Admission requirements
Admission requirements are in line with the general programme admission requirements.
Description
How should we treat heritage? As a living thing, still capable of enduring through intervention and transformation? Or should we celebrate its cold deadness, as a lasting reminder of the inaccessible past?
Many of the heritage questions we grapple with today were shaped by arguments, building experiments, artworks, and museum collections developed in nineteenth-century Europe. If one looks closely, there is a common theme in these origin scenes: nearly all of them find their animating spark in a confrontation with the medieval past. Consider the antiquarians of Great Britain, wandering the countryside to study and draw the remains of medieval architecture, while feeding the fashion for whimsical Gothick garden follies and re-castellated country houses; or the pioneering preservation bureaucracy developed by Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel after his encounter with the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork; or the restorations carried out by Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc at Sainte-Chapelle and Notre-Dame, stimulated by Victor Hugo’s celebration of French medieval architecture in Notre-Dame de Paris; or Alois Riegl’s meditation on “The Modern Cult of Monuments,” prompted by proposed alterations to the entrance portal of the Stephansdom in Vienna; or the photographs of Frederick H. Evans, inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and his glorification of medieval architectural surfaces “that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity.” In each of these cases a specific attitude towards the documentation, protection, restoration, and transformation of art and architectural heritage was formed in dialogue with some notion of “the Gothic” – a term whose inherent versatility opens up diverse worlds of association and whose usage says more about contemporary politics and aesthetic positions than the actual medieval past.
The Gothic and the key threads of heritage discourse come together in the city of Bruges, which serves as the primary case study for the seminar. The Bruges city centre, recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000, combines significant medieval monuments and collections with an ambitious late-nineteenth-century restoration effort, led by architect Louis Delacenserie. Long neglected after its harbor channel silted up in the sixteenth century, some saw Bruges as a prime site for rebirth. The city became a focal point for the revival of architectural and craft traditions from the Middle Ages and a fertile ground for disciples of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, defender of the “true principles” of Gothic architecture. At the same time, Bruges, with its black waters, and its silent, misty streets, retained an eerie pallor of death, a deep sense of resistance to any attempted resurrection or modernization. This ghost-like Bruges fascinated symbolist artists like painter Fernand Khnopff and novelist Georges Rodenbach. Two short novels by Rodenbach (Bruges-la-Morte, 1892 and Le Carillonneur, 1897) will provide the starting point for our seminar discussions. Students will read the novels and select a specific site, or artwork, in Bruges, for further study. Later in the semester, we will embark on a three-day excursion to the home of the Flemish Primitives, where we will study these artifacts in person and deepen our understanding of the heritage debates on site.
Course objectives
By the end of the course students will have:
Gained insight into the historiography of this subject.
Learned how to find, read and critically evaluate the relevant literature (further developing analystical skills and independent learning).
Learned how to reflect and theorize on the subject.
Learned how to devise and work out a case study (further developing research skills).
Presented this case study in class with the use of visual media.
Learned how to talk about a building or artwork on site (further developing their oral communication skills)
Learned how to evaluate presentations of other students and act as a referee.
Further developed the communication and research skills required to write an academic paper.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Assignments, student talks and the Bruges excursion are compulsory components of the course. Throughout the course students will hand in parts of their final paper for evaluation, guidance and feedback.
For this course students will write a 5000-word paper on a building or artwork of their choosing, selected in consultation with the instructors.
Reading list
The literature to be read for this course will be posted and made available through Brightspace.
Weighing
Presentation in Bruges (10%)
Presentation on research paper topic (10%)
Final research paper (80%)
To pass the course, the weighted average must be a passing grade (5.5 or more).
Resit
If a student fails the first attempt, the paper will have to be rewritten.
Reading list
The literature to be read for this course will be posted and made available through Brightspace. If you have no knowledge of Gothic or neo-Gothic art and architecture, we do advise you to read up before our first meeting. Literature suggestions will be made available via Brightspace.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
Information for those interested in taking this course in context of Contract teaching (with taking examinations), eg. about costs, registration and conditions.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
All other information.