Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz
Professor/Instructor
Daniel GarberReadings in continental philosophy of the early modern period, with intensive study of the works of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Topics to be specially considered include: knowledge, understanding, and sense-perception; existence and necessity; the nature of the self and its relation to the physical world. Two 90-minute classes.
Topics in the History and Theory of the Media
Professor/Instructor
What defines life? And where do we locate the boundary between its proper and improper instances, between the natural and the monstrous? First emerging in the early 19th century, the prospects of artificial life continue to provoke both exhilaration and anxiety today. By examining works of philosophy, literature and film over a historical period ranging from early Romanticism to contemporary nanoculture, this seminar explores humanity's desire to become like the gods, fashioning species, companions, and slaves at will, even as these creations menace us through their intractability and threaten to take on an uncanny life of their own.
The Modern Period
Professor/Instructor
Susana DraperModern Western literature in the perspective of its development since the Industrial Revolution. The peculiarity of "modernist'' style exemplified by various genres. Significant philosophical trends that define the parallel development of modern art and thought. Texts from English, German, French, and other literatures. Two lectures, one preceptorial.
Cultural Systems
Professor/Instructor
Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media.
Cultural Systems
Professor/Instructor
Rubén GalloSymbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media.
Communication and the Arts
Professor/Instructor
The arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary, for example, history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics.
Communication and the Arts
Professor/Instructor
Anthony Thomas GraftonThe arts and the media in different cultures. Topics will vary, for example, history of the book, art/architecture and society, opera and nationalism, literature and photography, theater and politics.
Literature and Photography
Professor/Instructor
Eduardo Lujan CadavaA survey of the history of the rapport between literature and photography, 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. One three-hour seminar.
What is Vernacular Filmmaking? - Rhetoric for Cinema Studies
Professor/Instructor
Erika Anita KissIn this course we will study films that address global audiences yet ground themselves in particular, local, vernacular sources of artistic creation. Our focus will be on three exciting postwar cinematic movements (Italian Neorealism, Iranian New Wave, the Danish Dogma 95), but we will also discuss parallels in American filmmaking. Familiarity with Homer's Ulysses, Virgil's Aeneid and Shakespeare's Hamlet will be helpful since they serve as the frame of reference for many of the examined films.
Texts and Images of the Holocaust
Professor/Instructor
In an effort to encompass the variety of responses to what is arguably the most traumatic event of modern Western experience, the Holocaust is explored as transmitted through documents, testimony, memoirs, creative writing, historiography, and cinema. In this study of works, reflecting diverse languages, cultures, genres, and points of view, the course focuses on issues of bearing witness, collective vs. individual memory, and the nature of radical evil. One three-hour seminar, plus weekly film showings.
German Intellectual History
Professor/Instructor
A study of major German philosophers and religious and social thinkers from the Reformation to the present. Selected works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, or German-Jewish thinkers will be read together with contemporary interpretations. Two 90-minute seminars.
Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century French Literature and Culture
Professor/Instructor
Topics will range from the oeuvre and context of a single author (for example, Balzac, Baudelaire, or Beckett) to specific cultural and literary problems (modernism and the avant-garde, history as literature, women's writing). Prerequisite: a 200-level French course or instructor's permission.
Beyond Crisis Contemporary Greece in Context
Professor/Instructor
Karen Renee EmmerichThis course examines an emergent historical situation as it unfolds: the ongoing financial, social, and humanitarian "crisis" in Greece, including the "refugee crisis." It offers a comparative approach to current Greek cultural production, through literature and film of the past decade and writings drawn from history, anthropology, political science, economics, news sources, and political blogs. We also probe terms like "crisis," exploring how language shapes our understanding of events and how our perceptions of an unfamiliar culture, history, and society are mediated not just by linguistic translation but by market forces and media spin.
Weimar Germany: Painting, Photography, Film
Professor/Instructor
Brigid DohertyThe visual arts in Germany during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933). Works of art, cinema, and literature in historical context. Topics include: modernism and modernity; Expressionism, Dada, New Objectivity in painting, photography, cinema, and literature; historical conditions of bodily experience and visual perception; emergence of new artistic and technological media; expansion of mass culture; place of politics in art; experience and representation of metropolitan life; changes in the conceptualization and representation of individuality, collectivity, embodiment, race, class, gender, sexuality. Two 90-minute seminars, one film screening.
Topics in Comparative Literature
Professor/Instructor
Study of a selected theme or topic in comparative literature. Subjects will range from historical and cultural questions (literature and politics, the literature of the avant-garde) to the study of specific literary themes or topics (feminine autobiography, the grotesque in literature).
Intellectual History of Europe since 1880
Professor/Instructor
Major themes and figures in European thought and culture in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Focuses on the intellectual response to new forms of personal and social experience in the age of organized capitalism and imperialism, and the attempt to come to terms with the waning of romantic and revolutionary expectations inherited from the period before 1850. Two lectures, one preceptorial.
Seminar. 17th- and 18th-Century Art
Professor/Instructor
Thomas DaCosta KaufmannTopics in 17th- and 18th-century art and architecture. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 2 distribution requirement. Prerequisite: a course in the art of this period or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.
Seminar. Modern Architecture
Professor/Instructor
A study of some of the major themes and movements of modern architecture from the late 19th century to the present day. Students will be encouraged to examine the social and political context, to probe the architects' intellectual background, and consider issues of class and gender in their relation to architectural and urban form. For department majors, this course satisfies the Group 3 distribution requirement. One three-hour seminar.