The Plight of Children in the Arts (HONR 209C) --------------------------------------Spring 2015
Prof. Anthony COLANTUONO, M.A., Ph.D.
Dept. of Art History and Archaeology
Office: Art/Sociology Rm. 4229: Hours Th11:30-1:30
Tel: x5-1496
E-mail: <anthony.colantuono@yahoo.com>
Class Meetings: TuTh 9:30am - 10:45am, ASY 3217
Curricular Appications: GenEd DSHA / CORE HA
This course explores a peculiar thematic pattern which has pervaded the arts—including
painting, sculpture, literature, sacred texts, film... even television—from distant antiquity to the
present. The theme or narrative pattern in question involves the figure of a child (sometimes an
infant) protagonist whose life is endangered and then miraculously saved at the height of the
drama. This type of narrative is so common, in virtually all cultures, that the psychologist Jung
included it among the most fundamental archetypes of the human psyche. Given the natural
impulse to nurture and protect innocent children, it seems peculiar to say the least that stories
portraying a child's endangerment should be so prevalent, leading us to a series of questions:
Exactly how might we understand or explain the appeal of such stories? How many types of
examples or categories of such narratives might we identify? In what sorts of methodic or
critical frames—historical/contextual? philological? rhetorical? narratological? psychological?
sociological?—might we view this question? And what might such analyses reveal... not only
about the origins and purposes of the stories themselves, but also about the nature of humanity?
NB: This course may examine graphic images and descriptions of the murder of children,
violence against children, child endangerment and similar highly emotional topics. I
ask that students stay focused upon our intellectual aim of finding modes of historical
and critical method in which to frame the analysis of these images and descriptions.
Grade Calculation:
Group Reading Presentations (Aggregate)---------------------------------------------25%
Participation in Discussion---------------------------------------------------------------10%
Semester Research Proposal (due by 11 October)--------------------------------------5%
Semester Research Oral-Visual Presentation------------------------------------------20%
Written Term Paper (based on Semester Research Presentation--------------------25%
Final Examination-------------------------------------------------------------------------15%
Final Average-----------------------------------------------------------------------------100%
Evaluation Criteria:
The nature of the coursework is highly subjective, both in terms of the student's perceptions of
the images and narratives under investigation and in terms of my measurement of student
performance.
1) Group Reading Presentations: will be graded with respect to objective criteria including:
clarity and logical organization of oral presentation, powerpoints etc; understanding of
methodological principles; factual accuracy and completeness; understanding of and analytical
insight into the texts, images, films and videos under investigation.
2) Participation in Discussion: This class is a seminar—a teaching/learning format that requires
your attendance and participation. Even when your group is not actually presenting, you are
expected to be in attendance, to pay close attention to the presentations (note-taking is essential
as the final exam will be based in part on the content of the group presentations and semester
research presentations), and to be sufficiently engaged in the discussion to ask and answer
appropriate questions during and following the presentations.
3) Semester Research Proposal: This should be a 2- to 3-page proposal plus a short (one page or
less) bibliography or list of objects, texts, images, films and/or videos to be examined. The
proposal will be evaluated on its effectiveness in making a case for the importance of the topic
and in identifying appropriate methodological, critical or analytical tools to be applied. This is
also my first opportunity to see your written work and I will deduct points for errors of grammar,
vocabularly, logic and spelling, as well as for factual inaccuracy.
4) Semester Research Oral-Visual Presentations: (same criteria as #1)
5) Written Term Paper: Performance will be evaluated on your rhetorical effectiveness in
making a written case for the importance of the topic; clarity and logical organization;
understanding of methodological principles; factual accuracy and completeness; understanding
of and analytical insight into the texts, images, films and videos under investigation. I will
againdeduct points for errors of grammar, vocabularly, logic and spelling, as well as for factual
inaccuracy.
In addition, the following University policies are in force:
Attendance and absences:
This course involves a ssubstantial component of presentation and participation. Please make
every effort to attend regularly. Missing any one of your scheduled group presentations or your
final oral/visual presentation dates without a valid reason will result in a loss of points from that
portion of the final grade - up to 5 points for missing a group presentation and up to 20 points for
missing a final presentation. Under University rules, you are of course entitled to absences for
legitimate reasons of illness or injury, participation in university team sports, religious holidays,
unforeseen family emergencies and serious accidents. If you must be absent for foreseeable
reasons please let me know at the soonest opportnity via e-mail at
<anthony.colantuono@yahoo.com>.
