This seminar will examine some of the critical debates marking those fields of inquiry that focus on culture as subject of historical analysis. What are the ways in which culture (variously construed) intervenes in the writing of history? How does cultural production--as it materializes in works of art, architecture, and aesthetic practices--affect our understanding and recording of human activity? Readings will aim to provide grounds for rethinking the intricate connections and tensions between cultural models and conceptions of the past. Topics will include: historiography, periodization, culture as context, tradition as paradigm, the concept of style, the canonical and the base, the culture wars.