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201. Introduction to Film II (=Eng 109). PQ: This is the second part of
a two-quarter course. The two parts are offered in alternate years and may be
taken in sequence or individually. This quarter builds upon the skills of
formal analysis, knowledge of basic cinematic conventions, and familiarity with
the institutions of cinema acquired in the first semester. In this course we
address intertextual and contextual problems, such as those associated with
genre, authorship, stars, and various responses to the classical Hollywood
film. Alternatives studied include documentary, European national cinemas, "art
cinema," animation, and various avant-garde movements. J. Lastra. Autumn.
204. American Cinema since 1961 (=Eng 287). The year 1960 is commonly
understood as a watershed in U.S. film history, marking the end of the
so-called "classical" Hollywood cinema. We discuss this assumption in terms of
the break-up of the studio system; the erosion of the Production Code; the
crisis of audience precipitated by television's mass spread; and the changing
modes of film reception, production, and style under the impact of video,
cable, and other electronic communication technologies. We also relate cinema
to social and political issues of the post-1960s period through the present to
ask how films reflected upon and intervened in contested areas of public and
private experience. With the help of the concept of "genre" and of the notion
of "national cinema" we attempt a dialogue between industrial/stylistic and
cultural studies approaches to film history. M. Hansen. Spring.
205. Sound in the Cinema (=Eng 282). We have, as a culture, debated images
for centuries, focusing on the most technical aspects of construction in order
to illuminate their cultural and social functioning. Yet, despite the immense
profusion of recorded speech and music, telephones, radios, and "sound bites,"
we have no well-defined set of terms, concepts, or questions that we
systematically use to address to sound representations. Since Hollywood was in
the forefront of sound research and technology from 1925-65, we examine films
with regard to basic questions of sound space, compositional conventions,
syntagmatic relations, and spectator positioning, in order to establish basic
ground rules for the critical study of sound, especially as it relates to
images of various sorts. J. Lastra. Winter.
207. Art in Motion: Movies of the Middle Ages (=ArtH 173). This course
studies ten movies, each of which evokes a different aspect of the medieval
period, in an attempt to understand the ways such visualization provides us
with particular understanding of our own time even as it poses as a
representation of the past. Issues addressed include the authenticity of the
presentation (sources for story, set, and costumes); the nature of the argument
(assumptions about events and individuals); and expectations of the audience
(conditions in which the film was made/released). L. Seidel.
Spring.
208/308. The Horror Film and the Historicity of Monstrosity (=Eng 284/482,
German 350). PQ: Introductory course in film theory or consent of
instructor. This course examines the horror film in an attempt to
understand how film horrifies us, how horror is produced in film, and what
might be historically specific to the various forms that horror has assumed
over the course of its filmic history. We consider the difficulty of defining
the genre in light of its polymorphous and ever multiplying perversities.
Readings in contemporary theories of horror, cinema, the fantastic,
monstrosity, and ideology inform our discussions of the films. Film screenings
are three hours a week in addition to scheduled class time. J. C. Federle.
Autumn.
210. Introduction to Fiction (=Eng 107). In the first half of this course,
we focus on the principal elements that contribute to effect in
fiction--setting, characterization, style, imagery, and structure--in order 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. W. Veeder.
Winter.
211. Studies in Narrative (=Eng 294). We give close examination to a great
variety of narrative by a great variety of writers. The idea is to deal with
not only the texts and their authors but with narrative itself, what it is, and
how it functions. R. Stern. Spring.
212/312. Toward Modernity (=Eng 232/432). This course centers on important
twentieth-century texts. Questions about the nature of modernity radiate from
the texts. The radiation creates not so much a context for literary discussion
as a mental constellation of which the texts are important elements. R.
Stern. Autumn.
