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200. Judaic Civilization I: Biblical Literature and Religion (=Hum 200).
This course provides an overall introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament), with specific attention to its literary, religious, and ideological
contents. The diversity of thought and theology in ancient Israel is explored,
along with its notions of text, teaching, and tradition. Revision and
reinterpretation is found within the Bible itself. Portions of the earliest
postbiblical interpretation (in Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and selected
Pseudepigrapha) are also considered. J. Collins. Autumn.
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201. Judaic Civilization II: Rabbinic Judaism from the Mishneh to Maimonides
(=GS Hum 271/371, Hum 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.
202. Judaic Civilization III: The American-Jewish Experience (=Hum 202).
This course, the third in the Jewish Civilization sequence, focuses this
year on the Jewish experience in the United States, mainly during the past one
hundred years. The central theme is the effort of representative writers and
intellectuals to make sense of both terms of their hyphenated Jewish-American
indentities. The texts include novels and short stories, films, critical
essays, autobiographies, and letters. The course is organized around
representative figures, such as Abraham Cahan, Louis D. Brandeis, Mary Antin,
Horace Kallen, Henry Roth, Delmore Schwartz, I. B. Singer, Saul Bellow, Grace
Paley, and Cynthia Ozick. M. Krupnick. Spring.
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213. Genesis: The Abraham Cycle. This course covers chapters twelve through
twenty-five. PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew. T. Frymer-Kensky.
Winter.
216. Yiddish Literature and Culture in English Translation. 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.
220-221-222. Elementary Classical Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew
250-251-252). This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign
language requirement. D. Pardee. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
223-224-225. Intermediate Classical Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew
253-254-255). D. Pardee. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
234. The World of the Biblical Prophets (=Hum 234, NCD 280). This course
offers an in-depth analysis of the biblical prophets. Each prophet is set in
historical time and within a particular societal context, and against this
background a profile of the man is drawn. What was he like as a social reformer
and religious thinker? What did he say no to in society and no to in organized
worship? And to what did he say yes? How was his message received, and what
influence did it have in its day? Finally, are the prophets merely historical
figures, curiosities of antiquity, or do they speak to us in our own age? H.
Moltz. Autumn.
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235. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes (=Fndmtl 246, Hum 235, NCD 277).
Both Job and Ecclesiastes dispute a central doctrine of the Hebrew Bible,
namely, the doctrine of retributive justice. Each book argues that a person's
fate is not a consequence of his or her religio-moral acts and thus, that
piety, whatever else it is, must be disinterested. In brief, each book not only
demythologizes but "de-moralizes" the universe. The students read Job and
Ecclesiastes in translation and discuss the nature of such a universe and ask
what kind of God was worshipped by Job and Ecclesiastes. H. Moltz.
Spring.
240. Mythological Traditions and the Bible. Participants study the
mythic tradition of the ancient world and how the Bible adopted, adapted, and
ultimately transformed this. The course concentrates on the first eleven
chapters in the book of Genesis and on poetry sections of the Bible. T.
Frymer-Kensky. Spring.
260. Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls. J. Collins. Autumn.
265-266. Biblical Narratives in the Qu'ran I, II. J. Kraemer. Autumn,
Winter.
270. Freud, Herzl, and Turn-of-the Century Culture (=GS Hum 277, German 280,
HiPSS 298). PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing and knowledge of German.
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, with readings in English and German. S. Gilman. Winter.
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272. Freud and Nietzsche (=Fndmtl 296, GS Hum 383, German 392, Hum 279).
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.
273. Arts of Love and Books of Marriage from Sappho and Solomon to Freud and
Lou (=GS Hum 384, German 399, Hum 283). 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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275. Poetry of the Jews and/or Germans (=GS Hum 379, German 375, Hum 254).
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.
279. Biblical Law. PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew. T. Frymer-Kensky.
Autumn.
281. The Spiritual Quest in Judaism. Introduction to texts dealing with
spiritual search and quest in the history of Judaism. M. Fishbane.
Winter.
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Jewish Studies Courses
200-201-202. Judaic Civilization I, II, III. This course sequence
fulfills the Common Core requirement in civilization studies. This is a
sequential study of periods and communities selected from the history of Judaic
civilization, viewed from multiple perspectives--historical, literary,
philosophical, religious, and social--and examined in light of the varied ways
that civilization is and is not the product of interactions between the Jewish
people and surrounding civilizations, nations, and religions. Primary focus is
on close reading of original sources in translation. Specific periods and
communities studied may vary from year to year.
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