The university’s policies on medical and other absences can be found at:
http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540
Academic integrity:
The student-administered Honor Code and Honor Pledge prohibit students from cheating on
exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without
authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents and forging signatures. On every
examination, paper or other academic exercise not specifically exempted by the instructor,
students must write by hand and sign the following pledge:
"I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized
assistance on this examination (or assignment)."
Allegations of academic dishonesty will be reported directly to the Student Honor Council:
http://www.shc.umd.edu .
Students with disabilities:
The University of Maryland is committed to providing appropriate accommodations for students
with disabilities. Students with a documented disability should inform the instructors within the
add-drop period if academic accommodations are needed. To obtain an Accommodation Letter
prepared by Disability Support Service (DSS), a division of the University Counseling Center,
please call 301-314-7682, e-mail dissup@umd.edu, or visit the Shoemaker Building for more
information.
Copyright notice: Class lectures and other materials are copyrighted and they may not be
reproduced for anything other than personal use without written permission from the instructor.
Emergency protocol: [Note the means by which the course will be continued if the university is
closed for an extended period of time.]
This syllabus is subject to change. Students will be notified in advance of important changes that
could affect grading, assignments, etc.
Course evaluations are a part of the process by which the University of Maryland seeks to
improve teaching and learning. Your participation in this official system is critical to the success
of the process, and all information submitted to CourseEvalUM is confidential. (Instructors can
only view group summaries of evaluations and cannot identify which submissions belong to
which students.)
Diversity: The University of Maryland values the diversity of its student body. Along with the
University, I am committed to providing a classroom atmosphere that encourages the equitable
participation of all students regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, national origin, race,
religion, or sexual orientation. Potential devaluation of students in the classroom that can occur
by reference to demeaning stereotypes of any group and/or overlooking the contributions of a
particular group to the topic under discussion is inappropriate.
Schedule:
Th 29 January: Overview and Organizational Meeting
-Introduction to the course
-Outline basics of syllabus
-Establish four groups of 4 or 5 students, named I, II, III and IV
-Explain reserve readings, original research presentations, final exams
-Exlain methods: iconography, narratology, affect theory, empathy theory (Einfühlung)
T 3 February: The Plight of Children and the 'Little-Big' Phenomenon in Early Modernity
Lecture references:
-"Imperiled Child" scenes from the film: "The Russians Are Coming! The
Russians Are Coming!" (Director: Norman Jewison,1966)
-Orfeo Boselli, Guido Reni, Nicolas Poussin, François
Duquesnoy,Torquato Tasso, Giambattista Marino
Th 5 February: The Little-Big Phenomenon, continued (I)
Read: Colantuono, Anthony. "Titian's Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian
Painting in Baroque Rome," I Tatti Studies 3 (1989) 207-234.
Jung, Carl Gustav. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (trans. G.
Adler and R.F.C. Hull) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969)
(only the passages concerning archetype of the 'divine child')
Rank, Otto. Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth
(1909/1922) (trans. G.C. Richter and E.J. Lieberman) (intro. R.A. Segal)
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
"Oedipus and Samson: The Rejected Hero-Child," International Journal of
Psycho-Analysis 38 (1957) 105-116.
T 10 February: The Child Protagonist from the Seventeenth Century to the Age of
Enlightenment (Lecture and Discussion)
Th 12 February: The Child Protagonist from the Seventeenth Century to the Age of
Enlightenment (Readings) (II)
Read: Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962)
Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745). Jonathan Swift: the essential writings
authoritative texts, contexts, criticism (ed. Claude Julien Rawson and Ian
Higgins) (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010)
-"A Modest Proposal"
-Gulliver's Travels (Gulliver in Lilliput)
Milton, John. "On the Death of Fair Infant Dying of a Cough," full text of the
poem available on the web at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/fair_infant/index.shtml
Barker, Emma. "Imaging Childhood in Eighteenth-Century France: Greuze's
Little Girl with a Dog," Art Bulletin 91.4 (2009) 427-445
T 17 February : Spectres of the Street Urchin (Lecture and Discussion)
Th 19 February: No Class - (I have to attend a study day at the National Gallery of Art)
T 24 February: Spectres of the Street Urchin (I)
Read: Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress (London/New
York: Penguin Books, 2002).
Swain, Shurlee, and Margot Hillel. Child, Nation, Race and Empire. Child Rescue
Discourse,England, Canada and Australia, 1850-1915 (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 2010).
Andrews, Malcolm. Dickens and the Grown-Up Child (Iowa City: University of
Iowa Press,1994).
Graesser, Arthur, and Bianca Klettke, "Agency, Plot, and a Structural Affect
Theory of Literary Story Comprehension," in: Psychology and Sociology
of Literature (edd. Dick Schram and Gerard Steen) (Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001) 57-70.
