Art History in the First Person

This seminar considers the use of the first person voice in a wide range of writings about art, from fiction to criticism to scholarship. Insofar as graduate students have typically been discouraged from using the first person voice in their scholarly work, we will question the benefits and drawbacks of doing so in particular cases. To what ends have different writers put the first person voice and how do they integrate it with others strategies of written expression? How might we distinguish among different forms of speaking from the position of 'I' in art-historical writing? What kind of 'I' is at stake, personal, professional, intellectual, imaginary, or otherwise. Requirements: Students will be required to attend all seminar meetings and participate actively in discussion. They will submit two types of writing assignments: The first, which each student will prepare on a rotating basis, will be a 2-page response to a selected reading that will serve to launch discussion of that text in seminar. The second, longer paper (12-15 pages) will involve original research on a selected object or exhibition and the writing of a paper that adopts the first person voice to some degree or explains its necessary rejection.