Fundamentals: Issues and Texts

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Undergraduate Primary Contact

Chair Robert Bird
C 325

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Secondary Contact

Coordinator Jonny Thakkar
C 324

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Administrative Contact

Secretary Delores A. Jackson
C 330
702.7148
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Website

http://fundamentals.uchicago.edu

Program of Study

The Fundamentals program enables students to concentrate on fundamental questions by reading classic texts that articulate and speak to these questions. It seeks to foster precise and thoughtful pursuit of basic questions by means of (1) rigorous training in the interpretation of important texts, supported by (2) extensive training in at least one foreign language, and by (3) the acquisition of the knowledge, approaches, and skills of conventional disciplines: historical, religious, literary, scientific, political, and philosophical.

Rationale

A richly informed question or concern formulated by each student guides the reading of texts. Classic texts are also informed by such questions; for example, Socrates asks: What is virtue? What is the good? What is justice? Aristotle and Cicero explore the relation of civic friendship to society. Freud asks: What is happiness? Can humans be happy? Milton investigates how poetic vocation may be related to political responsibility. Students who are engaged by these questions and others like them, and who find them both basic and urgent, may wish to continue to explore them more thoroughly and deeply within the structure of the program which provides the wherewithal to address them on a high level.

That wherewithal is to be found in the fundamental or classic texts (historical, religious, literary, scientific, political, and philosophical) in which the great writers articulate and examine questions in different and competing ways. These books illuminate the persisting questions and speak to contemporary concerns because they are both the originators and exacting critics of our current opinions. These texts serve as colleagues who challenge us to think that something else might actually be the case than what we already think. The most important questions may, at bottom, be the most contested, and those most susceptible to, and most requiring, sustained, probing engagement.

This program emphasizes the firsthand experience and knowledge of major texts, read and reread and reread again. Because they are difficult and complex, only a small number of such works can be studied. Yet the program proposes that intensively studying a profound work and incorporating it into one's thought and imagination prepares one for reading any important book or reflecting on any important issue. Read rapidly, such books are merely assimilated into preexisting experience and opinions; read intensively, they can transform and deepen experience and thought.

Studying fundamental texts is, by itself, not enough. Even to understand the texts themselves, supporting studies and training are necessary: a solid foundation in at least one foreign language and in disciplines and subject matters pertinent to the main questions of students are essential parts of the major. Students benefit from knowledge of the historical contexts out of which certain problems emerged or in which authors wrote; knowledge of specific subject matters and methods; knowledge of the language in which a text was originally written, as well as an understanding of the shape a given language imparts to a given author; fundamental skills of analysis, gathering evidence, reasoning, and criticism; different approaches and perspectives of conventional disciplines. All these are integral parts of the educational task.

Individual Program Design

Genuine questions cannot be assigned to a student; they must arise from within. For this reason, a set curriculum is not imposed upon students. Each student's course of study must answer to his or her interests and concerns, and must begin from a distinctive concern. One student may be exercised about questions of science and religion; another about freedom and determinism; another about friendship and conversation; another by prudence, romance, and marriage; a fifth about distributive justice. Through close work with a suitably chosen faculty adviser, a student determines texts, text and author courses, and supporting courses as appropriate to address the student's Fundamentals question. Beginning with a student's questions and interests does not, however, imply an absence of standards or rigor; this program is most demanding.

Application to the Program

Students should apply in Spring Quarter of their first year to enter the program in their second year; the goals and requirements of the program are best met if students spend three years in the major. Students are interviewed and counseled in order to discover whether or not their interests and intellectual commitments would be best served by this program. Students are admitted on the basis of the application statement, interviews, and previous academic performance.