213. Henry James: The Fiction of Crisis (=Eng 223). In 1895, Henry James
suffered his first nervous breakdown. Over the next five years he produced
several of the greatest novellas and novels of the nineteenth century. How
fiction writing became a mode of self-therapy for James is one of the issues
this course explores. In addition, we examine how self-analysis interacted with
a mordant social analysis to produce fiction that simultaneously looks outward
and inward. By a close reading of James's texts and of various theorists, we
work to engage the forces that produced James's masterpieces. Texts include
The Aspern Papers, The Pupil, The Spoils of Poynton, In the Cage, The Turn
of the Screw, What Maisie Knew, The Awkward Age, and "The Great Good
Place." W. Veeder. Spring.
214. Reading Eating: The Narratives of Food (=German 270, Hum 173). PQ:
Knowledge of German, French, or Italian helpful but not required. In this
course we discuss modern and contemporary texts, from film to literature, from
psychoanalysis to anthropology, dealing with the representation of eating as a
metaphor of national, cultural, and sexual identity. Feminist theory and
psychoanalytical and anthropological essays are theoretical reference points.
We examine how, in certain depictions or fantasies, the figures of "eating"
become the means to convey personal and cultural anxieties of invasion and/or
destruction. While studying the texts, we pay specific attention to whether the
discourse of eating serves to set up and define or bring down and collapse the
boundaries between the self and other, inside and outside, subject and object.
C. Novero. Winter.
216. African Diaspora I: Looking Back on Slavery (=AfAfAm 201, Anthro 313-1,
Eng 277). Looking at a variety of texts by black and white authors drawn
primarily from the period extending from the 1930s through the 1960s, we
consider the myriad ways writers sought to come to terms with the "permanence"
of the black presence in the "West." Among the texts we consider are Ellison's
Invisible Man, Hurston's Tell My Horse, Faulkner's Light of
August, Hughes's The Big Sea, James's The Black Jacobins,
Sartre's Black Orpheus, and Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth.
Informing our inquiry is the pressure exerted on the literary imagination by
official histories of the slave trade and of emancipation. K. Warren.
Autumn.
219. Introduction to Poetry (=Eng 104). Course work includes reading poems
from many periods of English and American literature. Class discussions focus
on pairs of poems on similar subjects. We explore the ways that techniques--of
diction, syntax, and rhythm--shape the meaning of individual poems. No
knowledge of the art of poetry, only an interest in poems, is expected of
students registering for the course. R. Strier. Autumn.
221. The Lyric (=Eng 144). The course addresses the lyric as a collection
of forms, as well as a traditionally recognizable mode of writing. Looking at a
range of poets writing in English from a variety of periods and cultures, we
begin with basic critical strategies for coming to terms with lyric writing,
and, in some cases, with nonwritten lyric production. We consider matters of
prosody, form, structure, common tropes and topoi, and familiar conventions.
Eventually, we move on to consider the question of how lyrics might be
understood to signify in variously construed aesthetic, historical, and
political contexts. J. Chandler. Autumn.
222. Gender and Identity in Victorian Poetry (=Eng 212). This course looks
at the intersection of issues of self and subjectivity and concerns about
gender identity as a major issue in Victorian poetry. We also read some recent
feminist and nonfeminist critical essays on the general problems of
subjectivity and authority. Poets include Tennyson, Browning, Emily
Brontë, Christina Rossetti, and Swinburne. E. Helsinger.
Winter.
224/324. American Poetry since 1945 (=Eng 278/478). This is a survey of the
encampments and divisions in American poetry since World War II, but the
emphasis falls on those poems that bear a clear relation to social and cultural
history. Much of the class discussion centers on analysis of various stylistic
conventions of the period. R. von Hallberg. Autumn.
225. Creative Writing: Poetry (=Eng 134). PQ: Consent of instructor.
In this course we read and write poetry intensively. Class time is spent on
short, focused writing exercises, discussion of seasoned and recently published
poetry (expect to read one volume of poetry per week, as well as miscellaneous
essays, interviews, and poems), and constructive discussion of each other's
work. Students also meet with the instructor outside of class to talk about
their poems. Enrollment is limited; students must submit three to six shorter
poems. E. Alexander. Spring.
226/326. Writing Fiction (=Eng 131/331). PQ: Consent of instructor.
Much of the course centers on student stories. These are (painlessly) mixed
with stories from an anthology of good fiction. Students must submit a short
sample manuscript. R. Stern. Spring.
