Fundamentals: Issues and Texts

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This is an archived copy of the 2013-2014 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.uchicago.edu.

Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Chair
Robert Bird
C 325

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Secondary Contact

Coordinator
Cameron Cross
C 327
702.7144
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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 () 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 23104. Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. 100 Units.

The thought of Immanuel Kant’s revolutionized ethics and moral theory and has decisively influence modern conceptions of justice, human rights discourse, and also democratic liberal political theory. This course is a careful reading and engagement with Kant’s fundamental text in moral theory, his Critique of Practical Reason. If time allows, the course will also consider elements of Kant’s political thinking in his famous treatise, Toward Eternal Peace.

Instructor(s): W. Schweiker Terms Offered: Winter

FNDL 26105. Solzhenitsyn. 100 Units.

Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1970, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) is best known as an advocate for human rights in the Soviet Union, from which he was expelled in 1974. As with Tolstoy a century before, Solzhenitsyn’s vast moral authority rested upon the reputation he gained as a novelist in the early 1960s. We will read his novels One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Cancer Ward as innovative and complex fictions in the tradition of the Russian novel. We will then read the first volume of his monumental Archipelago GULAG, which he called “an experiment in literary investigation,” to see how he brought his artistic talents to bear on the hidden and traumatic history of repression under Stalin. At the center of the course will be the tensions in Solzhenitsyn’s work between fiction and history, individual and society, modernity and tradition, humanism and ideology.

Instructor(s): R. Bird Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 26105

Text and Author Courses (Autumn)

FNDL 20502. Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago and Beyond. 100 Units.

This course looks at Wright's work from multiple angles. We examine his architecture, urbanism, and relationship to the built environment, as well as the socio-cultural context of his lifetime and legend. We take advantage of the Robie House on campus and of the rich legacy of Wright's early work in Chicago; we also think about his later Usonian houses for middle-income clients and the urban framework he imagined for his work (Broadacre City), as well as his Wisconsin headquarters (Taliesin), and spectacular works like the Johnson Wax Factory (a field trip, if funds permit), Fallingwater, and the Guggenheim Museum. By examining one architect's work in context, students gain experience analyzing buildings and their siting, and interpreting them in light of their complex ingredients and circumstances. The overall goal is to provide an introduction to thinking about architecture and urbanism.

Instructor(s): K. Taylor Terms Offered: Autumn
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 17410

FNDL 21706. Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus. 100 Units.

This seminar will engage in close readings of Rilke’s famous volume of poems. Supplementary readings will address some of the fundamental issues raised by the poems: the sonorous universe of poetry and the nature of the voice; the “Orphic” dimension of poetry; the religious and profane meanings of praise in relation to mourning. We will furthermore compare the treatment of the voice by Rilke with its treatment by another Prague writer: Franz Kafka. Excellent reading knowledge of German required.

Instructor(s): E. Santner Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge of German required
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 37813,GRMN 27813

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. (A)

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 22214. Leviathan. 100 Units.

A close reading of the entirety of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. (A)

Instructor(s): J. Cooper Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 24001,PLSC 34001

FNDL 22711. Middlemarch. 100 Units.

This course will spend the entire quarter focusing on Eliot's masterwork, with some attention to the novel's literary and intellectual context. (B, G)

Instructor(s): L. Rothfield Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Crosslisted courses are designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24101,ENGL 42301

FNDL 24002. Kieslowski: The Decalogue. 100 Units.

In this class, we study the monumental series “The Decalogue” by one of the most influential filmmakers from Poland, Krzysztof Kieślowski. Without mechanically relating the films to the Ten Commandments, Kieślowski explores the relevance of the biblical moral rules to the state of modern man forced to make ethical choices. Each part of the series contests the absolutism of moral axioms through narrative twists and reversals in a wide, universalized sphere. An analysis of the films will be accompanied by readings from Kieślowski’s own writings and interviews, including criticism by Zizek, Insdorf, and others.

Instructor(s): B. Shallcross Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Each half-hour long film will be viewed separately. All materials in English.
Equivalent Course(s): POLI 35302,POLI 25302

FNDL 24302. Gibbon's Decline and Fall (Part 1) 100 Units.

A close reading of the first half of Gibbon's masterwork, together with his Autobiography.

Instructor(s): R. Lerner Terms Offered: Autumn

FNDL 25302. Outsiders I: Elsa Morante. 100 Units.

One of the most innovative and original writers of twentieth-century Italy, Elsa Morante (1912–1985) did not enjoy canonization and full integration into the modern Italian novel tradition during her life. From the late 1940s to her death, her works stimulated numerous critical debates, but she remained fundamentally an “outsider” whose art could not find a comfortable place in the prevailing niches into which her more “insider” contemporaries were placed. In this course we shall read and analyze in detail her novels and essays, and consider the earlier and more recent critical reception of her corpus. We shall also consider her influence on subsequent writers, and the ways in which her poetics and practice interact in important ways with feminist, queer, and political theories of current interest.

