Abstract
Paper presents contemporary arguments against television watching based on its negative effects on the cultural richness of a society like our own. Discusses the influence of advertisers on TV's creative element, and how other critically acclaimed "pure arts" like film and painting are just as market-driven.

Tags:television, anti art

Abstract
This paper explains that art in pre-War and post-War European Axis countries, in particular Germany, was diametrically different. These differences were largely a result of societal conditions. The paper also explains that pre-War art primarily took the form of propaganda and craft but that after the war, with the exception of Russian art, the art of the Axis countries changed as a result of the influence exerted over them by the west and their own desire to rejoin the brotherhood of nations.

From the Paper
"The figures in the art, whether supposedly gallery art or poster-propaganda art, were supposed to be admirable 'native' figures of whichever nation was producing the art. The style was supposed to relate, also, to previous artworks, although, "In Soviet Russia, however, the whole notion of the 'aesthetic' was rejected as a bourgeois anachronism and was gradually replaced by the evolving theoretical criteria of Socialist Realism." Images of these works come readily to the mind's eye; almost cartoon like, oversized, over muscled figures in plain clothing operating large machines, for instance. "Triumphant was the Holy Trinity of peasant, worker and warrior. And from the very summit of this blasphemous altarpiece shone down the spirit from which all power was derived: the quasi-divine presence of the Leader himself" (Elliott, 1995), at least in Germany."

Tags:anti-art, forces, hitler, mussolini, stalin, aesthetics, selective, breeding, reflect, aims, state

From the Paper
"This paper will be concerned with anti-Semitism as seen in the art of the medieval period. Anti-Jewish sentiments in general were widespread throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. During that time, the Christian Church was attempting to become a dominant force in European society. Starting in the fourth century A.D., the Church "claimed universal sovereignty as a legacy from Constantine the Great". With this purpose in mind, the leaders of the Christian Church made a forceful effort to take over the known world of their time. Those leaders were extremely intolerant of any form of heretical dissent. For this reason, the medieval Church instituted "severe restrictions on progressive thought". This led to the official persecution of a variety of nonChristian groups, including the Jews. In addition to the fact that they rejected the teachings ... "

From the Paper
"Editor Hal Foster states in the preface to his book, The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, that he brought together the essays for this work in an effort to present a dialogue on the meaning of postmodern culture as reflected in all the arts. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss postmodern culture, its theory and practice, its affect on design issues, and its influence on society and reaction from society.


Foster defines postmodernism as a "conflict of new and old modes--cultural and economic" (xi). The anti-aesthetic relates to an interdisciplinary cultural position on the present time. It is his aim to reflect various different views coming from different art forms in order to stimulate thinking about the diverse nature of postmodernism and the anti-aesthetic.


In theory, postmodernism refers to the moving away of the..."

Abstract
This paper aims at analyzing the 'metaphysical detective story', a genre that twists the conventions of the conventional Holmesian detective stories and slyly leaves philosophical questionings of 'reality', 'truth', 'self' and 'identity' in the texture of the text. The writer observes curious results when postmodernism with its characteristic indeterminacy and chaos is applied on to a genre that hinges on certainty and order. This genre is dissected in the context of three texts - Paul Auster's "City of Glass", Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and Jorge Louis Borge's "Death and the Compass" where the detectives Daniel Quinn, Christopher Boone and Erik Lonnrot are caught in a perilous world and the case as well as the story is left unfinished. The mystery is never solved and the detective becomes a failure. The paper concludes that these queer consequences raise deeper philosophical questions and raises the detective genre, as a whole, from its 'popular' image to an 'avant garde' form of art.

Outline:

Chapter 1 - "A Cross-Section of the Metaphysical Detective Story". Chapter 2 - "Shattering Expectations: Paul Auster's City of Glass". Chapter 3 - "The Curious Case of a Doomed Detective:An analysis of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". Chapter 4 - Pursuing the Pursuer: Jorge Louis Borges' "Death and the Compass"
Conclusion

From the Paper
"This new form of detective fiction is extremely self-reflexive where the author constantly reminds the reader of the construction and physicality of the text itself. It is metalinguistic in the sense that the text often critiques the linguistic medium that it employs and undermines its worth showing it incapable of fully constructing and conveying reality. This postmodern genre involves not only the detective figuring out what his purpose is in the text, but what his relationship to the author of the text is. Fictional boundaries are often transgressed and there is constant intermixing of the real with the fictional. The real world merges into the fictional world to the extent of being almost undistinguishable from one another, where, at times, the author himself (and other real life characters) enters into the fabric of the text and assumes the role of a character. At times he himself becomes one of the suspects. He creates a world where identities are not fixed. The detective fails to identify individuals, misinterprets texts and gets confounded and defeated at every step. In this kind of story, one character may have multiple identities and names."

