Dramatic Art 470H-001

Survey of Costume History, Honors Section

Fall Semester 2010; most Tuesdays, 8:00-9:15;  105 Center for Dramatic Art

rev. October 30, 2010

The honors section of costume history is an adjunct to the regular section of the class and seeks to provide additional depth as well as vocabulary.  The companion course provides an overview of Western-based costumes beginning in Ancient Egypt. The honors supplement allows more discussion of course topics as well as an examination of discrepancies in the reading.

Requirements: 

• Attendance at Drama 470 (9:30-10:45 T-Th) plus a one hour seminar for Honors students at 8-9:15 am most Tuesdays. 
• A 15 page research paper (exclusive of illustrations and bibliography) with a specific topic identified below.
• An illustrated supplemental vocabulary list
• The historic costume file
• A mid-term and a final exam
• Values and deadlines for some assignments vary from the regular section as indicated below.
• Privilege Cards to attend productions by the PlayMakers Company can be obtained for students registered for DRAM 470 and 470H. See attached document.

The syllabus for DRAM170 fall 2010 contains the plan for readings and class meetings. The information there about the historic costume file is also accurate. Following is a schedule of class meetings that will occur on most Tuesdays.

Vocabulary lists:

Many unfamiliar words are used in this class and some familiar ones may be used in unfamiliar ways. These lists provide many of them, as a guide to the reading and class meetings. These lists are not meant to be definitive; some of the vocabulary may not be covered in fall 2010. Some words appear on more than one list (and may have more than one definition). Some of the words do not refer to clothing but appear because they are especially important within the costume context.

• Vocabulary list #1
• Vocabulary list #2
• Vocabulary list #3
• Honors Supplemental list

Paper Topic:

A 15 page paper worth 40% of your grade is due on December 7, 2010.  The specific topic must be an examination of the way the surface appearance of clothing in a particular era is created by the human body in combination with foundation garments or enhanced by multiple layers of surface garments.  Carefully chosen and actively used illustrations are important.  Whether discussing artificial silhouettes such as the Spanish or French farthingale, crinolines, bustles, panniers, corsets, or pourpoints, natural ones due to pregnancy or a physical deformity, or bodies enhanced by garments such as the Roman toga or the cotehardie/houppelande combination, it will be necessary to focus on a narrow aspect of the topic.  For these papers, depth is considerably more important than breadth.

The paper topic must be approved by the instructor on or before October 7, 2010. The paper is to be based on research as opposed to personal observation, although "A" papers must contain original thought. All papers must be properly formatted following the MLA style sheet and be written in the objective third person. The ideal audience for the paper will be reasonably bright fellow students with little background in the history of clothes. For most papers, photocopied illustrations will be a necessary part of the final product (and do not count as part of the text requirement). It is my understanding that fair use means that photocopied and properly cited illustrations for classroom use are allowed under current copyright laws. This does not however mean that a commercial copy center will duplicate illustrations for you.

The Internet is an increasingly popular source, but it is necessary to be cautious because most of the material available about costume history is on pages maintained as a hobby. Avoid using commercial sites and secondary (or tertiary) sources. If you use the World Wide Web at all, look for sites provided by research libraries and museums and those which credit an author. Sites labeled "com" are rarely acceptable; those labeled "edu" or "gov" or "org" are generally more reliable. You may not cite information obtained from an internet site for the research paper except for illustrations. Databases and resources obtained via electronic means are acceptable such as those listed on the resource database prepared by Cindy Adams at Davis Library at UNC-Chapel Hill (Link:www.lib.unc.edu/subjectguides/costume/).

To cite files available for viewing/downloading via the World Wide Web by means of Google, Netscape, or other Web browsers, provide the following information:

• the author's name (if known)
• the full title of the document in quotation marks
• the title of the complete work if applicable in italics
• the date of publicity or last revision (if available)
• the full http address (URL) enclosed within angle brackets
• the date of visit in parentheses (The date of visit is included because internet sites change frequently. It may be advisable to print a copy as documentation.)

Model:
Lemercier. “Wedding of George Washington and Martha Custis.” c.1853 The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwtime.html (31 July 2010).