AFRICAAM 18A:
Jazz History: Ragtime to Bebop, 1900-1940 (MUSIC 18A)
From the beginning of jazz to the war years.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AFRICAAM 18B:
Jazz History: Bebop to Present, 1940-Present (MUSIC 18B)
Modern jazz styles from Bebop to the current scene. Emphasis is on the significant artists of each style.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AFRICAAM 19:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: The Soul Tradition in African American Music (AMSTUD 147J, CSRE 147J, MUSIC 147J, MUSIC 247J)
The African American tradition of soul music from its origins in blues, gospel, and jazz to its influence on today's r&b, hip hop, and dance music. Style such as rhythm and blues, Motown, Southern soul, funk, Philadelphia soul, disco, Chicago house, Detroit techno, trip hop, and neo-soul. Soul's cultural influence and global reach; its interaction with politics, gender, place, technology, and the economy. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 20A:
Jazz Theory (MUSIC 20A)
Introduces the language and sounds of jazz through listening, analysis, and compositional exercises. Students apply the fundamentals of music theory to the study of jazz. Prerequisite: 19 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
AFRICAAM 30:
The Egyptians (CLASSICS 82, HISTORY 48, HISTORY 148)
Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Participation in class is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AFRICAAM 43:
Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AMSTUD 12A, ENGLISH 12A)
(Formerly English 43/143). In his bold study, What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 48Q:
South Africa: Contested Transitions (HISTORY 48Q)
Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2
AFRICAAM 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
Preference to freshmen. We will examine the struggles of African American women to define their own lives and improve the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of black communities. Topics will include women's enslavement and freedom, kinship and family relations, institution and community building, violence, labor and leisure, changing gender roles, consumer and beauty culture, social activism, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Spr, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 105:
Introduction to African and African American Studies
Interdisciplinary. Central themes in African American culture and history related to race as a definitive American phenomenon. African survivals and interpretations of slavery in the New World, contrasting interpretations of the Black family, African American literature, and art. Possible readings: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Alice Walker, and Bell Hooks. Focus may vary each year.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 133:
Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (FRENCH 133, JEWISHST 143)
This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the cultural, political and literary aspects at play in the literatures of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Our primary readings will be Francophone novels and poetry, though we will also read some theoretical texts, as well as excerpts of Francophone theater. The assigned readings will expose students to literature from diverse French-speaking regions of the African/Caribbean world. This course will also serve as a "literary toolbox," with the intention of facilitating an understanding of literary forms, terms and practices. Students can expect to work on their production of written and spoken French (in addition to reading comprehension) both in and outside of class. Required readings include: Aimé Césaire, "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal," Albert Memmi, "La Statue de Sel," Kaouther Adimi, "L'envers des autres", Maryse Condé, "La Vie sans fards". Movies include "Goodbye Morocco", "Aya de Yopougon", "Rome plutôt sue Vous". Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AFRICAAM 148:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 152G:
Harlem Renaissance and Modernism (AMSTUD 152G, ENGLISH 152G)
Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 223:
Literature and Human Experimentation (COMPLIT 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
AFRICAAM 226:
Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AMSTUD 152K, CSRE 152K)
Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAAM 229:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAST 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
AFRICAST 145B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, COMPLIT 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AFRICAST 229:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
AMELANG 126:
Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature (COMPLIT 145, JEWISHST 106)
How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views.nnGuest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMELANG 171:
The Bible in Modern Hebrew Literature
The role of biblical myths in shaping Israeli identity and the development of a secular Hebrew literature. Readings include modern Hebrew poems and novels which offer new meanings to the stories of Genesis, Exodus, David, and the Song of Songs and make them relevant to the context of modern and postmodern Israeli culture. Readings in Hebrew and English. Prerequisite: intermediate Hebrew.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 12A:
Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AFRICAAM 43, ENGLISH 12A)
(Formerly English 43/143). In his bold study, What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 50N:
The Literature of Inequality: Have and Have-Nots from the Gilded Age to the Occupy Era
Not since the turn of the last century have Americans experienced such a profound gap between those who have and those who do not, between wealthy and working poor, between defacto upper and lower classes, between those of the status quo and those who slip to the social periphery. We will be examining literary and artistic explorations of social and economic inequity, fiction and art that looks at reversals of fortune as well as the possibilities for social change. Readings include Jacob Riis¿ How the Other Half Lives, W.E.B. Du Bois¿ The Souls of Black Folk, Edith Wharton¿s House of Mirth , James Agee & Walker Evans¿ Let Us Not Forget Famous Men , T.C. Boyle¿s The Tortilla Curtain, Julie Otsuka¿s When the Emperor Was Divine and Occupy Movement art.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (COMPLIT 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
AMSTUD 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
Preference to freshmen. We will examine the struggles of African American women to define their own lives and improve the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of black communities. Topics will include women's enslavement and freedom, kinship and family relations, institution and community building, violence, labor and leisure, changing gender roles, consumer and beauty culture, social activism, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Spr, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 68N:
Mark Twain and American Culture (ENGLISH 68N)
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society¿s (and our society¿s) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be ¿American¿?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 101:
American Fiction into Film: How Hollywood Scripts and Projects Black and White Relations
Movies and the fiction that inspires them; power dynamics behind production including historical events, artistic vision, politics, and racial stereotypes. What images of black and white does Hollywood produce to forge a national identity? How do films promote equality between the races? What is lost or gained in film adaptations of books?nLimited Enrollment, Instructor¿s Consent Required. Class meetings held in Manzanita Multipurpose Room.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 103:
On the Road: Cars and the Auto-Mobility of Race, Gender, Class, and Age in American Literature
The car in American literature, history, and culture, provides hope and makes it possible to relocate, transcend social status, and reinvent oneself. In this class we will examine how the car allows Americans to navigate identity in new ways. Readings include: Fitzgerald, Stein, Steinbeck, Escovedo-Colton, Nabokov, Barrett, Walker, Murray, Simpson, Wolfe, Kerouac, Davis, Freeman, Gilroy, Lucasi, Hamper, Moore, and Nass.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 114Q:
Visions of the 1960s
Preference to sophomores. Introduction to the ideas, sensibility, and, to a lesser degree, the politics of the American 60s. Topics: the early 60s vision of a beloved community; varieties of racial, generational, and feminist dissent; the meaning of the counterculture; and current interpretive perspectives on the 60s. Film, music, and articles and books.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 123D:
American Literature, 1855 to World War I
A survey of American writers from Whitman to T.S. Eliot, including Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Kate Chopin, Theodore Dreiser, and Henry James. Topics include the tension between romance and realism, the impact of naturalism and modernism, as well as race, gender, and the literary evolution of the American language.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 123G:
Mark Twain: A Fresh Look at an Icon and Iconoclast, 100 Years after His Death
The vitality and versatility of a writer who has been called America's Rabelais, Cervantes, Homer, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare. Journalism, travel books, fiction, drama, and sketches by Mark Twain; how Twain engaged such issues as personal and national identity, satire and social justice, imperialism, race and racism, gender, performance, travel, and technology. What are Twain's legacies in 2010, the centennial of his death, the 175th anniversary of his birth, and the 125th anniversary of his most celebrated novel? Guests include actor Hal Holbrook.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 124A:
The American West (ARTHIST 152, ENGLISH 124, HISTORY 151, POLISCI 124A)
The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 132:
American Art and Culture, 1528-1910 (ARTHIST 132, ARTHIST 332)
The visual arts and literature of the U.S. from the beginnings of European exploration to the Civil War. Focus is on questions of power and its relation to culture from early Spanish exploration to the rise of the middle classes. Cabeza de Vaca, Benjamin Franklin, John Singleton Copley, Phillis Wheatley, Charles Willson Peale, Emerson, Hudson River School, American Genre painters, Melville, Hawthorne and others.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 139B:
American Women Writers, 1850-1920 (ENGLISH 139B, FEMGEN 139B)
The ways in which female writers negotiated a series of literary, social, and intellectual movements, from abolitionism and sentimentalism in the nineteenth century to Progressivism and avant-garde modernism in the twentieth. Authors include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, Rebecca Harding Davis, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 140:
Stand Up Comedy and the "Great American Joke" Since 1945 (CSRE 140C)
Development of American Stand Up Comedy in the context of social and cultural eruptions after 1945, including the Borscht Belt, the Chitlin¿ Circuit, the Cold War, censorship battles, Civil Rights and other social movements of the 60s and beyond. The artistry of stories, monologues, jokes, impersonations, persona, social satire, scatology, obscenity, riffs, rants, shtick, and more by such artists as Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Margaret Cho, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, as well as precursors such as Mark Twain, minstrelsy and vaudeville and related films, TV shows, poems and other manifestations of similar sensibilities and techniques.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 142:
The Literature of the Americas (COMPLIT 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 143A:
American Architecture (ARTHIST 143A, ARTHIST 343A, CEE 32R)
A historically based understanding of what defines American architecture. What makes American architecture American, beginning with indigenous structures of pre-Columbian America. Materials, structure, and form in the changing American context. How these ideas are being transformed in today's globalized world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 145M:
Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1890-1950 (ARTHIST 145, ARTHIST 345, FEMGEN 145)
This course examines social conflicts and political controversies in American culture through the lens of visual art and photography. We consider how visual images both reflect and participate in the social and political life of the nation and how the terms of citizenship have been represented¿and, at times, contested¿by artists throughout the first half of the 20th century. The class explores the relation between American art and the body politic by focusing on issues of poverty, war, censorship, consumerism, class identity, and racial division.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 146:
Asian American Culture and Community (ASNAMST 146S, COMPLIT 146, CSRE 146S)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
AMSTUD 146C:
Hemingway, Hurston, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald
While Hemingway and Fitzgerald were flirting with the expatriate avant-garde in Europe, Hurston and Faulkner were performing anthropological field-work in the local cultures of the American South. Focus on the tremendous diversity of concerns and styles of four writers who marked America's coming-of-age as a literary nation with their multifarious experiments in representing the regional and the global, the racial and the cosmopolitan, the macho and the feminist, the decadent and the impoverished.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 147J:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: The Soul Tradition in African American Music (AFRICAAM 19, CSRE 147J, MUSIC 147J, MUSIC 247J)
The African American tradition of soul music from its origins in blues, gospel, and jazz to its influence on today's r&b, hip hop, and dance music. Style such as rhythm and blues, Motown, Southern soul, funk, Philadelphia soul, disco, Chicago house, Detroit techno, trip hop, and neo-soul. Soul's cultural influence and global reach; its interaction with politics, gender, place, technology, and the economy. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 150:
Introduction to English II: American Literature and Culture to 1855 (ENGLISH 11B)
(Formerly English 23/123). A survey of early American writings, including sermons, poetry, captivity and slave narratives, essays, autobiography, and fiction, from the colonial era to the eve of the Civil War.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 152A:
"Mutually Assured Destruction": American Culture and the Cold War
The temperature of the early Cold War years via readings of Soviet and U.S. propaganda; documentary film and film noir; fiction by Bellow, Ellison, O¿Connor, and Mailer; social theory by Arendt, the New York Intellectuals, and the Frankfurt School; and political texts such as Kennan¿s Sources of Soviet Conduct, the ¿Truman Doctrine¿ speech, and the National Security Council Report 68. Major themes include the discourse of totalitarianism, MacCarthyism, strategies of containment, the nuclear threat, the figure of the ¿outsider¿ and the counterculture, and the cultural shift from sociological to psychological idioms.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 152C:
The JFK Era and American Literature
Few U.S. presidents have exerted so great a fascination on the national¿and global¿post-World War II imagination as John F. Kennedy. As the 2013¿s semi-centennial anniversary of Kennedy¿s assassination attests, the production of films, television and multimedia programs, biographies, conspiracy theories, academic studies, and literary texts about the iconic JFK and his fabled, thousand-day presidency continues unabated. In this course, we will explore the attention Kennedy has drawn from writers and filmmakers in texts by Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, Mario Vargas Llosa, and others.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 152G:
Harlem Renaissance and Modernism (AFRICAAM 152G, ENGLISH 152G)
Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 152K:
Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AFRICAAM 226, CSRE 152K)
Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 154:
American Intellectual and Cultural History to the Civil War (HISTORY 154)
(Same as HISTORY 54. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 154.) How Americans considered problems such as slavery, imperialism, and sectionalism. Topics include: the political legacies of revolution; biological ideas of race; the Second Great Awakening; science before Darwin; reform movements and utopianism; the rise of abolitionism and proslavery thought; phrenology and theories of human sexuality; and varieties of feminism. Sources include texts and images.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 160:
Perspectives on American Identity
Required for American Studies majors. In this seminar we trace diverse and changing interpretations of American identity by exploring autobiographical, literary, and/or visual texts from the 18th through the 20th century in conversation with sociological, political, and historical accounts.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 178:
Ethnicity and Dissent in United States Art and Literature (ARTHIST 178, ARTHIST 378)
The role of the visual arts of the U.S. in the construction and contesting of racial, class, and gender hierarchies. Focus is on artists and writers from the 18th century to 1990s. How power, domination, and resistance work historically. Topics include: minstrelsy and the invention of race; mass culture and postmodernity; hegemony and language; memory and desire; and the borderlands.
Last offered: Spring 2004
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 183:
Re- Imagining American Borders (CSRE 183, FEMGEN 183)
How novelists, filmmakers, and poets perceive racial, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, and class borders in the context of a national discussion about the place of Americans in the world. How Anna Deavere Smith, Sherman Alexie, or Michael Moore consider redrawing such lines so that center and margin, or self and other, do not remain fixed and divided. How linguistic borderlines within multilingual literature by Caribbean, Arab, and Asian Americans function. Can Anzaldúa's conception of borderlands be constructed through the matrix of language, dreams, music, and cultural memories in these American narratives? Course includes examining one's own identity.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 186:
Tales of Three Cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles
How urban form and experience shape literary texts and how literary texts participate in the creation of place, through the literature of three American cities as they ascended to cultural and iconographical prominence: New York in the early to mid 19th century; Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and Los Angeles in the mid to late 20th century.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 186A:
American Hauntings
Cultural, psychological, social, and political dynamics of haunting in American literature, from the early national period to the late 20th century. Sources include ghost stories and other instances of supernatural, emotional, or mental intervention. Authors include Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charles Chesnutt, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, and Stephen King.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 214:
The American 1960s: Thought, Protest, and Culture
The meaning of the American 60s emphasizing ideas, culture, protest, and the new sensibility that emerged. Topics: black protest, the new left, the counterculture, feminism, the new literature and journalism of the 60s, the role of the media in shaping dissent, and the legacy of 60s protest. Interpretive materials from film, music, articles, and books.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 244:
The Visual Culture of the American Home Front, 1941-1945 (ARTHIST 244)
How does home front of WWII look now? What sort of meanings appear with the vantage of more than sixty years' distance? Examining Hollywood films from those years -films made during the war but mostly not directly about the war - the seminar focuses on developing students' abilities to write emotion-based criticism and history. Weekly short papers, each one in response to a film screening, are required. Among the films screened: Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, I Walked with a Zombie, The Best Years of Our Lives.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ANTHRO 12:
Anthropology and Art
Modernity. How the concept of art appears timeless and commonsensical in the West, and with what social consequences. Historicizing the emergence of art. Modernist uses of primitive, child art, asylum, and outsider art.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ANTHRO 145B:
Reinventing the Other: Greeks, Romans, Barbarians
Ancient ethnography was a highly conventionalized tradition stretching from "the father of History," Herodotus, to the last historian of the ancient world, Procopius. We will read selections of these two authors' works as well as of Sallust, Tacitus, and lesser known ones. Within various theoretical frameworks'rhetorical, anthropological, structuralist we will reconstruct the shifting images of The Other, explore what they tell us about their producers, and reflect on what ancient ethnography contributed to its modern descendant.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ANTHRO 162:
Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Problems (ANTHRO 262)
The social and cultural consequences of contemporary environmental problems. The impact of market economies, development efforts, and conservation projects on indigenous peoples, emphasizing Latin America. The role of indigenous grass roots organizations in combating environmental destruction and degradation of homeland areas.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
ARCHLGY 21Q:
Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe (CLASSICS 21Q)
(Formerly CLASSART 21Q.) Preference to sophomores. Focus is on excavation, features and finds, arguments over interpretation, and the place of each site in understanding the archaeological history of Europe. Goal is to introduce the latest archaeological and anthropological thought, and raise key questions about ancient society. The archaeological perspective foregrounds interdisciplinary study: geophysics articulated with art history, source criticism with analytic modeling, statistics interpretation. A web site with resources about each site, including plans, photographs, video, and publications, is the basis for exploring.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, Writing 2
ARCHLGY 42:
Pompeii
(Formerly CLASSART 42 and CLASSGEN 60.) The Roman town of Pompeii, buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E., provides information about the art and archaeology of ancient social life, urban technology and production, and ancient spatial patterns and experience. Its fame illustrates modern relationships to the ancient past, from Pompeii's importance on the Grand Tour, to plaster casts of vaporized bodies, to debates about reconstruction, preservation, and archaeological methods.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
ARCHLGY 81:
Introduction to Roman Archaeology (CLASSICS 52)
(Formerly CLASSART 81.) This course will introduce you to the material culture of the ancient Roman world, from spectacular imperial monuments in the city of Rome to cities and roads around the Mediterranean, from overarching environmental concerns to individual human burials, from elite houses and army forts to the the lives of slaves, freedmen and gladiators. Key themes will be change and continuity over time; the material, spatial and visual workings of power; how Roman society was materially changed by its conquests and how conquered peoples responded materially to Roman rule.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARCHLGY 111:
Emergence of Chinese Civilization from Caves to Palaces (CHINGEN 141, CHINGEN 241)
Introduces processes of cultural evolution from the Paleolithic to the Three Dynasties in China. By examining archaeological remains, ancient inscriptions, and traditional texts, four major topics will be discussed: origins of modern humans, beginnings of agriculture, development of social stratification, and emergence of states and urbanism.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
ARCHLGY 118:
Engineering the Roman Empire (CLASSICS 168)
(Formerly CLASSART 117.) Enter the mind, the drafting room, and the building site of the Roman architects and engineers whose monumental projects impressed ancient and modern spectators alike. This class explores the interrelated aesthetics and mechanics of construction that led to one of the most extensive building programs undertaken by a pre-modern state. Through case studies ranging from columns, domes and obelisks to road networks, machines and landscape modification, we investigate the materials, methods, and knowledge behind Roman innovation, and the role of designed space in communicating imperial identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARCHLGY 142:
Lost and found: Roman Coinage (ARCHLGY 242, CLASSART 232)
New trends in Roman numismatics (from the late Republic to the early Empire, 3rd-c. BCE-1st-c. CE). Archaeology from coins. Barter, money, and coinage. The introduction of coinage in Rome and the provinces. Making money (coin production), using money (monetary, non-monetary and ritual uses), losing money (coin circulation, hoards, single finds): contextual interpretations. Monetary systems: coins from Rome and coins from the provinces. Coinage and identity. False coinage.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARCHLGY 143:
