10/22/2010

【比較文學】writing assignment #2 (deadline: 10/28, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (250-300 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1)What did Kafka try to express through the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa?

2)What is the central theme of "First Sorrow"? Compare it to the same theme in "A Hunger Artist."

3) Compare and contrast Kafka's punishment fantasies in "In the Penal Colony" with CJ Chen's aesthetic of horror.

4) In Winesburg, Ohio, communication is failed because the feminine qualities of tenderness, intimacy, creativity, and vulnerability are devalued in a patriarchal culture in which femininity is regarded as weakness. Analyze any story that manifests this thwarted feminine dimension of life. How does Anderson suggest that an integration of the feminine qualities is necessary for the artist?

10/10/2010

【比較文學】writing assignment #1 (deadline: 10/20, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (250-300 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1)In his study of Rabelais, Bakhtin looked at 16th-century France as a site of competing languages and social groups. How does this have to do with Bakhtin's antipathy towards authoritarianism and his penchant for the folk culture and its emancipatory potential?

2)The word "grotesque" comes from the same Latin root as "grotto." Therefore, the many connotations of the grotto--earthiness, fertility, death--link to the various incarnations of the grotesque. Can you find these incarnations in Bakhtin's depiction of the carnivalized body? How? Explain.

3) The image of the Siamese twins is a recurring motif in CJ Chen's Revolt of Body and Soul (《魂魄暴亂》系列). The Siamese twins halppily killing one another, self-mutilating figures modelling on Chen himself, Chen as the executed and the executor, and so forth reveal that the seemingly oppositional relationship between Self and Other is in fact ambivalent. How do you interpret this Self-Other ambivalence in relation to the project of modernity? How do these grotesque images function as Chen's critique of the State Apparatus?

10/07/2010

在帝國的邊界上─陳界仁 編年展 1996-2010

今年最值得我們關注的展覽!

展期|2010/8/28 - 2010/11/14
地點|台北市立美術館 地下市 D~E~F

台灣當代藝術家陳界仁1960年生於台灣桃園,高職美工科畢業,目前生活在台灣台北。

1980年代─臺灣的冷戰/戒嚴時期,陳界仁曾以游擊式的行為藝術和策劃體制外的地下展覽,干擾當時的戒嚴體制。

1987年台灣解除戒嚴後,陳界仁停止創作沉寂了八年,這段期間他在擺地攤的弟弟支助生活下,開始經由重新審視自身的成長經驗、家族歷史和其生活環境中的軍法局、兵工廠、加工區、違章建築區等空間,省思台灣在歷經殖民統治、冷戰/戒嚴時期,成為資本主義生產鏈的加工基地和逐漸進入消費化社會的演變關係,以及解嚴後被納入新自由主義全球化的背後根源和台灣處於國際政治的「例外狀態」下,人的處境與其精神的變異過程。

陳界仁認為台灣在經過長期的被支配過程後,無論是在地的社會現實或歷史脈絡,已被新自由主義主導的主流論述層層遮蔽和抹除,並成為了一個「快速遺忘」和失去「歷史性地思考未來」的社會。

1996年重新恢復創作後,他開始通過平面影像和拍攝影片等藝術行動,對邊緣區域的現實處境、內在的精神狀態,以及如何翻轉新自由主義治理邏輯的可能性,進行各種「再書寫」、「再想像」和「再連結」的創作計畫。他認為通過與在地人民的合作,以及通過美學的實驗和影像詩學的開放性,可以與觀眾共同創造出多重對話的場域和相互連結的可能性;雖然他的作品背後總有其所關注的政治議題,但他認為藝術的意義,更在於將那些語言、文字難以訴說的氛圍、精神的幽微狀態、身體的記憶和感性經驗,通過藝術的想像性進行「書寫」;尤其是在被新自由主義日趨宰制的時代,創作不僅是為了抵抗遺忘,更在於如何對「人民書寫」的形式和「多元民主」的可能性提出新的想像。

陳界仁的作品曾個展於:台北市立美術館、洛杉磯Redcat藝術中心、馬德里蘇菲雅皇后國家美術館、紐約亞洲協會美術館、巴黎網球場國家畫廊等機構。參加過的聯展包括:威尼斯雙年展、里昂雙年展、聖保羅雙年展、利物浦雙年展、雪梨雙年展、伊斯坦堡雙年展、台北雙年展、光州雙年展、上海雙年展、福岡亞洲藝術三年展、布里斯本亞太三年展等當代藝術展覽,以及西班牙、里斯本、阿爾等攝影節與倫敦、溫哥華、愛丁堡、鹿特丹等電影節。曾獲2009年台灣國家文藝獎─視覺藝術類、2000年韓國光州雙年展特別獎。



演講會:
主講人/陳界仁(當代藝術家)
09/12(日) 14:30-16:30 在帝國的邊界上─我的游擊工作報告
主講人/林志明(台北教育大學藝術與造型設計學系)
10/24(日) 14:30-16:30 位於歷史極限的影像與記憶─閱讀陳界仁作品

(本文轉載台北市政府文化局)

10/05/2010

【文讀】writing assignment #1(deadline: 10/15, 12 p.m.)

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (200-250 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1) In "Roman Fever," what are the hints of hidden conflict between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley? What details in part 1 bring out the differences in their personalities and their lives?

2) In "The Cask of Amontillado," what can you infer about Montresor's social position and character from hints in the text? What evidence does the text provide that Montresor is an unreliable narrator?

3) The story "Araby" is about a boy's "epiphany." Describe it in relation to the story's setting and its atmosphere and its impact upon the boy.

4) Look closely at the setting of the story "The Birth-Mark," from the laboratory to the boudoir. Note teh similes, metaphors, and other figures of speech that help characterize these places. How do these different patterns of imagery contribute to the symbolism of teh story? to an allegorical reading of the story?

5)Some feminist critics argue that "A Rose for Emily" exposes the violence done to a woman by making her a lady? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.