ARTH 338 - Iconoclasm Then and Now

FC ARHU CD WADV

4 credits
Why do people destroy images? From the violent debates around the removal of Confederate monuments in the US to the Taliban’s iconoclastic obliteration of monumental Buddha statues, images continue to arouse feelings of fear, anxiety, and discontent. A primary aim of our seminar will be to uncover why images matter so much that they warrant iconoclastic responses. To better understand what’s at stake, we’ll contextualize individual scenarios by asking what is being destroyed, who is destroying it, and why. Our study will take a diachronic approach to iconoclasm, examining a range of key case studies from different periods and geographies.

Prerequisites: one 200-level course in ARTH.