Instructor(s): R. West Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 24803,GNDR 28601

FNDL 26903. Gombrowicz: The Writer as Philosopher. 100 Units.

In this course, we dwell on Witold Gombrowicz the philosopher, exploring the components of his authorial style and concepts that substantiate his claim to both the literary and the philosophical spheres. Entangled in an ongoing battle with basic philosophical tenets and, indeed, with existence itself, this erudite Polish author is a prime example of a 20th century modernist whose philosophical novels explode with uncanny laughter. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, who established their reputations as writers/philosophers, Gombrowicz applied distinctly literary models to the same questions that they explored. We investigate these models in depth, as we focus on Gombrowicz’s novels, philosophical lectures, and some of his autobiographical writings. With an insight from recent criticism of these primary texts, we seek answers to the more general question: What makes this author a philosopher?

Instructor(s): B. Shallcross Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All readings in English.
Equivalent Course(s): POLI 35301,ISHU 29405,POLI 25301

FNDL 27801. Giacomo Leopardi. 100 Units.

II corso prevede la letture di Operette morali, passi scelti dello zibaldone, e una serie di poesie. Partendo dal Cantico del gallo silvestre, nelle operette morali, si cercherà di mettere in duscussione l'idea completamento negative del "pessimisno leopardiano". Si mosterà un percorso di pensieri leopardiani dove la negazione e le "vedute pessimistche" fanno parte d'un lungo discorso antropologico. Quello che emerge è un uso del pensiero che non è da intendere come costruttivo, ma "dissipatorio." É un'altra e diversa forma di energia che, nel dissipare o dissolvere le aspettative del futuro, permette di vedere uno stato particolare dell'essere.

Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 24700

FNDL 28305. Carl Schmitt's Political Thought. 100 Units.

This course is devoted to the political thought of controversial conservative Weimar lawyer and National Socialist partisan, Carl Schmitt. We will read and discuss his major works on sovereignty, the exception, legal theory, parliamentary government, liberalism versus democracy, and “the political.” Students are expected to come to the first session having read Political Theology in its entirety. (A)

Instructor(s): J. McCormick Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior consent of instructor.
Note(s): Seven week course to commence in Week 4.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 47403,PLSC 27403

FNDL 29300. Machiavelli: The Prince and Discourses. 100 Units.

This course is a reading and discussion of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, supplemented by portions of Livy's History of Rome. Themes include the roles of princes, peoples, and elites; the merits of republics and principalities; the political roles of pagan and Christian religion and morality; war and empire; founding and reform; virtue, corruption, and fortune; the relevance of ancient history to modern experience; reading and writing; and theory and practice.(A)

Instructor(s): N. Tarcov Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 32100,SCTH 31710,LLSO 21710,PLSC 20800

Text and Author Courses (Winter)

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

An exploration of Shakespeare's major plays in the genres of history play and romantic comedy, from the first half (roughly speaking) of his professional career: Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Troilus and Cressida. (D, E)

Instructor(s): D. Bevington Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16500,ISHU 26550,TAPS 28405

FNDL 21411. The Art of Michelangelo. 100 Units.

The central focus of this course will be Michelangelo’s prolific production in sculpture, painting, and architecture while making substantial use of his writings, both poetry and letters, and his extensive extant body of preparatory drawings to help us understand more about his artistic personality, creative processes, theories of art, and his intellectual and spiritual biography, including his changing attitudes towards Neoplatonism, Christianity, and politics. Our structure will be roughly chronological starting with his highly precocious juvenilia of the 1490s in Florence at the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent through his death in Rome in 1564 as an old man who was simultaneously already the deity of art and a lonely, troubled, repentant Christian, producing some of his most moving works in a highly personal style. Beyond close examination of the works themselves, among the themes that will receive considerable attention for the ways they bear upon his art are Michelangelo’s fraught relationship with patrons such as the Medici and a succession of popes; his complex devotion to and rivalry with ancient classical art and his living rivalry with Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bramante, and others; his changing attitude towards religion, especially his engagement with the Catholic Reform and some of its key personalities such as Vittoria Colonna; his sexuality and how it might bear on the representation of gender in his art and poetry; his “official” biographies created by the devotees Giorgio Vasari (1550, 1568) and Ascanio Condivii (1553) during Michelangelo’s lifetime and some of the most influential moments in the artist’s complex, sometimes ambivalent, reception over the centuries; new approaches and ideas about Michelangelo that have emerged in recent decades from the unabated torrent of scholarship and, especially, the restoration and scientific imaging of many of his works. Through the concentrated art-historical material studied, the course will take seriously the attempt to introduce students with little or no background in art or 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: Autumn
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 17612

FNDL 22306. 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 Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Requirement: classical Chinese
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 21851,EALC 31851,CMLT 31851

FNDL 22714. Montaigne: vie privée et vie publique. 100 Units.