Tags:Sherlock Holmes, sub-genre detection parody intertextuality self-reflexivity hermeneutics interpretation ontological

Abstract
This paper discusses how the early 20th century saw a number of radical and eviscerating critiques of representational styles of art. In particular, it looks at Cubism and Surrealism and discusses how although they shared many complementary attitudes, the two movements sprung from very different artistic impulses. The paper further examines how Cubism sprang from an interest in different types of art and new concepts of geometry, space, and anatomy and how in comparison, Surrealism is linked with Dadaism, an anti-art movement that drew inspiration from parody, pastiche, and strange and arresting images that were often realistic in style and depiction.

From the Paper
"Like Picasso drew inspiration from El Greco, although they supposedly disdained all tradition in theory, many Surrealists remained profoundly influenced by artists of the past. Salvador Dali, was "inspired by the Dutch masters of the 17th century realism" in its style even while Dali used "multiple symbolic images to suggest his subconscious. His paintings were odd, influenced by his dreams" but his technique and previous study of Western art is even more evident than in Picasso's Cubist works (Historical origins of the Surrealist art movement, 2009, Art History Archive). In the Persistence of Memory, "Dali rendered his fantastic visions with meticulous verisimilitude, giving the representations of dreams a tangible and credible appearance. In what he called 'hand painted dream photographs,' hard objects become inexplicably limp, time bends, and metal attracts ants like rotting flesh. "

Tags:Picasso, Dadaism, Dali

Abstract
This paper is about the Weimar Republic of Germany, Nazism, oppression, censorship, and the arts. It looks at pro-Nazi artists, anti-Nazi artists, and artwork that was banned during the Nazi regime of Germany. Specific works are highlighted to demonstrate what censorship meant during the Weimar Republic of Germany and how it was handled.

From the Paper
"When talking about people's response to what was happening in the changing society of Germany, one can't ignore the fact that people supported Hitler and the Third Reich. Just as some artists rebelled against the artistic norm and became part of the Dada movement, some went on to support Hitler and presented Germany with works of art that idolized the utopian society and everything that Hitler had fought for. Propaganda in Nazi Germany was running out of control. Propaganda is the art of persuasion. In order to be popular, governmentally in this case, a crowd is needed to be won over."

Tags:communism, hitler, painting, republic, war, weimar

From the Paper
"The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is responsible for funding many art projects throughout the United States. Recently, controversy has arisen concerning the group's funding of what right-wing fundamentalists consider "pornographic" art. As reported by NEA chair John Frohnmayer: "A dozen arts professionals in Seattle were informed that 'political realities' make it likely I will have to veto some grants recommended by the Endowment's peer panels.". These "political realities" come in the form of protests from people like Pat Robertson and Senator Jesse Helms who feel the NEA has recently funded some artists' works depicting what they consider "obscenity."
The NEA has funded many worthwhile projects in communities all over the country, for example, orchestras performing Brahms and Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf." However, shows exhibiting..."

Abstract
This paper argues that, by looking at Wagner's political writings in conjunction with his opera "Die Meistersinger", only one conclusion can be reached: Wagner coded the character Beckmesser as a Jew, whom the community fears and who disrupts the growth of musical art. The author examines Wagner's view of the threat of foreign influence on German art especially as re-enforced by the appropriation of the opera by the Nazi party as an ideological tool. Within the opera, the paper investigates further the character of Beckmesser and his place among his peers in the opera and the exalted 'Sacred German Art' as the opera ends on a C major chord, a sound dissonant in the wake of the Third Reich.

From the Paper
"The roots of Wagner's anti-Semitism can be traced to his jealousy of the success of two Jewish contemporaries, composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Jacques Fromental Halevy. Meyerbeer's and Halevy's operas were especially successful in Paris; Wagner himself was never able to gain a foothold in the "capital of opera" during his lifetime. Furthermore, Wagner had come to passionately despise the "grand operas" which had made Meyerbeer and Halevy so popular and had kept Wagner impoverished and in obscurity."

Tags:beckmesser leitmotif nazis celebration, german artistic ideals

Abstract
This paper discusses the standpoint of Homer's "Iliad" with particular reference to war and whether it was meant as a piece of pro-war propaganda, or anti-war, or possibly neither. It examines how Homer describes with great skill and art, both the glory of war and the horror of war, each to a varying degree at different stages throughout the poem.

From the Paper
"One could make a strong argument that The Iliad itself goes beyond favouring a war, and actually celebrates the phenomena that is war. Throughout the poem, different characters prove their worth, or lack of it, on the battle field (or as the case may be, not) characters emerge as worthy, or in some cases despicable, based upon their degree of competence and bravery in battle. Paris prefers not to fight, and is characterised as 'the playboy prince' and when he does emerge to fight Menelaus he is dressed in ridiculous leopard skin fatigues. Correspondingly, he receives the scorn of both his family and his lover. Adversely, Achilles wins eternal glory "his name shall live on for a thousand years" by expressly rejecting the option of a long, comfortable yet uneventful life at home."

Tags:achilles, achilleus, paris, troy