Program Requirements

A. Course Requirements

Required Introductory Sequence (2). A two-quarter sequence, open to second- and third-year students, serves as the introduction to the major. It sets a standard and a tone for the program as a whole by showing how texts can be read to illuminate fundamental questions. Each course in the sequence is taught by a different faculty member; each course is devoted to the close reading of one or two texts, chosen because they raise challenging questions and present important and competing answers. Students should learn a variety of ways in which a text can respond to their concerns and can compel consideration of its own questions.
Elected Text and Author Courses (6). The central activity of the program is the study of six classic texts. Late in the second year, each student, with the help of a faculty adviser, develops a list of texts. The list grows and is revised during the course of the student's program; a final list of six should be established early in the student's fourth year. This list should contain works in the area of the student's primary interest that look at that interest from diverse perspectives. The texts selected are usually studied in seminar courses offered by the faculty of the program or in courses cross-listed or approved for these purposes. Some books may, however, be prepared in reading courses or tutorials (independent study), if appropriate. Students write term papers in each of their text and author courses. These are carefully and thoroughly criticized by the responsible faculty members. The books taught come from a variety of times and places, East and West, and the selections reflect both the judgments and preferences of the faculty and the different interests and concerns of the students. Six text and author courses are required for the degree (in addition to the introductory sequence). One of the six must be studied in an original language other than English, the same language in which the student establishes competency. At the end of their fourth year, students take a Fundamentals examination on the books they have selected (consult following section on Fundamentals Examination).
Foreign Language (1). Students in the program are expected to achieve a level of competence in a foreign language sufficient to enable them to study in the original language (other than English) one of the texts on their examination list. Achieving the necessary competence ordinarily requires two years of formal language instruction (with an average grade of B- or better) or its equivalent. The third quarter of the second year of the language (or the equivalent as determined by petition) is counted toward the major. In addition, students must demonstrate their language abilities by taking a course or independent study in which one of their texts is read in the original language, or by writing a paper that analyzes the text in its original language and shows the student's comprehension of that language. Prospective Fundamentals students are advised that course offerings and departmental resources limit the languages with which this requirement can be fulfilled. Students must choose a language in which they can take a text course or text-based independent study.
Elected Supporting Courses (4). Appropriate courses in relevant disciplines and subject matters are selected with the help of the advisers. Students must receive quality grades in these courses.
Independent Studies (2). Independent Studies courses allow time for attending the Junior Paper Colloquium, writing the junior paper, and studying for the Fundamentals examination.

B. The Junior Paper. The junior paper provides the opportunity for students to originate and formulate a serious inquiry into an important issue arising out of their work and to pursue the inquiry extensively and in depth in a paper of about twenty to twenty-five pages. At every stage in the preparation of the paper, students are expected to work closely with their Fundamentals faculty adviser. Students register for one course of independent study (FNDL 29901 Independent Study: Junior Paper) in the quarter in which they write and rewrite the paper. They also participate in the Junior Paper Colloquium. Acceptance of a successful junior paper is a prerequisite for admission to the senior year of the program.

C. Fundamentals Examination. In Spring Quarter of their senior year, usually at the end of week six, students are examined on the six fundamental texts they have chosen. Preparation for this examination allows students to review and integrate their full course of study. During a three-day period, students write two substantial essays on questions designed for them by the associated faculty. The examination has a pedagogical intention, more than a qualifying one. Its purpose is to allow students to demonstrate how they have related and integrated their questions, texts, and disciplinary studies. Students register for one independent study (FNDL 29902 Independent Study: Senior Examination) in Winter or Spring Quarter.

Summary of Requirements

Third quarter of second-year foreign language ^*		100
Two introductory courses		200
Six elected text and author courses ^**		600
Four elected supporting courses		400
FNDL 29901	Independent Study: Junior Paper	100
FNDL 29902	Independent Study: Senior Examination	100
Total Units		1500

*	Or credit for the equivalent as determined by petition.
**	Including at least one in which a text is studied in a non-English original language.

Grading, Transcripts, and Recommendations

The independent study courses leading to the Junior Paper (FNDL 29901 Independent Study: Junior Paper) and to the senior examination (FNDL 29902 Independent Study: Senior Examination) are evaluated in faculty statements on the nature and the quality of the work. In support of the independent study grade of Pass, the Fundamentals faculty member supervising the Junior Paper, the second reader of the paper, and the readers of the examination are asked to submit evaluations to student files maintained in the Office of the New Collegiate Division. Other independent study courses (NCDV 29700 Reading Course) may be taken for a quality grade; students must write a term paper for such independent study courses. Students should request statements of reference from faculty with whom they have worked in all their independent study courses.

Honors

Honors are awarded by the Fundamentals faculty to students who have performed with distinction in the program. Special attention is paid to both the Junior Paper and the senior examination.

Advising

Students have faculty advisers who are chosen from members of the program with whom the student works most closely. The adviser closely monitors the student's choice of texts, courses, and language studies, allowing for the gradual development of a fitting and coherent program. The faculty adviser advises the writing of the junior paper and is responsible for approving the final list of texts for the Fundamentals examination. The program coordinator is available for advice and consultation on all aspects of every student's program.

Sample Programs

The following sample programs show, first, a plan of a four-year curriculum, locating the Fundamentals program in the context of Collegiate requirements, and, second, illustrative courses of study within the major itself, indicating possible ways of connecting fundamental questions and interests to both basic texts and standard courses. These programs are merely for the purpose of illustration; many, many other variations would be possible.

