Semester:
Fall
Offered:
2022
Eugene Wang
Arts in early China have a distinct disposition. They are also highly integrated. Subsumed under the governing notion of yue, they typically cohere into tightly choreographed mise-en-scenes, encompassing music, dance, props, and ritual paraphernalia in a variety of media, and often arranged in complex physical structures. A syncretic imperative governs the orchestration of material media. Focusing on early tombs that yield a variety of artifacts–including figurines playing the roles of musicians and dancers–the course seeks to uncover the organizing principle behind the syncretic art and the vision of the imaginary cosmos mapped out therein.