La constitution littéraire et philosophique des Essais fut influencée par le souci de Montaigne de réaliser des ambitions et des aspirations politiques. Il faut démythifier l’image d’Épinal qui présente l’essayiste isolé dans sa tour, loin des agitations de son temps, jouant avec sa chatte et s’interrogeant sur la condition humaine. Cette lecture d’un Montaigne public a pour but de mieux comprendre les transformations des Essais sur vingt ans (1572-1592). La gageure est de considérer Montaigne et ses stratégies de publication des Essais – différentes dans le temps – dans le cadre d’une carrière publique (où plutôt de carrières au pluriel) et à la lumière des événements de leur temps qui marquent et influences ses choix. Il ne s’agit pas de coller Montaigne à l’histoire de son temps, mais d’offrir une nouvelle interprétation des Essais et de considérer ce que son livre a pu représenter aux yeux de leur auteur et de ses lecteurs à des moments différents d’une longue carrière publique comme conseiller au parlement de Bordeaux, maire de cette cité et négociateur entre Henri III et Henri de Navarre.

Instructor(s): P. Desan Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 32775,REMS 32775,FREN 22775

FNDL 23511. Goethe: Literature, Science, Philosophy. 100 Units.

This lecture-discussion course will examine Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's intellectual development, from the time he wrote Sorrows of Young Werther through the final states of Faust. Along the way, we will read a selection of Goethe's plays, poetry, and travel literature. We will also examine his scientific work, especially his theory of color and his morphological theories. On the philosophical side, we will discuss Goethe's coming to terms with Kant (especially the latter's third Critique) and his adoption of Schelling's transcendental idealism. The theme uniting the exploration of the various works of Goethe will be unity of the artistic and scientific understanding of nature, especially as he exemplified that unity in "the eternal feminine."

Instructor(s): R. Richards Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): German is not required, but helpful.
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 26701,CHSS 31202,PHIL 20610,PHIL 30610,GRMN 25304,GRMN 35304,HIST 25304

FNDL 23608. Aristophanes' Athens. 100 Units.

This course will focus on nine of Aristophanes' plays in translation (Acharnians; Wasps; Clouds; Peace; Birds; Lysistrata; Thesmophoriazousai; Frogs; and Ploutos) in order to determine the value Old Comedy possesses for reconstructing sociohistorical structures, norms, expectations, and concerns. Among the topics to be addressed are the performative, ritual, and political contexts of Attic comedy, the constituency of audiences, the relationship of comedy to satire, the use of dramatic stereotypes, freedom of speech, and the limits of dissent.

Instructor(s): J. Hall Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 23608,CLAS 33608,ANCM 33900,HIST 30803,HIST 20803

FNDL 24303. Gibbon's Decline and Fall (Part 2) 100 Units.

A close reading of the second half of Gibbon's masterwork.

Instructor(s): R. Lerner Terms Offered: Winter

FNDL 24310. Augustine's Confessions. 100 Units.

Substantial selections from books 1 through 9 of the Confessions are read in Latin (and all thirteen books in English), with particular attention to Augustine's style and thought. Further readings in English provide background about the historical and religious situation of the late fourth century AD.

Instructor(s): P. White Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): LATN 206 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 35000,LATN 25000

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 25300. Lolita. 100 Units.

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul, Lolita: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate, to tap at three on the teeth.” Popular as Nabokov’s “all-American” novel is, it is rarely discussed beyond its psychosexual profile. This intensive text-centered and discussion-based course attempts to supersede the univocal obsession with the novel’s pedophiliac plot as such by concerning itself above all with the novel’s language: language as failure, as mania, and as conjuration. (B)

Instructor(s): M. Sternstein Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 23900,ENGL 28916

FNDL 26100. Les Misérables. 100 Units.

In this course we read Les Misérables and discuss the work's message, structure and aesthetic vision. We will be particularly attentive to Victor Hugo's role as an observer of nineteenth-century French society as well as an actor in the political life of his times.

Instructor(s): R. Morrissey Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): All classes and texts in French; presentations preferred in French, but English will be acceptable depending on the concentration. Written work in French or English.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 36103,FREN 26103

FNDL 26206. Gramsci. 100 Units.

In this course we read selections from Antonio Gramsci’s Letters and Prison Notebooks side by side with their sources. Gramsci’s influential interpretations of the Italian Renaissance, Risorgimento, and Fascism are reviewed testi alla mano with the aim of reassessing some major turning points in Italian intellectual history. Readings and notions introduced include, for the Renaissance, Petrarch (“the cosmopolitan intellectual”), Savonarola (the “disarmed prophet”), Machiavelli (the “modern prince”), and Guicciardini (the “particulare”); for Italy’s “long Risorgimento,” Vico (“living philology”), Cuoco (“passive revolution”), Manzoni (“questione della lingua”), Gioberti (“clericalism”), and De Sanctis (the “Man of Guicciardini”); and Croce (the “anti-Croce”) and Pirandello (theater and “national-popular” literature), for Italy’s twentieth century.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 36000,REMS 36000,ITAL 26000

FNDL 28100. Beowulf. 100 Units.

