetti, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Diego Rivera and .

Course goals:

• Examine how manifestos are related to the art works and movements they are intended to announce, explain, or call forth • Develop critical thinking and writing skills through close analysis of manifestos. We will consider how manifestos straddle the gap between rational argument, exhortation, poetry and prophecy, and through this learn about some of the basic tensions in persuasive writing and rhetoric. • Develop independence in research by getting familiar with university resources and learning how to find things you need to answer research questions • Develop your skills in oral presentation through in-class presentations and peer critique Assignments and Grading: 20% Participation and communication. This includes preparation for class discussion, participation in the class exhibit “Art of the Manifesto,” and open communication with the professor about deadlines, difficulties, absences, extensions, etc. 20% Short writing assignments. Regular short writing assignments, one-per-week on average, 2-3 pages on average, will prompt you to reflect on the readings and be used to refine your writing and editing skills. 25% Two shorter papers, 5-6 pages. Deadlines: Friday October 4 and Monday November 4. 15% Presentations. In pairs, you will give a formal, 15-minute presentation on one artistic movement and its associated manifestos. They will be graded on organization, economy of time use, sharpness of critical insight, and use of presentation materials. 20% Final paper. You will write a 10-12 page research paper about a manifesto of your choice, discussed in relation to specific art works and its historical context. Deadline: Friday December 16 at noon.

Manifestos Exhibit

On Tuesday November 26 we will install a manifesto exhibit in the hallways of the Creative Arts Center. The planning for this exhibit will take place in our seminar and on the course blog. The goal of the exhibit is to select strong excerpts from the manifestos and display them for passersby in a way that is engaging and mutually illuminating. This is a collective creative project in which everyone is expected to participate equally, and it will form part of your participation grade. We will make decisions collectively about what excerpts to display and about the design. The prospective title is “Art of the Manifesto.” Required books:

André Breton, Manifestos of Surrealism, available at Brown Bookstore 100 Artists’ Manifestos, edited by A. Danchev, order from Amazon (bookstore cannot order) Course Website: http://canvas.brown.edu Course reserves login: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/reserves/ Course reserves password: manifesto Location of books on reserve: Rock

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Attendance policy: I require attendance at all class meetings without exception. You are excused for absences based on illness and emergency situations. For such absences I require advance notice (when possible) and a note from the infirmary. Malfunctioning alarms, parking problems, and oversleeping are not legitimate excuses.

Special course rules: • You must be present Tuesday November 26, two days before Thanksgiving, or you may not take the course. Please do not request an exception based on the difficulty of booking travel. Once class enrollment is settled, we may be able to consider doing the installation on Monday November 25, but that would require everyone’s presence. • I only read email at [email protected]. I do not read or respond to messages on Canvas because it is difficult to organize. • When a short paper is due, you are required to bring a paper copy to class for peer review. Printer problems are not rare. I therefore require that you upload a digital copy on Canvas one hour before the start of class. All short paper deadlines are at 1:30 on the relevant day, whether it is a draft or a revision.

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Week 1: Introduction

September 5

Writing Lesson: • Easy Typographic & Formatting Fixes

Week 1: Futurism

September 10

Readings: • Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” (1909) • Marjorie Perloff, excerpt from The Futurist Moment

Writing Lesson: • Quotation Formatting

September 12

Readings: • Umberto Boccioni, “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture” (1912) • Luigi Russolo, “The Art of Noises” (1913)

Writing Lesson: • Incorporating Quotations

Week 2: Dada

September 17

Readings: • Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto” (1918) • , “Dada Manifesto” (1916) • , “First German Dada Manifesto” (1918)

Writing Lesson: • Passive Voice

September 19

Readings: • , “DADA Manifesto” (1920) • Picabia, “Dada Excites Everything” (1921)

Writing Lesson: • Colloquial vs. Formal Usage

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Week 3: Surrealism

September 24

Readings: • André Breton, “[First] Manifesto of Surrealism,” (1924), pp. 1-29

Writing Lesson: • Connecting Ideas (I)

September 26

Readings: • André Breton, “First Surrealist Manifesto,” pp. 29-47 (1924) • Excerpt from Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” in The Freud Reader ed. by Peter Gay, pp. 127-142

Writing Lesson: • Connecting Ideas (II)