Four-Year Sample Curriculum

Courses that meet College general education requirements are labeled (GE). Courses that are underlined fulfill requirements of the Fundamentals major. The Fundamentals program is comprised of fifteen courses. The two-quarter introductory sequence is strictly required and prescribed for students who are in the first year of the program; a second year of foreign language study (in a language chosen by the students) is also prescribed; and text and supporting courses, which are truly elective, are freely chosen by students with advice from their faculty advisers. Students interested in Fundamentals are well advised to take Humanities and a language in the first year.

First Year
Humanities (GE)		300
Social Sciences (GE)		300
Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences or Mathematics (GE)		300
Foreign Language I		300
Total Units		1200

Second Year
Introductory Fundamentals Sequence		200
Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences or Mathematics (GE)		300
Foreign Language II		300
Civilization Sequence (GE)		300
Text or Author Course		100
Total Units		1200

Third Year
Text and Author Courses		300
Supporting Courses		200
Musical, Visual, or Dramatic Arts (GE)		100
FNDL 29901	Independent Study: Junior Paper	100
Electives		200
Total Units		900

Fourth Year
Text and Author Courses		200
Supporting Courses		200
FNDL 29902	Independent Study: Senior Examination	100
Electives		400
Total Units		900

Total Units: 4200

Questions, Texts, and Supporting Courses

All Fundamentals students, working with their advisers, develop their own program of study. Because students come to Fundamentals with diverse questions, they naturally have diverse programs. Examples of programs completed by Fundamentals students are listed below.

One student asked the question, "How does telling a story shape a life?" She studied Homer's Odyssey, Augustine's Confessions, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Goethe's Autobiography, Saint Teresa's Life, and the Bhagavad-Gita, and studied in supporting courses, Reading and Writing Poetry (Fundamentals), Myth and Literature (German), Autobiography and Confession (Divinity School), and Comparative Approaches to Psychotherapy (Psychology).

A second student asked a question about the ethics of violence, "Is there a just war?" He read Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, Aristotle's Ethics, the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, the Bhagavad-Gita, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," and studied in supporting courses World War II (History), The Military and Militarism (Sociology), Introduction to Indian Philosophical Thought (South Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Introduction to the New Testament (Early Christian Literature).

A third Fundamentals student investigated the question, "Is the family a natural or a cultural institution?" The texts studied were Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Aristotle's Politics, Aristophanes' Clouds, Sophocles' Antigone, and Rousseau's Emile. The supporting courses included The Family (Sociology), Men and Women: A Literary Perspective (Fundamentals), Political Philosophy of Locke (Political Science), and Sophocles (Greek).

A fourth student, interested in natural right and natural law, read Genesis, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Rousseau's Second Discourse, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, and the Federalist Papers. In supporting courses, this student studied Machiavelli to Locke, Rousseau to Weber, and the Political Philosophy of Plato (all Political Science).

A fifth asked the question, "What is marriage?" and concentrated on these texts: Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Goethe's Elective Affinities, and took, as supporting courses, Contemporary Ethical Theory (Philosophy), History of American Women (History), The Family (Sociology), and Sex Roles and Society (Psychology).

These programs indicate the diversity of issues and books Fundamentals represents. They are intended to suggest the cohesion of the individual program's texts and supporting courses within the context of a broad question. Obviously, many, many other programs could be devised.

Activities of Graduates

The Fundamentals program serves the purposes of liberal education, regarded as an end in itself, and offers no specific pre-professional training; yet Fundamentals graduates have successfully prepared for careers in the professions and in scholarship. Some are now pursuing work in law, medicine, journalism, ministry, government service, business, veterinary medicine, and secondary school teaching. Others have gone on to graduate schools in numerous fields, including classics, English, comparative literature, Slavic, history, philosophy, social thought, theology, religious studies, clinical psychology, political science, development economics, mathematics, film studies, and education.

Faculty

The faculty of the Fundamentals program comprises humanists and social scientists, representing interests and competencies in both the East and the West and scholarship in matters ancient and modern. This diversity and pluralism exists within a common agreement about the primacy of fundamental questions and the centrality of important books and reading them well. The intention is for the students to see a variety of serious men and women presenting their approach to and understanding of books that they love, that they know well, and that are central to their ongoing concerns.

Courses

Required Introductory Sequence

FNDL 20200. Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. 100 Units.

We will read and interpret The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Among major themes are the nature of human guilt in relation to God and society; the problem of evil, and how the existence of evil in the world affects religious beliefs; the pros and cons of “freedom,” and what the word might have meant to Dostoevsky; and love.

