Text, Context, Subtext

TEXT=

medium—what it’s made of

• medium of literature & philosophy—words
  • purpose of prose: info, narration, description
  • purpose of poetry: express intense emotion
  • purpose of philosophy & history: analyze & communicate ideas & info
• media of visual arts & architecture—wood, clay, colored pigments, marble, granite, metal, neon, film, computers
• medium of dance—body
• medium of music—sound

FORM—outward shape

• subject matter or form of literature determines its genre (type or category)
• long narrative poem about hero—epic
• formal, dignified speech in praise of person or thing—eulogy
• form or outward shape of a work of art depends on how the artist manipulates the
• formal elements of composition

§ visual art: color, line, texture, space, light

in general visual art is special

representational—looks like sense apparent reality; the image takes the shape/form of its subject

abstract-

• the work of art is based on something in the “real world” but does not seek to represent it as it is seen.
• often used to create an intensified emotional experience or to take the viewer beyond sense apparent reality and the already known
• often used to defamiliarize or rethink the familiar or to delve beneath the surface meaning.

nonobjective or nonrepresentational—without identifiable subject matter

§ music: melody, rhythm, harmony, tone color (timbre) + is durational—unfolds over time (literature, especially poetry have same qualities as music)

• literature and cinema are durational also
• dance: temporal and performance oriented

CONTENT—the subject it describes

• in almost all modes of expression form and content are often interrelated (gestalt)
• visual arts & formal elts of music are without symbolic content
• literature, painting, & sculpture may imitate or describe nature
• music is almost always nonrepresentational

CONTEXT=

v historical and cultural environment

v ask:

o In what time and place did the artifact originate?

o How did it function within the society in which it was created?

o Was the purpose of the piece decorative, didactic (designed to teach a lesson), magical, propagandistic?

o Did it serve religious or political needs (or both) of the community?

Subtext=

[ its secondary or implied meanings

[ embraces the emotional or intellectual messages embedded in, or implied by, a work of art

o Greek epic glorifies prowess and physical courage in battle (embody male virtues)

o Louis XIV portrait imbued with power and absolute authority

o Andy Worhol’s serial soup cans and Coke bottles comment on late 20^th century/postmodern commercialism and consumerism.