ARHA185

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ARHA185

Great Monuments of Asian Architecture ARHA185 FA

Crosslistings: EAST185

Next Offered in 9899 FA

This course aims to acquaint students with the methods of formal and historical analysis of works of architecture, and simultaneously, to introduce something of the variety and complexity of architectural traditions in Asia. This is done through in-depth examination of three key monuments, each exemplifying a distinct building tradition and posing a different set of theoretical and methodological problems. In 1992, the theme for the course will be architecture and urban form in the pre-industrial Asian city, and our featured "monuments" will be three entire cities: Vijayanagara, the medieval Hindu capital of southern India; Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire in peninsular Southeast Asia; and Beijing, the capital of China under the Ming and Qing emperors. Our primary concern will be to arrive at an understanding of how the specific plan and form of each capital helped constitute the authority of its rulers, and how each city was shaped by its unique cultural and historical context. In addition, we will critically examine a number of classical and recent interpretations of urban form and function with the goal of evaluating their utility in understanding the pre-industrial city in Asia.

MAJOR READINGS

Nelson Wu, CHINESE AND INDIAN ARCHITECTURE
Richard Fox, URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY: CITIES IN THEIR CULTURAL
SETTINGS
Mircea Eliade, THE MYTH OF THE ETERNAL RETURN
Dianna L. Eck, "The City as a Sacred Center"
Jan Pieper, "The Spatial Structure of Suchindram"
Arthur Wright, "The Cosmology of the Chinese City"
Jeffrey F. Meyer, "Traditional Peking: the Architecture of
conditional Power"
John M. Fritz, "Vijayanagara: Authority and Meaning of a
South Indian Imperial Capital"
George Coedes, ANGKOR
Hermann Kulke, THE DEVARAJA CULT

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Regular attendance and reading of all assigned materials. Participation in class discussions. Three short essays; midterm and final

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998

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