Classical Archaeology Today: Ethical Issues of Excavation, Ownership, and Display
(Formerly CLASSART 143.) While Classical archaeology engages with material remains from the Greco-Roman past, it is embedded within and inseparable from contemporary practice. Through an examination of case studies, legal statutes, professional codes, and disciplinary practices, this seminar discusses ethical dilemmas raised by Classical archaeology in the 21st century. We will focus on broad issues ranging from ownership, looting, reconstruction, and collecting to nationalism, religion, tourism, and media, with an eye toward defining ethical ¿best practices¿ for Classical archaeology.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
ARCHLGY 145:
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Maritime Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean (CLASSICS 154)
(Formerly CLASSART 145.) Why do we care about shipwrecks? What can sunken sites and abandoned ports tell us about our past? Focusing primarily on the archaeological record of shipwrecks and harbors, along with literary evidence and contemporary theory, this course examines how and why ancient mariners ventured across the "wine-dark seas" of the Mediterranean for travel, warfare, pilgrimage, and especially commerce. We will explore interdisciplinary approaches to the development of maritime contacts and communication from the Bronze Age through the end of Roman era. At the same time, we will engage with practical techniques of maritime archaeology, which allows us to explore the material record first hand.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
ARCHLGY 166:
The Body in Roman Art (CLASSICS 166)
(Formerly CLASSART 105.) Ancient and modern ideas about the body as ideal and site of lived experience. Themes include representation, portrayal, power, metamorphosis, and replication. Works that exemplify Roman ideas of heroism and power versus works portraying nude women, erotic youth, preserved corpses, and suffering enemies. Recommended: background in ancient Mediterranean art, archaeology, history, or literature. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
ARTHIST 1A:
Introduction to the Visual Arts: Prehistoric through Medieval (CLASSICS 56)
A survey of the art and architecture from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the Gothic Cathedrals of France; the material is organized both chronologically and thematically and covers a multiplicity of religions: pagan, Christian, and Islamic.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ARTHIST 1B:
Introduction to the Visual Arts: History of Western Art from the Renaissance to the Present
This course surveys the history of Western painting from the start of the 14th century to the late 20th century and our own moment. Lectures introduce important artists (Giotto, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Goya, Manet, Matisse, Pollock, and others), and major themes associated with the art of particular periods and cultures. The course emphasizes training students to look closely at - and to write about - works of art.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 2:
Asian Arts and Cultures (JAPANGEN 60)
An introduction to major monuments, themes, styles, and media of East and South Asian visual arts, in their social, literary, religious, and political contexts. Through close study of primary monuments of architectural, pictorial, and sculptural arts and related texts, this course will explore ritual and mortuary arts; Buddhist arts across Asia; narrative and landscape images; and courtly, urban, monastic, and studio environments for art from Bronze Age to modern eras.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 3:
Introduction to World Architecture (CLASSICS 54)
This lecture course surveys the history of architecture and urbanism, from the first societies to the present, in Europe, West and East Asia, the Americas, and Africa. The course progresses by case studies of exemplary monuments and cities, and examines the built environment as both cultural artifact and architectural event. It considers the social and political circumstances of architectural invention as well as plumbing the depth of artistic context by which particular formal choices resonate with an established representational culture.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 100N:
The Artist in Ancient Greek Society (CLASSICS 18N)
Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. n nWhy did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men themselves? Why did Herodotus dismiss those who worked with their hands as "mechanics?" What prompted Homer to claim that "there is no greater glory for a man¿ than what he achieves with his own hands," provided that he was throwing a discus and not a vase on a wheel?n nPainted pottery was essential to the religious and secular lives of the Greeks. Libations to the gods and to the dead required vases from which to pour them. Economic prosperity depended on the export of wine and oil in durable clay containers. At home, depictions of gods and heroes on vases reinforced Greek values and helped parents to educate their children. Ceramic sets with scenes of Dionysian excess were reserved for elite symposia from which those who potted and painted them were excluded.n nSculptors were less lowly but even those who carved the Parthenon were still regarded as "mechanics," with soft bodies and soft minds (Xenophon) "indifferent to higher things" (Plutarch).n nThe seminar addresses these issues. Students will read and discuss texts, write response papers and present slide lectures and gallery talks on aspects of the artist's profession.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 101:
Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period (CLASSICS 161)
In the decades 480-460, just before work began on the Parthenon, the sculptor Myron, creator of the Discus-Thrower, was even more celebrated for his bronze cow. Ancient authors describe an image so palpably alive that shepherds threw stones at her, thinking that she had strayed from the herd, and bulls vied for her attention. A century later, the quest for mimesis prompted a contest between two artists. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes seductive enough to attract hungry birds; Parrhasios then added a linen curtain, which Zeuxis asked to be removed from his painting. Zeuxis conceded defeat since he had fooled only birds, whereas Parrhasios had deceived an artist. nnThis course explores the art and culture of the ancestors of these men. The Greeks of the archaic period (1000-480) would have understood the painters¿ competitive zeal, but only toward the end of the period would they have recognized naturalism as an artistic aim. nnEarlier Greek art is more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. In the eighth century Homer¿s descriptions of the rippling muscles (and egos) of his heroes, and the grief of Achilles¿ horses, evoke living men and sentient animals, but his fellow sculptors and painters prefer abstraction.nnThis changes in the seventh century as a result of commercial contacts with the Near East and Egypt. Imported bronzes, ivories and other Near Eastern exotica alerted Greek artists to a wider range of subjects, techniques and intentions, including naturalism. Later in the century, Greek expatriates learned the art of carving hard stone from Egyptian masters and soon marble sculpture and architecture spread throughout Greece. nnIn the course of the sixth and early fifth centuries Greek artists assimilate what they had borrowed, compete with one another, obey and disobey their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. When the Persians invaded the Acropolis in 480 and 479, they encountered artifacts with little trace of alien influence or imprint and, at Salamis and Plataea, fought decisive battles in which the Greeks prevailed. In the aftermath of the war, as the Greeks rebuilt their cities and their lives, Myron¿s cow reminded them of their debts to other cultures and their resolve to remain true to their own.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 102:
Introduction to Greek Art II: The Classical Period (CLASSICS 162)
The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how Athens and the rest of Greece proceed in the fourth century to rebuild their lives and the monuments that define them. Earlier artistic traditions endure, with subtle changes, in the work of sculptors such as Kephisodotos. Less subtle are the outlook and output of his son Praxiteles. In collaboration with Phryne, his muse and mistress, Praxiteles challenged the canons and constraints of the past with the first female nude in the history of Greek sculpture. His gender-bending depictions of gods and men were equally audacious, their shiny surfaces reflecting Plato¿s discussion of Eros and androgyny. Scopas was also a man of his time but pursued different interests. Drawn to the inner lives of men and woman, his tormented Trojan War heroes and victims are still scarred by memories of the Peloponnesian War, and a world away from the serene faces of the Parthenon. His famous Maenad, a devotee of Dionysos who has left this world for another, belongs to the same years as Euripides' Bacchae and, at the same time, anticipates the torsion and turbulence of Bernini and the Italian Baroque. In the work of these and other fourth century personalities, the stage is set for Alexander the Great and his conquest of a kingdom extending from Greece to the Indus River. (Formerly CLASSART 102)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 105:
Art & Architecture in the Medieval Mediterranean (ARTHIST 305, CLASSICS 172)
Chronological survey of Byzantine, Islamic, and Western Medieval art and architecture from the early Christian period to the Gothic age. Broad art-historical developments and more detailed examinations of individual monuments and works of art. Topics include devotional art, court and monastic culture, relics and the cult of saints, pilgrimage and crusades, and the rise of cities and cathedrals.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 105B:
Medieval Journeys: Tales of Devotion and Discovery (DLCL 123)
This course explores the experience and imagination of medieval journeys through interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and skills-based approaches. As a foundations class, this survey of medieval culture engages with an array of written texts from the period. Narratives of medieval journeys are studied across a wide range of categories, including pilgrimages, crusades, quests, and sagas. The journey as metaphor, along with the resulting and very real cultural interactions, will provide a main focus for examining this rich tradition of literature. Students will have the opportunity to produce a creative project that brings medieval ideas about travel into dialogue with modern conceptions. The course will satisfy the Ways-Creative Expression requirement as well as one of the following two: Ways-Analytical Interpretive or Ways-Engaging Difference.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
ARTHIST 106:
Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E. (ARTHIST 306, CLASSICS 171)
(Formerly CLASSART 106/206.) This course explores the art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Thessaloniki, and Palermo, 4th-15th centuries. Applying an innovative approach, we will probe questions of phenomenology and aesthetics, focusing our discussion on the performance and appearance of spaces and objects in the changing diurnal light, in the glitter of mosaics and in the mirror reflection and translucency of marble.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 107A:
St. Petersburg, a Cultural Biography: Architecture, Urban Planning, the Arts
The most premeditated city in the whole world, according to Dostoevsky; created in 1703 by Peter the Great as a counterpoise to Moscow and old Russian culture; planned as a rational, west-European-appearing capital city of the Russian Empire. St. Petersburg's history through works of its artists, architects, urban planners, writers, and composers.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 108:
Virginity and Power: Mary in the Middle Ages (ARTHIST 308)
The most influential female figure in Christianity whose state cult was connected with the idea of empire. The production and control of images and relics of the Virgin and the development of urban processions and court ceremonies though which political power was legitimized in papal Rome, Byzantium, Carolingian and Ottonian Germany, Tuscany, Gothic France, and Russia.
Last offered: Spring 2006
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 109:
The Book in the Medieval World (ARTHIST 309)
Studying the design and function of books in medieval society from the 7th to the 15th century, and the ways in which manuscripts are designed to meet (and shape) the cultural and intellectual demands of their readers. Major themes are the relationships between text and image, and between manuscripts and other media; the audience and production context of manuscripts; and changing ideas about pictorial space, figural style, page design, and progression through the book. Final project may be either a research paper or an original artist's book.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 111:
Introduction to Italian Renaissance, 1420-1580 (ARTHIST 311)
New techniques of pictorial illusionism and the influence of the humanist revival of antiquity in the reformulation of the pictorial arts in 15th-century Italy. How different Italian regions developed characteristic artistic cultures through mutual interaction and competition.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 114:
Mystical Naturalism: Van Eyck, Dürer, and the Northern Renaissance (ARTHIST 314)
A survey of the major innovations in Northern European painting ca. 1400-1600, in light of the social status of the artist between city and court. In the early fifteenth century painters began to render an idealized world down to its smallest details in ways that engaged new devotional practices. Later Hieronymus Bosch would identify the painter's imagination with the bizarre and grotesque. In response to Renaissance humanism, some painters introduced classical mythology and allegorical subjects in their works, and many traveled south to absorb Italianate pictorial styles. We will be visiting art museums in San Francisco and Stanford. May be repeat for credit.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
ARTHIST 117:
Picturing the Papacy, 1300-1850 (ARTHIST 317)
Popes deployed art and architecture to glorify their dual spiritual and temporal authority, being both Christ's vicars on earth and rulers of state. After the return of the papacy from Avignon, Rome underwent numerous campaigns of renovation that staged a continuity between the pontiffs and the ancient Roman emperors. Patronage of art and architecture became important tools in the fight against Protestantism. Artists include Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Bernini.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
ARTHIST 120:
Living in a Material World: Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Painting (ARTHIST 320)
Painting and graphic arts by artists in Flanders and Holland from 1600 to 1680, a period of political and religious strife. Historical context; their relationship to developments in the rest of Europe and contributions to the problem of representation. Preferences for particular genres such as portraits, landscapes, and scenes of everyday life; the general problem of realism as manifested in the works studied.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 121:
18th-Century Art in Europe, ca 1660-1780 (ARTHIST 321)
Major developments in painting across Europe including the High Baroque illusionism of Bernini, the founding of the French Academy, and the revival of antiquity during the 1760s, with parallel developments in Venice, Naples, Madrid, Bavaria, and London. Shifts in themes and styles amidst the emergence of new viewing publics. Artists: the Tiepolos, Giordano, Batoni, and Mengs; Ricci, Pellegrini, and Thornhill; Watteau and Boucher; Chardin and Longhi; Reynolds and West; Hogarth and Greuze; Vien, Fragonard, and the first works by David. Additional discussion for graduate students.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 122:
The Age of Revolution: Painting in Europe 1780-1830 (ARTHIST 322)
Survey of European painting bracketed by the French Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic conquest. Against this background of social upheavel, the visual arts were profoundly affected by shifts in patronage, public, and ideas about the social utility of image making. Lectures and readings align ruptures in the tradition of representation with the unfolding historical situation, and trace the first manifestations of a "romantic" alternative to the classicism that was the cultural legacy of pre-Revolutionary Europe.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 124:
The Age of Naturalism, Painting in Europe1830-1874 (ARTHIST 324)
Survey of European painting from the heyday of Romanticism to the first Impressionist exhibition. Lectures and readings focus on the tensions between traditional forms and ambitions of history painting and the challenge of "modern" subjects drawn from contemporary life. Attention to the impact of painting in the open-air, and the effect of new imaging technologies- notably lithography and photography - to provide "popular" alternatives to the hand-wrought character and elitist appeal of "high art" cultural forms.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 126:
Post-Naturalist Painting (ARTHIST 326)
How conceptual models from language, literature, new technologies, and scientific theory affected picture making following the collapse of the radical naturalism of the 1860s and 1870s. Bracketed in France by the first Impressionist exhibition (1874) and the first public acclamation of major canvases by Matisse and Picasso (1905), the related developments in England, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. Additional weekly discussion for graduate students. Recommended: some prior experience with 19th-century art.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 132:
American Art and Culture, 1528-1910 (AMSTUD 132, ARTHIST 332)
The visual arts and literature of the U.S. from the beginnings of European exploration to the Civil War. Focus is on questions of power and its relation to culture from early Spanish exploration to the rise of the middle classes. Cabeza de Vaca, Benjamin Franklin, John Singleton Copley, Phillis Wheatley, Charles Willson Peale, Emerson, Hudson River School, American Genre painters, Melville, Hawthorne and others.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 142:
Architecture Since 1900 (CEE 32G)
Art 142 is an introduction to the history of architecture since 1900 and how it has shaped and been shaped by its cultural contexts. The class also investigates the essential relationship between built form and theory during this period.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 143A:
American Architecture (AMSTUD 143A, ARTHIST 343A, CEE 32R)
A historically based understanding of what defines American architecture. What makes American architecture American, beginning with indigenous structures of pre-Columbian America. Materials, structure, and form in the changing American context. How these ideas are being transformed in today's globalized world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 145:
Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1890-1950 (AMSTUD 145M, ARTHIST 345, FEMGEN 145)
This course examines social conflicts and political controversies in American culture through the lens of visual art and photography. We consider how visual images both reflect and participate in the social and political life of the nation and how the terms of citizenship have been represented¿and, at times, contested¿by artists throughout the first half of the 20th century. The class explores the relation between American art and the body politic by focusing on issues of poverty, war, censorship, consumerism, class identity, and racial division.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ARTHIST 147:
MODERNISM AND MODERNITY (ARTHIST 347)
The development of modern art and visual culture in Europe and the US, beginning with Paris in the 1860s, the period of Haussmann, Baudelaire and Manet, and ending with the Bauhaus and Surrealism in the 1920s and 30s. Modernism in art, architecture and design (e.g., Gauguin, Picasso, Duchamp, Mondrian, Le Corbusier, Breuer, Dali) will be explored as a compelling dream of utopian possibilities involving multifaceted and often ambivalent, even contradictory responses to the changes brought about by industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of mass culture.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 152:
The American West (AMSTUD 124A, ENGLISH 124, HISTORY 151, POLISCI 124A)
The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
ARTHIST 157A:
Histories of Photography (ARTHIST 357A)
This course investigates multiple histories of photography. It begins in early nineteenth-century Europe with the origins of the medium and ends in the United States on September 11, 2001, a day that demonstrated the limits of photographic seeing. Rather than stabilizing any single trajectory of technological iterations, the course is more interested in considering the ¿work¿ performed by photography. Through historical case studies, it considers how `to photograph¿ is to order and to construct the world; to incite action and to persuade; to describe and to document; to record and to censor; to wound; to heal.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 160N:
The Sisters: Poetry & Painting (ENGLISH 51N)
Poetry and painting have often been called the "sister arts". Why? Sometimes a poem or a painting stands out to us, asking that we stay with it, that we remember it, although we cannot exactly say why. Poems have a way of making pictures in the mind, and paintings turn "rhymes" amid the people, places, and things they portray. Each is a concentrated world, inviting an exhilarating closeness of response: why does this line come first? Why does the artist include that detail? Who knows but that as we write and talk about these poems and pictures we will be doing what John Keats said a painter does: that is, arriving at a "trembling delicate and snail-horn perception of Beauty." Each week explore the kinship between a different pair of painter and poet and also focuses on a particular problem or method of interpretation. Some of the artist/poet combinations we will consider: Shakespeare and Caravaggio; Jorie Graham and (the photographer) Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alexander Pope and Thomas Gainsborough; William Wordsworth and Caspar David Friedrich; Christina Rossetti and Mary Cassatt; Walt Whitman and Thomas Eakins; Thomas Hardy and Edward Hopper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 164A:
Technology and the Visual Imagination (ARTHIST 364A, FILMSTUD 164A, FILMSTUD 364A)
An exploration of the dynamic relationship between technology and the ways we see and represent the world. The course examines technologies from the Renaissance through the present day, from telescopes and microscopes to digital detectors, that have changed and enhanced our visual capabilities as well as shaped how we imagine the world. We also consider how these technologies influenced and inspired the work of artists. Special attention is paid to how different technologies such as linear perspective, photography, cinema, and computer screens translate the visual experience into a representation; the automation of vision; and the intersection of technology with conceptions of time and space.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 165A:
Fashion Shows: From Lady Godiva to Lady Gaga (ARTHIST 365A, FILMSTUD 165A, FILMSTUD 365A)
The complex and interdependent relationship between fashion and art. Topics include: the ways in which artists have used fashion in different art forms as a means to convey social status, identity, and other attributes of the wearer; the interplay between fashion designers and various art movements, especially in the 20th century; the place of prints, photography, and the Internet in fashion, in particular how different media shape how clothes are seen and perceived. Texts by Thorstein Veblen, Roland Barthes, Dick Hebdige, and other theorists of fashion.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 173:
Issues in Contemporary Art (ARTHIST 373)
Major figures, themes, and movements of contemporary art from the 80s to the present. Readings on the neo-avant garde; postmodernism; art and identity politics; new media and technology; globalization and participatory aesthetics. Prerequisite: ARTHIST 155, or equivalent with consent of instructor.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 176:
Feminism and Contemporary Art (ARTHIST 376)
(Same as ARTHIST 176) The impact of second wave feminism on art making and art historical practice in the 70s, and its reiteration and transformation in contemporary feminist work. Topics: sexism and art history, feminist studio programs in the 70s, essentialism and self-representation, themes of domesticity, the body in feminist art making, bad girls, the exclusion of women of color and lesbians from the art historical mainstream, notions of performativity.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
ARTHIST 178:
Ethnicity and Dissent in United States Art and Literature (AMSTUD 178, ARTHIST 378)
The role of the visual arts of the U.S. in the construction and contesting of racial, class, and gender hierarchies. Focus is on artists and writers from the 18th century to 1990s. How power, domination, and resistance work historically. Topics include: minstrelsy and the invention of race; mass culture and postmodernity; hegemony and language; memory and desire; and the borderlands.
