We all share common experiences that can be generally classified within the major themes of art. Examples of these themes include love, mortality, identity, truth, and beauty. The representation of these themes through various media reveals central beliefs shared by a common people. The comparison of objects from the humanities with similar themes helps to uncover not only the uniqueness of each respective cultural artifact, but also a shared human consciousness that transcends time and place.
Your project for this course has two parts. In Project Part One, you will complete an exploration document examining two cultural artifacts that you select, identifying a theme common to both of them and developing a thesis statement related to the theme and artifacts. You will also identify an audience who would be interested in your artifacts, theme, and thesis statement. In Project Part One, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
 Illustrate the impact of the humanities on personal and professional experiences
 Select appropriate and relevant resources in the humanities in investigating expressions of human creativity
 Communicate effectively to specific audiences in examining fundamental aspects of human culture
 Apply essential principles of the humanities in exploring major themes of human culture and creativity
Prompt
Your exploration document should answer the following prompt: Choose two cultural artifacts to analyze. These artifacts may take the form of any artistic
medium, such as literature, poetry, music, film, dance, painting, and sculpture, and so on. Then, identify a common theme and compare your examples to one another as expressions of the same theme in different cultural artifacts.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: I. Describe the cultural artifacts that you chose. Consider questions such as these in your response: What is the name or title of the artifact? Who is the author or artist? What is the date or time period when the artifact was created? What is the cultural location or physical setting of the artifact? In addition, you could consider including a photograph or image of each cultural artifact, if they are visual artifacts.
II. Identify at least one common theme that will serve as the framework of your exploration document. How is the theme expressed in your artifacts? III. Explain how the theme you identified is related to your personal experience. For instance, you could discuss how the expression of the theme in your cultural artifacts is connected to you personally.
IV. Discuss a profession that could be impacted by the theme you identified. In other words, how is the theme you identified related to professional experiences? How could a working knowledge of the humanities be useful in this field?
V. Describe at least three humanities resources that you could use to investigate your theme and artifacts. VI. Use the humanities resources that you selected to research your theme and cultural artifacts, making sure that you cite your sources. Based on your research, do the following:
A. Discuss the relationship between each cultural artifact and its historical context. In other words, what were the circumstances under which each artifact was created? B. Explain the similarities and differences that you observe in the cultural artifacts you selected, in relation to the theme. C. Discuss the medium—such as literature, music, or sculpture—through which your cultural artifacts were created. VII. Based on your research, develop a thesis statement that conveys the claim you plan to make about your theme and artifacts. Your thesis statement should be clear, specific, and arguable.
VIII. Based on your research, identify an audience that would be interested in your theme and thesis statement. IX. Describe how and why you can tailor your message to your audience, providing specific examples based on your research. X. Provide a reference list