Course Syllabus
ARCH 0220
Fake! History of the Inauthentic [CRN: 16487]
What is a fake? Who gets to decide what is authentic? Are ‘fake’ and ‘authentic’ absolute and antithetical categories? Greek statues, Chinese bronzes, Maya glyphs. What gets faked? Have fakes always existed? Do fakes have any virtues? Galileo’s signature, a centaur’s skeleton, Buddhas bearing swastikas. Are all fakes the same? If not, how are they different? Why do people make fakes? This course revolves around the history of the inauthentic through a diachronic exploration of objects (and some texts). We will range widely in time and space, focusing primarily on the pre-modern Mediterranean.
WRIT | FYS.
Instructor: Felipe Rojas
Class hours: T-Th 9-10:20
Office hours: T-Th 10:30-11:30
Textbook
There is no textbook. However, Fake? The Art of Deception by Mark Jones is highly recommended. Second hand copies are available on amazon.com
More importantly, full text is available here:
http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520070875
Course evaluation
Class participation 10%
2 quizzes (10% each) 20% (First quiz due October 7; second quiz due November 18)
2 projects (15%each) 30% (First project due September 30; second project due December 9)
Midterm 15% (due November 13)
Final 25%
Students must attend regularly, read all weekly assignments, and participate in class. In addition to a midterm exam and a final exam, students are required to complete two short projects on a topic relating to one or several of the topics discussed in class. The exams demand concise answers to written prompts and images from the lectures; they will be administered on-line (Canvas) over a 24-hr span. On your honor, these are to be done alone!
Projects (to be explained in detail on Th Sep 11)
1—The Logic of Fakes through Texts and Things
2—Fake Museum/Museum Fake
Grading of projects will be based on quality and proofing of writing, evidence of palpable effort, ingenuity, sensitivity to context and nuance in the information given to you, and clarity of presentation. The projects should each be ca. 5 pp., double-spaced, along with illustrations.
Special needs
Students with special needs should, please, identify themselves to the instructor as soon as possible.
Class Scehdule, Readings (R), and Focus Objects (O)
I PRELIMINARIES
Week I Introduction
Th Sep 4 Class overview, objectives, and syllabus
R: No reading
Week 2 What’s a fake?
Course Readings -- Week Two
Tu Sep 9 Definitions and relevance
What is a fake and what is not? Why do fakes matter?
R (3 texts): Jones “Why Fakes?” pp. 11-16 and “What is a fake?” pp.29-59; Gladwell "Statue"; Coe and Miller "Olmec Wrestler"
O: Getty Kouros; Olmec wrestler
Th Sep 11 Semiotics and Taxonomy
Are ‘fake’ and ‘real’ absolute and antithetical categories? Are all fakes the same? If not, how are some fakes different from others? Are there “shades of fake”? Can there be such things as “real/fake” hybrids?
R (3 texts): Dutton “Authenticity”; Walsh "Crystal Skull"; Berger "Real fake combination"
O: Mexican crystal skulls; mosaic skull
Week 3 Stakes
Course Readings -- Week Three
Tu Sep 16 Ethics
What’s wrong with fakes?
R (2 texts): Lowenthal “Forging the Past” in Jones pp. 16-22 (http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520070875); Dutton “Forgery and Plagiarism” (http://www.denisdutton.com/forgery_and_plagiarism.htm)
O: Drawing of Roman Port (Piranesi/Hebborn)
Th Sep 18 Epistemology
Is there anything “right” about fakes? What are fakes “good” for?
R (2 texts): Hay "Value of Forgery"; Jones "The Limits of Expertise" in Jones pp. 291-307 (http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520070875 (Links to an external site.))
O: Penelli Sarcophagus from British Museum; image and brief description available here:
Week 4 Fakes neither here nor now
(Non-western, non contemporary ideas about fakes, replicas, and authenticity)
Tu Sep 23 Other than Fake
Have there always been fakes? Are there fakes everywhere?