Last offered: Spring 2004
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ARTHIST 184:
Aristocrats, Warriors, Sex Workers, and Barbarians: Lived Life in Early Modern Japanese Painting (ARTHIST 384, JAPANGEN 184, JAPANGEN 384)
Changes marking the transition from medieval to early modern Japanese society that generated a revolution in visual culture, as exemplified in subjects deemed fit for representation; how commoners joined elites in pictorializing their world, catalyzed by interactions with the Dutch.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 186:
Theme and Style in Japanese Art (ARTHIST 386, JAPANGEN 186, JAPANGEN 286)
A mixture of lecture and discussion, this course presents a chronological introduction to some of the defining monuments in the history of Japanese visual culture from prehistory to the mid-19th century. This introductory class presumes no prior knowledge of art history or of Japan. We will emphasize certain overarching themes like religious life; notions of decorum appropriate to various classes (court, warrior, and commoner); the relationship between and among the arts, such as the visual and the verbal, or the symphonic assemblage arts as seen in the tea ceremony; pervasive cultural tropes like nostalgia, seasonality, or the sense of place; and broader issues such as censorship, patronage, gender issues, and the encounters between Japanese and foreign cultures.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 187:
Arts of War and Peace: Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan, 1500-1868 (ARTHIST 387, JAPANGEN 185)
Narratives of conflict, pacification, orthodoxy, nostalgia, and novelty through visual culture during the change of episteme from late medieval to early modern, 16th through early 19th centuries. The rhetorical messages of castles, teahouses, gardens, ceramics, paintings, and prints; the influence of Dutch and Chinese visuality; transformation in the roles of art and artist; tensions between the old and the new leading to the modernization of Japan.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
ARTHIST 188A:
The History of Modern and Contemporary Japanese and Chinese Architecture and Urbanism (ARTHIST 388A)
The recent rapid urbanization and architectural transformation of Asia; focus is on the architecture of Japan and China since the mid-19th century. History of forms, theories, and styles that serve as the foundation for today's buildings and cityscapes. How Eastern and Western ideas of modernism have merged or diverged and how these forces continue to shape the future of Japanese and Chinese architecture and urban form.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 203:
Greek Art In and Out of Context (CLASSICS 163)
The seminar considers Greek artifacts in the context of Greek life (including the life of the workshop), and the endless ways in which craftsmen served the needs of Greek society. Their foundries, factories and ceramic studios produced the material goods that defined Greek life: temples, statues and other offerings for the gods; arms and armor for warriors; sporting equipment and prizes for athletes; houses, clothing and crockery for the family; ships and sailcloth, wagons and ploughs, wine and oil-presses for a thriving domestic and overseas economy; gravestones and funeral vases for the dead. (Formerly CLASSART 109.) nMost of the antiquities exhibited in museums, or purchased by private collectors from galleries and auction houses, survive because they were buried with people who used and cherished them. The Greeks¿ belief that the artifacts they valued in life would serve them in the afterlife informs the second part of the seminar, which is devoted to the recent history of tomb looting and the illicit trafficking in antiquities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 205:
Cairo and Istanbul: Urban Space, Memory, Protest
In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the city of Cairo has become a theater of social and political upheaval. In Istanbul, the Gezi protests in spring and summer 2013 drew attention to the contested public space. These events are the result of longstanding developments in the urban and social fabric. This seminar introduces students to the architectural and urban history of Istanbul and Cairo, with the current transformations as a central point of reference. Readings will focus on the tension between historical center and recent urban development, the social problems arising from the segregation, and reactions of scholars, architects, and artists to these issues.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 205A:
Islamic Painting: Landscape, Body, Power
This seminar focuses on the production of paintings, mostly but not exclusively miniatures in books, in the Islamic world. A particular focus lies on the Muslim Empires of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, namely the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal realms, together stretching from the Balkans to India. During this period, illustrated books were popular objects of high-level patronage, and numerous examples have survived that allow a detailed study of the implications of these images. Themes discussed include: figural representation in Islam, patronage and court culture; gender and the body; illustrations of literature and history; images of Sufis ceremonies; portraiture; images of animals and nature; the impact of European prints and paintings; space and landscape. A field-trip to the Museum of Asian Art in San Francisco to view Mughal paintings from India is planned.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 208:
Hagia Sophia (ARTHIST 408, CLASSICS 173, CLASSICS 273)
By employing a methodology based in psychoacoustics, semiotics, and phenomenology, this course explores the relationship among sound, water, marble, meaning, and religious experience in the sixth-century church of HagianSophia built by emperor Justinian in Constantinople. We will read medieval sources describing the interior and ritual, make short movies exploring the shimmer of marble in buildings on campus, and study the acoustics of domed buildings through computer auralization done at Stanford's CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics)
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 212:
Renaissance Florence, 1440-1540
Notions of cultural superiority in light of changes in Florentine society as it went from being a republic to a duchy ruled by the Medici. Artists and architects such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Pontormo praised as having revived the arts and returned them to a level of ancient splendor. The role of the sacred in daily life and uses of the pagan past for poetic and scholarly expressions and as vehicles for contemporary experience.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 213:
Renaissance Print Culture: Art in the Cantor Arts Center
The seminar takes place in the Cantor Arts Center and provides a unique opportunity to study original works of art from the museum's storage. Beginning in the fifteenth century new techniques of reproduction changed the pictorial culture of Europe. Some engravings called attention to the engraver's virtuosity, and the private nature of the medium was explored for erotic imagery. By the sixteenth century printed images were used for political and religious propaganda during the societal upheavals.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ARTHIST 244:
The Visual Culture of the American Home Front, 1941-1945 (AMSTUD 244)
How does home front of WWII look now? What sort of meanings appear with the vantage of more than sixty years' distance? Examining Hollywood films from those years -films made during the war but mostly not directly about the war - the seminar focuses on developing students' abilities to write emotion-based criticism and history. Weekly short papers, each one in response to a film screening, are required. Among the films screened: Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, I Walked with a Zombie, The Best Years of Our Lives.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 246A:
California Dreaming: West Coast Art and Visual Culture, 1848 - present
This seminar examines art, photography, and other forms of cultural production (e.g. film, advertisements, postcards) in and about California from the middle of the 19th century to the present. It approaches California as a contested political, historical and geographical site and as a series of images and alternative "lifestyles." How have artists pictured the state's diverse landscapes, both natural and commercial, as well as its complex history of labor, immigration, ethnicity, tourism, and social division?
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 262:
Office of Metropolitan Architecture: Workshop of the New (CEE 132Q)
This seminar investigates all aspects of the work of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and its leader Rem Koolhaas. Topics for class research and inquiry include but are not be limited to: Koolhaas's early work at the Architectural Association and the founding of OMA, the publications of OMA and their style of presentation and theoretical foundations, the importance of AMO, and the architects who have left OMA and founded their own practices and how these differ from OMA. Each student completes an in-depth research paper and an in-class presentation.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 264A:
Picturing the Cosmos
This seminar explores the place of images in how we understand and imagine the universe. The course draws on art, science, and popular culture, and pays particular attention to the ways they inform each other. Examples include: star maps, science fiction films, appropriated astronomical images, and telescopic views of stars, planets, and nebulae. Using these representations as well as accompanying readings we will discuss the importance of aesthetics for conceptions of the cosmos; the influence of technology on representations; strategies for representing concepts that exceed the limits of human vision; and the ways that views of the universe reflect and shape their cultural context. Open to undergraduates and graduates.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ARTHIST 287:
Pictures of the Floating World: Images from Japanese Popular Culture (ARTHIST 487X, JAPANLIT 287)
Printed objects produced during the Edo period (1600-1868), including the Ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) and lesser-studied genres such as printed books (ehon) and popular broadsheets (kawaraban). How a society constructs itself through images. The borders of the acceptable and censorship; theatricality, spectacle, and slippage; the construction of play, set in conflict against the dominant neo-Confucian ideology of fixed social roles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 288B:
The Enduring Passion for Ink: Contemporary Chinese Ink Painting
Contemporary Chinese ink painters are exploring new ground. They push the limits of the medium, creating installations and performances, mixing ink with other media, and advancing age-tested brushstrokes and compositions. The recent flurry of exhibitions attests to contemporary ink painting¿s increasing importance. nnThis seminar introduces major figures (Xu Bing, Liu Dan, Zheng Chongbin, Li Huasheng, etc.) and movements in contemporary Chinese ink art. Emphasis is placed on improving writing abilities and on in-class reports and discussion. Topics for discussion include readings, individual works of art, and broad issues in contemporary art. Prerequisite: courses in Art History and/or Studio Art OR permission of instructor. open to undergraduates and graduates.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTHIST 296:
Junior Seminar: Methods & Historiography of Art History
Historiography and methodology. Through a series of case studies, this course introduces a range of influential critical perspectives in art history as a discipline and a practice. The goal is to stimulate thinking about what it means to explore the history of art today, to expose and examine our assumptions, expectations and predilections as we undertake to learn and write about works of art, their meanings and their status in the world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ARTSTUDI 131:
Sound Art I (MUSIC 154A)
Acoustic, digital and analog approaches to sound art. Familiarization with techniques of listening, recording, digital processing and production. Required listening and readings in the history and contemporary practice of sound art. (lower level)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
ASNAMST 17Q:
Perspectives in North American Taiko (MUSIC 17Q)
Preference to sophomores. Taiko, or Japanese drum, is a newcomer to the American music scene. Emergence of the first N. American taiko groups coincided with increased Japanese American activism, and to some it is symbolic of Japanese American identity. N. American taiko is associated with Japanese American Buddhism. Musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko. Hands-on drumming. Japanese music and Japanese American history, and relations among performance, cultural expression, community, and identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
ASNAMST 146S:
Asian American Culture and Community (AMSTUD 146, COMPLIT 146, CSRE 146S)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
CEE 32B:
Design Theory
This seminar focuses on the key themes, histories, and methods of architectural theory -- a form of architectural practice that establishes the aims and philosophies of architecture. Architectural theory is primarily written, but it also incorporates drawing, photography, film, and other media. nnOne of the distinctive features of modern and contemporary architecture is its pronounced use of theory to articulate its aims. One might argue that modern architecture is modern because of its incorporation of theory. This course focuses on those early-modern, modern, and late-modern writings that have been and remain entangled with contemporary architectural thought and design practice. nnRather than examine the development of modern architectural theory chronologically, it is explored architectural through thematic topics. These themes enable the student to understand how certain architectural theoretical concepts endure, are transformed, and can be furthered through his/her own explorations.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CEE 32G:
Architecture Since 1900 (ARTHIST 142)
Art 142 is an introduction to the history of architecture since 1900 and how it has shaped and been shaped by its cultural contexts. The class also investigates the essential relationship between built form and theory during this period.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CEE 32R:
American Architecture (AMSTUD 143A, ARTHIST 143A, ARTHIST 343A)
A historically based understanding of what defines American architecture. What makes American architecture American, beginning with indigenous structures of pre-Columbian America. Materials, structure, and form in the changing American context. How these ideas are being transformed in today's globalized world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CEE 132Q:
Office of Metropolitan Architecture: Workshop of the New (ARTHIST 262)
This seminar investigates all aspects of the work of the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and its leader Rem Koolhaas. Topics for class research and inquiry include but are not be limited to: Koolhaas's early work at the Architectural Association and the founding of OMA, the publications of OMA and their style of presentation and theoretical foundations, the importance of AMO, and the architects who have left OMA and founded their own practices and how these differ from OMA. Each student completes an in-depth research paper and an in-class presentation.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CHILATST 140:
Migration in 21st Century Latin American Film (ILAC 140)
Focus on how images and narratives of migration are depicted in recent Latin American film. It compares migration as it takes place within Latin America to migration from Latin America to Europe and to the U.S. We will analyze these films, and their making, in the global context of an evergrowing tension between "inside" and "outside"; we consider how these films represent or explore precariousness and exclusion; visibility and invisibility; racial and gender dynamics; national and social boundaries; new subjectivities and cultural practices. Films include: El niño pez, Bolivia, Ulises, Faustino Mayta visita a su prima, Copacabana, Chico y Rita, Sin nombre, Los que se quedan, Amador, and En la puta calle. Films in Spanish, with English subtitles. Discussions and assignments in Spanish.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CHILATST 165:
Mexican American History through Film (CSRE 165C, HISTORY 165)
Focus is on the 20th century. Themes such as immigration, urbanization, ethnic identity, the role of women, and the struggle for civil rights.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CHILATST 200:
Latin@ Literature (CSRE 200, ILAC 280, ILAC 382)
Examines a diverse set of narratives by U.S. Latin@s of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Dominican heritage through the lens of latinidad. All share the historical experience of Spanish colonization and U.S. imperialism, yet their im/migration patterns differ, affecting social, cultural, and political trajectories in the US and relationships to "home" and "homeland," nation, diaspora, history, and memory. Explores how racialization informs genders as well as sexualities. Emphasis on textual analysis. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CHINGEN 70N:
Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (COMPLIT 70N)
Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century?
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CHINGEN 91:
Introduction to China
Required for Chinese and Japanese majors. Introduction to Chinese culture in a historical context. Topics include political and socioeconomic institutions, religion, ethics, education, and art and literature.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
CHINGEN 131:
Chinese Poetry in Translation (CHINGEN 231)
From the first millennium B.C. through the 12th century. Traditional verse forms representative of the classical tradition; highlights of the most distinguished poets. History, language, and culture. Chinese language not required.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
CHINGEN 132:
Chinese Fiction and Drama in Translation (CHINGEN 232)
From early times to the 18th century, emphasizing literary and thematic discussions of major works in English translation.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
CHINGEN 133:
Literature in 20th-Century China (CHINGEN 233)
(Graduate students register for 233.) How modern Chinese culture evolved from tradition to modernity; the century-long drive to build a modern nation state and to carry out social movements and political reforms. How the individual developed modern notions of love, affection, beauty, and moral relations with community and family. Sources include fiction and film clips. WIM course.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
CHINGEN 134:
Early Chinese Mythology (CHINGEN 234)
The definition of a myth. Major myths of China prior to the rise of Buddhism and Daoism including: tales of the early sage kings such as Yu and the flood; depictions of deities in the underworld; historical myths; tales of immortals in relation to local cults; and tales of the patron deities of crafts.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CHINGEN 137:
Tiananmen Square: History, Literature, Iconography (CHINGEN 237)
Multidisciplinary. Literary and artistic representations of this site of political and ideological struggles throughout the 20th century. Tiananmen-themed creative, documentary, and scholarly works that shed light on the dynamics and processes of modern Chinese culture and politics. No knowledge of Chinese required. Held in Knight Bldg. Rm. 18.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CHINGEN 138:
Love, Passion, and Politics in Chinese Film (CHINGEN 238, COMPLIT 104)
Focusing on the emotional structure of love and passion in Chinese films, the course will investigate the structures of feelings and moral relations in modern Chinese history from the 1940s till the present. Examining the interplay between private desire, romantic sentiment, family relations, and political passion, we will explore how men and women in China grapple with emotional and social issues in modern transformations. We will consider romantic love, the uplifting of sexuality into political passion, the intertwining of aesthetic experience with politics, nostalgia in the disenchanted modern world, and the tensions between the individual¿s self-realization and the community¿s agenda. Students will learn to ¿read¿ films as a work of art and understand how film works as expression of desire, impulse, emotional connections, and communal bonding during times of crisis. Course work includes a midterm exam (25%) and a final exam (25%), a weekly 250-300 word reflection on the film of the week (10%), participation and oral presentation in class (10%), and a paper of 5-7 pages to be submitted after the midterm week (30%).nStarting from the second week, film screening will begin 6: 30 pm Monday before classes on Tuesday and Thursday. The course does not encourage private viewing. At least 5 dinners will be provided for movie-screening events.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CHINGEN 141:
Emergence of Chinese Civilization from Caves to Palaces (ARCHLGY 111, CHINGEN 241)
Introduces processes of cultural evolution from the Paleolithic to the Three Dynasties in China. By examining archaeological remains, ancient inscriptions, and traditional texts, four major topics will be discussed: origins of modern humans, beginnings of agriculture, development of social stratification, and emergence of states and urbanism.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
CHINGEN 150:
Sex, Gender, and Power in Modern China (CHINGEN 250, FEMGEN 150, FEMGEN 250)
Investigates how sex, gender, and power are entwined in the Chinese experience of modernity. Topics include anti-footbinding campaigns, free love/free sex, women's mobilization in revolution and war, the new Marriage Law of 1950, Mao's iron girls, postsocialist celebrations of sensuality, and emergent queer politics. Readings range from feminist theory to China-focused historiography, ethnography, memoir, biography, fiction, essay, and film. All course materials are in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CHINGEN 193E:
Female Divinities in China (CHINGEN 393E)
The role of powerful goddesses, such as the Queen Mother of the West, Guanyin, and Chen Jinggu, in Chinese religion. Imperial history to the present day. What roles goddesses played in the spirit world, how this related to the roles of human women, and why a civilization that excluded women from the public sphere granted them such a major, even dominant place, in the religious sphere. Readings in English-language secondary literature.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
CHINLIT 93:
Late Imperial China (FEMGEN 93, HISTORY 93)
(Same as HISTORY 193. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 193.) A survey of Chinese history from the 11th century to the collapse of the imperial state in 1911. Topics include absolutism, gentry society, popular culture, gender and sexuality, steppe nomads, the Jesuits in China, peasant rebellion, ethnic conflict, opium, and the impact of Western imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CHINLIT 295J:
Chinese Women's History (FEMGEN 295J, HISTORY 295J)
The lives of women in the last 1,000 years of Chinese history. Focus is on theoretical questions fundamental to women's studies. How has the category of woman been shaped by culture and history? How has gender performance interacted with bodily disciplines and constraints such as medical, reproductive, and cosmetic technologies? How relevant is the experience of Western women to women elsewhere? By what standards should liberation be defined?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 16N:
Sappho: Erotic Poetess of Lesbos (FEMGEN 24N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 24N.) Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspired by Sappho in ancient and modern times, and composers who put her poetry to music.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
CLASSICS 17N:
To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (TAPS 12N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 18N:
The Artist in Ancient Greek Society (ARTHIST 100N)
Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. n nWhy did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men themselves? Why did Herodotus dismiss those who worked with their hands as "mechanics?" What prompted Homer to claim that "there is no greater glory for a man¿ than what he achieves with his own hands," provided that he was throwing a discus and not a vase on a wheel?n nPainted pottery was essential to the religious and secular lives of the Greeks. Libations to the gods and to the dead required vases from which to pour them. Economic prosperity depended on the export of wine and oil in durable clay containers. At home, depictions of gods and heroes on vases reinforced Greek values and helped parents to educate their children. Ceramic sets with scenes of Dionysian excess were reserved for elite symposia from which those who potted and painted them were excluded.n nSculptors were less lowly but even those who carved the Parthenon were still regarded as "mechanics," with soft bodies and soft minds (Xenophon) "indifferent to higher things" (Plutarch).n nThe seminar addresses these issues. Students will read and discuss texts, write response papers and present slide lectures and gallery talks on aspects of the artist's profession.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 21Q:
Eight Great Archaeological Sites in Europe (ARCHLGY 21Q)
(Formerly CLASSART 21Q.) Preference to sophomores. Focus is on excavation, features and finds, arguments over interpretation, and the place of each site in understanding the archaeological history of Europe. Goal is to introduce the latest archaeological and anthropological thought, and raise key questions about ancient society. The archaeological perspective foregrounds interdisciplinary study: geophysics articulated with art history, source criticism with analytic modeling, statistics interpretation. A web site with resources about each site, including plans, photographs, video, and publications, is the basis for exploring.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, Writing 2
CLASSICS 31:
Greek Mythology
(Formerly CLASSGEN 18.) The heroic and divine in the literature, mythology, and culture of archaic Greece. Interdisciplinary approach to the study of individuals and society. Illustrated lectures. Readings in translation of Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, and the poets of lyric and tragedy. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required during regular academic quarters (Aut, Win, Spr)
Terms: Win, Sum
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 34:
Ancient Athletics
(Formerly CLASSGEN 34.) How the Olympic Games developed and how they were organized. Many other Greek festivals featured sport and dance competitions, including some for women, and showcased the citizen athlete as a civic ideal. Roman athletics in contrast saw the growth of large-scale spectator sports and professional athletes. Some toured like media stars; others regularly risked death in gladiatorial contests and chariot-racing. We will also explore how large-scale games were funded and how they fostered the development of sports medicine. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required; enroll in sections on coursework.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 35:
Becoming Like God: An Introduction to Greek Ethical Philosophy
(Formerly CLASSGEN 35.) This course investigates key ethical philosophies in classical Greece. After reading several Greek tragedies (representing traditional Greek values), we examine the Greek philosophers' rejection of this tradition and their radically new ethical theories. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle offered different ethical theories, but they shared basic conceptions of goodness and happiness. They argues that we could "become like gods" by achieving philosophic wisdom. What kind of wisdom is this? How does it make us ethically good and supremely happy people?
