The course moves from the close reading of great works of the literary imagination to examine the roles that the author and the reader play in the process of textual interpretation. The effects of digital media on reading and textual meaning are a central concern. Prerequisites: 78 credits and permission of the coordinator of Humanities.
The course explores challenges to creative expression presented by political and cultural boundaries and legal, moral, and religious laws/codes. We will study classics of modern European fiction grappling with, among others, gender/racial/cultural discrimination and economic inequality to examine the productive tensions between creativity and ethic, aesthetic, and other social norms. Course credit exclusion: AP HUMA […]
Introduces students to the canon of European utopian fiction in historical context. Emphasis will be on literary utopias and their social, cultural, and philosophical backgrounds.
While surveying the manifestations and strategies of post-modernism and deconstruction, this course traces the two concepts' precedents and assesses the claims and counter-claims made by their supporters and detractors.
How is scientific knowledge and its associated technologies transformed as they cross cultural boundaries? This course analyzes scientific theories, objects, and technologies in circulation, as they move from their point of origin to locations around the world. It will draw on recent scholarship on the global history of science, science and translation studies, and the […]
This course explores the genre of life writing through an analysis of its conventions as well as traditional and experimental applications. Central questions include: What is life writing? What are its historical and literary functions? How does it mark gender, race and class privilege? Course credit exclusions: None. PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusions: […]
A survey of legal concepts, practices, and narratives in the ancient world (Greece, Rome, and the Near East). Students will learn how the law is shaped by culture and history and how law and legal values are expressed in language, literature, rituals, and art. PRIOR TO FALL 2014: Course credit exclusion: AP/HUMA 3109 6.0; AP/HUMA […]
Students discover how local cultural production is fostered, disseminated, and in some cases restricted in and by the communities they serve. Building on cultural theories and concepts of public pedagogy, students work in small groups with partner organizations to engage in a choice of research or community focused experiential learning activities to be used for […]
Examines issues of gender and sexuality in Greco-Roman culture through reading Greek and Roman literature in translation.