227/327. Writing Fiction and Poetry (=Eng 135/335). PQ: Consent of
instructor. Discussion of student writing and the problems of literary
composition. Students must submit a short sample manuscript. R. Stern.
Autumn.
228-229. Problems in Gender Studies (=Anthro 215, Eng 102-103, Hist 204-205,
Hum 228-229, SocSci 282-283). PQ: Second- or third-year standing and
completion of a Common Core social science or humanities course or the
equivalent. This two-quarter interdisciplinary sequence is designed as an
introduction to theories and critical practices in the study of feminism,
gender, and sexuality. Both classic texts and recent reconceptualizations of
these contested fields are examined. Problems and cases from a variety of
cultures and historical periods are considered, and the course pursues their
differing implications for local, national, and global politics. Topics might
include the politics of reproduction; gender and postcolonialism; women, sexual
scandal, and the law; race and sexual paranoia; and sexual subcultures. L.
Berlant, E. Hadley, Staff, Autumn; E. Alexander, E. Povinelli, Staff,
Winter.
230/330. Visual Culture (=ArtH 258/358, Eng 126/326). This course explores
the fundamental questions in the interdisciplinary study of visual culture:
What are the cultural (and thus, natural) components in the structure of visual
experience? What is seeing? What is a spectator? What is the difference between
visual and verbal representation? How do visual media exert power, elicit
desire and pleasure, and construct the boundaries of subjective and social
experience in the private and public spheres? How do questions of politics,
gender, sexuality, and ethnicity inflect the construction of visual semiosis?
W. J. T. Mitchell. Spring.
231/331. Giotto's Jewel (=ArtH 246/346). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or
ArtDes course, or consent of instructor. The centerpiece of a course is the
Scrovegni Chapel, built within the ancient arena of Padua around 1300 and
decorated by a Florentine artist shortly thereafter with a series of paintings
that illustrate the lives of Mary and Christ. We attempt to situate the
monument within the context of contemporary and earlier forms of commemorative
construction and view it in relation to traditions of painted interiors. L.
Seidel. Spring.
232. Music, Liturgy, and Art in Sacred Spaces in the Middle Ages (=Music 161).
PQ: Ability to read music not required. This class explores the
dynamic relationship among music, liturgy, and art in the great churches of the
Middle Ages. Among other topics, the course investigates how changes in style
of cathedral building brought about modifications in musical style, how the
liturgy takes on specific characteristics to mirror the physical details of
these structures, and how all the arts act in concert to express the
philosophies of theologians and other persons active in these churches. A.
Robertson. Autumn.
234/334. History of Photography 1839-1969 (=ArtH 264/364). PQ:
Any 100-level ArtH or ArtDes course. The invention of the photographic
system as a confluence of art practice and technology is studied in detail. The
aesthetic history of photography is traced from 1839 through the present.
Special emphasis is placed on the critical writings of P. H. Emerson, Erwin
Panofsky, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Mumford, Susan Sontag, and Michael Fried.
J. Snyder. Winter.
240-241/340-341. Criticism: Its Philosophic Bases and Practice I, II.
These courses may be taken in sequence or individually. This course
sequence focuses on the problems of judging works of art. Recognizing that
there are different fundamental conceptions of the nature and function of art,
the sequence explores the ways these philosophical commitments affect the
interpretations and evaluation of particular works. Two major philosophic
positions are examined each quarter along with a number of literary works that
serve to exemplify and test the critical theories. H. Sinaiko. Winter,
Spring.
240/340. Criticism I: The Nature of the Work of Art. Aristotle's Poetics
and Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy are discussed in detail along with
several tragedies. The nature of an individual work of art, the nature of
tragedy, and the critical status of a poetic genre are central critical
themes.
241/341. Criticism II: Art in Its Relations. We consider Plato's
Phaedrus and Heidegger's The Origin of the Work of Art, along
with several short prose works. Our major themes are the personal relation of
the artist to the work and the relation of the work to the experience of the
audience.
GS Hum 244. Modern Drama. T. Trojanowska.
