SLAVIC 379: Literature from Medieval Rus' and Early Modern Russia (SLAVIC 179)
This course traces the history of Russian literature before the eighteenth century. It is divided into two sections. The first section examines literature from Kyivan Rus' (up to the thirteenth century), the medieval conglomerate to which Belarus, Russia and Ukraine all trace their cultural heritage. The second section examines old Russian literature specifically, from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. We pay close attention to the development of literary genres, moral/religious and aesthetic features and their relationship, and the beginnings of Russian belles lettres. Our approach to the texts will be two-fold. On the one hand, we will spend some time situating the sources within their historical contexts. On the other hand, we will explore the interpretive possibilities of premodern literature using formal analysis and critical theory. Knowledge of an East Slavic language is required.
Last offered: Spring 2025
| Units: 3-5
SLE 22A: Searching Together after the Common Good: An Introduction to Ethics in the Western Tradition (ETHICSOC 22A)
Important works from the Western tradition will be used to construct and explore some basic frameworks for ethical thinking. Students will gain a familiarity with some canonical texts and develop skills of close-reading and group discussion when it comes to ethical inquiry. Course texts can vary by quarter and year but will include a mix of canonical philosophical, religious, and literary texts. NOTE: Former SLE students should sign up for the
ETHICSOC 22A/
ETHICSOC 22B listings.
SLE 22A/
SLE 22B are courses in ethics for high school students, taught primarily through an history based humanities curriculum. Stanford Student's participation in this course will include classroom experience with the high school students, as well as time with the course instructors to discuss, evaluate, and reflect on the course design. Please contact the instructor if you'd like to learn more: gwatkins@stanford.edu
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 3 units total)
Instructors:
Fiden, P. (PI)
;
Watkins, G. (PI)
SLE 22B: Searching Together after the Common Good: An Introduction to Ethics in the Western Tradition (ETHICSOC 22B)
Important works from the Western tradition will be used to construct and explore some basic frameworks for ethical thinking. Students will gain a familiarity with some canonical texts and develop skills of close-reading and group discussion when it comes to ethical inquiry. Course texts can vary by quarter and year but will include a mix of canonical philosophical, religious, and literary texts. NOTE: Former SLE students should sign up for the
ETHICSOC 22A/
ETHICSOC 22B listings.
SLE 22A/
SLE 22B are courses in ethics for high school students, taught primarily through an history based humanities curriculum. Stanford Student's participation in this course will include classroom experience with the high school students, as well as time with the course instructors to discuss, evaluate, and reflect on the course design. Please contact the instructor if you'd like to learn more: gwatkins@stanford.edu
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 3 units total)
Instructors:
Watkins, G. (PI)
TAPS 11N: Dramatic Tensions: Theater and the Marketplace
Preference to freshmen. The current state of the American theater and its artists. Conventional wisdom says that theater is a dying art, and a lost cause, especially in an age of multi-media entertainment. But there are more young playwrights, actors, and directors entering the field today than at any other time in American history. Focus is on the work of today's theater artists, with an emphasis on an emerging generation of playwrights. Students read a cross-section of plays from writers currently working in the US and UK, covering a spectrum of subjects and styles from serious to comic, from the musical to the straight play. Hits and misses from recent seasons of the New York and London stages and some of the differences of artistic taste across the Atlantic. Hands-on exploration of the arts and skills necessary to make a play succeed. Students develop their own areas of interest, in guided projects in design, direction or performance. Conversations with playwrights, designers ,and directors. Labs and master classes to solve problems posed in areas of creative production. Class meets literary managers and producers who are on the frontlines of underwriting new talent. Class trips include two plays at major Bay Area Stages.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Freed, A. (PI)
TAPS 142A: Trans Literature (ENGLISH 142A, FEMGEN 142A)
Over the last several decades, there has been an astounding proliferation of trans literature, while debates over trans people's rights to exist have taken centerstage in the U.S. political landscape. Literature plays a foundational role in the formations of trans identities and histories, and trans identities and histories invite us to consider the conventions of literary storytelling anew. The time has come to ask: what kinds of trans stories can we tell, and how? In this introductory undergraduate seminar, we will read trans texts from different genres, including novels, short stories, case studies, poetry, graphic novels as well as film and music to think about trans experiences, embodiments, transitions, and histories. We will read trans literature from various places and times in order to ask how gender, sexuality, race, desire, place, and history shape and are shaped by works of trans literature in a global context. No prior knowledge of trans studies is required for participation in this course.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Fischer, J. (PI)
URBANST 153: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (COMPLIT 100, DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 106E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175)
This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities at different moments in time, including Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, colonial Mexico City, imperial Beijing, Enlightenment and romantic Paris, existential and revolutionary St. Petersburg, roaring Berlin, modernist Vienna, and transnational Dakar. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation). No prerequisites.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI