Arts and letters is a historical and traditional term for arts and literature, implying a comprehensive appreciation or study of visual arts, performing arts, and literary arts or literature. The concept is similar to the liberal arts and has been used in similar ways.
The discipline of ‘Arts and Letters’ now involves the decomposition and understanding of the subcategories of humanities and the surrounding criticism of each medium. Its origin was in the study of Latin poetry but has since transformed to reflect an intellectualist critique of multimedia. Geoffery N. Berry is quoted interpreting the study as “criticism as an exploration” [1] and states that the category “makes a commitment to the affairs of the world as well as books, history and science”. This is an example of the practical application of ‘Arts and Letters’ to the interpretation and documentation of wider society.
'Arts and Letters' is a critically and internationally recognised discipline. Studies produced under "Arts and Letters" are a contribution to the study of history, arts and sociology respective to the content or context of the medium. Studying pieces of 'Arts and Letters' supplies a sociological, intellectual and artistic insight to the era of its production. This insight is beneficial to understanding past societies and the functions that shaped its culture.
The institution of ‘Arts and Letters’ is rooted in the 19th to 20th century American intellectualism scene where the first institute was The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters which was founded in 1865, Boston. The institution was founded “for the advancement of art and literature” [2] on the idea of maintaining the culture and discipline of the category. The institution, however, has undergone many changes over the last century and is now a 300-member honorary society dedicated to literature, music and art.
'Arts and Letters' can be studied at collegiate institutions [3] across North America. The study is made available in a bachelor's degree, honors, master's, and doctorate program each with the option of independent and specialized study.
The education of ‘Arts and Letters’ has taken on many forms. It is considered a sector of tertiary or higher education and is recognised as a bachelor’s degrees in some institutions. It is available in many institutions under humanities and offers the specialised study of the discipline. 'Arts and Letters' as an education has been studied for centuries [2] prior to institutional education. In contemporary times, an ‘Arts and Letters’ major is a field of study that combines elements of literature with visual, liberal, and performing arts. The major’s highest frequency is in the North American University system. [4] Ranked in the highest sector, The ‘College of Arts and Letters at Stevens institute of Technology’ engages in the specific research of humanities through ‘Arts and Letters’ and covers the historical and contemporary derivations of the category.
'Arts and Letters' can be studied as a bachelors, major, honours, masters or doctorate program and is often recognised under the institutions faculty or college of arts. The education of its categories is largely centralised and accessible through arts-related programs.
The study of ‘Arts and Letters' has roots in Humanism where Latin poetry and drama were studied to trace the socio-political setting of different cultures and literary eras. Since then, much of the study had been isolated before globalization and the era of translation. By the late 19th century the term was used to name a few arts-related institutions in the United States. A subscription-based Theatre of Arts and Letters opened in New York in 1892, but closed within a year. [5] [6] The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1904.
Though 'Arts and Letters' is a study that has been conducted for centuries prior, the education and wide-spread institutionalization of ‘Arts and Letters’ possess origins in 19th and 20th-century North American culture. Established in 1842, the University of Notre Dame holds the largest and oldest college of ‘Arts and Letters' in North America with over 20 departments and research centres dedicated to the discipline. The term has also figured in higher education. For example, by 1889 students at Swarthmore College were sorted into two categories of study: "Arts and Letters" or "Science and Engineering." [7] Since 2010, course requirements at the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences have included a "sector" (category) called "Arts and Letters." The college defines the sector as including "visual arts, literature and music, together with the criticism surrounding them." [8]
A resurgence occurred in the 19th-century American essayist movement which saw the centralization of the discipline in a formally recognized institution and society. The National Institution of Art and Letters (Swathmore College, USA) was founded in the late 19th century as a sub-branch of The Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. The sub0branch centralized the previously fractured study of arts and letters into an acknowledged study of anthropology.
The Academy and Institute of Art and Letters is a historical institution and is now represented through The Art World Journal. [9] The peer-reviewed journal details the annual meetings of the society that were held by “The Academy” in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and select locations in France during 1916. The journal offers an insight into the place “Arts and Letters” had in intellectual society in the early 20th century as well as the global reach of its discoveries. Operating under and for the institution was their “Arts and Letters society” – an elitist group now deemed defunct.
Scholarly contributions to ‘Arts and Letters’ vary. The Propulsion Model of Creative Contributions Applied to Arts and Letters [10] is a detailed tracing of the different scholarly and social voices that have held the discipline and study of ‘Arts and Letters' for the last century. Techniques and styles in the study of this category have evolved over the years and have since been applied to collegiate programs, scholarly thesis’ and academic journals. Contributions and collaborations to the category have become more attainable due to the dismantlement of “academic elitism”, [11] translation, technology, and globalization.