245. Introduction to Drama (=Eng 105). This course provides an introductory
exploration of the complex and often ambiguous relationships between the
dramatic text and the theater event. We begin with the familiar contemporary
domestic drama and the realist form and go on to the less familiar, reading
plays that challenge received notions of realism; Elizabethan tragedy and
history, modern social plays, Brechtian epic theater, avant-garde assaults on
representation, and Third World transformations of Western drama. Authors
include Arthur Miller, George Lillo, Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Alfred Jarry,
and others. Logistics permitting, we may include local theater production in
class discussion; students will pay for their tickets. L. Kruger.
Spring.
246/346. Medieval Drama (=ComLit 377, Eng 148/358). This course surveys
medieval drama in a historical framework from its beginnings in the tenth
century through the early sixteenth century. Cross-disciplinary, especially at
first, we look at Latin and Anglo-Norman drama written chiefly on the
Continent. As the course progresses, we focus increasingly on the English
religious drama of the later Middle Ages: the great cycle plays, saints' plays,
and moralities (these latter are read in their Middle English original, with
editorial assistance provided). Readings and discussions focus on primary
material, along with recent criticism. D. Bevington. Winter.
248-249. History and Theory of Drama I and II (=ComLit 305-306, Eng
138-139). This course covers Aeschylus to Aychkbourne and Sophocles to
Sade. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Autumn, Winter.
251. Acting Fundamentals. PQ: Consent of instructor. Applications due by
December 6, 1995. For more information, call 702-3414. This course
introduces students to fundamental concepts of the theatrical art form. The
class emphasizes the development of creative faculties and techniques of
observation, as well as vocal and physical interpretation. Participants study
Michael Chekhov's techniques of psychological gesture. Concepts are introduced
through directed reading, improvisation, and scene study. No previous theater
experience or acting training is required. C. Columbus. Winter.
252. Acting the Greeks. PQ: Consent of instructor. This course
creates an acting vocabulary for classical Greek plays, using texts such as
Euripides' Medea, Sophocles' Electra and Antigone, and
Aeschylus's Oresteia. Through vocal and physical exercises, we actively
work to train the actor's primal impulse in order to fill the stature and
emotional fullness that the plays demand. Students are expected to perform
choral and scene work in class. No previous theater experience is required.
Staff. Not offered 1995-96; will be offered 1996-97.
253. Chekhov in Contemporary Context. PQ: Consent of instructor.
This course is intended to uncover the universal themes and settings in
Anton Chekhov's work, bringing to light the humor and contemporary impact of
this classic author. At the same time, focus is placed on expanding the
participants' individual creative expression and understanding. The course
explores Chekhov's four major plays as a means to enhancing individual
performance skills and to understanding the process by which actors and
directors bring these dramatic works to life. No previous theater experience or
acting training is required. C. Columbus. Not offered 1995-96; will be
offered 1996-97.
254. Tennessee Williams: Performing an American Classic. PQ: GS Hum
254/376 or consent of instructor. Applications due by March 6, 1996. For more
information, call 702-3414. This course addresses the performance
aesthetics of Williams's Southern Gothic drama, including the music, poetry,
and visual aspects of the playwright's most well-known plays: The Glass
Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,
and others. The stylistic challenges of performing Williams's work as an actor,
the similarities to American improvised musical forms, such as blues and jazz,
and the painterly nature of the Southern Gothic atmosphere of the plays are
explored through discussion, reading, and performing tasks. C. Columbus.
Spring.
255. Performing Women's Voices in Theater. PQ: Consent of instructor.
Applications due by December 6, 1995. For more information, call 702-3414.
Long excluded from the standard canon of theatrical literature, women
playwrights and the performance of their work are the focus of this course.
Focus is placed on contemporary playwrights, including Maria Irene Fornes,
Caryl Churchill, Ntozake Shange, and others, and the performative challenges
that their work presents to the actor. Staff. Winter.
