HONORS PROGRAM 2008
The 2008 Honors Program seeks to integrate the varied opportunities for study provided by our location in Tuscany and the varied approaches to inquiry taken by the humanities and the social sciences. To facilitate continuity between the different components of the Program, the instructors and students will jointly consider the following themes:
1) Modern Italy in a European Context: Italy’s nineteenth-century unification and the post-World War II creation of the European Union mark critical moments in the emergence of both national and international identities. How do these modern inventions differ and/or break from earlier historical, economic, and cultural developments? How do they reflect the need for and movement towards European integration?
2) Nationalism v. Internationalism: Does the tendency towards European integration, reconciliation, nd cooperation aggravate or strengthen specifically national customs and priorities? In what ways can a unified European economic system affect, influence, and take inspiration from individual nations? How and to what extent can art reflect such developments? How have modernist art movements attempted to integrate art and politics? Do certain national traits, strengths, and traditions bolster and encourage broader European cooperation, or has nationalism dwindled to the point of obsolescence?
3) The Shock of the New: Emulation of and/or Rejection of the Past: Just as the Renaissance sought to revitalize art, culture, and society by embracing the great achievements of antiquity, the distinctly modernist work of avant-garde groups and contemporary economic systems draw on and depart from models of the past. We will examine what the Futurists called the “shock of the new” in both the field of art-making and in economic life – in light of ever-increasing demands for greater efficiency in economic systems, the rise of a modern (and/or post-modern) commodity culture, and the impact of industrialization and technology as reflected in art, literature and cinema since the Unification of Italy. We will also trace relationships between past and present as they appear in our primary texts and other objects of study. We will gain a strong understanding of Renaissance and early-modern art and economics, allowing for a strong comparative understanding of the functioning of modern governments, economies, and art, but also enabling us to see how we, too, can draw on the experience of the past to give meaning and form to our own present.
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