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 36:
Gender and Power in Ancient Rome
(Formerly CLASSGEN 119.) Interactions of gender and power in ancient Roman politics, religion, spectacles, and daily life. Masculinity and femininity in founding legends and public rituals; the ambiguous status of Vestal Virgins; gendered behavior in the Roman Forum; the spatial logic of prostitution; sexual characterizations of good vs. bad emperors in ancient texts; gender and time in Roman houses; inversions of gender and space in early Christian martyr narratives. Readings include modern gender theory as well as ancient Roman texts and material culture.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CLASSICS 41:
Herodotus
For Ancient History field of study majors; others by consent of instructor. Close reading technique. Historical background to the Greco-Persian Wars; ancient views of empire, culture, and geography; the wars and their aftermath; ancient ethnography and historiography, including the first narrative of ancient Egypt.
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 42:
Philosophy and Literature (COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 43:
Exploring the New Testament (RELIGST 86)
The New Testament is many things to many people. Around the globe, it is and has been for two millennia a source of culture, law, and faith. It has been used both to undergird battles for civil rights and to fight against them. It has been used both to justify wars and to argue that all war is unjust. Yet, many people haven¿t read the New Testament and still more haven¿t looked at it from historical, sociological, comparative and literary frameworks. This course will provide you the opportunity to read the New Testament and to study it closely. We will ask questions of the New Testament about the early Jesus movement, how it fits into its historical context and how it developed. We will look at the range of opinions and views about Jesus present in this literature. We will explore the different genres used by early Christians. We will examine how this set of Early Christian texts came to be considered the canon.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 52:
Introduction to Roman Archaeology (ARCHLGY 81)
(Formerly CLASSART 81.) This course will introduce you to the material culture of the ancient Roman world, from spectacular imperial monuments in the city of Rome to cities and roads around the Mediterranean, from overarching environmental concerns to individual human burials, from elite houses and army forts to the the lives of slaves, freedmen and gladiators. Key themes will be change and continuity over time; the material, spatial and visual workings of power; how Roman society was materially changed by its conquests and how conquered peoples responded materially to Roman rule.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 54:
Introduction to World Architecture (ARTHIST 3)
This lecture course surveys the history of architecture and urbanism, from the first societies to the present, in Europe, West and East Asia, the Americas, and Africa. The course progresses by case studies of exemplary monuments and cities, and examines the built environment as both cultural artifact and architectural event. It considers the social and political circumstances of architectural invention as well as plumbing the depth of artistic context by which particular formal choices resonate with an established representational culture.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 56:
Introduction to the Visual Arts: Prehistoric through Medieval (ARTHIST 1A)
A survey of the art and architecture from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the Gothic Cathedrals of France; the material is organized both chronologically and thematically and covers a multiplicity of religions: pagan, Christian, and Islamic.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CLASSICS 76:
Global History: The Ancient World (HISTORY 1A)
World history from the origins of humanity to the Black Death. Focuses on the evolution of complex societies, wealth, violence, and hierarchy, emphasizing the three great turning points in early history: the evolution of modern humans, the agricultural revolution, and the rise of the state.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 82:
The Egyptians (AFRICAAM 30, HISTORY 48, HISTORY 148)
Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Participation in class is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 83:
The Greeks (HISTORY 101)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 101.) 250 years ago, for almost the first time in history, a few societies rejected kings who claimed to know what the gods wanted and began moving toward democracy. Only once before had this happened--in ancient Greece. This course asks how the Greeks did this, and what they can teach us today. It uses texts and archaeology to trace the material and military sides of the story as well as cultural developments, and looks at Greek slavery and misogyny as well as their achievements. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 84:
The Romans (HISTORY 102A)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 60.) How did a tiny village create a huge empire and shape the world, and why did it fail? Roman history, imperialism, politics, social life, economic growth, and religious change. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required; enroll in sections on Coursework.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 88:
Origins of History in Greece and Rome (HISTORY 114)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 117.) The beginnings and development of historical writing in the ancient world. Emphasis on major classical historians and various models of history they invented, from local to imperial, military, cultural, biographical, world history and church history. Focus on themes of power, war, loss, growth and decline, as put by the ancients into historical narrative forms and probed by way of historical questioning and explanation. Attention to how these models resonate still today. Readings in translation: Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Livy and others.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 112:
Introduction to Greek Tragedy: Gods, Heroes, Fate, and Justice (TAPS 167)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 110.) Gods and heroes, fate and free choice, gender conflict, the justice or injustice of the universe: these are just some of the fundamental human issues that we will explore in about ten of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 121:
Ecology in Philosophy and Literature
(Formerly CLASSGEN 116.) The basic principles of ecological thinking, exploring the ways that different writers represent and relate to the natural world. Some key questions: What is nature, and where do humans fit in the natural world? How exactly do humans differ from other animals? Do these differences make us superior beings? What are our ethical responsibilities towards the earth and its inhabitants? In what ways have the technologies of writing, television, and computers affected humankind's relationship to the natural world?
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CLASSICS 124:
Ancient and Modern Medicine
Imagine a world where the Universe has a built-in purpose and point. How would this belief impact man's place in nature? Imagine a world where natural substances have "powers." How might this impact diet and pharmacology? Magical vs. scientific healing: a clear divide? Disease and dehumanization: epilepsy, rabies. Physical and mental health: black bile and melancholy. The ethical and scientific assumptions hidden in medical language and imagery. How ancient medicine and modern medicine (especially alternative medicine) illuminate each other.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 136:
The Greek Invention of Mathematics (MATH 163)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 103.) How was mathematics invented? A survey of the main creative ideas of ancient Greek mathematics. Among the issues explored are the axiomatic system of Euclid's Elements, the origins of the calculus in Greek measurements of solids and surfaces, and Archimedes' creation of mathematical physics. We will provide proofs of ancient theorems, and also learn how such theorems are even known today thanks to the recovery of ancient manuscripts.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 142:
Emperor, Explorer, and God: Alexander the Great in the Global Imagination (RELIGST 109)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 109.) This course will survey the changing image of Alexander the Great from the Hellenistic world to the contemporary. We shall study the appropriation of his life and legend in a variety of cultures both East and West and discuss his reception as both a divine and a secular figure by examining a variety of media including texts (primary and secondary) and images (statues, coins, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, film, and TV) in the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Islamic, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern contexts. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations in film and popular culture, such as Alexander directed by Oliver Stone and Pop Art in order to better appreciate his enduring legacy.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 145:
Early Christian Gospels (RELIGST 132D)
An exploration of Christian gospels of the first and second century. Emphasis on the variety of images and interpretations of Jesus and the good news, the broader Hellenistic and Jewish contexts of the gospels, the processes of developing and transmitting gospels, and the creation of the canon. Readings include the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and other canonical and non-canonical gospels.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 146:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSICS 246, RELIGST 229, RELIGST 329)
Stretching from India to Ethiopia, the Persian Empire¿the largest empire before Rome¿has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the ¿West¿ and Greek democracy. This course will provide a general introduction to the Persian Empire, beginning in the 6th century BCE to the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. We shall not only examine the originality of the first world empire of antiquity, but the course will also attempt to present a broad picture of the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the empire. Readings in translation from the royal edicts and the inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes will allow us to better appreciate the subtle ways in which these Persian kings used religion to justify and propagate the most ambitious imperial agenda the world had ever seen. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations of Persia and the Persians in politics and popular culture in a wide array of media, such as the recent film 300 and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 147:
Priests, Prophets, and Kings: Religion and Society in Late Antique Iran (CLASSICS 247, RELIGST 209, RELIGST 309)
This course is designed as a broad introduction to the religious and social history of the Sasanian Empire, encompassing the period from 224-651 CE as well as the early years of Islamic rule in Iran. Among the topics we will discuss are: the lives and deeds of the powerful Iranian emperors such as Shapur I and II in relation to the the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine; the transformation of Zoroastrianism into a powerful official religion of the state and its subsequent orthodoxy; the emergence of the prophet Mani and the confrontation of Manicheism with the Zoroastrian priesthood; the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and its political and social ramifications in Iran; the establishment of an independent Iranian Christian church; the importance of Armenia in the Sasanian- Roman conflict; and a brief discussion of the history of the Jewish community under the Sasanians. We will end the quarter by examining the Arab¿Islamic¿conquests of Iran and the profound social changes experienced by the Zoroastrian communities in the early centuries of Islam in Iran.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 148:
Imperishable Heroes and Unblemished Goddesses: Myth, Ritual, and Epic in Ancient Iran (CLASSICS 248, RELIGST 209E, RELIGST 309E)
Designed as a broad introduction to the world of ancient Iran, students will be introduced to the Indo-European inheritance in ancient Iranian culture; the shared world of ritual, religion, and mythology between Zoroastrianism in Iran and Vedic Hinduism in India; and to the contours of early Zoroastrian religious thought. We will also survey mythoepic literature in translation from the archaic Avesta through the late antique Zoroastrian Middle Persian corpus to the early medieval national epic of Iran, the Book of Kings of Ferdowsi.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 150:
Majors Seminar
(Formerly CLASSGEN 176.) Required of Classics majors and minors in junior or senior year; students contemplating honors should take this course in junior year. Advanced skills course involving close reading, critical thinking, editing, and writing. In-class and take-home writing and revising exercises. Final paper topic may be on any subject related to Classics. Fulfills WIM requirement for Classics.nnWinter Quarter topic: investigating a wide range of ethical dilemmas raised by the ownership of the classical past in the 21st centurynSpring Quarter topic: Why study Classics? The uses and abuses of classical studies.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 154:
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Maritime Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean (ARCHLGY 145)
(Formerly CLASSART 145.) Why do we care about shipwrecks? What can sunken sites and abandoned ports tell us about our past? Focusing primarily on the archaeological record of shipwrecks and harbors, along with literary evidence and contemporary theory, this course examines how and why ancient mariners ventured across the "wine-dark seas" of the Mediterranean for travel, warfare, pilgrimage, and especially commerce. We will explore interdisciplinary approaches to the development of maritime contacts and communication from the Bronze Age through the end of Roman era. At the same time, we will engage with practical techniques of maritime archaeology, which allows us to explore the material record first hand.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
CLASSICS 161:
Introduction to Greek Art I: The Archaic Period (ARTHIST 101)
In the decades 480-460, just before work began on the Parthenon, the sculptor Myron, creator of the Discus-Thrower, was even more celebrated for his bronze cow. Ancient authors describe an image so palpably alive that shepherds threw stones at her, thinking that she had strayed from the herd, and bulls vied for her attention. A century later, the quest for mimesis prompted a contest between two artists. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes seductive enough to attract hungry birds; Parrhasios then added a linen curtain, which Zeuxis asked to be removed from his painting. Zeuxis conceded defeat since he had fooled only birds, whereas Parrhasios had deceived an artist. nnThis course explores the art and culture of the ancestors of these men. The Greeks of the archaic period (1000-480) would have understood the painters¿ competitive zeal, but only toward the end of the period would they have recognized naturalism as an artistic aim. nnEarlier Greek art is more abstract than life-like, closer to Calder than Michelangelo. In the eighth century Homer¿s descriptions of the rippling muscles (and egos) of his heroes, and the grief of Achilles¿ horses, evoke living men and sentient animals, but his fellow sculptors and painters prefer abstraction.nnThis changes in the seventh century as a result of commercial contacts with the Near East and Egypt. Imported bronzes, ivories and other Near Eastern exotica alerted Greek artists to a wider range of subjects, techniques and intentions, including naturalism. Later in the century, Greek expatriates learned the art of carving hard stone from Egyptian masters and soon marble sculpture and architecture spread throughout Greece. nnIn the course of the sixth and early fifth centuries Greek artists assimilate what they had borrowed, compete with one another, obey and disobey their teachers, test the tolerance of the gods and eventually produce works of art that speak with a Greek accent. When the Persians invaded the Acropolis in 480 and 479, they encountered artifacts with little trace of alien influence or imprint and, at Salamis and Plataea, fought decisive battles in which the Greeks prevailed. In the aftermath of the war, as the Greeks rebuilt their cities and their lives, Myron¿s cow reminded them of their debts to other cultures and their resolve to remain true to their own.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 162:
Introduction to Greek Art II: The Classical Period (ARTHIST 102)
The class begins with the art, architecture and political ideals of Periclean Athens, from the emergence of the city as the political and cultural center of Greece in 450 to its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404. It then considers how Athens and the rest of Greece proceed in the fourth century to rebuild their lives and the monuments that define them. Earlier artistic traditions endure, with subtle changes, in the work of sculptors such as Kephisodotos. Less subtle are the outlook and output of his son Praxiteles. In collaboration with Phryne, his muse and mistress, Praxiteles challenged the canons and constraints of the past with the first female nude in the history of Greek sculpture. His gender-bending depictions of gods and men were equally audacious, their shiny surfaces reflecting Plato¿s discussion of Eros and androgyny. Scopas was also a man of his time but pursued different interests. Drawn to the inner lives of men and woman, his tormented Trojan War heroes and victims are still scarred by memories of the Peloponnesian War, and a world away from the serene faces of the Parthenon. His famous Maenad, a devotee of Dionysos who has left this world for another, belongs to the same years as Euripides' Bacchae and, at the same time, anticipates the torsion and turbulence of Bernini and the Italian Baroque. In the work of these and other fourth century personalities, the stage is set for Alexander the Great and his conquest of a kingdom extending from Greece to the Indus River. (Formerly CLASSART 102)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 163:
Greek Art In and Out of Context (ARTHIST 203)
The seminar considers Greek artifacts in the context of Greek life (including the life of the workshop), and the endless ways in which craftsmen served the needs of Greek society. Their foundries, factories and ceramic studios produced the material goods that defined Greek life: temples, statues and other offerings for the gods; arms and armor for warriors; sporting equipment and prizes for athletes; houses, clothing and crockery for the family; ships and sailcloth, wagons and ploughs, wine and oil-presses for a thriving domestic and overseas economy; gravestones and funeral vases for the dead. (Formerly CLASSART 109.) nMost of the antiquities exhibited in museums, or purchased by private collectors from galleries and auction houses, survive because they were buried with people who used and cherished them. The Greeks¿ belief that the artifacts they valued in life would serve them in the afterlife informs the second part of the seminar, which is devoted to the recent history of tomb looting and the illicit trafficking in antiquities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 166:
The Body in Roman Art (ARCHLGY 166)
(Formerly CLASSART 105.) Ancient and modern ideas about the body as ideal and site of lived experience. Themes include representation, portrayal, power, metamorphosis, and replication. Works that exemplify Roman ideas of heroism and power versus works portraying nude women, erotic youth, preserved corpses, and suffering enemies. Recommended: background in ancient Mediterranean art, archaeology, history, or literature. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
CLASSICS 168:
Engineering the Roman Empire (ARCHLGY 118)
(Formerly CLASSART 117.) Enter the mind, the drafting room, and the building site of the Roman architects and engineers whose monumental projects impressed ancient and modern spectators alike. This class explores the interrelated aesthetics and mechanics of construction that led to one of the most extensive building programs undertaken by a pre-modern state. Through case studies ranging from columns, domes and obelisks to road networks, machines and landscape modification, we investigate the materials, methods, and knowledge behind Roman innovation, and the role of designed space in communicating imperial identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 171:
Byzantine Art and Architecture, 300-1453 C.E. (ARTHIST 106, ARTHIST 306)
(Formerly CLASSART 106/206.) This course explores the art and architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Thessaloniki, and Palermo, 4th-15th centuries. Applying an innovative approach, we will probe questions of phenomenology and aesthetics, focusing our discussion on the performance and appearance of spaces and objects in the changing diurnal light, in the glitter of mosaics and in the mirror reflection and translucency of marble.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CLASSICS 172:
Art & Architecture in the Medieval Mediterranean (ARTHIST 105, ARTHIST 305)
Chronological survey of Byzantine, Islamic, and Western Medieval art and architecture from the early Christian period to the Gothic age. Broad art-historical developments and more detailed examinations of individual monuments and works of art. Topics include devotional art, court and monastic culture, relics and the cult of saints, pilgrimage and crusades, and the rise of cities and cathedrals.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 173:
Hagia Sophia (ARTHIST 208, ARTHIST 408, CLASSICS 273)
By employing a methodology based in psychoacoustics, semiotics, and phenomenology, this course explores the relationship among sound, water, marble, meaning, and religious experience in the sixth-century church of HagianSophia built by emperor Justinian in Constantinople. We will read medieval sources describing the interior and ritual, make short movies exploring the shimmer of marble in buildings on campus, and study the acoustics of domed buildings through computer auralization done at Stanford's CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics)
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CLASSICS 174:
Art and Religious Experience in Byzantium and Islam (ARTHIST 209, ARTHIST 309)
This course presents a comparative study of Christian and Islamic paradigms (sixth to the thirteenth centuries) in the construction of religious experience through the material fabric of the building, the interior decor, objects, and rituals. We will read medieval ekphrastic texts and poetry, which stirred the viewer/participant to experience the building/object as animate. Among the sites we will study are: Hagia Sophia, the Ka'ba, the Dome of teh Rock, the Mosque at Damascus and at Cordoba. We will read Byzantine and Arabic writers such as Paul the Silentiary, Patriarch Germanos, Maximus Confessor, Shahrawardi, and Ibn Arabi.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 10N:
Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context
Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 11Q:
Shakespeare, Playing, Gender
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 14N:
Imagining India: Art, Culture, Politics in Modern India (CSRE 15N, FEMGEN 14N, TAPS 14N)
This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 38Q:
Ethics of Jihad
Why choose jihad? An introduction to Islamic ethics. Focus on ways in which people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad. Topics include jihad in the age of 1001 Nights, feminist jihad, jihad in Africa, al-Qaida and Hamas, and the hashtag #MyJihad. All readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER, Writing 2
COMPLIT 41N:
Borderlands of Literature and Culture
Rather than try to examine the whole of such an extensive body of work by artists of Mexican descent living in Mexico and the United States, the focus will be on the transnational themes of border thinking, memory, and identity (both personal and collective). Looking at the foundational poetry, auto-ethnographies, and narratives by Américo Paredes and Gloria Anzaldúa and how their literary and ethnographic work laid the groundwork for subsequent imaginings in the narratives, poetry, and theory of border thinking and writing. We will explore the trans-frontier cultural conditions under which imaginative literary texts are produced, disseminated, and received. We will consider not only the historical transnational experiences that inform these borderlands texts but the potential futures of Mexico and the United States they imagine.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 41Q:
Ethnicity and Literature
Preference to sophomores. What is meant by ethnic literature? How is ethnic writing different from non-ethnic writing, or is there such a thing as either? How does ethnicity as an analytic perspective affect the way literature is read by ethnic peoples? Articles and works of fiction; films on ethnic literature and cultural politics. How ethnic literature represents the nexus of social, historical, political, and personal issues.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
COMPLIT 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 70N:
Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (CHINGEN 70N)
Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century?