256. Shakespeare in Performance. PQ: Consent of instructor. Previous
theater experience is helpful but not required. This course explores the
dramatic texts of Shakespeare through scene-study and the mechanics of
performance. Students begin by working to develop awareness of and freedom with
the verse in the Sonnets. Moving toward more extensive dialogue and scene-work
from the plays, students explore the building blocks of performing
Shakespeare--from the text itself to the actor's voice and body. The class
teaches specific approaches to both verse and prose, developing a methodology
of analysis, preparation, and performance. Each participant will direct and
perform scenes for class. G. Witt. Not offered 1995-96; will be offered
1996-97.
Go to top of document 257. Advanced Study in Shakespeare: Scene Work. PQ: Consent of
instructor. Applications due by October 5, 1995. For more information, call
702-3414. How do you translate the politics, poetics, and cultural issues
of Shakespeare's texts into actual staging? Moving beyond simple understanding
and delivery of verse drama, this class explores in-depth the visual, physical,
and thematic resonances of Shakespeare's plays. We focus at length on
individual scenes, discovering them from a range of approaches to unlock their
inherently theatrical elements. G. Witt. Autumn.
260. Introduction to Directing. PQ: Consent of instructor. GS Hum
251 or equivalent acting experience helpful. Applications due by October 5,
1995. For more information, call 702-3414. This course introduces students
to the basic skills of directing plays, from first contact with the script
through work with actors and designers to final performance. After a
preliminary examination of directing theory, the class explores the director's
role as communicator and image-maker and offers practical experience in script
analysis, blocking, and the rehearsal process. J. Cooke. Autumn.
261. Advanced Directing. PQ: GS Hum 260 or consent of instructor.
Applications due by March 6, 1996. For more information, call 702-3414.
This course offers students who have mastered the fundamentals of play
directing the opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques and to
gain experience in contrasting theatrical styles. Various strategies for
communication with actors and designers are explored. E. Simonson.
Spring.
263. Introduction to Theatrical Design. PQ: Consent of instructor.
Applications due by December 6, 1995. For more information, call
702-3414. A basic introduction to scenic, lighting, costume, and sound
design for the theater, this course develops an understanding of the design
process with a historical perspective and a vocabulary specific to these four
design disciplines, as well as an understanding of aesthetic visual elements of
the theater. After the basic introduction, students have the opportunity to
pursue their own interests in a major project. M. Lohman. Winter.
264. Lighting Design for Stage and Film. PQ: Consent of instructor.
This is a basic exploration of the theory and practice of lighting design
for both theater and motion pictures. Students develop theatrical lighting
vocabulary, knowledge of basic electrical theory, color theory, theory of
light, design tools, and the actual instruments used to light the stage through
lectures and projects. No previous theater or film experience is required.
M. Lohman. Not offered 1995-96; will be offered 1996-97.
265. Scenic Design. PQ: Consent of instructor. This course considers
the process of stage design from both aesthetic and practical points of view.
It surveys the historical development of scenography in relation to technology
and theatrical style. The influence of tradition on modern stage design is
investigated through a comparison of period designs and contemporary solutions
established by scenographers. No previous theater experience is required. L.
Buchanan. Not offered 1995-96; will be offered 1996-97.
266. Playwriting. PQ: Consent of instructor. Applications due by October
4, 1995. For more information, call 702-3414. This course introduces the
basic principles and techniques of playwriting through creative exercises,
discussion, and the viewing of contemporary theater. Structural components of
plot, character, and setting are covered as students develop their dramatic
voices through exercises in observation, memory, emotion, imagination, and
improvisation. No previous theater experience is required. C. Allen.
Autumn.
267. The Performance of Literary Texts. PQ: Consent of instructor.
This course offers an opportunity to explore the wide range of options
available to performers working from nondramatic sources. This class explores
both literary and nonliterary genres, placing special emphasis on the
performer's body as a privileged site in the creative process. Readings from
critical texts supplement readings from imaginative literature to offer a broad
spectrum approach to some of the issues facing performers today. S. Totland.
Not offered 1995-96; will be offered 1996-97.
