Humanities 101 Final Exam: Due 4/17

No late finals accepted, no exceptions, no emailed drafts will be accepted.


In this course, you've gotten an overview of how the visual arts--and their functions--have changed over time. You've also gotten a brief sampling of literature and music, and a selection of rule-breakers and iconoclasts in all the arts. Since this class has been so wide-ranging, your final exam will give you a chance to respond to the parts of this course you've found most interesting. For your final paper, choose one of the following topics on which to write a short paper:

1. Research a rule-breaking artist (or musician, philosopher or writer) that we have NOT discussed in class. Give an overview of his/her work/life on the first page, then spend the rest of the paper describing how his or her work is rule breaking. You'll want to be able to describe the conventions of the artform to show just how the artist challenged them. Finally, discuss why his or her work is important. Why was it important to break the rules he/she did? How did this rule-breaking contribute meaningfully to art or society?

2. Reread the packet on Emerson. After reading the packet, write a profile of the most Emersonian character you know. Explain how their personality or the way they’ve lived makes them Emersonian. You can even talk about their struggles using Emerson’s terms. For this option, you must integrate five quotations from Emerson into your paper, including two from a work of his we did NOT read in class.

3. You’ve learned a fair amount about how art has moved from classical idealistic works to the conceptual and abstract work we see today. For this option, I want you to write a three page paper that imagines what visual art will become in the year 2050. Create a vision of future art, supported by observations of what art has been moving towards. For this option, you must integrate a discussion of the work of at least THREE artists from your book or from class.

Four pages minimum, Times New Roman Font. Double spaced. One inch margins, no spaces between paragraphs. Cite any sources and be sure 2/3 of the paper is your own words (not from sources). Cite any sources you do use.