R (2 texts): Nagel "Copy and its Evil Twin" full text available here: http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/14/nagel.php; Kasfir "African Art and Authenticity"
O: Cochiti figurines
Th Sep 25 Fakes in the Library (JCB Library Visit) CLASS WILL BE HELD AT JCB LIBRARY
R: Schmeidl “A Very Rare Book”
O: Selected books from the JCB
Week 5 Discussion
Tu Sep 30 NO CLASS FIRST PROJECT DUE
Th Oct 2 Fake Real
R (2 texts): Eco "Travels in hyperreality"; Borges “Pierre Menard”
Listen to This American Life's "Simulated Worlds" available here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/38/simulated-worlds
II A UNIVERSE OF FAKES
Week 6 Artificialia
Tu Oct 7 Replication in Greece and Rome FIRST QUIZ DUE
What got copied in classical antiquity, why, and how has this affected what we think about Greek and Roman art?
R (2 texts): Gazda "Beyond Copying"; Trimble-Elsner "If you need an actual statue..."
O: Roman copy of Diadoumenos
Th Oct 9 Purpose of Replication
What did copies do?
R (2 texts): Anguissola “Retaining the Function”; Platt "Impression"
O: Roman copy of Tyrant-Slayers
Week 7 Mirabilia Touched by the Hand of God
Tu Oct 14 The Early Renaissance and the Anxieties of replication
R: Nagel and Wood Anachronic Renaissance "Image of the Image" pp. 21-28 and "Forgery:Copy"275-288
O: Rogier van der Weyden, Christ appearing to his mother; Juan de Flandes, Christ appearing to his mother
Th Oct 16 Contrafacta
R: Nagel and Wood Anachronic Renaissance, "Fabrication" pp. 241-250 and "Retroactivity" p. 250-274
O: Coin of Christ
Week 8 Naturalia Forging the Book of Nature
Tu Oct 21 Fossils and the boundaries of belief
R (2 texts): Gould “Lying Stones”; Stafford “Characters in Stones”
O: Lithographiae Wirceburgensis
Available here (plates at the end):
http://amshistorica.unibo.it/3
Th Oct 23 Fake Expectations
R (2 texts): Seabrook “Ruffled Feathers”; Jones "The Limits of Belief" in Jones pp. 79-98 (http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520070875 (Links to an external site.))
O: Merman
Images available here:
Week 9 Scripta I
Tu Oct 28 The peculiar logic of textual forgery
What can textual forgeries teach us about fakes in general?
R: Grafton “Forgery and Criticism: An Overview”; Barker “Textual Forgery” in Jones (Links to an external site.) pp. 22-28 (http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520070875 (Links to an external site.));
O: Donation of Constantine
Th Oct 30 Strange Bedfellows: Forgers and Critics
Does the logic of the (textual) forger differ from that of the (textual) critic?
R: Droge “Holy Books and Pious Frauds”; Borges "Pierre Menard"
O: Fibula of Praeneste; Phaistos Disk
Week 10 Scripta II
Tu Nov 4 NO CLASS
Th Nov 6 Re-writing the Word of God
R: Ehrman “A world of deceptions and forgeries”; Metzger “Literary Forgeries”
O: Gospel of Peter
Week 11 Acta
Tu Nov 11 Performing the Past Mid Term Due
R: De Groot “Affect and Empathy”
O: The Act of Killing
Th Nov 13 Performing there Past in Rome
R: Coleman "Launching into History"
O: Re-enacting the Vietnam War
III FAKERS: Agents and motivations
Week 12 Who?
Tu Nov 18 Forgers…
R: Lerner "Brigido Lara", McGill "Pre-Columbian could be fakes"; Keats "Eric Hebborn"
O: Moche mask
Th Nov 20 Final Project Presentation
Week 13 Fakes in the Museum
Tu Nov 25
VISIT TO CULUTRE LAB SELECTION OF CATALOGUE ENTRIES AND ESSAY TOPICS
Th Nov 27 NO CLASS THANKSGIVING
Week 14 Power of the Inauthentic
Tu Dec 2 Wisdom of the Community
R: Eco "Power of Falsehoods"; Borges "Tlon"
O: Map of the World
Th Dec 4 SECOND QUIZ DUE
R: Lenain "End of the World"
Week 15 Conclusions The Coherence of fakes
Tu Dec 9
CATALOGUE ENTRY DRAFT DUE
Tu Dec 16
CATALOGUE ENTRIES AND ESSAYS DUE
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|