268. Performance Art. PQ: Consent of instructor. Applications due by
March 6, 1996. For more information, call 702-3414. This course offers
students a chance to explore some of the aesthetic strategies used by
artists/performers working in the genre of performance art. As scholars, we
work toward an understanding of how changing notions of what constitutes the
"avant-garde" influences the conceptualization, creation, and dissemination of
art and performance. As performance artists, we employ various "avant-garde"
techniques as we create original performances based on a theme, such as
"memory." The works are presented in a public performance at the Smart Museum,
which is cosponsored by the Smart Museum of Art and University Theater. No
previous theater experience or acting training is required. S. Totland.
Spring.
270. Reading Course: GS Hum Theater Practicum. PQ: Consent of
instructor. H. Sinaiko. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
271/371. Judaic Civilization II: Rabbinic Judaism from the Mishneh to
Maimonides (=Hum 201, JewStd 201). Study of the primary texts in the
development of classical and medieval rabbinic Judaism from roughly 70 C.E. to
the twelfth century. The course centers around selections (in translation) from
the Mishneh and tannaitic Midrash, the Babylonian Talmud, Geonic and Karaite
writing, the Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew literature of Andalusia, and Maimonides'
legal and philosophical compositions. Topics include different conceptions of
the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation; the origins and development of the
Oral Law; relations between Judaism and both Christianity and Islam;
sectarianism; rationalist and antirationalist trends in rabbinic thought; and
the emergence of secular pursuits in the rabbinic tradition. J. Stern.
Winter.
272. German Jewish Culture since 1780: The Discontents of Assimilation (=German
278, Hum 168). PQ: Reading knowledge of German helpful but not required.
This is a broad survey of German Jewish culture from the Enlightenment on,
with a close analysis of the entwinement of German and Jewish cultures at
particular historical moments. Themes include emancipation and assimilation,
Jewish women and Salon-culture, the rise of racial anti-Semitism, Jewish
"self-hatred" and the search for new Jewish identities, and the Holocaust and
its aftermath. Literary texts by Heinrich Heine, Rahel Varnhagen, Else
Lasker-Schüler, Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Peter Weiss, and others.
Background readings by David Sorkin, Hannah Arendt, Sander Gilman, and Raul
Hilberg. Class discussion in English; readings in English and German. K.
Garloff. Autumn.
277. Freud, Herzl, and Turn-of-the-Century Culture (=German 280, HiPSS 298,
JewStd 270). PQ: Honors seminar open to students of third- or
fourth-year standing (in German); good knowledge of German required. A
reading of a series of major texts from the turn of the century in the light of
the question of racial anti-Semitism, gender, and their relationship to fin
de siècle culture and textual production. Among the texts read are
Freud and Schnitzler on hysteria, Herzl on the new Zion, Strauss's reading of
Oscar Wilde's Salome, and Lou Andreas-Salome on Nietzsche. Taught in
English; readings in English and German. S. Gilman. Winter.
280. Preparation of the B.A. Paper. Staff. Autumn, Winter,
Spring.
282/382. The Tragic in Literature and Ethnography (=Anthro 205/310, SocTh
321). This course explores variations of the tragic in sharply contrasting
literatures: Aeschylus's Agamemnon, Beckett's Waiting for Godot,
selected passages from Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, and one
modern ethnography. The course also compares and evaluates basic dimensions in
the idea of tragedy--the will of the gods, implacable social forces, hubris,
tragic sensitivity, and tragic weaknesses such as wrath and jealousy--in terms
of specific cultural contexts, universal values, and intersections of chance
and probability. P. Friedrich, D. Radulescu. Summer.
283. Yiddish Literature and Culture in English Translation (=Hum 273).
Readings in English of the classics of Yiddish literature, modern Yiddish
prose, and drama writers from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the
United States. (Yiddish poetry is not covered.) Yiddish cinema and American
Yiddish popular culture form a second motif for the course. There is a strong
emphasis on all of Yiddish culture, both higher culture and popular culture.
Among the writers covered are Sholom-Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, I. J.
Singer, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. H. Aronson. Winter.