This course will aim to help students read Beowulf while also acquainting them with some of the scholarly discussion that has accumulated around the poem. We will read the poem as edited in Klaeber’s Beowulf (4th ed., Univ. of Toronto Press, 2008). Once students have defined their particular interests, we will choose which recent approaches to the poem to discuss in detail; we will, however, certainly view the poem both in itself and in relation to Anglo-Saxon history and culture in general. (C, E)

Instructor(s): C. von Nolcken Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: ENGL 14900/35900 or the equivalent
Note(s): Cross listed courses are designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 15200,ENGL 35200,GRMN 32900

FNDL 28102. Machiavelli's Political Thought. 100 Units.

This course is devoted to the political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli. Readings include The Prince, Discourses on Livy's History of Rome, selections from the Florentine Histories, and Machiavelli's proposal for reforming Florence's republic, "Discourses on Florentine Affairs." Topics include the relationship between the person and the polity; the compatibility of moral and political virtue; the utility of class conflict; the advantages of mixed institutions; the principles of self-government, deliberation, and participation; the meaning of liberty; and the question of military conquest. (A)

Instructor(s): J. McCormick Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 27216,LLSO 28200,PLSC 52316

FNDL 28401. Pasolini. 100 Units.

This course examines each aspect of Pasolini's artistic production according to the most recent literary and cultural theories, including Gender Studies. We shall analyze his poetry (in particular "Le Ceneri di Gramsci" and "Poesie informa di rosa"), some of his novels ("Ragazzi di vita," "Una vita violenta," "Teorema," "Petrolio"), and his numerous essays on the relationship between standard Italian and dialects, semiotics and cinema, and the role of intellectuals in contemporary Western culture. We shall also discuss the following films: "Accattone," "La ricotta," "Edipo Re," "Teorema," and "Salo."

Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 38400,CMST 23500,CMST 33500,GNSE 28600,ITAL 28400

Text and Author Courses (Spring)

FNDL 20120. Wittgenstein’s "Philosophical Investigations" 100 Units.

A close reading of Philosophical Investigations. Topics include: meaning, justification, rule following, inference, sensation, intentionality, and the nature of philosophy. Supplementary readings will be drawn from Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics and other later writings. (B) (III)

Instructor(s): J. Bridges Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): At leas one previous courses in the Philosophy Department required; Philosophical Perspectives does not qualify.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 30120,PHIL 20120

FNDL 21300. James Joyce's Ulysses. 100 Units.

This course considers themes that include the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity and maternity; the meaning of the Return; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucinations; and Joyce's experimentation with and use of language.

Instructor(s): S. Meredith Terms Offered: Spring

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

This course will study 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 to be read will include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear (quarto and folio versions), Macbeth, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. There will be one short and one longer paper. Section attendance is required. (D, E)

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

FNDL 21504. Karl Marx’s Theory of History. 100 Units.

This course will investigate the theory of human history developed by Marx and Engels—Historical Materialism, as it came to be known. Though we will primarily focus on texts by Marx and Engels, we will begin by considering some of Hegel’s writing on history, and we will end by looking at different attempts to explain, apply, and develop the theory within the Marxian tradition.

Instructor(s): A. Ford Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 31425,PHIL 21425

FNDL 21603. Machiavelli and Machiavellism. 100 Units.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Machiavelli’s The Prince in light of his vast and varied literary corpus and European reception. The course includes discussion of Machiavelli as playwright (The Mandrake), fiction writer (Belfagor, The Golden Ass), and historian (Discourses, Florentine Histories). We will also closely investigate the emergence of myths surrounding Machiavelli (Machiavellism and anti-Machiavellism) in Italy (Guicciardini, Botero, Boccalini), France (Bodin and Gentillet), Spain (Ribadeneyra), and Northern Europe (Hobbes, Grotius, Spinoza) during the Counter Reformation and beyond.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Course conducted in English. Those seeking Italian credit will do all work in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 25801,REMS 33001,ITAL 23000

FNDL 21806. Pascal and Simone Weil. 100 Units.

Pascal in the seventeenth century and Simone Weil in the twentieth formulated a compelling vision of the human condition, torn between greatness and misery. They showed how human imperfection coexists with the noblest callings, how attention struggles with diversion and how individuals can be rescued from their usual reliance on public opinion and customary beliefs. Both thinkers point to the religious dimension of human experience and suggest unorthodox ways of approaching it.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing.
Note(s): The course will be taught in English. For French undergraduates and graduates, we will hold a bi-weekly one-hour meeting to study the original French texts.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 39100,CMLT 29101,CMLT 39101,FREN 29100

FNDL 22212. Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition. 100 Units.

