CELTIC ART AND CULTURES

Fall 1998 117 Hanes Art Center Mondays, 9:00 - 9:50 a.m. Dr. Dorothy Verkerk
Rm. 108, Hanes Art Center

Office Hours: Wednesday, 9:00-10:00 a.m. Drop by my office any time the door is open or ajar.
Email: dverkerk@email.unc.edu Available anytime.
Telephone: (919) 962-0729 Use the voice mail, since I will not pick up the telephone while meeting with students.
List serv: art111@listserv.unc.edu --check this on a regular basis.
Although Dr. Verkerk will teach this course and act as the Director of the Exhibiton, she did not create all the computer technology that makes this possible. You may want to find out more about the Celtic Art & Cultures Project.

Important links to campus and web site support:

The Writing Center is available to help you with your paper and is a valuable resource for you throughout your academic career at UNC. The consultants are graduate students who have received extensive training in the teaching of writing. Call 962-7710 for an appointment or just drop in. You can also e-mail your writing questions and learn more about the Writing Center by visiting their web site. Grammar hotline: 962-7710.
The Technology aspects of the Celtic Art and Cultures course page has information and links about obtaining and using your ATN e-mail address, subscribing to the class listserv, getting space on the UNC Web server for Web pages you create, using Netscape Composer and search engines, and more.
The ATN information page, which will lead you to instructions on for web pages, listservs, discussion foras, etc...
You may also contact the help@unc.edu desk.
The Alta Vista Translation Program, which can help you translate short passages from German, Italian, French, Portugese, Spanish into English and vice versa. You will run into phrases in foreign languages that you may want to translate. WARNING: It is a computer program, it only translates literally.

Course Content

Although geographically western and eastern European, Celtic art from the Hallstatt and La Tène periods (7th c. BCE) to the Celtic "Renaissance" (c. 400-1200 CE) represents the culture of the Celts, or the Keltoi, or Gauls, as they were known to their Greek and Roman neighbors. The Celts were the indigenous people of Europe whose oral traditions, gods, and abstract aesthetic provided a powerful influence on the formation of what is traditionally perceived as a Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian Europe. The understanding and cognizance of the Celtic contribution are crucial to provide a more complex and balanced view of western culture.

The Exhibition

Using computer technology, we will be creating, designing, researching, and writing an exhibition catalogue that will be published on the Internet. Each student will choose a topic from those listed below (new, viable topics will be considered). After researching the topic and compiling a bibliography, you will choose the works of art that best represent the subject matter. An essay, catalogue entries, and a select bibliography will be written and published on the Internet. The combined written work of all the students will comprise the exhibition. Each student is responsible for their exhibition "space." Please consult the exhibition page for detailed instructions on writing your catalogue.

Discussion Forums

The discussion forum is essential to this course. Please be sure to check it every day. The Discussion Forum(s) will, in large part, replace the Wednesday and Friday lectures. The class will be divided into five groups: Aedui, Parisii, Iceni, Nervii, and the Galatians: five Celtic peoples known for their intelligence, diligence, and ability to meet deadlines, not to mention their bravery. Too cute, but it's more romantic than numbers or letters. Each week a new assignment will be posted on the listserv art111@listserv.unc.edu for which you are responsible. You are to work within your group, but you are not restricted to your assigned forum. Not only will you post your own essays, but you will also respond to your colleagues essays. The format will change from week to week, so it is essential that you check in consistently.

Course Outline

Ideally, you would read the entire books listed in the assignments; however, you are responsible for the chapters or pages listed in the assignment. The readings are linked to the day they will be discussed, so work ahead.
August 19 - Introduction

August 21 - Lab workshop, Hanes Hall, Room 02
Assignment:Begin examining web sites.

August 24 - The History of Collecting and Studying Celtic Art
Assignment: J. Leerssen, "Celticism," in Celticism, 1996, 1-20.
T. Champion, "The Celt in Archaeology," in Celticism, 1996, 61-78.

August 31 - The Barbarian and the Noble Savage
Assignment: J.J. Tierney, "The Celtic Ethnography of Posidonius," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 1960, 189-275.
M. Chapman, "The Celts and the Classics" in The Celts: The Construction of a Myth, 1992, 165-184.
Julius Ceasar, De bello gallico.
**You will find the links to Contemporary Written Sources helpful.

September 14 - Oral and Literate Cultures
Assignment: C. Frazier, Cold Mountain, pp.
W. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word, Chap. 3 "Some psychodynamics of orality," and Chap. 4 "Writing restructures consciousness."
T. Duddy, "Derrida and the Druids: Writing, Lore, and Power in Early Celtic Society," Religion & Literature, 1996, 9-20.

September 21 - Celtic Aesthetics
Assignment: A break from reading... Work through the Celtic designs and take note of the aesthetic principles indicated. Then, choose three works of art and do an analysis of the design, breaking it into its most essential parts. If you are uncertain about a term, check the Vocabulary for help.

September 28 -
Assignment: Choose topic.

October 5 -
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October 12 -
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October 19 -
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October 26 -
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November 2 -
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November 9 -
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November 16 -
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November 23 -
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November 30 -
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December 7 -