Instructor(s): R. Bird and S. Meredith Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Required of new Fundamentals majors; open to others with consent of instructors.
Note(s): Slavic and Fundamentals majors get first priority
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28206,RUSS 26204

FNDL 27503. The Clinical Freud: From Case History to Psychological Theory. 100 Units.

This course focuses on a close reading of Freud's case studies, focusing on both Freud's mode of reasoning regarding life-history and the origin and course of personal distress and the implications for psychoanalytic understanding of the human condition that arise from his work with these cases that were written across the years 1900-1918, the period of work in which he developed the "theory" of the unconscious, including both wish or desire and the manner in which this wish appears as a "symptom" in consciousness. The course does not require previous reading of Freud's work, although that is always welcome!

Instructor(s): B. Cohler Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Required of new Fundamentals majors; open to others with consent of instructor.

Text and Author Courses

FNDL 20700. Aquinas on God, Being, and Human Nature. 100 Units.

This course considers sections from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. Among the topics considered are God's existence; the relationship between God and Being; and human nature.

Instructor(s): S. Meredith Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 23712,RLST 23605

FNDL 20750. Rumi's Masnavi and the Persian Sufi Tradition. 100 Units.

The Masnavi of Mowlana Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) is perhaps the most widely read and commented upon poem from Bosnia to Bengal, and Rumi has been hailed by more than one modern scholar as the “greatest mystical poet” of Islam, or even the world. This course centers around a close-reading in English of the six books of his "Spiritual Couplets." Through discussion and lectures we will consider the narrative techniques and sources of the tales, the morals drawn from them, the organizational structure of the whole, and the literary achievement of the Masnavi, viewing the text as a lens on to Rumi's theology, Persian Sufism and his place within the mystical tradition.

Instructor(s): F. Lewis Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20750

FNDL 21200. Balzac: Illusions Perdues. 100 Units.

We will read and interpret Honoré de Balzac's best-known novel, the story of a young poet who sacrifices his talent to his ruthless ambition. Starting from a close reading of the text, we will examine the moral and sociological implications of the novel.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Open to third- and fourth-year undergrads only.
Note(s): Taught in French, but participants who are not French majors/minors or graduate students can use the English translation of the novel and write their assignments in English.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 21201,FREN 31201

FNDL 21403. Shakespeare I: Histories and Comedies. 100 Units.

We will consider several of Shakespeare's major histories and comedies from the 1590s, roughly the first half of his professional career. These will include, among others, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night.

Instructor(s): B. Cormack Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16500,TAPS 28405

FNDL 21404. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. 100 Units.

This course studies the second half of Shakespeare's career, from 1600 to 1611, when the major genres that he worked in were tragedy and "romance" or tragicomedy. Plays read include Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear (quarto and folio versions), Macbeth, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest.

Instructor(s): R. Strier Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): ENGL 16500 recommended but not required.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16600,TAPS 28406

FNDL 21414. The Art of Leonardo da Vinci. 100 Units.

The central focus of this course will be on the small, damaged and disputed body of paintings that Leonardo has left to us, the wealth of his drawings that help us make sense of that problematic heritage and provide the most direct route into his creative thinking, and the hundreds of pages of text in the form of notes in mirror-image handwriting that comment on art and so many other subjects. Our structure will be roughly chronological, including his late fifteenth-century Florentine artistic and social context (e.g., artists such as Verrocchio, Pollaiuolo, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli), his two long periods in Milan as a court artist, his triumphant return to Florence and rivalry with the young Michelangelo, his brief and unsatisfying stay in papal Rome, and the little known, mythic final years in France. Among the themes that will be critically examined are: Leonardo’s role in the creation of what is still grandiosely called the High Renaissance; the value and problematic aspects of thinking of him as the quintessential artist-scientist; the significance of the fact that he has been a figure of such obsessive art-historical and broader cultural significance for over 500 years (ie.g., readings by Vasari, Freud, and the innumerable artists who have interpreted and mimicked his work); and the ways in which recent scientific and digital imaging have shed surprising amounts of new light on his art. Through the concentrated art-historical material studied, the course will take seriously the attempt to introduce students with little or no background in art history to some of the major avenues for interpretation in this field, including formal, stylistic, iconographical, psychological, social, feminist, theoretical and reception. Readings are chosen with this diversity of approach in mind.

Instructor(s): C. Cohen Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. For nonmajors, any ARTH 17000 through 18999 course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 17121

FNDL 21715. Aristotle on Virtue. 100 Units.