This seminar will be devoted to a reading of Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958), one of the most influential works of political theory written in the twentieth century. Through careful study of the meaning and function of Arendt’s often-puzzling distinctions among “public,” “private” and “social” and among “labor,” “work,” and “action,” we’ll try to understand her account of the significance and prospects of human activity, including especially political activity, in modernity. Topics of special concern may include: the relation between philosophy and politics; Arendt's relationship to Marx and to the Marxist critique of capitalism; the meanings of work and leisure in the twentieth century and beyond; the nature and basis of political power and freedom; the relations between art and politics; the significance of city life for politics; and many others. While The Human Condition will be at the center of the course, the book will be supplemented and framed by other material, including essays on related subjects by Arendt; excerpts from some of the other thinkers with whom Arendt was in conversation; and material by later writers that will help us situate Arendt in the larger contexts of twentieth-century intellectual life, and which will also give us different angles on some of the key issues in Arendt’s book. (A)

Instructor(s): P.Markell Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 34500,PLSC 24500

FNDL 22912. Mythical History, Paradigmatic Figures: Caesar, Augustus, Charlemagne, Napoleon. 100 Units.

What is the process by which some historical figures take on mythical proportions? This course examines four case studies of conquerors who attained sovereign power in times of war (conquest, civil war, revolution), who had a foundational role in empire-building, and who consciously strove to link themselves to the divine and transcendent. Their immense but ambiguous legacies persist to this day. Although each is distinct as a historical individual, taken together they merge to form a paradigm of the exceptional leader of epic proportions. Each models himself on exemplary predecessors: each invokes and reinvents myths of origin and projects himself as a model for the future. Basic themes entail mythic history, empire, the exceptional figure, modernity's fascination with antiquity, and the paradox of the imitability of the inimitable.

Instructor(s): M. Lowrie, R. Morrissey Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 36713,CLCV 26713,FREN 26701,FREN 36701,BPRO 26700

FNDL 24901. Tolkien: Medieval and Modern. 100 Units.

J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular works of imaginative literature of the twentieth centruy. This course seeks to understand its appeal by situating Tolkien's creation within the context of Tolkien's own work as both artist and scholar alongside its medieval sources and modern parallels. Themes to be addressed include the problem of genre and the uses of tradition; the nature of history and its relationship to place; the activity of creation and its relationship to language, beauty, evil, and power; the role of monsters in imagination and criticism; the twinned challenges of death and immortality, fate and free will; and the interaction between the world of "faerie" and religious belief.

Instructor(s): R. Fulton Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Must have read The Lord of the Rings prior to first day.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 22400,HIST 29902

FNDL 25202. Thinking Tragedy: Nietzsche’s Geburt der Tragödie. 100 Units.

The Focus of this seminar exploring (German) theories of tragedy will be Friedrich Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. In order to understand better this work’s iconoclasm we will first survey some of the more seminal theorizations of the tragic genre starting with Aristotle but concentrating on the contributions of German idealist philosophers and thinkers such as Schiller, Hegel, and Schelling, before we then turn to a close critical reading of Nietzsche’s text. Readings and discussions in English.

Instructor(s): C. Wild Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28442,GRMN 28714

FNDL 25312. Kieslowski's French Cinema. 100 Units.

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s long-lived obsession with parallel histories and repeated chances is best illustrated by his The Double Life of Veronique. The possibility of free choice resulting in being granted a second chance conjoins this film with his French triptych White, Blue, Red, all co-written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz. In this course we discuss why and how in the Kieślowski/Piesiewicz virtual universe the possibility of reconstituting one’s identity, triggered by tragic loss and betrayal, reveals an ever-ambiguous reality. We also analyze how these concepts, posited with visually and aurally dazzling artistry, shift the popular image of Kieślowski as auteur to his viewers’ as co-creators. We read selections from current criticism on the “Three Color Trilogy.” All materials in English.

Instructor(s): B. Shallcross Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): POLI 35303,POLI 25303

FNDL 25331. Beauvoir: The Second Sex. 100 Units.

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir’s Le Deuxième Sexe took up the old question of sexual difference; it was
never the same question again. Her attention to the situation and “situatedness” of women resulted in
new ways of thinking about freedom, destiny, reciprocity, and subjectivity; it brought literature,
autobiography, and cultural studies into philosophical reflection; and it contributed significantly to
twentieth century transformations of women’s social, political, and cultural situations. We will engage a
close reading of The Second Sex in English translation and with some reference to the original French.

Instructor(s): K. Culp Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNDR 25302

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. (C, E)

Instructor(s): M. Miller Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 15500

FNDL 29605. Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. 100 Units.

Freud himself described The Interpretation of Dreams as the repository of the “greatest discoveries” he was destined to make about the human psyche and the human condition. As a Fundamentals course, we will analyze this text as an autonomous whole, line by line, and, reflexively, argumentative filament by filament. As a classic of modern social thought, we will explore the proposition that The Interpretation of Dreams is, however inadvertently, the greatest single work on “culture,” conceived as a semiotic system, ever written. Iconic writing, that is to say the capacity and the constraints of conveying bodily experience in words, will be a special focus of our reading.

Instructor(s): J. MacAloon Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open only to graduate students and 3rd and 4th year undergraduates.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPS 37000

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.