Th 26 February: The Victorian Child Hero (Lecture and Discussion)
T 3 March: The Victorian Child Hero (Readings) (II)
Read: Marryat, Frederick, The Children of the New Forest (New York: Scribner, 1959
[©1955]).
Stretton, Hesba, Jessica's First Prayer; Little Meg's Children; Alone in London;
Pilgrim Street (New York: Garland, 1976)
Berry, Laura C., The Child, the State and the Victorian Novel (Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press, 1999).
Th 5 March: Imperiled Children in Film and Film Theory (Lecture and Discussion: Scenes from
"Once Upon a Time In America" and other films)
T 10 March: Imperiled Children in Film and Film Theory (Readings) (I)
Read: Sinnerbrink, Robert. "'Time, Affect and the Brain: Deleuze's Cinematic
Aesthetics': Review of the film essays in Darren Ambrose and Wahida
Khandker, eds, Diagrams of Sensation - Deleuze and Aesthetics
(special issue of The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, 2005," Film
Philosophy 12.1 (April 2008) 85-96.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-image (trans. H. Tomlinson and B.
Habberjam) (Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1986).
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time-image (trans. H.Tomlinson and R. Galeta)
(London: Athlone Press, 1989).
Th 12 March: Imperiled Children in Film and Film Theory (General Discussion)
Members of both groups please bring a few examples of imperiled children in films
that you may know for analysis and discussion. Consider: How might the theory of affect
be applied in understanding the impact of the 'imperiled child' theme in film? How might
filmic interpretations of this theme differ from pictorial ones?
17 March and 19 March: No Class - Spring Break
T 24 March: The Plight of Children in Television (Lecture and Discussion: "Lassie: Christmas
Episode 1958 - Lassie rescues a 3 year-old girl but gets injured")
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-qGUoeRKA)
Th 26 March: The Plight of Children in Television (Presentation and Analysis) (II)
Locate and present scenes involving "imperiled child" scenes from
television serials of your choice. These can be dramatic, comedic, satirical etc.,
even including animated cartoons if you wish.
T 31 March: Narratives and Images of Infanticide and Related Issues (Lecture and Discussion)
Th 2 April: Narratives and Images of Infanticide and Related Issues (Readings) (I)
Read: Harris, William V. "The Theoretical Possibility of Extensive Infanticide in the
Graeco-Roman World," The Classical Quarterly n.s. 32 (1982) 114-116.
Francus, Marilyn. "Monstrous Mothers, Monstrous Societies: Infanticide and the
Rule of Law in Restoration and Eighteenth-Century England," EighteenthCentury Life 21.2 (1997) 133-156.
Miller, David Lee. Dreams of the Burning Child: Sacrificial Victims and the
Father's Witness (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003).
T 7 April: Tragic and Heroic Babies and Children in the News Media (Lecture and Discussion)
(Jacobin press accounts of French Revolutionary child-heroes Agricol Viala and
Joseph Bara; Leiby Kletzky abducted and dismembered by Levi Aron in
Brooklyn, NY)
9 April: Tragic and Heroic Babies and Children in the News Media (I and II)
14 April: Tragic and Heroic Babies and Children in the News Media (I and II)
16 April: Oral Presentation
21 April: Oral Presentation
23 April: Oral Presentation
28 April : Oral Presentation
30 April: Oral Presentation
5 May: Oral Presentation
7 May: Oral Presentation
12 May: Oral Presentation
Final Examination
Group I:
Group II:
Group III:
Group IV:
Andrews, Malcolm. Dickens and the Grown-Up Child (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,
1994).
Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1962)
Barker, Emma. "Imaging Childhood in Eighteenth-Century France: Greuze's Little Girl with a
Dog," Art Bulletin 91.4 (2009) 427-445.
Berry, Laura C. The Child, the State and the Victorian Novel (Charlottesville: University of
Virginia Press, 1999).
Colantuono, Anthony. The Tender Infant: Invenzione and Figura in the Art of Poussin (Doctoral
dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1986) [UMI no. 8707249].
Colantuono, Anthony. "Titian's Tender Infants: On the Imitation of Venetian Painting in Baroque
Rome," I Tatti Studies 3 (1989) 207-234.
Colantuono, Anthony. "Interpréter Poussin: Métaphore, similarité et maniera magnifica," in:
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) (International Colloquium, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1994)
(ed. Alain Mérot) (2 vols) (Paris: La Documentation Française, 1996) pp. 649-65.