290. Reading Course. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
291/391. Literature and Politics in the German Democratic Republic, 1975-1989
(=German 358). Readings emphasize the critical literature, as it was
called, of the former GDR. We discuss the ways books by such writers as Christa
Wolf, Heiner Mueller, Stefan Heym, Sarah Kirsch, and Christoph Hein criticized
the GDR regime, but also explore the limits of such criticism. Were these
writers critical of the Honecker regime but not of socialism itself? How did
they imagine their own work to function in GDR society? Are the current charges
of complicity leveled against some of these writers justified? Readings in
English and the original. R. von Hallberg. Spring.
292. Introduction to Ethics (=HiPSS 210, Philos 210). The major portion of
this course consists of an examination of the most influential types of ethical
theory. After studying these theories, we turn to their practical applications.
Special attention is given to the implications of different theories for
ethical problems in medicine. A. Davidson. Autumn.
297. Philosophy of Mind and Science Fiction (=Philos 234). Could computers
be conscious? Might they be affected by changes in size or time scale,
hardware, development, social, cultural, or ecological factors? Does our form
of life constrain our ability to visualize or detect alternative forms of
order, life, or mentality, or to interpret them correctly? How does the
assumption of consciousness affect how we study and relate to other beings?
This course examines issues in philosophy of mind raised by recent progress in
biology, psychology, and simulations of life and intelligence, with readings
from philosophy, the relevant sciences, and science fiction. W. Wimsatt.
Winter.
298. Computer Programming as a Liberal Art I: Programming Arts (=ComSci
110). PQ: Math 102, 106, placement into Math 131 or equivalent,
or consent of instructors. ComSci 110-111 fulfills the Common Core
requirement in the mathematical sciences. This course aims to keep pace
with how computing technology is penetrating into the humanistic disciplines.
Students learn both how to program on an Apple Macintosh in HyperTalk language,
within the multimedia application HyperCard, and how to apply the skills of
programming more generally as a liberal art. As an introduction to programming,
the course presents techniques of problem solving, program coding, algorithm
construction, and debugging using the object-like programming environment of
HyperCard. D. Crabb, W. Sterner. Winter.
299. Computer Programming as a Liberal Art II: Programs as Arguments (=ComSci
111). PQ: GS Hum 298 or consent of instructors. ComSci 110-111
fulfills the Common Core requirement in the mathematical sciences. This
course functions as a continuation of GS Hum 298: it enlarges upon programming
arts by identifying characteristic forms of computer programs such as machines,
models, simulations, and games as genres of argumentation. Students study such
forms as recurrent scientific strategies that are making important
contributions to new patterns of thinking in the humanities, as well as in the
social, biological, and physical sciences. More complete programming experience
in HyperCard's object-like techniques is fostered through a series of case
studies in the different programming genres. Finally, we include an
interpretation of hypertextual discourse as a "computer game." D. Crabb, W.
Sterner. Spring.
301. Philosophy of Biology I (=CFS 376, HiPSS 227, Philos 327). This course
considers reductionism as a regulative assumption in evolutionary biology.
After a philosophical and methodological introduction on reductionism and the
nature of model building, we consider a variety of modern approaches to
modelling and explaining the evolution of organisms, including reductionistic
and nonreductionistic population genetics approaches, quantitative genetics,
nongenetic phenotypic optimization models, and various developmental models.
Topics include the units of selection controversy and a hierarchical multilevel
account of evolutionary change; the role of the phenotype and the environment
in evolution; and developmental constraints in evolution. The choice of
significant boundaries for analysis, problems with functional inference and
functional localization in neurobiology and evolutionary biology, and the
detection and correction of biases associated with reductionistic
problem-solving heuristics are considered. A computer lab gives hands-on
experience with simulation modeling. W. Wimsatt. Spring.
305. Aesthetics (=Philos 313). This course is an introduction to problems
in the philosophy of art, with both traditional and contemporary texts. Topics
include the definition of art, representation, expression, metaphor, and taste.
T. Cohen. Autumn.
306. Readings in the History of Aesthetics (=Philos 317). Selective
readings in the history of the philosophy of art, including some of these
authors: Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Santayana, Collingwood, Croce, and Dewey. T.
Cohen. Winter.