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 101:
What Comparative Literature Is
Introduction (suitable for freshmen and seniors) to three themes: (1) How to Do Theory (with G.F.W. Hegel). (2) The Glittering Arab World (with Ahmad Faris Shidyaq). (3) 21st Century Genders (with Judith Butler). Fulfills the Writing in the Major Requirement. Gateway to the Comparative Literature Major.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 104:
Love, Passion, and Politics in Chinese Film (CHINGEN 138, CHINGEN 238)
Focusing on the emotional structure of love and passion in Chinese films, the course will investigate the structures of feelings and moral relations in modern Chinese history from the 1940s till the present. Examining the interplay between private desire, romantic sentiment, family relations, and political passion, we will explore how men and women in China grapple with emotional and social issues in modern transformations. We will consider romantic love, the uplifting of sexuality into political passion, the intertwining of aesthetic experience with politics, nostalgia in the disenchanted modern world, and the tensions between the individual¿s self-realization and the community¿s agenda. Students will learn to ¿read¿ films as a work of art and understand how film works as expression of desire, impulse, emotional connections, and communal bonding during times of crisis. Course work includes a midterm exam (25%) and a final exam (25%), a weekly 250-300 word reflection on the film of the week (10%), participation and oral presentation in class (10%), and a paper of 5-7 pages to be submitted after the midterm week (30%).nStarting from the second week, film screening will begin 6: 30 pm Monday before classes on Tuesday and Thursday. The course does not encourage private viewing. At least 5 dinners will be provided for movie-screening events.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 110:
Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies (COMPLIT 310, FEMGEN 110X, FEMGEN 310X)
Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 112:
Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents (COMPLIT 312, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312)
Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 115:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 315, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356)
Nabokov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel "The Gift," "Lolita" (the novel and screenplay), and "Pale Fire." Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 121:
Poems, Poetry, Worlds
What is poetry? How does it speak in many voices to questions of history, society, and personal experience? Why does it matter? The reading and interpretation of poetry in crosscultural comparison as experience, invention, form, sound, knowledge, and part of the world. Readings include: classical Chinese poetry, English Romantic poetry, and modern Arabic, American, Brazilian, Japanese, German, Spanish poetry, with specific attention to landscape, terrain, the environment, and the role of the poet.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 122:
Literature as Performance: The Potentials of Theater
An introduction to the "theatrical" dimensions of literature in different cultures based on a view of the staging arts as a specific segment within phenomena of "performance". Documentation and discussions of the history of western drama as a central axis within the debate about the cultural status of other forms of performance art that are normally not culturally canonized within this genre (eg. sports).
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 123:
The Novel (ENGLISH 184)
Literary inventiveness and social significance of novelistic forms from the Great Depression to the present.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 125:
Past Desire Made Present: The Traditions of Erotic Poetry in Medieval Iran and Europe
Aims to make present and accessible, to our early 21st-century experience, convergences and differences between medieval Persian and medieval European love poetry. Poetry will be dealt with as a discursive and institutional means through which it is possible to make present and tangible that which is absent -- both in space and time. If we accept that medieval Persian and European love poetry conjured up moods of homo- and heteroerotic desire for contemporary audiences, then this desire can also become present for us today through a close reading of those same texts.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 125A:
The Gothic Novel
The Gothic novel and its relatives from its invention by Walpole in The Castle of Otranto of 1764. Readings include: Northanger Abbey, The Italian, The Monk, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Dracula. What defines the Gothic as it evolves from one specific novel to a mode that makes its way into a range of fictional types?
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 129A:
Contemporary Persian Poetry: Encounter of a Thousand-Year-Old Classical Tradition with Modernity
The primacy of poetic expression in Persian culture in the transition from tradition to modernity. Major 20th-century poets in relation to historical events and social change. Authors include: Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamloo, Sohrab Sepehri, Mehdi Akhavan Sales, Forough Farrokhzad, Nader Naderpour, Fereydoun Moshiri, Esma'il Kho'i, and Afghan and Tajik poets.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 133:
Gender and Modernism (COMPLIT 333)
Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 138A:
Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture (JAPANGEN 138, JAPANGEN 238)
This class introduces key literary texts from Japan's modern era (1868-present), locating these works in the larger political, social, and cultural trends of the period. Primary texts include: Futabatei Shimei's Floating Clouds, Higuchi Ichiyô's Child's Play, Natsume Sôseki's Kokoro, Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Boat, Ôe Kenzaburô's The Catch, and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchen. Examination of these literary works will be contextualized within larger political trends (e.g., the modernization program of the Meiji regime, the policies of Japan's wartime government, and postwar Japanese responses to the cold war), social developments (e.g., changing notions of social class, the women's rights movement, and the social effects of the postwar economic expansion), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, and postmodernism of the 1980s). The goal of the class is to use literary texts as a point of entry to understand the grand narrative of Japan's journey from its tentative re-entry into the international community in the 1850s, through the cataclysm of the Pacific War, to the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 141A:
The Meaning of Arabic Literature: a seminar investigation into the nebulous concept of adab
An investigation into the concept of literature in mediaeval Arabic. Was there a mediaeval Arabic way of thinking? We look to develop a translation for the word "adab," a concept that dominated mediaeval Arabic intellectual culture, and is related in some ways to what we mean today when we use the word literature. Our core text is a literary anthology from the 900s in Iraq and we try, together, to work out what literature meant for the author and his contemporaries. Readings, assignments and, class discussion all in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 142:
The Literature of the Americas (AMSTUD 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 142B:
Translating Japan, Translating the West (JAPANGEN 121, JAPANGEN 221)
Translation lies at the heart of all intercultural exchange. This course introduces students to the specific ways in which translation has shaped the image of Japan in the West, the image of the West in Japan, and Japan's self-image in the modern period. What texts and concepts were translated by each side, how, and to what effect? No prior knowledge of Japanese language necessary.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 143A:
Alla Turca Love: Tales of Romance in Turkish Literature (COMPLIT 342)
An introduction to the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Topics include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 144A:
Istanbul the Muse: The City in Literature and Film
The multiple layers of culture and history in Istanbul, a city on two continents between East and West, wrapped in past and present have inspired great art and literature. The class explores how Istanbul inspired artists and writers, and focuses on the idea of 'inbetweenness' through art, literature, music, and film seen chronologically. In addition to discussing literary, historical, and secondaty texts we will explore visual genres such as film, painting, and photography. All readings, screenings, and discussions will be in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 145:
Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature (AMELANG 126, JEWISHST 106)
How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views.nnGuest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 145B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 146:
Asian American Culture and Community (AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, CSRE 146S)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
COMPLIT 148B:
Indian Epics: Past and Present (RELIGST 108)
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the two great epics of India, have been crucial texts in South Asian literatures and cultures for millennia. In this course, we will explore the diverse traditions of both epics from their Sanskrit versions, first composed more than 2,000 years ago, through retellings in newer media forms well into the twenty-first century. Among our primary interests will be comparing versions of each epic that have circulated in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West at different times. We begin with abridged translations of both the Sanskrit Mahabharata (including the Bhagavadgita) and the Ramayana. We will discuss the major literary, religious, and social themes of each text as well as subsequent translations and transcreations of the stories in Indian and Southeast Asian contexts during the last thousand years. We will also investigate the modern lives of the epics, including their transformations into Indian television serials, film versions of both narratives (from India and America), and invocations of the epic stories in contemporary art, culture, and political disputes. Students will gain exposure to some of the foundational texts for the study of South Asia, both past and present. More broadly, students will cultivate the ability to fruitfully approach texts from different cultures and learn to critically analyze the impacts and roles of stories in various religious, literary, and historical contexts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 151A:
Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives (COMPLIT 351A)
Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 151B:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (COMPLIT 351B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 154A:
Film & Philosophy (FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)
Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 168:
Imagining the Oceans (ENGLISH 168, FRENCH 168)
How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Authors read might include Cook, Equiano, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Verne, Stevenson, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Films by Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar co-ordinated with a spring 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 190:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 390, SLAVIC 190, SLAVIC 390)
Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 199:
Senior Seminar: The Pleasures of Reading
Senior seminar for Comp Lit Senior majors only.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 211A:
Emile Zola (FRENCH 211)
A comprehensive introduction to and historical analysis of Emile Zola's literary work as foundational for the late-nineteenth century literary movement that we call "Naturalism." The analysis of Zola's novels will be embedded in the historical situation of France in the transition from the Second Empire to the Third Republic, with special emphasis on the epistemological situation of that time. Knowledge of French desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 213A:
Martin Heidegger (COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382)
Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 221A:
Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages (FRENCH 234, ITALIAN 234)
A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 223:
Literature and Human Experimentation (AFRICAAM 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 225E:
Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 225, ITALIAN 325)
In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 229:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 247F:
Beyond Casablanca: North African Cinema and Literature (FRENCH 242, JEWISHST 242)
This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, exile, language métissage, race and gender relations, collective memory, parallax, nationalism, laicité, religion, emigration and immigration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to judeo-maghrebi history, and to the notions of francophone / maghrebi / "beur" / diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Leila Sebbar, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Tenja, Le Chant des Mariées, Française, Bled Number One, Omar Gatlato, Casanegra, La Saison des Hommes. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 254A:
Was Deconstruction an Illusion? (FRENCH 254)
A both systematic and historical presentation of "Deconstruction" as a philosophical and intellectual movement that dominated academic and general culture in many western societies during the final decades of the twentieth century, with special focus on the writings of Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. Deconstruction's specific reception history obliges us to ask the question of whether the extremely high esteem that it enjoyed over two decades was intellectually justified â or the result of a misunderstanding. Participation through English translations is possible.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 281:
Visions of the Future in Literature
Emphasis on personal and collective future as perceived and described in works translated from Hebrew or written originally in English. Focus on novels, short stories, poems and movies that deal both with the future of Israel and the Middle East and the future of individuals in the area. Guest speaker on Science Fiction and the Graphic Novel. The course is part of "The Future of Storytelling" activities organized by Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 281E:
Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314)
In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 351B:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (COMPLIT 151B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CSRE 15N:
Imagining India: Art, Culture, Politics in Modern India (COMPLIT 14N, FEMGEN 14N, TAPS 14N)
This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, COMPLIT 51Q)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
CSRE 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
Preference to freshmen. We will examine the struggles of African American women to define their own lives and improve the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of black communities. Topics will include women's enslavement and freedom, kinship and family relations, institution and community building, violence, labor and leisure, changing gender roles, consumer and beauty culture, social activism, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Spr, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 65:
Nation in Motion: Film, Race and Immigration in Contemporary French Cinema (FRENCH 122)
An examination of the current debates in France regarding national identity, secularism, and the integration of immigrants, notably from the former colonies. Confronts films' and other media's visual and discursive rhetorical strategies used to represent ethnic or religious minorities, discrimination, citizens' resistance to government policies, inter-racial marriages, or women's rights within immigrant communities. By embodying such themes in stories of love, hardships, or solidarity, the motion pictures make the movements and emotions inherent to immigration tangible: to what effect? Taught in French. Films in French with English subtitles. Additional paper for students enrolled in 235.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 123B:
Literature and Human Experimentation (AFRICAAM 223, COMPLIT 223, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CSRE 129B:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, COMPLIT 229, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
CSRE 140C:
Stand Up Comedy and the "Great American Joke" Since 1945 (AMSTUD 140)
Development of American Stand Up Comedy in the context of social and cultural eruptions after 1945, including the Borscht Belt, the Chitlin¿ Circuit, the Cold War, censorship battles, Civil Rights and other social movements of the 60s and beyond. The artistry of stories, monologues, jokes, impersonations, persona, social satire, scatology, obscenity, riffs, rants, shtick, and more by such artists as Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Margaret Cho, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, as well as precursors such as Mark Twain, minstrelsy and vaudeville and related films, TV shows, poems and other manifestations of similar sensibilities and techniques.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
CSRE 142:
The Literature of the Americas (AMSTUD 142, COMPLIT 142, ENGLISH 172E)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
CSRE 142A:
What is Hemispheric Studies?