Examination of Aristotle’s theory of moral virtue as it is developed in the Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, and Politics. How does virtue differ from self-control? In what way is virtue a perfection of both our capacity for non-rational desire and our reason? What does Aristotle mean by saying that virtuous people act for the sake of the beautiful? How is virtue promoted and sustained by political community? What is the relation between virtue and natural flourishing? (A) (IV)

Instructor(s): G. Lear Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 31713,PHIL 21713

FNDL 21900. Milton's Paradise Lost. Units.

This course focuses on a close reading of Paradise Lost, attending to its redefinition of the heroics not only of war but also of marriage and friendship. We study the text’s engagement of issues of family, politics, history, psychology, and theology.

Instructor(s): W. Olmsted Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNDR 21600,HUMA 20800,RLST 26400

FNDL 21906. Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception. 100 Units.

A reading of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception (1945) with appropriate reference to its philosophical, psychological and even fictional predecessors. The course should be of interest to those working in the philosophy of consciousness, mind-body relations, critical theory, history of science, and even ethics and aesthetics. Reading ability in French encouraged but not required; we will use the original text and the translation by Colin Smith.

Instructor(s): Haun Saussy Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 21906

FNDL 22001. Foucault and The History of Sexuality. 100 Units.

This course centers on a close reading of the first volume of Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, with some attention to his writings on the history of ancient conceptualizations of sex. How should a history of sexuality take into account scientific theories, social relations of power, and different experiences of the self? We discuss the contrasting descriptions and conceptions of sexual behavior before and after the emergence of a science of sexuality. Other writers influenced by and critical of Foucault are also discussed.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): One prior philosophy course is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 24800,CMLT 25001,GNSE 23100,HIPS 24300

FNDL 22704. Plato's Republic. 100 Units.

A close reading of what is arguably the greatest work of philosophy in the Western tradition. We will probably pay particular attention to the relationship between philosophy and ruling, as well as to Platonic psychology, but this will be a discussion class and so the overall direction will be shaped by the questions that students bring to the text. For that reason participants are strongly encouraged to read the text beforehand; we will be using the C.D.C. Reeve edition.

Instructor(s): J. Thakkar Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 23510

FNDL 23313. The Birth of “Modern Man”: Petrarch, Alberti, Valla. 100 Units.

This course accounts for the emergence of the “modern” individual in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy. It does so through a close reading of three major works by some of the most innovative thinkers of their epoch(s): Francesco Petrarca’s collection, Letters on Familiar Matters, where the author originally struggles with notions of identity and authorship; Leon Battista Alberti’s dialogue, The Family in Renaissance Florence, which anticipates notions of modern economy or capitalism; and Lorenzo Valla’s newly translated (for the first time in any modern language) philosophical treatise, Dialectical Disputations, an attempt at conceiving a “new logic” against medieval scholasticism. We will debate their relevance in our day and age.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 27100

FNDL 24301. Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. 100 Units.

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is one of the most important works of philosophy written in the twentieth century. Its influence has reached far and wide beyond the limits of philosophy. Yet its meaning remains deeply controversial. This is in part because Wittgenstein broke radically with some of the most common assumptions human beings, especially educated human beings, like to make about themselves, their minds, and the world. It is also because Wittgenstein's philosophical method made it a point of principle to propose no theories of any kind. The purpose of this course is make the Philosophical Investigations intellectually accessible to students with no professional training or interest in philosophy. The format will consist of a mixtrue of lecture and commentary, with some room fro discussion of selected passages and points of special interest.

Instructor(s): C. Fasolt Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 28702

FNDL 24711. Lincoln: Slavery, War, and the Constitution. 100 Units.

This course is a study of Abraham Lincoln’s view of the Constitution, based on close readings of his writings, plus comparisons to judicial responses to Lincoln’s policies.

Instructor(s): D. Hutchinson. Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): LLSO 24711,HIST 27102

FNDL 24713. Augustine's Confessions. 100 Units.

Augustine’s Confessions recount not only his own conversion(s), but seek to facilitate a conversion in his readers and, thereby, inaugurate a new form of meditative reading. Like Cicero’s Hortensius, the text which prompted his long return to God, they thus belong to a genre of discourse known as protreptic in antiquity and designed to turn the reader towards the pursuit of wisdom. Of course, the Confessions as a confession participate in a number of other genres, and, thus, our analysis will have to take into account its generic complexity in order to understand how seeks to be read.

Instructor(s): C. Wild Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 26512,RLST 24713

FNDL 25311. Pale Fire. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 29600

FNDL 25700. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. 100 Units.

