Literature And The Arts

The course explores connections between literature, painting and music. It focuses on four major issues: (1) the similarities and differences between works belonging to each of these genres; (2) the adaptation of poems and novels in musical works; (3) the new interest in art as an expression of individual concerns; and (4) the origins of a truly modern art.

Three very different kinds of 'text' will be explored. The literary texts include a number of short literary and critical works, an autobiographical novel by Alexandre Dumas that highlights tensions between the individual and society, and Chekhov's tragicomic study of self-centredness. The paintings considered include the traditional history painting, and landscape and visionary painting; students will also explore the origins of Impressionism and the new interest in painting as an ongoing process of self-expression. The music covered falls into four distinctive genres: popular song (such as a selection of Schubert Lieder), opera and society (e.g., Verdi's adaptation of Dumas' novel), comic opera and myth (Orpheus in the Underworld), and Mahler's last great symphonic song cycle, which is based on classical Chinese poems.