THE JUSTICE | TUESDAY, August 25, 2015
19
class preview
Preview of Fall Arts Courses
“JAPN 135A: Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context”
“JAPN 135A: Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context” is a course that spans many disciplines. Taught by Prof. Joshua Frydman (JAPN), the course is cross-listed in several departments including English, Music, Film, Television and Interactive Studies and East Asian Studies. The course provides an introduction to the major directors in Japanese postwar cinema. It will focus on specific areas of Japanese film, such as medium, adaptation and narrative. In order to ensure accessibility, all of the films and readings for the course are in English. The course is only offered every three years.
Cosplay is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book or video game, especially one from anime or manga. This practice was recently featured in a Buzzfeed video by The Try Guys, who cosplayed for their first time in order to learn about the practice. Cosplay’s appearance on Buzzfeed, a popular news and entertainment website, demonstrates how the community interested in Japanese anime and manga has gained popularity in recent years. Now, Brandeis students will have the opportunity to study anime, along with other kind of postwar Japanese films and tv.
—Brooke Granovsky
PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY SCOTT
IMPRESSIONISM IN ART: Prof. Nancy Scott will teach “FA 155A:
Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” this fall. The course will explore the proponents and opponents of the Impressionist movement.
“FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” One of the best known artists of all time was Claude Monet, a 19th century impressionist painter. Monet was known for promoting the Impressionist movement’s aesthetic over the course of his artistic career. Although Monet helped popularize Impressionism, he was certainly not the only artist to shape this iconic painting style. This semester, the Fine Arts department’s course “FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context,” explores the impres-
PHOTO COURTESEY OF CAREN IRR
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING: Prof. Caren Irr will teach “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” this fall. Topics range from climate fiction to the apocalypse. “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” The end of the world has long been a common theme in religion, literature and the media. Religious texts address the subject with a serious tone, warning of a final judgment day. Seth Rogen and James Franco tackled the theme with comedy in their movie “This Is The End,” and the theme’s dramatic qualities were emphasized in “World War Z.” Yet climate change, a phenomenon that sometimes promises apocalyptic qualities, rarely receives such a prominent media portrayal. Students troubled by this subject’s omis-
sionist style’s evolution and its relationship to societal change. Taught by Prof. Nancy Scott, “FA 155A: Impressionism: Avant-Garde Rebellion in Context” will look at the socio-cultural implications of a movement that attempted to shed many of paintings’ well-established conventions. The course will focus on major artists of the mid-1800s, including Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, Morisot and Cassatt. Perhaps reflective of the course’s graduate level, students will not only study the movement’s proponents but also its detractors. FA 155A will examine Impressionism indirectly
sion will have a chance to use literature to study the environment and its changes in “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing.” Under Prof. Caren Irr (ENG), “ENG 28A: Contemporary Environmental Writing” tackles literary responses to changes in the natural environment. The course focuses on environmental phenomena and pieces of literature from the past few decades. The literature will span several genres, including dystopia, thriller, climate fiction, natural history, exploration narrative and realist exposé. The course is offered every fourth year.
by learning about the academics and artists that opposed the style in order to better understand its place in culture. The course will also detail the narrative of the movement’s disillusion. FA 155A should be suited for students ready to take a critical perspective of one of art’s most influential painting styles. The course is offered once every three years, but if you don’t have a chance to enroll, you can always check out the Museum of Fine Arts’ extensive (and exquisite) Monet exhibition and take a glimpse of the movement’s most famous works.
—Brooke Granovsky
MUSIC INDUSTRY: Michele Zaccagnini will teach “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” this fall. The course will cover the financial and legal aspects of the music industry. PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELE ZACCAGNINI
—Brooke Granovsky
BRIEF Rose Art Museum It seems like any lingering questions about the Rose Art Museum’s place on campus have finally faded into the past. Over the summer, the museum received accolades from two major news publications. One was from media juggernaut the New York Times, and the other came from Architectural Digest. The Times reviewed the Rose’s Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler, and Architectural Digest placed the museum on its list of the United States’ best university art museums. A Times article titled “Review: ‘Pretty Raw’ Recounts Helen Frankenthaler’s Influence on the Art World,” published online on June 3 by Roberta Smith, lauded the museum’s bold spring exhibit. Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler showcases Frankenthaler’s work and explores the themes of control, masculinity, femininity, humor and everyday life. The exhibit was on
view last semester in the on view in the Lois Foster Gallery. Smith noted the significance of Siegel’s decision to surround Frankenthaler’s work with other artists’ related efforts, of whom about half were women. Smith explained that this choice helped the exhibit “[approach] postwar art from a new, implicitly revisionist perspective that expands it beyond the usual male suspects.” Siegel continued to focus on the exhibit’s feminist theme, writing that “another through-line [in the exhibit] is feminist thought and its aesthetic ramifications, especially in painting, with “the feminine” as both a stereotype to be shattered and an artistic potential to be explored.” In addition to its positive write-up in the Times, the museum was also praised by Architectural Digest in an article titled “The Best University Art Museums in America.” —Brooke Granovsky
“MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” One general festival pass to the Coachella 2016 music festival is $375. A three-day general admission pass to next month’s Boston Calling music festival is $175. Floor seats for Taylor Swift’s concert later tonight in Los Angeles cost $650 via a scalping website. Prices like these make it easier to remember that, in addition to its messages of peace and love, music is a business enterprise at its core. Television shows like “Empire” and “Entourage” and movies like One Direction’s documentary concert film “This Is Us” (2014)
have explored the behind-thescenes side of the music industry. Now, Brandeis students will have a chance to explore this part of the music sphere thanks to “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business,” an analysis-based course from the Music department. Prof. Michele Zaccagnini’s (MUS) “MUS61A: Introduction to the Music Business” examines how artists and managers harness their combined talents to create art that provides a steady stream of income. The course will help students understand the inner workings of the music industry, its revenue streams and its system of pay-
ments. The course will also cover the legal aspect of the industry, analyzing how the laws surrounding intellectual property and copyright regulations affect the music sphere. Aspiring artists and music managers alike are sure to benefit from studying how they can plan for financial success. Concertgoers will hopefully come away with an understanding of why concert tickets can be so expensive. If not, they can take comfort in the fact that Brandeis’ spring music festival, Springfest, is always free. The course is offered every third year.
—Brooke Granovsky