Will attempt to open up "America," beyond the United States. Have we reached the end of an era in our national literary imaginations? What is the utility and durability of the idea of the nation in a global era? New developments in hemispheric, Black Atlantic, and trans-american studies have raised questions about the very viability of US literary studies. Should we, as Franco Moretti suggests, map, count, and graph the relationships in our close (rhetorical) and "distant" readings of texts in the Americas? Topics include the definitions of concepts such as coloniality, modernity, time and the colonial difference, the encounters between world views of Europeans and indigenous Native American peoples, and the inventions of America, Latinamericanism, and Americanity.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
CSRE 145B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, COMPLIT 345B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 146J:
Studies in Ethnomusicology: Listening to the Local: Music Ethnography of the Bay Area (MUSIC 146J, MUSIC 246J)
An introduction to music ethnography through student research on musical life in the Bay Area. Focus is on the intersections of music, social life, and cultural practice by engaging with people as they perform music and culture in situ. Techniques taught include participant-observation, interviewing and oral history, writing fieldnotes, recording, transcription, analysis, and ethnographic writing. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 146S:
Asian American Culture and Community (AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, COMPLIT 146)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
CSRE 147J:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: The Soul Tradition in African American Music (AFRICAAM 19, AMSTUD 147J, MUSIC 147J, MUSIC 247J)
The African American tradition of soul music from its origins in blues, gospel, and jazz to its influence on today's r&b, hip hop, and dance music. Style such as rhythm and blues, Motown, Southern soul, funk, Philadelphia soul, disco, Chicago house, Detroit techno, trip hop, and neo-soul. Soul's cultural influence and global reach; its interaction with politics, gender, place, technology, and the economy. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 152K:
Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AFRICAAM 226, AMSTUD 152K)
Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 162A:
Spirituality and Nonviolent Urban and Social Transformation (RELIGST 162X, URBANST 126)
A life of engagement in social transformation is often built on a foundation of spiritual and religious commitments. Case studies of nonviolent social change agents including Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement, César Chávez in the labor movement, and WIlliam Sloane Coffin in the peace movement; the religious and spiritual underpinnings of their commitments. Theory and principles of nonviolence. Films and readings. Service learning component includes placements in organizations engaged in social transformation. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 165C:
Mexican American History through Film (CHILATST 165, HISTORY 165)
Focus is on the 20th century. Themes such as immigration, urbanization, ethnic identity, the role of women, and the struggle for civil rights.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 177:
Writing for Performance: The Fundamentals (FEMGEN 177, TAPS 177, TAPS 277)
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
CSRE 183:
Re- Imagining American Borders (AMSTUD 183, FEMGEN 183)
How novelists, filmmakers, and poets perceive racial, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, and class borders in the context of a national discussion about the place of Americans in the world. How Anna Deavere Smith, Sherman Alexie, or Michael Moore consider redrawing such lines so that center and margin, or self and other, do not remain fixed and divided. How linguistic borderlines within multilingual literature by Caribbean, Arab, and Asian Americans function. Can Anzaldúa's conception of borderlands be constructed through the matrix of language, dreams, music, and cultural memories in these American narratives? Course includes examining one's own identity.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 185B:
Jews in the Contemporary World: Faith and Ethnicity, Vulnerability and Visibility (HISTORY 185B, HISTORY 385C, JEWISHST 185B, REES 185B)
This course explores the full expanse of Jewish life today and in the recent past. The inner workings of religious faith, the content of Jewish identify shorn of belief, the interplay between Jewish powerlessness and influence, the myth and reality of Jewish genius, the continued pertinence of antisemitism, the rhythms of Jewish economic life ¿ all these will be examined in weekly lectures, classroom discussion, and with the use of a widely diverse range of readings, films, and other material. Explored in depth will the ideas and practices of Zionism, the content of contemporary secularism and religious Orthodoxy, the impact Holocaust, the continued crisis facing Israel and the Palestinians. Who is to be considered Jewish, in any event, especially since so many of the best known (Spinoza, Freud, Marx) have had little if anything to do with Jewish life with their relationships to it indifferent, even hostile?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
CSRE 188Q:
Imagining Women: Writers in Print and in Person (FEMGEN 188Q)
Gender roles, gender relations and sexual identity explored in contemporary literature and conversation with guest authors. Weekly meetings designated for book discussion and meeting with authors. Interest in writing and a curiosity about diverse women's lives would be helpful to students. Students will use such tools as close reading, research, analysis and imagination. Seminar requires strong voice of all participants. Oral presentations, discussion papers, final projects.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
CSRE 200:
Latin@ Literature (CHILATST 200, ILAC 280, ILAC 382)
Examines a diverse set of narratives by U.S. Latin@s of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Dominican heritage through the lens of latinidad. All share the historical experience of Spanish colonization and U.S. imperialism, yet their im/migration patterns differ, affecting social, cultural, and political trajectories in the US and relationships to "home" and "homeland," nation, diaspora, history, and memory. Explores how racialization informs genders as well as sexualities. Emphasis on textual analysis. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
CSRE 246:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (HISTORY 256G, HISTORY 356G, RELIGST 246, RELIGST 346)
This seminar focuses on the interrelationships between social constructions of race, and social interpretations of religion in America. How have assumptions about race shaped religious worldviews? How have religious beliefs shaped racial attitudes? How have ideas about religion and race contributed to notions of what it means to be "American"? We will look at primary and secondary sources, and at the historical development of ideas and practices over time.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
DANCE 160:
Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina (FEMGEN 160, TAPS 160, TAPS 260)
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
DANCE 197:
Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America (TAPS 197)
This class works collaboratively with a local juvenile hall to use civic engagement and performance to explore the aesthetic, cultural and legal issues in the lives of incarcerated youth. In the process students gain an understanding of incarceration on an immediate and personal scale. Taught jointly by a Dance Studies scholar and a lawyer specializing in Juvenile Justice, we will consider what unique understandings are possible if we position the arts as central to an exploration of punishment, rehabilitation and recidivism in America. The course will examine case studies, historical and contemporary narratives about the social, imaginative and behavioral change possible through arts programs in prison.Half of the class meetings will be in Hillcrest Juvenile Hall in San Mateo, where our class will join with a group of 13-18 year old youths currently detained there. Dance will be used to help shape their individual expressive voices, and ours, through collaborative hip hop dance classes. Books to be read are Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, and Last Chance in Texas by John Hubner.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
DLCL 121:
Performing the Middle Ages (FRENCH 151)
Through an analysis of medieval love, satirical and Crusade lyrics in the Old Occitan, Old French, and Galician-Portuguese traditions, we will study deictic address, corporeal subjectivity, the female voice, love debates, and the body as a figure of political conflict. Special attention will be given to the transmission of vernacular song from live performance to manuscripts. Authors include Ovid, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, La Comtessa de Dia, Thibaut de Champagne, Dante, and Pound. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
DLCL 123:
Medieval Journeys: Tales of Devotion and Discovery (ARTHIST 105B)
This course explores the experience and imagination of medieval journeys through interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and skills-based approaches. As a foundations class, this survey of medieval culture engages with an array of written texts from the period. Narratives of medieval journeys are studied across a wide range of categories, including pilgrimages, crusades, quests, and sagas. The journey as metaphor, along with the resulting and very real cultural interactions, will provide a main focus for examining this rich tradition of literature. Students will have the opportunity to produce a creative project that brings medieval ideas about travel into dialogue with modern conceptions. The course will satisfy the Ways-Creative Expression requirement as well as one of the following two: Ways-Analytical Interpretive or Ways-Engaging Difference.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 11B:
Introduction to English II: American Literature and Culture to 1855 (AMSTUD 150)
(Formerly English 23/123). A survey of early American writings, including sermons, poetry, captivity and slave narratives, essays, autobiography, and fiction, from the colonial era to the eve of the Civil War.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 12A:
Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AFRICAAM 43, AMSTUD 12A)
(Formerly English 43/143). In his bold study, What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 43A:
American Indian Mythology, Legend, and Lore (ENGLISH 143A, NATIVEAM 143A)
(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143A.) Readings from American Indian literatures, old and new. Stories, songs, and rituals from the 19th century, including the Navajo Night Chant. Tricksters and trickster stories; war, healing, and hunting songs; Aztec songs from the 16th century. Readings from modern poets and novelists including N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko, and the classic autobiography, "Black Elk Speaks."
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 51N:
The Sisters: Poetry & Painting (ARTHIST 160N)
Poetry and painting have often been called the "sister arts". Why? Sometimes a poem or a painting stands out to us, asking that we stay with it, that we remember it, although we cannot exactly say why. Poems have a way of making pictures in the mind, and paintings turn "rhymes" amid the people, places, and things they portray. Each is a concentrated world, inviting an exhilarating closeness of response: why does this line come first? Why does the artist include that detail? Who knows but that as we write and talk about these poems and pictures we will be doing what John Keats said a painter does: that is, arriving at a "trembling delicate and snail-horn perception of Beauty." Each week explore the kinship between a different pair of painter and poet and also focuses on a particular problem or method of interpretation. Some of the artist/poet combinations we will consider: Shakespeare and Caravaggio; Jorie Graham and (the photographer) Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alexander Pope and Thomas Gainsborough; William Wordsworth and Caspar David Friedrich; Christina Rossetti and Mary Cassatt; Walt Whitman and Thomas Eakins; Thomas Hardy and Edward Hopper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 68N:
Mark Twain and American Culture (AMSTUD 68N)
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society¿s (and our society¿s) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be ¿American¿?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 81:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 105H:
Medievalism
Course examines the ¿medievalism¿ of nineteenth-century British writers, that is, their adoption of medieval subjects and themes, within the context of medieval literature. Our leading questions cluster around three topics: the quest, Arthurian romance, and the dark side of fairyland. Readings include Marie de France¿s Lais, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory¿s Morte D¿Arthure, Spenser¿s Faerie Queene, Scott¿s Ivanhoe, Stoker¿s Dracula, poems by Morris, R. Browning, and Tennyson, and selections from Tennyson¿s Idylls of the Kings. Requirements include two papers and three short exams.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 106E:
Dante and Aristotle (PHIL 193D)
Students will read all of Dante¿s Commedia alongside works by Aristotle and various ancient and medieval philosophers. Our aim will be to understand the way an Aristotelian worldview informs the Commedia. For instance, what is the role of pleasure in the ethical life? What is the highest good of the human being? All readings will be in translation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ENGLISH 115C:
Hamlet and the Critics (TAPS 151C)
Focus is on Shakespeare's Hamletas a site of rich critical controversy from the eighteenth century to the present. Aim is to read, discuss, and evaluate different approaches to the play, from biographical, theatrical, and psychological to formalist, materialist, feminist, new historicist, and, most recently, quantitative. The ambition is to see whether there can be great literature without (a) great (deal of) criticism. The challenge is to understand the theory of literature through the study of its criticism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 118:
Literature and the Brain (ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 118, FRENCH 318, PSYCH 118F)
Recent developments in and neuroscience and experimental psychology have transformed the way we think about the operations of the brain. What can we learn from this about the nature and function of literary texts? Can innovative ways of speaking affect ways of thinking? Do creative metaphors draw on embodied cognition? Can fictions strengthen our "theory of mind" capabilities? What role does mental imagery play in the appreciation of descriptions? Does (weak) modularity help explain the mechanism and purpose of self-reflexivity? Can the distinctions among types of memory shed light on what narrative works have to offer?
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 122A:
Austen and Woolf
Reading of three novels by Jane Austen¿arguably the most influential and gifted of British female novelists-¿and three novels by Virginia Woolf, whose debt to Austen was immense. Topics include the relationship between women writers and the evolution of the English novel; the extraordinary predominance of the marriage plot in Austen¿s fiction (and the various transformations Woolf works on it); each novelist¿s relationship to the cultural and social milieu in which she wrote.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 124:
The American West (AMSTUD 124A, ARTHIST 152, HISTORY 151, POLISCI 124A)
The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
ENGLISH 134:
The Marriage Plot (FEMGEN 134)
The centrality of the marriage plot in the development of the British novel beginning in the 18th century with Samuel Richardson's Pamela and ending with Woolf's modernist novel Mrs. Dalloway. The relationship between novelistic plotting and the development of female characters into marriageable women. What is the relationship between the novel and feminine subjectivity? What aspects of marriage make it work as a plotting device? What kinds of marriages do marriage plots allow? Is the development of women's political agency related to their prominence in the novel form?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-SI
ENGLISH 139B:
American Women Writers, 1850-1920 (AMSTUD 139B, FEMGEN 139B)
The ways in which female writers negotiated a series of literary, social, and intellectual movements, from abolitionism and sentimentalism in the nineteenth century to Progressivism and avant-garde modernism in the twentieth. Authors include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, Rebecca Harding Davis, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 143A:
American Indian Mythology, Legend, and Lore (ENGLISH 43A, NATIVEAM 143A)
(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143A.) Readings from American Indian literatures, old and new. Stories, songs, and rituals from the 19th century, including the Navajo Night Chant. Tricksters and trickster stories; war, healing, and hunting songs; Aztec songs from the 16th century. Readings from modern poets and novelists including N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko, and the classic autobiography, "Black Elk Speaks."
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 144:
Major Modernists: Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot
What is, or was, literary Modernism (1910-1940)? Why did writers feel such a passionate need to change how fiction traditionally had been written? What did those changes entail? At stake were questions of cultural, political, social and literary historical meaning, including artistic relevance, legacy, and the ever-relevant clash between creative and professional identity. This class will put into dialogue with each other four major innovators, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, and T. S. Eliot.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 144F:
Female Modernists: Women Writers in Paris Between the Wars (FEMGEN 144F)
The course will focus on expatriate women writers - American and British - who lived and wrote in Paris between the wars. Among them: Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, H.D., Djuna Barnes, Margaret Anderson, Janet Flanner, Natalie Barney, Kay Boyle, Mina Loy, Romaine Brooks, Mary Butts, Radclyffe Hall, Colette, and Jean Rhys. A central theme will be Paris as a lure and inspiration for bohemian female modernists, and the various alternative and emancipatory literary communities they created.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 145D:
Jewish American Literature (JEWISHST 155D, REES 145D)
A study of Jewish-American literature from its Russian roots into the present. What distinguishes it from American mainstream and minority literatures? We will consider the difficulties of displacement for the emigrant generation who struggled to sustain their cultural integrity in the multicultural American environment, and the often comic revolt of their American-born children and grandchildren against their grand)parents¿ nostalgia, trauma, and failure to assimilate. Authors: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Babel, Olsen, Paley, Yezierska, Ozick, Singer, Malamud, Spiegelman, Roth, Bellow, Segal, Baldwin.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 145G:
American Fiction since 1945
An exploration of some of the main themes in post-WWII American fiction, including mass media and markets, race and ethnicity, technology and war. Authors to include Flannery O¿Connor, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Pynchon, Maxine Hong Kingston, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth and Karen Yamashita and others.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 146:
Development of the Short Story: Continuity and Innovation
Exploration of the short story form's ongoing evolution as diverse writers address love, death, desire. Maupassant, D.H. Lawrence, Woolf, Flannery O'Connor, Hurston, and others. Required for Creative Writing emphasis. All majors welcome.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 150:
Poetry and the Internet
How has contemporary poetry been transformed by the Internet and other new media. How have poets responded to the new media forms, from Facebook to Twitter, that now absorb the attention of so many people? How have poets utilized the torrents of information accessible to them with a few keystrokes? Focus will mostly be on poetry written after 2000; secondary readings will draw from literary criticism, media theory, and sociology.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 151F:
Angelheaded Hipsters: Beat Writers of San Francisco and New York
Reading of central writers of the Beat movement (Ginsberg, Kerouac, di Prima, Snyder, Whalen) as well as some related writers (Creeley, Gunn, Levertov). Issues explored include NY and SF, Buddhism and leftist politics, poetry and jazz. Some exposure to reading poems to jazz accompaniment. Examination of some of the writers and performers growing out of the Beats: Bob Dylan, rock music, especially from San Francisco, and jazz.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 151H:
Wastelands
Have human beings ruined the world? Was it war, or industry, or consumerism, or something else that did it? Beginning with an in-depth exploration of some of the key works of literary modernism, this class will trace the image of the devastated landscape as it develops over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, arriving finally at literary representations of the contemporary zombie apocalypse. Authors to include T.S Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Nathanael West, Willa Cather, Cormac McCarthy, and others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 152G:
Harlem Renaissance and Modernism (AFRICAAM 152G, AMSTUD 152G)
Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 154E:
Twentieth-Century Irish Literature
Plays, poems, short stories, and novels. Writers include James Joyce, William Yeats, Mary Lavin, Kate O'Brien,William Trevor, Seamus Heaney, and Samuel Beckett. How the writer can sustain imaginative freedom and literary experiment in the face of a turbulent history.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 157:
American Literary Journalism
Literary journalism merges the factual reporting of traditional journalism with the narrative techniques of fiction. This course will follow the development of this influential genre of writing in the U.S. from the 1890s to the present, with special attention to the particularly American emergence of this form in the non-fiction writing published in the New Yorker during the 1930s and 40s and the New Journalism of the 1960s and 70s. Engaging with the form¿s most prominent writers, themes, and techniques, we will investigate questions of objectivity and subjectivity, tensions between fact and fiction, and the genre¿s position as a particularly American cultural form.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 160:
Poetry and Poetics
Introduction to the reading of poetry, with emphasis on how the sense of poems is shaped through diction, imagery, and technical elements of verse.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 161:
Narrative and Narrative Theory
An introduction to stories and storytelling--that is, to narrative. What is narrative? When is narrative fictional and when non-fictional? How is it done, word by word, sentence by sentence? Must it be in prose? Can it be in pictures? How has storytelling changed over time? Focus on various forms, genres, structures, and characteristics of narrative.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 163:
Shakespeare
Readings of six Shakespeare plays, with attention to poetic and dramatic elements, performance history, and historical and cultural contexts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 167H:
The Ethical Gangster
(English majors must register for 5 units) A study of recent developments in understanding human moral psychology using mafia movies to explore the differences between Kantian and Utilitarian moral theory. We will study the greatest hits of gangster fiction and film, from Fielding's Jonathan Wild to The Sopranos.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ENGLISH 168:
Imagining the Oceans (COMPLIT 168, FRENCH 168)
How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Authors read might include Cook, Equiano, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Verne, Stevenson, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Films by Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar co-ordinated with a spring 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 171A:
English in the World
In this course we shall try to sample a small selection of the richness and the complexity of English as a language of world literature outside its canonical location of England and the US. We will focus on the variations in language-use and cultural contexts, the relationships of such Anglophone literatures with western and indigenous cultural forms, and the complex histories that have formed the contexts of such literary productions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 172:
Modernity and the Vernacular in Indian Literature
This course will seek to get a sense of modern India through its various rich literary traditions, including, vernacular literatures in English translation in addition to the Anglophone tradition. What is gained, and what is lost for the large and complex phenomenon of modern Indian literature, when its most visible representative, Anglophone fiction, threatens to overshadow the rest and sits easy with the new image of rise and growth that engulfs the nation and its diaspora today?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
ENGLISH 172E:
The Literature of the Americas (AMSTUD 142, COMPLIT 142, CSRE 142)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 184:
The Novel (COMPLIT 123)
Literary inventiveness and social significance of novelistic forms from the Great Depression to the present.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 184B:
Text and Context in Humanities: Oedipus and His Vicissitudes
Tales of Modernity from Sophocles, Freud, Chekhov, Babel, and Woolf. Introduction to cross-disciplinary approach in humanities through foundational texts in the modern tradition. The main focus is on Sigmund Freud's Totem and Taboo (1913), alongside his ancillary writings. Contemporary social thought and historical scholarship provide the context (Georg Simmel, Norbert Elias, Karl Schorske, John Murray Cuddihy) while works of imaginative literature (Sophocles, Anton Chekhov, Isaac Babel, and Virginia Woolf) illuminate the significance of the Oedipus myth for understanding the inter-generational conflict in antiquity and modernity.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGLISH 184E:
Literary Text Mining
This course will train students in applied methods for computationally analyzing texts for humanities research. The skills students will gain will include basic programming for textual analysis, applied statistical evaluation of results and the ability to present these results within a formal research paper or presentation. As an introduction, students in this course will also learn the prerequisite steps of such an analysis including corpus selection and cleaning, metadata collection, and selecting and creating an appropriate visualization for the results.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-AQR
ENGLISH 184H:
Text Technologies: A History (STS 200D)
Beginning with cave painting, carving, cuneiform, hieroglyph, and other early textual innovations, survey of the history of writing, image, sound, and byte, all text technologies employed to create, communicate and commemorate. Focus on the recording of language, remembrance and ideas explicating significant themes seen throughout history; these include censorship, propaganda, authenticity, apocalypticism, technophobia, reader response, democratization and authority. The production, transmission and reception of tablet technology, the scroll, the manuscript codex and handmade book, the machine-made book, newspapers and ephemera; and investigate the emergence of the phonograph and photograph, film, radio, television and digital multimedia.The impact of these various text technologies on their users, and try to draw out similarities and differences in our cultural and intellectual responses to evolving technologies. STS majors must have senior status to enroll in this senior capstone course.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