This course is an examination of Chaucer's art as revealed in selections from The Canterbury Tales. Our primary emphasis is on a close reading of individual tales, but we also pay attention to Chaucer's sources and to other medieval works that provide relevant background.

Instructor(s): J. Schleusener Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 15500

FNDL 27103. War and Peace. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): W. Nickell Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 22302,CMLT 22301,CMLT 32301,ENGL 28912,ENGL 32302,HIST 23704,RUSS 32302

Independent Study

FNDL 29901. Independent Study: Junior Paper. 100 Units.

Students who are on campus will be required to attend a series of colloquium meetings in Winter Quarter, but should enroll in the quarter that they will write the Junior Paper. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for P/F grading.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open only to Fundamentals students with consent of faculty supervisor and program chairman.

FNDL 29902. Independent Study: Senior Examination. 100 Units.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open only to Fundamentals students with consent of faculty supervisor and program chairman. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for P/F grading.

Recommended Foreign Language Text Courses

Students are also encouraged to seek Foreign Language Text Courses listed under other majors.

ARAB 30551. History and Modern Arabic Literature. 100 Units.

The class studies historical novels and the insights historians might gain from contextualizing and analyzing them. The Arab middle classes were exposed to a variety of newspapers and literary and scientific magazines, which they read at home and in societies and clubs, during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth. Such readers learned much about national identity, gender relations and Islamic reform from historical novels popularized in the local press. Some of these novels were read not only by adults, but also by children, and consequently their ideas reached a very large audience. The novels’ writers paid great attention to debates concerning political theory and responded to discourses that were occurring in the public spheres of urban Middle East centers and, concurrently, appropriated and discussed themes debated among Orientalists and Western writers. The class will explore these debates as well as the connections between the novel and other genres in classical Arabic literature which modern novels hybridized and parodied. It will survey some of the major works in the field, including historical novels by Gurji Zaydan, Farah Antun, Nikola Haddad, and Nagib Mahfuz.

Instructor(s): O. Bashkin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge of Arabic (namely three years of Arabic at least) is required; students are expected to read the novels as part of their homework assignment.
Note(s): Open to qualified undergraduates

ARAB 40386. Abbasid Prose: Ibn al-Muqaffa', Jahiz, Tawhidi, Badi' al-Zaman. 100 Units.

Spanning five centuries and a vast geographical area—from 132/750 to the capture of Baghdad by the Mongols in 656/1258, and from Iran and the Central Asian lands in the East, through Iraq, Syria/Palestine and the Arabian peninsula, to Egypt in the West—the Abbasid period has been called the ‘golden age’ of Arabic prose. The writers of this period developed several original genres and directions in artistic prose, including epistles and essays, translations of world literature and unique forms of fiction, mirrors for princes and supplications to God. In this course we will read from the works of four of its preeminent practitioners: Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī, and Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī, to examine its aesthetic sensibilities as well as its social, political, and religious underpinnings. We will also read some medieval literary critical material relevant to the subject. Through a close analytical reading of excerpts from the masterpieces of the Abbasid age, this class will probe the culture and contradictions of medieval Arabic society.

Instructor(s): T. Qutbuddin Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): 3 years of Arabic or instructor's permission.
Note(s): Open to qualified undergraduates.

CMLT 31851. Zhuangzi: Lit, Phil, or Something Else. 100 Units.

The early Chinese book attributed to Master Zhuang seems to be a patchwork of fables, polemical discussions, arguments, examples, riddles, and lyrical utterances. Although it has been central to the development of both religious Daoism and Buddhism, the book is alien to both traditions. This course offers a careful reading of the work with some of its early commentaries. Requirement: classical Chinese.

Instructor(s): H. Saussy
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 31851

EALC 45855. Readings in Tang and Song Texts. 100 Units.

This quarter the focus is on the genre of religious/philosophical exegesis. We will read representatives commentaries of the Laozi and the Heart Sūtra.

Instructor(s): P. Copp Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Ability in Literary Chinese.
Note(s): undefined

GREK 22500. Greek Historians: Herodotus. 100 Units.

Book I is read in Greek; the rest of the Histories are read in translation. With readings from secondary literature, historical and literary approaches to the Histories are discussed, and the status of the Histories as a historical and literary text.

Instructor(s): C. Faraone Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): GREK 20600 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 32500

GRMN 25413. Fairy Tales and the Fantastic. 100 Units.