EALC 26500. The Shi Jing: Classic of Poetry. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): E. Shaughnessy Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 36500

EALC 26510. The Chinese Classics. 100 Units.

In this course we will survey the early histories of the Chinese Classics: the Classics of Changes, Documents and Poetry, the Springs and Autumns, and the Three Ritual classics, focusing on two different questions: first, how the classics were first composed and then how they came to be reinterpreted in later times; and second, how recent archaeological discoveries inform the re-reading of the classics, and the role this re-reading has played in modern Chinese historiography.

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

FREN 22775. Montaigne: vie privée et vie publique. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): P. Desan Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 32775,REMS 32775,FNDL 22714

FREN 24301. Le Règne des passions au 17e siècle. 100 Units.

This course is a study of the Early Modern vision of human passions, as reflected in literature. We read plays by Shakespeare, Corneille and Racine, narratives by Cervantes, d’Urfé, Saint-Réal, and Mme de La Fayette and maxims by La Rochefoucauld and Pascal.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): For undergrad students, third- or fourth-year standing.
Note(s): The course is in French and most required texts are in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 34301,REMS 34301

FREN 26103. Les Misérables. 100 Units.

GREK 21200. Philosophy: Plato's Phaedrus. 100 Units.

The Phaedrus is one of the most fascinating and compelling of Plato's Dialogues. Beginning with a playful treatment of the theme of erotic passion, it continues with a consideration of the nature of inspiration, love, and knowledge. The centerpiece is one the the most famous of the Platonic myths, the moving description of the charioteer and its allegory of the vision, fall, and incarnation of the soul.

Instructor(s): D. Martinez Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): GREK 20300 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 31200,BIBL 31200

GREK 21300. Tragedy. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to Aeschylean drama, seen through the special problems posed by one play, Prometheus Bound. Lectures and discussions are concerned with the play, the development and early form of Attic drama, and philosophical material. Modern Aeschylean scholars are also read and discussed.

Instructor(s): E. Asmis Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): GREK 20300 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 31300

ITAL 24700. Giacomo Leopardi. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 27801

ITAL 28400. Pasolini. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 38400,CMST 23500,CMST 33500,GNSE 28600,FNDL 28401

LATN 25000. Augustine's Confessions. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): P. White Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): LATN 206 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 35000,FNDL 24310

LATN 26513. Tacitus: History and Politics in Republican Monarchy. 100 Units.

We will read the Life of Agricola and selections from the historical works, engaging with the politics of virtue and historical memory and the changing dynamics of literary productions in the early Principate.

Instructor(s): C. Ando Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 36513,FNDL 26513

Recommended Supporting Courses

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

ARTH 10100. Introduction to Art. 100 Units.

This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation when dealing with a variety of visual art forms. It encourages the close analysis of visual materials, explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given work of art, and examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study of art. Most importantly, the course encourages the understanding of art as a visual language and aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Examples draw on local collections.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. For nonmajors, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.

CMLT 20500. History and Theory of Drama I. 100 Units.

The course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in drama from the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, classical Sanskrit theater, medieval religious drama, Japanese Noh drama, Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Molière, along with some consideration of dramatic theory by Aristotle, Sir Philip Sidney, Corneille, and others. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with other members of the course. The goal of these scenes is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended. (D, E)

Instructor(s): D. Bevington Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Preference given to students with third- or fourth-year standing.
Note(s): May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13900/31100 or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 13800,CLAS 31200,CLCV 21200,CMLT 30500,ENGL 31000,TAPS 28400

CMLT 20600. History and Theory of Drama II. 100 Units.

This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in Western drama from the eighteenth century into the twentieth (i.e., Sheridan, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Wilde, Shaw, Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard, Churchill, Kushner). Attention is also paid to theorists of the drama (e.g., Stanislavsky, Artaud, Grotowski). Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with other members of the course. The goal of these scenes is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended. (D, G)

Instructor(s): D. Bevington, H. Coleman Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Note(s): May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13800/31000 or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 13900,CMLT 30600,ENGL 31100,TAPS 28401

CMLT 21101. Roman Elegy. 100 Units.

This course examines the development of the Latin elegy from Catullus to Ovid. Our major themes are the use of motifs and topics and their relationship to the problem of poetic persona.

Instructor(s): D. Wray Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 21100,CMLT 31101,LATN 31100

CMLT 24402. Early Novels: The Ethiopian Story, Parzifal, Old Arcadia. 100 Units.

The course will introduce the students to the oldest sub-genres of the novel, the idealist story, the chivalric tale and the pastoral. It will emphasize the originality of these forms and discuss their interaction with the Spanish, French, and English novel.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel, G. Most Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 34402,SCTH 35914,RLLT 24402,RLLT 34402

CMLT 24902. Mimesis. 100 Units.

This course introduces the concept of mimesis (imitation, representation), tracing it from Plato and Aristotle through some of its reformulations in recent literary, feminist, and critical theory. Topics include desire, postcolonialism, and non-Western aesthetic traditions. Readings may include Plato, Aristotle, Euripides’s Bacchae, Book of Songs, Lu Ji’s Rhapsody on Literature, Auerbach, Butler, Derrida, and Spivak.