ENGLISH 195B:
How to Write a Great Essay: A Writing Bootcamp for Undergraduates
Practical workshop for undergraduates on how to improve essay-writing skills. Focus on the finer points of vocabulary, grammar, mechanics, logic, timing, intellectual precision; how to connect with (and delight) an audience; how to magnify a theme; how to deflect counter-arguments; how to develop your own sophisticated authorial 'style'; how to write sentences (and papers!) your reader will care about and admire and maybe even remember. The course has been designed with humanities students and especially English majors in mind, but any student who hopes to improve his or her writing should be able to benefit from the practical instruction on offer. The course enrollment will be limited to 12 students and the class run as a workshop. The reading component will be comparatively light. Over the course of the quarter we will read two novels--J.M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita--modern fictional masterpieces both, and students will be writing blog notes and short papers for each book.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
ENGLISH 201:
The Bible and Literature
Differences in translations of the Bible into English. Recognizing and interpreting biblical allusion in texts from the medieval to modern periods. Readings from the Bible and from British, Canadian, American, and African American, and African literature in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ENGR 131:
Ethical Issues in Engineering
Moral rights and responsibilities of engineers in relation to society, employers, colleagues, and clients; cost-benefit-risk analysis, safety, and informed consent; the ethics of whistle blowing; ethical conflicts of engineers as expert witnesses, consultants, and managers; ethical issues in engineering design, manufacturing, and operations; ethical issues arising from engineering work in foreign countries; and ethical implications of the social and environmental contexts of contemporary engineering. Case studies, guest practitioners, and field research. Limited enrollment.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 20:
Introduction to Moral Philosophy (PHIL 2)
A survey of moral philosophy in the Western tradition. What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? What is it to have a virtuous rather than a vicious character? What is the basis of these distinctions? Why should we care about morality at all? Our aim is to understand how some of the most influential philosophers (including Aristotle, Kant, and Mill) have addressed these questions, and by so doing, to better formulate our own views. No prior familiarity with philosophy required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 136R:
Introduction to Global Justice (INTNLREL 136R, PHIL 76, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336)
This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 170:
Ethical Theory (PHIL 170, PHIL 270)
A more challenging version of Phil 2 designed primarily for juniors and seniors (may also be appropriate for some freshmen and sophomores - contact professor). Fulfills the Ethical Reasoning requirement. Graduate section (270) will include supplemental readings and discussion, geared for graduate students new to moral philosophy, as well as those with some background who would like more.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 171:
Justice (IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 174A:
Moral Limits of the Market (PHIL 174A, PHIL 274A, POLISCI 135P)
Morally controversial uses of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, education, and child labor. Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient; if it did, would it thereby be justified? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? Readings include Walzer, Arrow, Rawls, Sen, Frey, Titmuss, and empirical cases.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 233R:
The Ethics of Religious Politics
Is it possible for a deeply committed religious person to be a good citizen in a liberal, pluralistic democracy? Is it morally inappropriate for religious citizens to appeal to the teachings of their tradition when they support and vote for laws that coerce fellow citizens? Must the religiously committed be prepared to defend their arguments by appealing to 'secular reasons' ostensibly accessible to all 'reasonable' citizens? What is so special about religious claims of conscience and expression that they warrant special protection in the constitution of most liberal democracies? Is freedom of religion an illusion when it is left to ostensibly secular courts to decide what counts as religion? Exploration of the debates surrounding the public role of religion in a religiously pluralistic American democracy through the writings of scholars on all sides of the issue from the fields of law, political science, philosophy, and religious studies.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ETHICSOC 276R:
Religion and Politics: a Latin American Perspective (ETHICSOC 376R, PHIL 176C, PHIL 276C)
Religion has traditionally been banished from politics in some places in Latin America. Religious symbols may not be displayed in public buildings, political discourse is expected to be free from all religious content, and religious ministers are not allowed to run for public office, among other measures. This course examines the political motivation for this kind of policies towards religion taking a comparative perspective with American and French variants of secularism.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FEMGEN 14N:
Imagining India: Art, Culture, Politics in Modern India (COMPLIT 14N, CSRE 15N, TAPS 14N)
This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 17:
Gender and Power in Ancient Greece
(Formerly CLASSGEN 17.) Introduction to the sex-gender system of ancient Greece, with comparative material from modern America. How myths, religious rituals, athletics, politics and theater reinforced gender stereotypes and sometimes undermined them. Skills: finding clues, identifying patterns and making connections amongst the components of a strange and beautiful culture very different from our own. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 24N:
Sappho: Erotic Poetess of Lesbos (CLASSICS 16N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 24N.) Preference to freshmen. Sappho's surviving fragments in English; traditions referring to or fantasizing about her disputed life. How her poetry and legend inspired women authors and male poets such as Swinburne, Baudelaire, and Pound. Paintings inspired by Sappho in ancient and modern times, and composers who put her poetry to music.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 36N:
Gay Autobiography (HISTORY 36N)
Preference to freshmen. Gender, identity, and solidarity as represented in nine autobiographies: Isherwood, Ackerley, Duberman, Monette, Louganis, Barbin, Cammermeyer, Gingrich, and Lorde. To what degree do these writers view sexual orientation as a defining feature of their selves? Is there a difference between the way men and women view identity? What politics follow from these writers' experiences?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, HISTORY 54N)
Preference to freshmen. We will examine the struggles of African American women to define their own lives and improve the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of black communities. Topics will include women's enslavement and freedom, kinship and family relations, institution and community building, violence, labor and leisure, changing gender roles, consumer and beauty culture, social activism, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Spr, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 93:
Late Imperial China (CHINLIT 93, HISTORY 93)
(Same as HISTORY 193. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 193.) A survey of Chinese history from the 11th century to the collapse of the imperial state in 1911. Topics include absolutism, gentry society, popular culture, gender and sexuality, steppe nomads, the Jesuits in China, peasant rebellion, ethnic conflict, opium, and the impact of Western imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FEMGEN 110X:
Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies (COMPLIT 110, COMPLIT 310, FEMGEN 310X)
Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 113:
Transgender Studies (FEMGEN 213)
Transgender and gender-expansive identities are the subject of growing attention and (often sensationalist) interest in the media as well as in the healthcare field, yet there exists a dearth of legitimate academic courses, research and writing that reflect and explore gender identity and expression as a fluid spectrum rather than a fixed binary. This course will address transgender and gender expansive identities from historical, medical, literary, developmental and sociopolitical perspectives.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FEMGEN 115:
Queer Reading and Queer Writing in Early Modern England
Considers the possibility of identifying queer reading and writing practices in early modern England as well the theoretical and historical obstacles such a project necessarily encounters. Focus on the role which Renaissance discourses of desire continue to play in our negotiations of homo/erotic subjectivity, identity politics, and sexual and gender difference. Study of Renaissance queerness in relation to the classical tradition on the one hand and the contemporary discourses of religion, law, and politics on the other. Readings include plays, poems, and prose narratives as well as letters, pamphlets, and ephemeral literature. Both major and minor authors will be represented.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 126D:
Victorian Sex
How can we make sense of a culture of extraordinary sexual repression that nevertheless seemed fully preoccupied with sex? Examination of the depictions of sex in Victorian literary and cultural texts. Authors include: Collins, Braddon, the Brownings, Swinburne, Stoker and Wilde.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 130:
Sex and Gender in Judaism and Christianity (JEWISHST 120, RELIGST 130)
What role do Jewish and Christian traditions play in shaping understandings of gender differences? Is gender always imagined as dual, male and female? This course explores the variety of ways in which Jewish and Christian traditions - often in conversation with and against each other - have shaped gender identities and sexual politics. We will explore the central role that issues around marriage and reproduction played in this conversation. Perhaps surprisingly, early Jews and Christian also espoused deep interest in writing about 'eunuchs' and 'androgynes,' as they thought about Jewish and Christian ways of being a man or a woman. We will examine the variety of these early conversations, and the contemporary Jewish and Christian discussions of feminist, queer, trans- and intersex based on them.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
FEMGEN 134:
The Marriage Plot (ENGLISH 134)
The centrality of the marriage plot in the development of the British novel beginning in the 18th century with Samuel Richardson's Pamela and ending with Woolf's modernist novel Mrs. Dalloway. The relationship between novelistic plotting and the development of female characters into marriageable women. What is the relationship between the novel and feminine subjectivity? What aspects of marriage make it work as a plotting device? What kinds of marriages do marriage plots allow? Is the development of women's political agency related to their prominence in the novel form?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-SI
FEMGEN 139B:
American Women Writers, 1850-1920 (AMSTUD 139B, ENGLISH 139B)
The ways in which female writers negotiated a series of literary, social, and intellectual movements, from abolitionism and sentimentalism in the nineteenth century to Progressivism and avant-garde modernism in the twentieth. Authors include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, Rebecca Harding Davis, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
FEMGEN 144F:
Female Modernists: Women Writers in Paris Between the Wars (ENGLISH 144F)
The course will focus on expatriate women writers - American and British - who lived and wrote in Paris between the wars. Among them: Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, H.D., Djuna Barnes, Margaret Anderson, Janet Flanner, Natalie Barney, Kay Boyle, Mina Loy, Romaine Brooks, Mary Butts, Radclyffe Hall, Colette, and Jean Rhys. A central theme will be Paris as a lure and inspiration for bohemian female modernists, and the various alternative and emancipatory literary communities they created.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FEMGEN 145:
Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1890-1950 (AMSTUD 145M, ARTHIST 145, ARTHIST 345)
This course examines social conflicts and political controversies in American culture through the lens of visual art and photography. We consider how visual images both reflect and participate in the social and political life of the nation and how the terms of citizenship have been represented¿and, at times, contested¿by artists throughout the first half of the 20th century. The class explores the relation between American art and the body politic by focusing on issues of poverty, war, censorship, consumerism, class identity, and racial division.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 150:
Sex, Gender, and Power in Modern China (CHINGEN 150, CHINGEN 250, FEMGEN 250)
Investigates how sex, gender, and power are entwined in the Chinese experience of modernity. Topics include anti-footbinding campaigns, free love/free sex, women's mobilization in revolution and war, the new Marriage Law of 1950, Mao's iron girls, postsocialist celebrations of sensuality, and emergent queer politics. Readings range from feminist theory to China-focused historiography, ethnography, memoir, biography, fiction, essay, and film. All course materials are in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 150D:
Women Poets
The development of women's poetry from the 17th to the 20th century. How these poets challenge and enhance the canon, amending and expanding ideas of tone, voice and craft, while revising societal expectations of the poet's identity. Poets include Katharine Philips, Letitia Barbauld, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charlotte Mew, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FEMGEN 160:
Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina (DANCE 160, TAPS 160, TAPS 260)
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 177:
Writing for Performance: The Fundamentals (CSRE 177, TAPS 177, TAPS 277)
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
FEMGEN 183:
Re- Imagining American Borders (AMSTUD 183, CSRE 183)
How novelists, filmmakers, and poets perceive racial, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, and class borders in the context of a national discussion about the place of Americans in the world. How Anna Deavere Smith, Sherman Alexie, or Michael Moore consider redrawing such lines so that center and margin, or self and other, do not remain fixed and divided. How linguistic borderlines within multilingual literature by Caribbean, Arab, and Asian Americans function. Can Anzaldúa's conception of borderlands be constructed through the matrix of language, dreams, music, and cultural memories in these American narratives? Course includes examining one's own identity.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 187:
Romance, Desire, and Sexuality in Modern Japanese Literature (JAPANGEN 187, JAPANGEN 287)
This class is structured around three motifs: love suicide (as a romantic ideal), female desire, and same-sex sexuality. Over the course of the quarter we will look at how these motifs are treated in the art and entertainment from three different moments of Japanese history: the Edo period (1615-1868), the modern period (1920-65), and the contemporary period (1965-present). We will start by focusing on the most traditional representations of these topics. Subsequently, we will consider how later artists and entertainers revisited the conventional treatments of these motifs, informing them with new meanings and social significance. We will devote particular attention to how this material comments upon issues of gender, sexuality, and human relationships in the context of Japan. Informing our perspective will be feminist and queer theories of reading and interpretation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FEMGEN 188Q:
Imagining Women: Writers in Print and in Person (CSRE 188Q)
Gender roles, gender relations and sexual identity explored in contemporary literature and conversation with guest authors. Weekly meetings designated for book discussion and meeting with authors. Interest in writing and a curiosity about diverse women's lives would be helpful to students. Students will use such tools as close reading, research, analysis and imagination. Seminar requires strong voice of all participants. Oral presentations, discussion papers, final projects.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
FEMGEN 193:
Late Imperial China (HISTORY 193)
(Same as HISTORY 93. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 193.) A survey of Chinese history from the 11th century to the collapse of the imperial state in 1911. Topics include absolutism, gentry society, popular culture, gender and sexuality, steppe nomads, the Jesuits in China, peasant rebellion, ethnic conflict, opium, and the impact of Western imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FEMGEN 208B:
Women Activists' Response to War (HISTORY 208B, HISTORY 308B)
Theoretical issues, historical origins, changing forms of women's activism in response to war throughout the 20th century, and contemporary cases, such as the Russian Committee of Soldiers Mothers, Bosnian Mothers of Srebrenica, Serbian Women in Black, and the American Cindy Sheehan. Focus is on the U.S. and Eastern Europe, with attention to Israel, England, and Argentina.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
FEMGEN 295J:
Chinese Women's History (CHINLIT 295J, HISTORY 295J)
The lives of women in the last 1,000 years of Chinese history. Focus is on theoretical questions fundamental to women's studies. How has the category of woman been shaped by culture and history? How has gender performance interacted with bodily disciplines and constraints such as medical, reproductive, and cosmetic technologies? How relevant is the experience of Western women to women elsewhere? By what standards should liberation be defined?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
FEMST 153:
Women and the Creative Imagination (FEMST 253)
Examines the nature of artistic imagination, considering the relationship among muses, mentors and models for women engaged painting, music, theatre, film, creative writing, dance, etc We will study how gender relations and sexual identity have affected women¿s art across various cultures, lands and times. We will critically examine gender roles in music, visual art and literature. Active student participation (in writing, discussion as well as in attendance at performances, exhibits and readings) is the heart of the class.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
FEMST 166:
Feminist Theories of Knowledge (PHIL 184F, PHIL 284F)
Feminist critique of traditional approaches in epistemology and alternative feminist approaches to such topics as reason and rationality, objectivity, experience, truth, the knowing subject, knowledge and values, knowledge and power.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
FEMST 210:
Queer Almodovar (ILAC 210)
Focus on the representation of non-normative sexualities and genders in films by Pedro Almodóvar, one of the most recognizable auteur directors in Europe today. Analysis of his hybrid and eclectic visual style complemented by critical and theoretical readings in queer studies. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FILMSTUD 4:
Introduction to Film Study
Formal, historical, and cultural issues in the study of film. Classical narrative cinema compared with alternative narrative structures, documentary films, and experimental cinematic forms. Issues of cinematic language and visual perception, and representations of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Aesthetic and conceptual analytic skills with relevance to cinema.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 100A:
History of World Cinema I, 1895-1929 (FILMSTUD 300A)
From cinema's precursors to the advent of synchronized sound.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 100B:
History of World Cinema II, 1930-1959 (FILMSTUD 300B)
The impact of sound to the dissolution of Hollywood's studio system.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 100C:
History of World Cinema III, 1960-Present (FILMSTUD 300C)
From the rise of the French New Wave to the present.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 101:
Fundamentals of Cinematic Analysis (FILMSTUD 301)
The close analysis of film. Emphasis is on formal and narrative techniques in structure and style, and detailed readings of brief sequences. Elements such as cinematography, mise-en-scène, composition, sound, and performance. Films from various historical periods, national cinemas, directors, and genres. Prerequisite: FILMSTUD 4 or equivalent. Recommended: ARTHIST 1 or FILMSTUD 102. Course can be repeated twice for a max of 8 units.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
FILMSTUD 102:
Theories of the Moving Image (FILMSTUD 302)
Major theoretical arguments and debates about cinema: realism,formalism, poststructuralism, feminism, postmodernism, and phenomenology. Prerequisites: FILMSTUD 4.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 110:
Science Fiction Cinema (FILMSTUD 310)
Science fiction film's sense of wonder depends upon the development and revelation of new ways of seeing. The American science fiction film emphasizes the fundamental activity of human perception, its relation to bodily experience and the exploration of other worlds, new cities, and other modes of being, in such new technological spaces as the cyberspaces of the information age. It is perhaps the Hollywood genre most directly concerned with the essence of cinema itself.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 114:
Introduction to Comics (FILMSTUD 314)
The modern medium of comics, a history that spans 150 years. The flexibility of the medium encountered through the genres of humorous and dramatic comic strips, superheroes, undergrounds, independents, journalism, and autobiography. Innovative creators including McCay, Kirby, Barry, Ware, and critical writings including McCloud, Eisner, Groenstee. Topics include text/image relations, panel-to-panel relations, the page, caricature, sequence, seriality, comics in the context of the fine arts, and relations to other media.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FILMSTUD 116:
International Documentary (FILMSTUD 316)
Historical, aesthetic, and formal developments of documentary through nonfiction films in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FILMSTUD 133:
Contemporary Chinese Auteurs (FILMSTUD 333)
New film cultures and movements in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China in the 80s. Key directors including Jia Zhangke, Wu Wenguang, Tsai Ming-liang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-wai, Ann Hui. Topics include national cinema in the age of globalization, the evolving parameters of art cinema, and authorship.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 140:
Film Aesthetics: Editing (FILMSTUD 340)
Practical and theoretical approaches to editing and montage. The role of editing in film meaning, and cognitive and emotional impact on the viewer. Developments in the history and theory of cinema including continuity system, Soviet montage, French new wave, postwar and American avant garde. Aesthetic functions, spectatorial effects, and ideological implications of montage. Film makers include Eisenstein, Godard, and Conner.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FILMSTUD 141:
Music Across Media: Music Video to Postclassical Cinema (FILMSTUD 341, MUSIC 185, MUSIC 385)
What makes music videos, YouTube clips and musical numbers in today's films engaging? What makes them tick? Emphasis is on aesthetics and close reading. How music videos and its related forms work. Uses of the body, how visual iconography operates, what lyrics and dialogue can do, how and what music can say, and how it can work with other media. Questions of representation such as how class, ethnicity, gender, race, and nationality function. Viewership and industry practices.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FILMSTUD 145:
Politics and Aesthetics in East European Cinema (FILMSTUD 345)
From 1945 to the mid-80s, emphasizing Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Yugoslav contexts. The relationship between art and politics; postwar establishment of film industries; and emergence of national film movements such as the Polish school, Czech new wave, and new Yugoslav film. Thematic and aesthetic preoccupations of filmmakers such as Wajda, Jancso, Forman, and Kusturica.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 150:
Cinema and the City (FILMSTUD 350)
Utopian built environments of vast perceptual and experiential richness in the cinema and city. Changing understandings of urban space in film. The cinematic city as an arena of social control, social liberation, collective memory, and complex experience. Films from international narrative traditions, industrial films, experimental cinema, documentaries, and musical sequences. Recommended: 4 or equivalent.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
FILMSTUD 164A:
Technology and the Visual Imagination (ARTHIST 164A, ARTHIST 364A, FILMSTUD 364A)
An exploration of the dynamic relationship between technology and the ways we see and represent the world. The course examines technologies from the Renaissance through the present day, from telescopes and microscopes to digital detectors, that have changed and enhanced our visual capabilities as well as shaped how we imagine the world. We also consider how these technologies influenced and inspired the work of artists. Special attention is paid to how different technologies such as linear perspective, photography, cinema, and computer screens translate the visual experience into a representation; the automation of vision; and the intersection of technology with conceptions of time and space.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FILMSTUD 165A:
Fashion Shows: From Lady Godiva to Lady Gaga (ARTHIST 165A, ARTHIST 365A, FILMSTUD 365A)
The complex and interdependent relationship between fashion and art. Topics include: the ways in which artists have used fashion in different art forms as a means to convey social status, identity, and other attributes of the wearer; the interplay between fashion designers and various art movements, especially in the 20th century; the place of prints, photography, and the Internet in fashion, in particular how different media shape how clothes are seen and perceived. Texts by Thorstein Veblen, Roland Barthes, Dick Hebdige, and other theorists of fashion.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 112:
Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents (COMPLIT 112, COMPLIT 312, FRENCH 312)
Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 118:
Literature and the Brain (ENGLISH 118, ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 318, PSYCH 118F)
Recent developments in and neuroscience and experimental psychology have transformed the way we think about the operations of the brain. What can we learn from this about the nature and function of literary texts? Can innovative ways of speaking affect ways of thinking? Do creative metaphors draw on embodied cognition? Can fictions strengthen our "theory of mind" capabilities? What role does mental imagery play in the appreciation of descriptions? Does (weak) modularity help explain the mechanism and purpose of self-reflexivity? Can the distinctions among types of memory shed light on what narrative works have to offer?