This course will study fairy tales within the broader context of the history of childhood and practices of education and socialization. Therefore, we will address issues such as the varying historical conceptions of the child, and the role of adults – parents and pedagogues – in the shaping of fairy tales for the instruction of children. In addition to our main focus on the socializing forces directed at children we will explore different interpretive approaches, including those that place fairy tales against the backdrop of folklore, of literary history, of psychoanalysis, of the history of gender roles. While we will consider fairy tales drawn from a number of different national traditions and historical periods, we will concentrate on the German context and in particular on Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm’s contribution to this genre. In order to reflect on the specific mediality of fairy tales, we will examine the evolution of specific tale types and trace their history from oral traditions through print to film. Last but not least, we will have to consider the potential strategies for reinterpreting and rewriting a genre that continues to shape the cultural imaginary today. Readings and discussions in English (German texts will be available in the original).

Instructor(s): C. Wild Terms Offered: Spring

GRMN 24013. Symbolic Economies: Marx, Freud. 100 Units.

How does Marx's understanding of capitalist economic relations stand with respect to Freud's understanding of what he referred to as the "libidinal economy" of the mind? How does Marx's understanding of surplus value relate to Freud's understanding of the drives (and vice versa)? In this course we will investigate these questions and, more generally, the peculiar ways in which Marxist and Freudian thought intersect around questions of value, labor, embodiment, and desire.

Instructor(s): E. Santner Terms Offered: Spring

LATN 23400. Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy. 100 Units.

The Consolation of Philosophy, which Boethius wrote in prison after a life of study and public service, offers a view on Roman politics and culture after Rome ceased to be an imperial capital. The Consolation is also a poignant testament from a man divided between Christianity and philosophy. About 70 pages of the text are read in Latin, and all of it in English. Secondary readings provide historical and religious context for the early sixth century AD.

Instructor(s): Peter White Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Latin 20300 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 33400

PERS 30324. Masnavi of Rumi I. 100 Units.

The Masnavi of Mowlânâ Jalâl al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) constitutes the single most influential text in the Persian mystical tradition, read in the original from Bosnia to Bengal. This course will consider the literary background and achievement of the text; its poetic representation of Qur'an, hadith and mystical theosophy; its reception, commentary and translation history; and above all the structure and meaning of the poem. The first quarter will survey a select anthology of individual stories and themes in the Masnavi; while the second quarter will focus on a through-reading of at least one of the six books of this 25,000-line poem.

Instructor(s): F. Lewis Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PERS 20103 or equivalent
Note(s): Open to Undergraduates with Consent of Instructor

PERS 30325. Masnavi of Rumi II. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): F. Lewis Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PERS 30324
Note(s): Open to Undergraduates with Consent of Instructor

SPAN 29102. Mario Vargas Llosa y el fanatismo. 100 Units.

In this course we will read La guerra del fin del mundo (1981) and Historia de Mayta (1984) to explore Mario Vargas Llosa's evolving representation of fanaticism. Political, religious, and aesthetic fanaticism will be at the center of our debates. Historical and intertextual contexts, both inside and outside of Peru, will be of the utmost importance.

Instructor(s): K. Austin Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 39102

Recommended Supporting Courses

Students may also choose Supporting Courses that illuminate their questions and texts from other majors.

CLAS 33400. Boethius: Consolation of Philosophy. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Peter White Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Latin 20300 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 23400

ENGL 10400. Introduction to Poetry. 100 Units.

This course involves intensive readings in both contemporary and traditional poetry. Early on, the course emphasizes various aspects of poetic craft and technique, setting, and terminology, as well as provides extensive experience in verbal analysis. Later, emphasis is on contextual issues: referentially, philosophical and ideological assumptions, as well as historical considerations.

Instructor(s): L. Ruddick Terms Offered: Winter

ENGL 10700. Introduction to Fiction: The Short Story. 100 Units.

In the first half of this course, we focus on the principal elements that contribute to effect in fiction (i.e., setting, characterization, style, imagery, structure) to understand the variety of effects possible with each element. We read several different writers in each of the first five weeks. In the second half of the course, we bring the elements together and study how they work in concert. This detailed study concentrates on one or, at most, two texts a week.

Instructor(s): W. Veeder Terms Offered: Autumn

ENGL 10800. Introduction to Film Analysis. 100 Units.

This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Note(s): Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 10100,ARTH 20000,ARTV 25300

ENGL 16715. Shakespeare: The Roman and Greek Plays. 100 Units.

Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies tend to be based on stories located in the legendary past of Great Britain and Scandinavia (Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth) or in more or less contemporary Italy (Romeo and Juliet, Othello). Throughout his writing career, on the other hand, Shakespeare continued to be fascinated by the strikingly different world of ancient Greece and Rome: Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. Here he could anatomize political and human crises in a world that owed nothing, overtly at least, to Christian ideologies or the political orthodoxies of the monarchical state. The plays are often dispiriting, restless, skeptical, pessimistic, misogynistic. Yet they also search for humane values of which the ancient world was, in Shakespeare’s view, abundantly capable: justice, compassion, sympathy, stoical resolve, courage, and greatness of spirit. This is the world we will explore.

