98年第2學期-0173 文討：蒐藏之美 課程資訊

評分方式

評分項目	配分比例	說明
Midterm Writing Assignment	10	Essay
Two In class Report	30	In class oral presentations
Final Paper	50	Research paper: minimum 6 pages; MLA documentation style
Participation	10

教育目標

1. reflect critically on the history and functions of collecting and the complex relationships between collecting, on the one hand, and commerce, ideology, fashion, science, and technology, on the other hand. 2. work with essential critical terms in the field of cultural studies (e.g. identity, race, class, gender, contextuality, ideology, elite culture vs. popular culture, ownership, spectatorship, patronage, mapping, etc.) and, thus, prepare for further work in the field of cultural studies. 3. develop stronger reading skills as well as critical thinking skills. 4. increase their understanding of local cultural debates as they research examples of collecting and collectability in contemporary Taiwanese culture.

課程概述

William Gibson, the pioneer of cyberpunk fiction, observed that “the idea of the Collectible is everywhere today” (On Collecting, 1999). Following up on this reflection, the seminar will examine collecting in contemporary culture as a search for identity and permanence in a world driven by consumerism, status anxiety, migration, cultural hybridity, and information technology. We also look at some representative examples of the collector and collecting in literature and other media throughout history: the Old Testament patriarch Noah as the prototypical first collector; the origin of public libraries and musea in Hellenistic and Roman civilization; Renaissance scholars and their cabinets of curiosities; 19th cent. explorers, scientists, and missionaries as collectors in an age of empire-building; the family scrapbook; modernist (e.g. dadaist and surrealist) collecting and collage-making; and collecting in the Information Age.

基本資料

選修課，學分數：0-2
上課時間：三/1,2[FL002]
修課班級：外文系3,4
修課年級：年級以上
選課備註：需填寫文討申請單

參考書目

A selection of readings from the following major texts will be provided:

Charles Lamb, The Essays of Elia (1823)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
George L. Mackay: From Far Formosa (1895)
Walter Benjamin: AUnpacking My Library: A Talk on Book Collecting@
(1931)
John Fowles: The Collector (1963)

Jean Baudrillard: AThe System of Collecting@ (1968)
John Berger: Ways of Seeing (1972)
John Elsner and Roger Cardinal: The Cultures of Collecting (1994)
Paula Findlen: Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (1994)
William Gibson: On Collecting, Wired Magazine (Jan. 1999) Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak: Devices of Wonder: From the
Patrick Mauri: Cabinets of Curiostities (2002)
Pamela H. Smith and Paula Findlen: Merchants and Marvels:
Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe (2002)

Text selections and discussion topics may be adjusted depending on student interest.