Art & Music Courses
The courses listed below are not all offered each semester. They are offered on a rotating basis and by faculty availability. Please check the Class Search for classes being offered in the current semesters.
A special note about online courses for prospective distance learning students who will not reside in Texas: The United States Department of Education(USDOE) published regulations in the Federal Register (Chapter 34, § 600.9(c)) that require all institutions of higher education to seek authorization in every state (and territory) in which they operate, physically or virtually, in order to maintain eligibility for federal financial aid. TCU’s authorization status can be viewed by state at http://www.cte.tcu.edu/distance-learning/distance-learning-state-authorization/. We can ONLY accept students from states where we are registered (showing in purple on the state-authorization map).
This course examines Hollywood films from a cultural perspective. Genres change over time, both reflecting and affecting the cultural attitudes of filmmakers and audiences. This course will focus on the development of the Hollywood Crime Film from the 1930s through the present day.
A study of the historical evolution of jazz styles in the United States from the 1890s through the contemporary scene, including American popular music Tin Pan Alley, protest music, and motion picture/television music. Included is an examination of the correlation of musical styles and cultural changes in America.
This course focuses on British music and memoir as contemporary experiences from the edge in the interpretation and analysis of music, text, and multimedia as cultural and artistic production. Music is a universal form of expression that can form a bond between people in transcending markers of race, gender, class, and ethnicity. It is in this sense that we will focus on music artists that have arisen from marginalized or edge areas of existential and cultural, social, national angst and that have given acute expression to the human experience. We will also contemplate how British music artists have provided very different expressions on issues of social oppression and ostracism within creating a voice for personal, cultural, social, and national liberation.
This course focuses on the music and cultural icon David Bowie. Bowie's career spanned more than fifty years in the 20th and 21st centuries and his impact on music and culture is indelible. We will consider the personas or alter egos and eras of David Bowie in the interpretation and analysis of his music through text, screen, stage, fashion, art, and other cultural dynamics. In the early part of Bowie's career, such personas as Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom, and The Thin White Duke are easily recognizable, yet in the latter part of his career it is much more difficult to ascertain a distinct persona or alter ego that he is inhabiting through his music and in the genres that he is working in. In this course, we will closely analyze Bowie's music in the interpretation of his personas and eras in considering the impact and meaning of his music on culture and the human condition.
This course will examine how visual representations of authority both shaped and reflected the political and cultural climates of Europe during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. This investigation will familiarize students with the visual rhetoric of power and help them develop understandings of the ways in which images relate to identity construction and socially and culturally-specific notions of gender power, and authority in a variety of time frames, historical contexts, and geographic locations, Throughout the semester, students will explore how those in power used images to create, maintain, and promote their authority and manage their public personas while exploring the relationships between visual representations, society, and culture. By discussing historical precedents, this course will also raise issues pertinent to current cultural ideologies and visual rhetoric.
This course focuses on the cultural importance of Frank Sinatra, one of the most influential figures in 20th century entertainment. The course examines the Sinatra of recorded music, radio, Hollywood movies, and Las Vegas, politics, and organized crime. Through music, movies, and documentaries, the course explores the changing cultural landscape in the US from the 1930s through the 1980s.
Students must be enrolled in the MLA program. This course examines the phenomenon of superheroes across global contexts. Exploring the representation of superheroes helps students grasp their potential cultural function, how religious themes may factor in to those functions whereby to satisfy certain needs, and how those functions and needs may have changed across time.
Ironman. Spiderman. Batman. Superman. Few people can deny the timeless appeal of these famed superheroes and others like them. With a recent resurgence in popularity, the scrutinizing eyes of more than the traditional comic book fan fall upon these figures from graphic literature. Thus, we might consider, if historically, we have too easily dismissed them as entertainment without considering what they might teach us about ourselves, society, history, and even the world around us. This course will delve into the historical rise, fall, and resurgence of the popular superhero. And, in this exploration through both literature and film, we will investigate the how and why we have, perhaps even need, superheroes in our world.