307. Agents, Actions, and Ends (=Philos 310). In this course we read,
write, and think about the nature and force of reasons for action. Topics
discussed include the peculiarities of agency, the claim that action is only
intelligible insofar as it can be made out to aim at the good, the role of
pleasure or happiness in understanding human action, the role of conceptions of
practical reason in philosophical accounts of the nature of mental states, and
the relationship between general principles or practices and particular
actions. C. Vogler. Spring.
310. Contemporary Continental Philosophy (=Philos 395). PQ:
Two courses in philosophy. Special attention is
given to topics in value theory, that is, to issues in ethics and political
philosophy, aesthetics, and religion. Concentration on recent French philosophy
(authors may include Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Jankelevitch, and
Levinas), with some attention to German (Benjamin, Buber, Habermas, and
Heidegger) and Italian philosophy (Agamben, Cacciari, and Vattimo). A.
Davidson. Autumn.
378. Cinema and Culture of the 1930s: Germany and Europe (=ComLit 360, German
351, Hum 278). PQ: Knowledge of German helpful but not required.
This course considers the dislocations of German cinema in the 1930s (the
transition from Weimar to Nazi cinema) within a broad European context and in
relation to the coming of sound. Particular emphasis is placed on the
relationship between "commitment" and modernism; the rise of fascist and
Popular Front cinemas and their new representations of the nation state; the
impact of sound on film aesthetics and film genre, ethnographic and documentary
filmmaking; the rise of the musical; the realignment of sight and sound, the
voice and the body; surrealism and the politics of eroticism. Films studied are
by Fritz Lang, Hans Richter, Joseph von Sternberg, Douglas Sirk, Leontine
Sagan, Leni Riefenstahl, Rene Clair, Jean Renoir, Carl Dreyer, Luis Bunuel,
Alfred Hitchcock, Sergei Eisenstein, and Dziga Vertov. K. Trumpener.
Winter.
379. Poetry of the Jews and/or Germans (=German 375, Hum 254, JewStd 275).
The course consists of a series of close readings in several subgenres of verse
drawn from the premodern as well as the modern period. Its aim is to explore
how the problematic identities of disempowered but resistant peoples (Jews
and/or Germans, as well as others similarly situated) creatively reinvent and
reinscribe themselves within that most personal and intimate of canonical
genres, lyric poetry. Following a sequence of core readings and discussions,
participants are encouraged to present, interpret, and discuss poems of their
choice. Texts available in English and the original. A core reading list will
be available by the end of spring quarter 1995. S. Jaffe. Autumn.
383. Freud and Nietzsche (=Fndmtl 296, German 392, Hum 279, JewStd 272).
This course pursues a comparative analysis of the genesis, structure, and
implications of Freudian and Nietzschean thought. Special attention is paid to
issues of individual and cultural identity (sexual, disciplinary, professional,
religious, and political) as they emerge from the close reading of two texts:
Freud's Moses and Monotheism and Nietzsche's On the Advantages and
Disadvantages of History for Life. Participants are asked to present their
understanding of, and reaction to, some aspect of these texts seminar-fashion
in the concluding part of the course. Texts in German and English. S. Jaffe.
Winter.
384. Arts of Love and Books of Marriage from Sappho and Solomon to Freud and
Lou (=German 399, Hum 283, JewStd 273). This course seeks to resuscitate a
classic gender issue (love and marriage) within the textual, cultural, and
historical contexts of two "theoretical" genres that have both reflected and
helped to shape it: the ars amandi and the Ehebuch. Texts for the
course consist of a core that is discussed in class, surrounded by a list of
suggested readings from which participants may choose a text to present,
interpret, and discuss during the final, seminar-style part of the course.
Premodern as well as modern texts are featured. Texts in English and the
original. A core reading list will be available by the end of spring quarter
1995. S. Jaffe. Spring.
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General Studies in the Humanities Courses
200. Introduction to Film I (=Eng 108). This is the first
part of a two-quarter course that can be taken either by itself or in
combination with the second part (offered in alternating years). The first
part consists of an introduction to 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, comprising 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. J. C. Federle.
Spring.
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