Literature and Arts B-10: "Art and Visual Culture: Introduction to the Historical Study of Art and Architecture," is a popular Core course that attracts about 250 students each year. Like many survey courses, its syllabus is arranged thematically, not chronologically.
While many students say the topical organization is interesting, others complain that they lose sight of the big picture when they study works of art in non-sequential order.
The issue is often debated because it affects the way most undergraduates, particularly those who concentrate in the humanities, learn.
Art is not Darwinian
Nicknamed "Intro to Intro" by students, Literature and ArtsB-10 is required of all art history concentrators and is available to all students through the Core.
Bardman Professor of Fine Arts Irene J. Winter and Professor of History of Art and Architecture Joseph L. Koerner, who teach the course emphasize the unwieldiness of a chronologically organized course.
"A single-term, chronological survey becomes altogether unmanageable," Koerner writes in an e-mail message. "One would end up doing nothing but establishing ten or twelve chronologies and have little time to talk about individual works or issues."
Some instructors say a chronological format would perpetuate certain ways of thinking about art and make them seem like the only ways.
"A chronological format reinforces elevated concepts and an outdated way of looking at art as developing toward idealistic perfection," says Mark DeLancy, a teaching fellow for the course. "Art is not a Darwinian concept."
According to DeLancy, non-Western works may be neglected in a chronological format.
In the course's chronologically-arranged text used in B-10, Story of Art, "anything non-Western is given a little chapter," DeLancy says.
The textbook is only used in the introductory two weeks of the course, so students can begin the semester with a chronological view of art through the ages.
The rest of the course relies on a sourcebook and works of art in the Fogg, Sackler and Peabody Museums.
"Materials here are excellent for doing thematic [work]," DeLancy says.
While some students say the thematic approach is valuable, others find it distracting.
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