Instructor(s): T. Chin Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the critical/intellectual methods course requirement for students who are majoring in Comparative Literature.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24903,EALC 24902

CMLT 26610. Kinds of Narratives: the Novella. 100 Units.

The course will discuss the place of the novella among nineteenth-century prose narratives. We will read works by Balzac, Gogol, Stifter, Mérimée, Melville, Fontane, Chekhov, and Henry James.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English. For French majors and graduates there will be a weekly one-hour meeting to study the original French texts.

CMLT 26913. Anagnorisis and the Cognitive Work of Theater. 100 Units.

In the Poetics Aristotle conceives anagnorisis or recognition as one of the three constitutive parts of the dramatic plot and defines it as the “a change from ignorance (agnoia) to knowledge (gnosis).” Implying the rediscovery of something previously known anagnorisis refers to the emplotment and staging of a certain kind of cognitive work characteristic of theater (as a locus of theoria or theory). For recognition is not only required of the dramatis personae on stage but also of the spectators who need to (re)-cognize a character whenever s/he enters. Just as the characters’ anagnorisis isn’t restricted to the filiation, i.e., identity, of other characters the audience’s cognition concerns the understanding the plot as a whole. In short, by focusing on anagnorisis we can gain insight in the specific cognitive work of theater (and drama). Naturally we will begin in antiquity and examine the instantiation of recognition in Homer’s Odyssey and several Greek tragedies as well as its first theorization in Aristotle’s Poetics. Then we will jump to the modernes, specifically Enlightenment theater’s obsession with anagnorisis and the cognitive work it performs, and investigate dramas by Diderot and Lessing. Kleist’s dramatic deconstructions of German bourgeois and classical theater test the Enlightenment’s claim to reason and reform of human cognition. Our last stop will be Brecht’s theater of “Entfremdung” that makes the alienation at the heart of anagnorisis into the centerpiece of his aesthetic and political project. If we have time, we will also take a look at comical recognition as self-reflection of its tragic counterpart. Readings and discussions in English.

Instructor(s): C. Wild Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 26913,CLCV 25513,CLAS 35513,CMLT 36913,TAPS 28441,GRMN 36913

CMST 10100. 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.

Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian, Staff Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Note(s): Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20000,ARTV 25300,ENGL 10800

CMST 25501. Poetic Cinema. 100 Units.

Films are frequently denoted as "poetic" or "lyrical" in a vague sort of way. It has been applied equally to religious cinema and to the experimental avant-garde. Our task will be to interrogate this concept and to try to define what it actually is denoting. Films and critical texts will mainly be drawn from Soviet and French cinema of the 1920s-1930s and 1960s-1990s. Directors include Dovzhenko, Renoir, Cocteau, Resnais, Maya Deren, Tarkovsky, Pasolini, Jarman, and Sokurov. In addition to sampling these directors' own writings, we shall examine theories of poetic cinema by major critics from the Russian formalists to Andre Bazin beyond.

Instructor(s): R. Bird
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 35501,SLAV 29001,SLAV 39001

CMST 25514. Symbolism and Cinema. 100 Units.

In his 1896 essay on cinema, Russian writer Maxim Gorky described the new medium to "madness or symbolism." The connection between cinema and symbolism was not surprising insofar as symbolism was a dominant aesthetic paradigm throughout Europe at the time. However it does suggest (perhaps surprisingly) that from the very beginning cinema was seen as a means of visualizing the non-rational, uncanny and even invisible. This course examines the relationship between symbolism and cinema with particular attention to French and Russian writings and films. Examining how symbolist aesthetics became applied to the cinematic medium, we will pay particular attention the resources it provided for conceptualizing the uncanny and the mystical. We will question whether there exists a distinct symbolist tradition in film history and how it relates to notions of poetic or experimental cinema. Films will represent a broad cross-section of European (and some American) cinema, from Jean Epstein to Sergei Eisenstein and Alexander Dovzhenko, and from Stan Brakhage to Andrei Tarkovsky.

Instructor(s): R. Bird
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 26500

ENGL 16711. Hamlet and Critical Methods. 100 Units.

Shakespeare's Hamlet has probably inspired the most criticism of any play in world literature, and it has certainly inspired some of the greatest criticism. This course explores the goals, presuppositions, strengths, and limitations of different kinds of scholarship and criticism by focusing upon the variety of approaches that have been (or in some cases, could be) applied to Shakespeare's play. The course will focus on modern editorial theory and practice; classical and neoclassical discussions of mimesis, plot, and theatrical affect; Romantic, psychoanalytic, and postmodern discussions of Hamlet as character; recent literary historical discussions of sources and genre; new critical, new historicist, and feminist analyses of the play's imagined world; as well as performances and literary adaptations of Hamlet conceived of as interpretations of the play. (D, E, H)

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

ENGL 20601. Jane Austen (Junior Seminar) 100 Units.