"Arts and Letters" can be considered an umbrella term for the study of various mediums of art. These mediums are the subject of the study and are used universally across discipline, institution and education. They include performing arts, visual arts, literary arts and liberal arts. Under these categories are different mediums that offer new sources and representations of information utilised by the study of 'Arts and Letters'. The evolution of mediums considered have expanded with the development of globalisation, technology and the digital age. Different mediums have become more prevalent in the last three decades due including digital art, music, photography, and multimedia. Though these mediums stray from the traditional literary medium they comprise the majority of the study in current times. As a result, contemporary mediums have expanded the study of 'Arts and Letters' and developed its use in society. Examples of each categories medium is seen below:
Category | Example |
---|---|
Performing Arts |
|
Visual Arts |
|
Literary Arts |
|
Liberal Arts | Humanities
Arts
Social Science
Natural Science
|
‘Arts and Letters’ has since been made more accessible and collaboration-based since the advent of digital technologies including online publication platforms, digital discourse and globalisation. Since translation has been made accessible, the study of international arts and letters has seen an expansion. The study now connects to global study and the interplay between different mediums.
Currently, contemporary forms of ‘Arts and Letters’ are found in publications and online platforms including “Literary Letters: Correspondence as Art Letters” [12] which is serving as a platform for “true stories”, “literary discourse” and criticism of the present art scene. By extension, the online magazine has labelled itself as “the voice of genre” and has reformed the previously historical and intellectualist interpretation of ‘Arts and Letter’s’ to a more reachable audience. Another prevalent online platform currently publishing weekly discourse on contemporary and historical art is “New Books Network” [13] – a digitalised interviewing and essay platform presenting on the criticism of ‘Arts and Letters’ and its subcategories. The “New Books Network” tracks digital humanities through “insightful interviews with scholars about their new art” which is a modern iteration of the academic category. This platform posts weekly and is free of use. Its publications include podcasts, interviews, essays, visual media and journal entries from a collection of scholars.
The digital and technical age has enabled the study of 'Arts and Letters' to be contributed to and collaborated upon. Global platforms such as Arts and Letters Creative Co have unified the study of multi-media and the collaboration of artists around the world. Social media, collaborative platforms and online forums have enabled public commentary on 'Arts and Letters' and contributes to its expansion. Derivations of the study have also been found in marketing, performance, classics work and politics.
As the world's style progresses, technology develops and education expands 'Arts and Letters' will grow accordingly.
The University of Gothenburg is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and, with 53,845 students and 6,670 staff members, it is one of the largest universities in the Nordic countries.
Liberal arts education is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. Liberal arts takes the term art in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.
The Western canon is the body of high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly valued in the West; works that have achieved the status of classics. However, not all these works originate in the Western world, and such works are also valued throughout the globe. It is "a certain Western intellectual tradition that goes from, say, Socrates to Wittgenstein in philosophy, and from Homer to James Joyce in literature".
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term 'humanities' referred to the study of classical literature and language, as opposed to the study of religion or 'divinity.' The study of the humanities was a key part of the secular curriculum in universities at the time. Today, the humanities are more frequently defined as any fields of study outside of natural sciences, social sciences, formal sciences, and applied sciences. They use methods that are primarily critical, speculative, or interpretative and have a significant historical element—as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of science.
Herman Northrop Frye was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
An academy is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece.
Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, more commonly known as IADT Dún Laoghaire or simply IADT is an institute of technology with a focus on art and design located in Deansgrange near Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. It was established in 1997 and incorporated the former Dún Laoghaire College of Art and Design as its School of Creative Arts.
Digital poetry is a form of electronic literature, displaying a wide range of approaches to poetry, with a prominent and crucial use of computers. Digital poetry can be available in form of CD-ROM, DVD, as installations in art galleries, in certain cases also recorded as digital video or films, as digital holograms, on the World Wide Web or Internet, and as mobile phone apps.
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-secondary, undergraduate or graduate programs, and can also offer a broad-based range of programs. There have been six major periods of art school curricula, and each one has had its own hand in developing modern institutions worldwide throughout all levels of education. Art schools also teach a variety of non-academic skills to many students.
Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary field of medicine which includes the humanities, social science and the arts and their application to medical education and practice.
Belles-lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejoratively for writing that focuses on the aesthetic qualities of language rather than its practical application. A writer of belles-lettres is a belletrist.
Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanities, as well as the analysis of their application. DH can be defined as new ways of doing scholarship that involve collaborative, transdisciplinary, and computationally engaged research, teaching, and publishing. It brings digital tools and methods to the study of the humanities with the recognition that the printed word is no longer the main medium for knowledge production and distribution.
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An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties within colleges and universities to which their practitioners belong. Academic disciplines are conventionally divided into the humanities, including language, art and cultural studies, and the scientific disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, and biology; the social sciences are sometimes considered a third category.
English studies is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a distinct discipline. An Anglicist is someone who works in the field of English studies. The English studies discipline involves the study, analysis, and exploration of texts created in English literature.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the humanities:
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