Colantuono, Anthony. "Review: Jennifer Montagu, The Expression of the Passions: The Origin
and Influence of Charles Le Brun's Conférence sur l'expression générale et particulière
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994)," The Art Bulletin 78 (1996) 355-358.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-image (trans. H. Tomlinson and B. Habberjam)
(Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1986).
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time-image (trans. H.Tomlinson and R. Galeta) (London: Athlone
Press, 1989).
Depew, David. "Empathy Psychology and Aesthetics: Reflections on a Repair Concept,"
POROI (Projects on Rhetoric of Inquiry) 4.1 (2005) 99-107.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist, or, The Parish Boy's Progress (London/New York: Penguin
Books, 2002).
Francus, Marilyn. "Monstrous Mothers, Monstrous Societies: Infanticide and the Rule of Law in
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century England," Eighteenth-Century Life 21.2 (1997) 133156.
Graesser, Arthur, and Bianca Klettke, "Agency, Plot, and a Structural Affect Theory of Literary
Story Comprehension," in: Psychology and Sociology of Literature (edd. Dick Schram
and Gerard Steen) (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001) 57-70.
Harris, William V. "The Theoretical Possibility of Extensive Infanticide in the Graeco-Roman
World," The Classical Quarterly n.s. 32 (1982) 114-116.
Huebner, Robin R., and Carroll E. Izard. "Mothers' Responses to Infants Facial Expressions of
Sadness, Anger, and Physical Distress," Motivation and Emotion 12.2 (1988) 185-196.
Jung, Carl Gustav. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (trans. G. Adler and R.F.C.
Hull) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969).
Lawler, Edward J. "An Affect Theory of Social Exchange." American Journal of Sociology
107.2 (2001) 321-52.
Levin, A.J. "Oedipus and Samson: The Rejected Hero-Child," International Journal of PsychoAnalysis 38 (1957) 105-116.
Marino, Giambattista. The Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod (London: Printed by Andrew
Clark for Samuel Mearne, 1675). [Microform - how might we make this available to
students?]
Marryat, Frederick. The Children of the New Forest (New York: Scribner, 1959 [©1955]).
McGurn, P.A. The Divine Child Archetype in Jungian Psychological Thought and Practice
(Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 1998) [UMI no. 9923263].
Miller, David Lee. Dreams of the Burning Child: Sacrificial Victims and the Father's Witness
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003).
Mirollo, James V. The poet of the marvelous: Giambattista Marino (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1963)
Montagu, Jennifer. The Expression of the Passions : the origins and influence of Charles Le
Brun's 'Conférence sur l'expression générale et particulière' (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1994).
Norden, Eduard. Die Geburt des Kindes: Geschichte einer religiösen Idee (Leipzig: Teubner,
1924).
Patterson, Cynthia. "Not Worth the Rearing": The Causes of Infant Exposure in Ancient Greece,"
Transactions of the American Philological Association 115 (1985) 103-123.
Rank, Otto. Myth of the Birth of the Hero: A Psychological Exploration of Myth (1909/1922)
(trans. G.C. Richter and E.J. Lieberman) (intro. R.A. Segal) (Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2004).
Rose, H.J. "Vergil's Wonderchild - review of Eduard Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes:
Geschichte einer religiösen Idee," Classical Review 38 (no. 7/8) (Nov-Dec 1924) pp.
200-201.
Sinnerbrink, Robert. "'Time, Affect and the Brain: Deleuze's Cinematic Aesthetics': Review of
the film essays in Darren Ambrose and Wahida Khandker, eds, Diagrams of Sensation Deleuze and Aesthetics (special issue of The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, 2005," Film
Philosophy 12.1 (April 2008) 85-96.
Sternberg, Meir. Expositional Modes and Temporal Ordering in Fiction (Bloomington: Indiana
UP, 1993).
Stretton, Hesba. Jessica's First Prayer; Little Meg's Children; Alone in London; Pilgrim Street
(New York: Garland, 1976)
Swain, Shurlee, and Margot Hillel. Child, Nation, Race and Empire. Child Rescue Discourse,
England, Canada and Australia, 1850-1915 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
2010).
Swift, Jonathan. Jonathan Swift: the essential writings - authoritative texts, contexts, criticism
(ed. Claude Julien Rawson and Ian Higgins) (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010)
Tomkins, Silvan. Affect, Imagery, Consciousness (with the editorial assistance of B. P. Karon)
(4 vols.) (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1962ff).
Wispé, Lauren. "History of the Concept of Empathy," in: Empathy and its Development (eds N.
Eisenberg and J. Strayer) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) 17-35.