Instructor(s): D. Bevington Terms Offered: Winter

ENGL 20219. Reading William Blake. 100 Units.

This course explores the visual and verbal aspects of William Blake’s major works and responds to the difficulty of reading Blake by developing a set of self-reflexive theoretical methods. The experience of reading is central to this course: close reading, slow reading, reading attuned to the ‘minute particular’.

Instructor(s): S. Pannuto Terms Offered: Autumn

ENGL 25411. Melville. 100 Units.

Of Melville, Hawthorne famously wrote, “He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other.” In this course we will focus on the problem of meaning in the works of Herman Melville. Beginning with the sanguine assumptions of the Transcendentalists that human meaning was secured by a system of correspondences between nature and super-nature, we will trace how this confidence is ruptured for Melville by the political upheavals of the l850s and by his own growing commitment to skepticism. We will briefly explore Melville's early seafaring adventures (Typee) before concentrating our attention on Moby Dick. We will read this text carefully, devoting 5-6 weeks to discussion. In the remaining weeks of the quarter we will turn to the novellas, Benito Cereno and Billy Budd. If time permits we may sample from The Confidence Man and Melville's poetry.

Instructor(s): J. Knight Terms Offered: Spring

GRMN 24013. Symbolic Economies: Marx, Freud. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): E. Santner Terms Offered: Spring

HIST 24905. Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and "Descent of Man" 100 Units.

This lecture-discussion class will focus on a close reading of Darwin's two classic texts. An initial class or two will explore the state of biology prior to Darwin's Beagle Voyage, and then consider the development of his theories before 1859. Then we will turn to his two books. Among the topics of central concern will be: the logical, epistemological, and rhetorical status of Darwin's several theories, especially his evolutionary ethics; the religious foundations of his ideas and the religious reaction to them; and the social-political consequences of his accomplishment. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th of the publication of the "Origin."

Instructor(s): R. Richards Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 38400,HIPS 24901,HIST 34905,PHIL 23015,PHIL 33015

NORW 24211. Ibsen: Theory and Practice. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to integrate academic and practical approaches in the study of the great Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. We bring together two modes of engagement with Ibsen's work: (1) close, historical, and contextual readings of the major plays; and (2) performance-based scene studies in which the student learns to approach the material as actor, director, and dramaturg. Among the plays studied are A Doll's House, The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler, and When We Dead Awaken.

Instructor(s): K. Kenny, P. Pascoe Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): NORW 10400 or consent of instructor

PHIL 21000. Introduction to Ethics. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read, write, think, and talk about moral philosophy, focusing on two classic texts, Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism. We will work through both texts carefully and have a look at influential criticisms of utilitarianism and of Kant's ethics in the concluding weeks of the term. This course is intended as an introductory course in moral philosophy. Some prior work in philosophy is helpful, but not required. (A)

Instructor(s): C. Vogler Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 21000

PHIL 21314. The Presocratics. 100 Units.

This is an advanced survey course on the Presocratics. The figures covered will include but will not be limited to Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and the Atomists. The focus will be primarily on issues of metaphysics, epistemology, and natural philosophy, though other topics will be discussed as they arise. (B) (IV)

Instructor(s): C. Frey Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 31314

PHIL 21605. Justice. 100 Units.

This course will explore a tradition of thought about justice extending from Plato to Kant. We will read selections from Plato’s Gorgias and Republic, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Rousseau’s On the Social Contract, and Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Open to College and graduate students. (A)

Instructor(s): A. Ford Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 31605

SOCI 20005. Sociological Theory. 100 Units.

Building on the works of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, and other classical theorists, this course addresses the role of theory in sociology. In addition to classic texts, readings explore both contemporary theoretical projects and the implications of theory for empirical research.

Instructor(s): A. Glaeser Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in Sociology.

SOCI 28055. Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School and Beyond. 100 Units.

Critical Theory is one of the most prominent intellectual movements of the twentieth century, yet the extend to which it represents a coherent philosophical tradition and the assumptions and ideas that reside at its core remain open to debate. The course addresses this question through the in-depth study of Critical Theory's most renowned works. The reading list commences with Frankfurt School "classics" by Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse, and continues with work by Critical Theory's intellectual heirs such as Jurgen Habermas and Axel Honneth.

Instructor(s): M. Lee Terms Offered: Winter