ECS 209/HUM 209 Cultural Interpretation
A thematic introduction to the theory and practice of cultural interpretation as it has developed in Italy, Germany, France, and the United States over the past several hundred years. The focus will be on modern interdisciplinary approaches which are informed by ancient traditions of rhetoric as a mode of social and political inquiry.
Professor Peter Meyers
TTH 11 – 12:20
Precept TBA

ECS 320/SPA 342 – Cultural Interpretation
"The Wireless Imagination: Radio and the Avant-Garde"
This seminar will explore the avant-garde’s fascination with radio (or the "wireless" as it was called at the time) as the ultimate symbol of technological modernity. Poets from Marinetti to Apollinaire embraced radio’s potential for producing a new language attuned to the spirit of Twentieth Century, and intellectuals from Mexico to the Soviet Union celebrated the new invention as a harbinger of a new world order marked by peace and unity. Readings include theoretical writings by Rudolf Arnheim, Bertold Brecht, Georges Duhamel, and Denis Hollier, as well as "radiophonic" poems by Marinetti, Apollinaire, Cendrars, and Huidobro.
Professor Rubén Gallo
TH 1:30 – 4:20

ECS 331 – Communication and the Arts: Books and Their Readers
This course will offer an intensive introduction to the history of the making, distribution and reading of books in the West, from ancient Greece to modern America. By examining a series of case studies, we will see how writers, producers, and readers of books have interacted, and how the conditions of production and consumption have changed over time.
Professor Anthony Grafton
T 1:30 – 4:20
Sign up in 207 Scheide Caldwell House or email mjreilly

ECS 340/COM 340 – Literature and Photography
Since its advent in the nineteenth-century, photography has been a privileged figure in literature's efforts to reflect upon its own modes of representation. This seminar will trace the history of the rapport between literature and photography by looking closely at a number of literary and theoretical texts that differently address questions central to both literature and photography: questions about the nature of representation, reproduction, memory and forgetting, history, images, perception, and knowledge.
Professor Eduardo Cadava
T 7:30 pm – 10:20 pm
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