Week 4: Surrealism

October 1

Readings: • André Breton, “Second Manifesto of Surrealism” (1930), pp. 124-31, 140-63 • André Breton and Diego Rivera, “Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art” (1938)

Writing Lesson: • Conciseness

October 3

Readings: • Salvador Dalí, “Photography, Pure Creation of the Mind” (1927) • Salvador Dalí, “Yellow Manifesto” (1928) Writing Lesson: • Prepositions & Avoiding “To Be”

Short Film: • An Andalusian Dog

Friday, October 4: 5-6 page paper due 5:00 PM, on one movement

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Week 5: History of the Manifesto

October 8

Readings: • Karl Marx, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848)

Writing Lesson: • Punctuation

October 10

Readings: • Richard Wagner, “Art and Revolution” (1849) • Plot summary of Wagner’s Lohengrin

Listening: • Prelude to Lohengrin (stream on Naxos Music Library or Classical Music Online)

Week 6: Symbolism & The Blue Rider

October 15

Readings: • Jean Moréas, excerpt from “Symbolism” (1886) • James Abbott McNeill Whistler, “The Ten O’Clock” (1885) • Baudelaire, “Correspondences” (in translation, 1857) • Mallarmé, “Afternoon of a Faun” (in translation, 1876)

Writing Lesson: • Common Phrasing Mistakes

October 17

Readings: • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Woodcut-manifesto (1906) • Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, “Preface” to The Blue Rider (1912) • Franz Marc, excerpt from The Blue Rider (1912)

Required blog response on Canvas: What’s in a Wikipedia entry?—testing “Manifesto”

Week 7: Russian Art & Constructivism

October 22

Readings: • Kasimir Malevich, “Suprematist Manifesto” (1916) • Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevser, “The Realistic Manifesto” (1920)

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Writing Lesson: • Phrases to Avoid (I)

October 24

Readings: • Kasimir Malevich, “Suprematism” (1927)

Writing Lesson: • Phrases to Avoid (II)

Week 8: De Stijl & Bauhaus

October 29

Readings: • et al., “Manifesto I of De Stijl” (1918) • Piet Mondrian, “Neoplasticism in Painting” (1917)

Writing Lesson: • Phrases to Avoid (III)

October 31

Readings: • Walter Gropius, “What is Architecture?” (1919) • Walter Gropius, “Manifesto of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar” (1919)

Monday, November 4: 5-6 page paper due at 12:00 PM, on the manifesto as genre

Week 9: Manifestos by Women

November 5

Readings: • Valentine de Saint-Point, “Manifesto of Futurist Woman” (1912) [p. 213] • Valentine de Saint-Point, “Futurist Manifesto of Lust” (1913) • Minna Loy, “Feminist Manifesto” (1914) [p. 611] • Sonia Delaunay, “The Future of Fashion” (1931) • Valerie Solanas, excerpt from “S.C.U.M. Manifesto” (1967)

November 7 – Class meeting cancelled

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Week 10: Afterhistory: Post-WWII Manifestos

November 12

Readings: • Lucio Fontana et alia, “White Manifesto” (1946, in 100) • Jiro Yoshihara, “The Gutai Manifesto” (1956, in 100)

November 14

Readings: • George Maciunas, “ manifesto” (1963, in 100) • Guy DeBord, excerpt from The Society of the Spectacle (1967)

Week 11: Manifestos Exhibit & Final Paper

November 19

Exhibit proposals • Content (Which manifestos and which quotations should be included?) • Materials (What should the exhibit be composed of?) • Layout (How should the exhibit be presented? Shape? Size? Images? etc.) • Fonts and Colors (Which fonts? Many fonts or one? Which colors and how many? No color at all?)

November 21

Make final decisions and wrap up exhibit planning

Final Paper Step 1: Browse the library stacks and write and post a “browsing report” about your experience.

Week 12: Manifestos Exhibit & Final Paper

November 26

Assemble Manifestos Exhibit in Granoff Center

Final Paper Step 2: Search for books and articles using online databases and post your preliminary bibliography as well as a short report on your search.

November 28 – No class due to Thanksgiving holiday

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Week 13: Final Paper

December 3

Presentations

Final Paper Step 3: Begin writing. Have a 10-page draft ready by December 9th. Write in your log about your progress.

Appointment with Professor about final paper is required by this date

December 5

Presentations

Week 14: Final Paper

December 10 – Last day of class

Final Paper due Friday, December 16th at 12PM.

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