This course offers an introduction to the novels of Jane Austen, and to the work of some of her contemporary writers (possibly to include Burney, Radcliffe, Wollstonecraft, Inchbald, Edgeworth). We will also read some significant work in Austen criticism, focusing on Austen’s innovations in the novel form, as well as on issues of gender, power, sentimentalism, and judgment. (B, F)

Instructor(s): H. Keenleyside Terms Offered: Spring

ENGL 24403. Beckett: Page, Stage, Screen. 100 Units.

Though best known for a single play, Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett was a poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, translator, and critic with a voluminous output. This course introduces students to the staggering variety and influence of one of the central figures in twentieth-century literature and theatre by reading Beckett’s better-known plays alongside his work in other media. Among the questions we will ask are: Why did Beckett either abandon or make unrecognizable almost every medium in which he worked? What happens when a medium becomes the means of its own undoing? What can Beckett’s experiments teach us about the presumed and actual limits of form? What can we learn from Beckett’s career about the cardinal developments in twentieth-century drama, literature, film, and television? The course places primary emphasis on Beckett’s plays (both on paper and in recorded performances), but we also spend some time on his novels, prose pieces, criticism, film, and television pieces.

Instructor(s): J. Muse Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28433

PHIL 20208. Film Aesthetics. 100 Units.

The course will investigate some of the fundamental philosophical issues that come up in connection with the aesthetics, ontology, and criticism of movies—questions such as: What sort of aesthetic medium is a movie? How does it relate to the broader aesthetic category of film? How does this medium resemble and differ from that of the photograph? What role in a proper understanding of the medium of the movie should be assigned to the fact that it has a photographic basis? What is the relation between high and low art in this case and how does it differ from that which characterizes the other arts? Do movies have authors? What role does genre play in the appreciation and understanding of movies? And what is a film genre? What sorts of problems of interpretation and criticism are unique to this medium? We will pay special attention to the conditions and modes of visual presentation that make it possible for viewers of fictional motion pictures to become absorbed in what we experience as a fictional narrative world. This will involve exploring questions such as the following: What is the difference between an objective and a subjective camera shot? How is a subjective camera shot attached to or associated with the point of view of someone in the world of a movie? What is an objective camera shot? Is it, as some say, a point of view on the world of a movie that is no one's point of view—a view from nowhere? What could that mean? Is it possible to construct a fictional narrative movie world entirely out of subjective camera shots? What is a point of view (and how, if at all, does it differ from a perspective)? What is a subjective (as opposed to an objective) point of view? Is the concept of an objective point of view a contradiction in terms? We will view a number of films that will help to illustrate and sharpen our discussion of the difficulties attending these issues. Some attention will be given to exploring the similarities and differences between the presentation of a fictional narrative world in film and in some of the other visual and dramatic arts, most notably painting and theater. Readings will be from Andre Bazin, Leo Braudy, Stanley Cavell, Denis Diderot, Michael Fried, Jean Mitry, Daniel Morgan, Thomas Nagel, Erwin Panofsky, Victor Perkins, Karel Reisz, Bernard Williams, and George Wilson, among others.

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

PHIL 20506. Philosophy of History: Narrative and Explanation. 100 Units.

This lecture-discussion course will trace different theories of explanation in history from the nineteenth century to the present. We will examine the ideas of Humboldt, Ranke, Dilthey, Collingwood, Braudel, Hempel, Danto, and White. The considerations will encompass such topics as the nature of the past such that one can explain its features, the role of laws in historical explanation, the use of Verstehen history as a science, the character of narrative explanation, the structure of historical versus other kinds of explanation, and the function of the footnote. (B) (II)

Instructor(s): R. Richards Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 35110,PHIL 30506,CHSS 35110,HIST 25110

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): A. Ford Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 21000

PHIL 21600. Introduction to Political Philosophy. 100 Units.

In this course we will first investigate what it is for a society to be just. Among the questions we will consider in this portion are the following: In what sense are the members of a just society equal? What freedoms does a just society protect? Must a just society be a democracy? What economic arrangements are compatible with justice? Authors to be discussed here include John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and G. A. Cohen. In the second portion of the course we will consider one pressing injustice in society in light of our previous philosophical conclusions. Possible candidates include, but are not limited to, racial inequality, economic inequality, and gender hierarchy. Here our goal will be to combine our philosophical theories with empirical evidence in order to identify, diagnose, and effectively respond to actual injustice. (A)

Instructor(s): B. Laurence Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 21601,PLSC 22600,LLSO 22612

PHIL 25110. Maimonides and Hume on Religion. 100 Units.

This course will study in alternation chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and David Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, two major philosophical works whose literary forms are at least as important as their contents. Topics will include human knowledge of the existence and nature of God, anthropomorphism and idolatry, religious language, and the problem of evil. Time permitting, we shall also read other short works by these two authors on related themes. (II)

Instructor(s): J. Stern Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 26100,RLST 25110,HIJD 35200

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: Spring
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in Sociology.