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 120:
Coffee and Cigarettes: The Making of French Intellectual Culture
Examines a quintessential French figure "l'intellectuel" from a long-term historical perspective. We will observe how this figure was shaped over time by such other cultural types as the writer, the artist, the historian, the philosopher, and the moralist. Proceeding in counter-chronological order, from the late 20th to the 16th century, we will read a collection of classic French works. As this course is a gateway for French studies, special emphasis will be placed on oral proficiency. Taught in French; readings in French.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 122:
Nation in Motion: Film, Race and Immigration in Contemporary French Cinema (CSRE 65)
An examination of the current debates in France regarding national identity, secularism, and the integration of immigrants, notably from the former colonies. Confronts films' and other media's visual and discursive rhetorical strategies used to represent ethnic or religious minorities, discrimination, citizens' resistance to government policies, inter-racial marriages, or women's rights within immigrant communities. By embodying such themes in stories of love, hardships, or solidarity, the motion pictures make the movements and emotions inherent to immigration tangible: to what effect? Taught in French. Films in French with English subtitles. Additional paper for students enrolled in 235.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 126:
Fiction, Economics and the Postcolonial
This course applies a humanistic and social scientific approach to economic processes. We will study works of fiction from Francophone Africa: novels, films and comics, which show how fiction provides socio-cultural interpretations of economic phenomena. We will also look at the economy as an elaborate fictional construct that has a direct impact on the real world. Finally, we will look at the conflict between economic development and social justice in postcolonial societies. nThemes include: postcolonialism, modernity, African socialism, capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization, the sacred, immigration, hip hop, social justice etc. Selected texts and films from: Ousmane Sembène, Frantz Fanon, Djibril D. Mambety, Aminata Sow Fall, Fatou Diome, Alphonse Mendy, Jean Joseph Goux, Gayatri Spivak, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Jean and John Comaroff, Zein-Elabdin and Charuscheela etc. Taught in French.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 127:
Fatal Attractions: A Brief History of Passion in the French Tradition
Why is French culture so often associated with love and romance? This course examines romantic love--from the earliest romances written in French in the Middle Ages to its cinematic representations in the 21st century. We'll focus on the most passionate and controversial stories, exploring the problems posed by religion, class, race, and sexual orientation. We'll also look at the ways in which romantic love can be a trope in French culture, or a rhetorical instrument used to re-imagine personal awakenings, political situations, or one's relationship to the spiritual or to art. The approach is inter disciplinary, and students will study novels, theater, opera, and cinema. As this course is a gateway for French studies, special emphasis will be placed on oral proficiency. Taught in French.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 128:
Revolutionary Moments in French Thought (HISTORY 239K)
French intellectual and political culture has often been associated with revolutionary attempts to break free from the hold of tradition. Indeed, the concept of "revolution" has itself become a French tradition of sorts. Over the last 500 years, these revolutions have taken place in a number of arenas. In philosophy, René Descartes challenged all traditional learning and defined new principles that were central to the so-called ¿Revolution of the Mind.¿ In religion, Enlightenment thinkers not only advocated the toleration of different faiths but also questioned the veracity of Christianity and of all theistic worldviews. In politics, the French Revolution redefined the very concept of a political revolution and set the stage for modern conceptions of sovereignty. French socialist thinkers of the 19th century, in turn, reshaped the ways their contemporaries thought about socio-economic arrangements. Finally, 20th-century existentialists have attempted to rethink the very purpose of human existence. In this course, we will explore these and other seminal revolutionary moments that not only transformed French society, but that also had implications for European and, indeed, global culture. Taught in English, readings in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 130:
Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance French Literature
Introduction to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The birth of a national literature and its evolution. Literature as addressing cultural, philosophical, and artistic issues which question assumptions on love, ethics, art, and the nature of the self. Readings: epics (La Chanson de Roland), medieval romances (Tristan, Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain), post-Petrarchan poetics (Du Bellay, Ronsard, Labé), and prose humanists (Rabelais, Montaigne). Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 131:
Absolutism, Enlightenment, and Revolution in 17th- and 18th-Century France
The literature, culture, and politics of France from Louis XIV to Olympe de Gouges. How this period produced the political and philosophical foundations of modernity. Readings include Corneille, Molière, Racine, Lafayette, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Beaumarchais, and Gouges. Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FRENCH 132:
Literature, Revolutions, and Changes in 19th- and 20th-Century France
This course will explore several of the most important texts of 19th- and 20th-century French literature. The aim of the course will be understanding stylistic and thematic experimentation in its historical/cultural context, with a focus on the theme of transgression : moral, political, and social. We will read works in all major literary genres (poetry, prose, and drama) and will discuss prominent movements such as Realism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Decadentism, and Existentialism through the works that best define them. Readings include Constant, Balzac, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Flaubert, Maupassant, Jarry, Gide, Apollinaire, Breton, Yourcenar, Sartre. All readings, discussion, and assignments are in French.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 133:
Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 133, JEWISHST 143)
This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the cultural, political and literary aspects at play in the literatures of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Our primary readings will be Francophone novels and poetry, though we will also read some theoretical texts, as well as excerpts of Francophone theater. The assigned readings will expose students to literature from diverse French-speaking regions of the African/Caribbean world. This course will also serve as a "literary toolbox," with the intention of facilitating an understanding of literary forms, terms and practices. Students can expect to work on their production of written and spoken French (in addition to reading comprehension) both in and outside of class. Required readings include: Aimé Césaire, "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal," Albert Memmi, "La Statue de Sel," Kaouther Adimi, "L'envers des autres", Maryse Condé, "La Vie sans fards". Movies include "Goodbye Morocco", "Aya de Yopougon", "Rome plutôt sue Vous". Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 145B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 151:
Performing the Middle Ages (DLCL 121)
Through an analysis of medieval love, satirical and Crusade lyrics in the Old Occitan, Old French, and Galician-Portuguese traditions, we will study deictic address, corporeal subjectivity, the female voice, love debates, and the body as a figure of political conflict. Special attention will be given to the transmission of vernacular song from live performance to manuscripts. Authors include Ovid, Bernart de Ventadorn, Bertran de Born, La Comtessa de Dia, Thibaut de Champagne, Dante, and Pound. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
FRENCH 154:
Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)
Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 168:
Imagining the Oceans (COMPLIT 168, ENGLISH 168)
How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Authors read might include Cook, Equiano, and Steinbeck; Defoe, Verne, Stevenson, Conrad, Woolf and Hemingway; Coleridge, Baudelaire, Moore, Bishop and Walcott. Films by Painlevé and Bigelow. Seminar co-ordinated with a spring 2015 Cantor Arts Center public exhibition. Visits to Cantor; other possible field trips include Hopkins Marine Station and SF Maritime Historical Park.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 190Q:
Parisian Cultures of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
Preference to sophomores. Political, social, and cultural events in Paris from the Napoleonic era and the Romantic revolution to the 30s. The arts and letters of bourgeois, popular, and avant garde cultures. Illustrated with slides. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 204:
Revolutions in Prose: The 19th-Century French Novel
The French Revolution was not just a haunting memory in nineteenth-century France: it was the decisive structure around which French politics, but also French culture and the arts more generally, were centered. As some historians have argued, the French Revolution might not even have really "ended" until 1880. In this course, we will examine both literary representations of the French Revolution, as well as the literary analyses of a society constantly dealing with the fears (or hopes) of a new Revolution. Primary readings by Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Zola. Taught in French.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 206:
The "Renaissance" of the Twelfth Century
This course examines key intellectual, social and political developments in Europe during the twelfth century, and inquires after the afterlife of the "Renaissance" into the thirteenth century. Readings include works of literature (Chrétien de Troyes, lyric poetry of troubadours and Minnesinger, fables such as Roman de Renart), philosophy (Peter Abelard and scholasticism), and studies about the rise of the Gothic architectural style. The course takes up the Fourth Lateran Council and the history of the crusading movement in the first half of the thirteenth century. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
FRENCH 211:
Emile Zola (COMPLIT 211A)
A comprehensive introduction to and historical analysis of Emile Zola's literary work as foundational for the late-nineteenth century literary movement that we call "Naturalism." The analysis of Zola's novels will be embedded in the historical situation of France in the transition from the Second Empire to the Third Republic, with special emphasis on the epistemological situation of that time. Knowledge of French desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 214:
Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314)
In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 221:
Conceiving Other Worlds: Travel Narrative and Science Fiction in Early-Modern France
This course will concentrate on the important role of science fiction and travel literature in early-modern France. Although these narratives were intended to describe distant worlds and different ways of living, they frequently revealed more about the aspirations, assumptions, hopes, and concerns of the cultures in which they originated than about their actual subject matter. Authors frequently sought to determine the identity and uniqueness of their own cultures by contrasting them against the 'otherness' of their imagined subjects. Similarly, by describing either utopian or dystopian civilizations, writers attempted to highlight the problems that plagued their own societies. Among other texts, we will read selections from Montaigne's 'Essais,' Cyrano de Bergerac's 'L'Autre monde ou les états et empires de la Lune,' Huygens's 'Nouveau traité de la pluralité des mondes,' Fontenelle's 'Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes,' Voltaire's 'Micromegas,' Bougainville's 'Voyage autor du monde,' and Diderot's 'Supplement au voyage de Bougainville.' Taught in English. Readings in French (English translations available).
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 223:
17th-Century French Theatre
In this course, taught in French, we will explore theater from different angles including literary theory (the different dramatic genres), aesthetics (the classical representation) and cultural theories (the social function of theatre under absolutism). A new approach to acting will be considered, i.e. the many connections between theatre and possession. Amongst the authors considered, we will include Rotrou, Corneille, Cyrano de Bergerac, Racine, Molière and Regnard. Taught in French.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 224:
Leopardi, Baudelaire, and Modernity (FRENCH 324, ITALIAN 224, ITALIAN 324)
A close reading of Giacomo Leopardi's Canti and Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen in the context of 19th-century Europe. Discussion of the poetry will be enriched by selections from their essays on literature and art and by notes from the Zibaldone and Mon coeur mis à nu. Key themes and concepts include language, imagination, "noia," "spleen," and the oppositions between nature and civilization, modernity and antiquity. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 227:
Paris: The Making of a Modern Icon (HISTORY 239E, URBANST 142)
Few places have been as heavily romanticized and mythologized as Paris. To many observers, Paris and its attractions serve as icons of modernity itself. By engaging with fiction, film, journalism, painting, photography, poetry, song, and other media, we¿ll trace how different people at different times have used Paris as both backdrop and main protagonist, and we'll consider how the city itself has incorporated and rebelled against such representations. The scope of our inquiry will stretch from the late 18th century to the present, covering a host of topics, figures, and sites: from the French Revolution to the protests of May '68, from Baudelaire to Hemingway, from the Impressionists to the Situationists. Taught in English
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 228E:
Getting Through Proust
Selections from all seven volumes of "In Search of Lost Time". Focus on issues of personal identity (perspective, memory, life-narrative); interpersonal relations (friendship, love, homosexuality, jealousy, indirect expression); knowledge (objective truth, subjective truth, necessary illusions); redemption (enchantment, disenchantment, re-enchantment); aesthetics (music, painting, fiction); and Proust's own style (narrative sequence, sentence structure, irony, metaphor, metonymy, metalepsis). Taught in English; readings in French or English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 229:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
FRENCH 234:
Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages (COMPLIT 221A, ITALIAN 234)
A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 242:
Beyond Casablanca: North African Cinema and Literature (COMPLIT 247F, JEWISHST 242)
This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, exile, language métissage, race and gender relations, collective memory, parallax, nationalism, laicité, religion, emigration and immigration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to judeo-maghrebi history, and to the notions of francophone / maghrebi / "beur" / diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Leila Sebbar, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Tenja, Le Chant des Mariées, Française, Bled Number One, Omar Gatlato, Casanegra, La Saison des Hommes. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
FRENCH 245:
French Political Thought From Rousseau to the Present (POLISCI 336C)
An overview of the current awakening of French political thought as it is grounded in a new reading of the great classics of French social thought, from Rousseau to Tocqueville and Benjamin Constant. Readings of Lefort, Castoriadis, Louis Dumont, Ricoeur, Furet, Manent, Ferry, Renaut, Gauchet, Raynaud, etc. Readings in French. (Translations in English will be made available whenever possible.) Discussions in French and in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
FRENCH 251:
Writing, Memory, and Self-Fashioning (ITALIAN 251)
Writing is not a mere recording of the past, but a selection and reinvention of our experiences. We will look at how writing is central to the philosophical project of fashioning the self, even as it reveals that much of what we call the self is a fictional construct. Materials include fiction and memoirs (Primo Levi, Michel Tournier, Melania Mazzucco, Jonathan Littell), and theoretical works in philosophy (Bergson, James, Freud, Jung, Derrida, Wyschogrod, Nehamas), psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 254:
Was Deconstruction an Illusion? (COMPLIT 254A)
A both systematic and historical presentation of "Deconstruction" as a philosophical and intellectual movement that dominated academic and general culture in many western societies during the final decades of the twentieth century, with special focus on the writings of Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. Deconstruction's specific reception history obliges us to ask the question of whether the extremely high esteem that it enjoyed over two decades was intellectually justified â or the result of a misunderstanding. Participation through English translations is possible.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
FRENCH 258:
The Great War: WWI in Literature, Film, Art, and Memory (FRENCH 358, HISTORY 231C, HISTORY 332C)
This course concerns how writers, artists, and other cultural producers understood and represented the traumas of the First World War and its aftermath. Rather than tracing a political or military history of the conflict, we¿ll focus on how the horrors of War (both in the trenches and on the home front) fostered broader social and cultural shifts, as people questioned the very foundations of European civilization. Most specifically, we'll explore the connections between the War and the emergence of post-War modernist movements, as writers and artists created new works to help them make sense of the catastrophe and the new world it wrought. Though France provides our starting point, we'll also travel beyond the Hexagon to incorporate other views and major works. Course readings will be in English, though students may elect to read works in French if they wish.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
FRENCH 277:
Literature and the Self in Twentieth-Century France
In this course, we will explore how the different discoveries concerning the self during the XXth Century (throughout philosophy, politics or psychoanalysis) do reflect in the domain of literature. Nouveau roman, autobiography, auto fiction or self references will be amongst the themes explored in class. Our main texts will be taken out of the official list issued by the French Department. Taught in French.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 80N:
Modern Conservatives
How do conservatives respond to the modern world? How do they find a balance between tradition and freedom, or between stability and change? This seminar will examine selections from some conservative and some classically liberal writers that address these questions. At the center of the course are thinkers who left Germany and Austria before the Second World War: Friedrich Hayek, Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt. We will also look at earlier European writers, such Edmund Burke and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as some recent American thinkers. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
GERMAN 124:
Introduction to German Lyric Poetry
Introduction to lyric poetry in German from the 18th century to the present. Readings include poems by Goethe, Holderlin, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Rilke, Trakl, Celan, Brecht. Ways of thinking about and thinking with poetry. Focus on poetic form, voice, figural language, and the interaction of sensory registers. Taught in German, with attention to discussion and writing skills. Prerequisite: Gerlang 1-3 or equivalent.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 128N:
Medicine, Modernism, and Mysticism in Thomas Mann's the Magic Mountain
Published in 1924, The Magic Mountain is a novel of education, tracing the intellectual growth of a budding engineer through a maze of intellectual encounters during a seven- year sojourn in a sanatorium set high in the Swiss Alps. It engages with the key themes of modernism: the relativity of time, the impact of psychoanalysis, the power of myth, and an extended dispute between an optimistic belief in progress and a pessimistic vision of human nature. Through its detailed discussion of disease (tuberculosis), this remarkable text connects the study of medicine to the humanities. There will be an exploration of this rich and profound novel both as a document of early twentieth-century Europe and as a commentary on the possibilities of education that are urgent for liberal arts education today. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 131:
What is German Literature?
This course covers material from the fairy tales of German romanticism, expressionist poetry and painting, literary responses to Nazi Germany and reflections on a unified Germany. Exploring the shifting relationships between cultural aesthetics, entertainment, historical context, and "what is German", we will cover roughly 250 years of literary and artistic production, social and political upheavals, as well as the lives of numerous authors, both male and female. Taught in German. Prerequisite: One year of German language at Stanford or equivalent.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 182:
War and Warfare in Germany
Survey of Germany at war through historical, theoretical and literary accounts. War in the international system and the role of technology. Religious wars, rationalization of warfare, violence and politics, terrorism. War films, such as All Quiet on the Western Front. Readings by authors such as Clausewitz, Jünger, Remarque, Schimtt, and Arendt. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
GERMAN 184:
Technology, Innovation, and the History of the Book
An historical perspective on the intellectual and social impact of developments in information technology will be examined. Focusing on the evolution of media from scrolls to codices to printed books we will look at the social, historical, cultural, and economic sources and ramifications of innovation in media and information technology, and explore why such innovation occurs in certain places and within certain social groups and not others. Examples draw from German cultural history, e.g. Gutenberg and the printing press, but also from the broader European history of the book. Students will have the opportunity to work with historical materials from Special Collections. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 220:
German Literature 1: How Stories are Told (ca. 1170-1600) (GERMAN 320)
This seminar offers a survey of medieval and early modern German literature and culture from ca.800 to 1600. This year we will focus primarily on heroic epic and tales of fortune. Most texts are available only in German. Advanced reading knowledge of German required. Discussion in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
GERMAN 245:
German Idealist and Romantic Aesthetics
Focus on influential theories of aesthetic experience as an autonomous cultural domain that supplements science and morality. How the discovery of beauty and sublimity in nature led to an unprecedented celebration of art as the highest form of human activity. The problem of the relation between aesthetic experience and conceptual understanding. Readings by Kant, Schiller, Friedrich Schlegel, Schelling, Hegel, and more recent responses to their works. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
GERMAN 282:
Martin Heidegger (COMPLIT 213A, COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 382)
Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 1A:
Global History: The Ancient World (CLASSICS 76)
World history from the origins of humanity to the Black Death. Focuses on the evolution of complex societies, wealth, violence, and hierarchy, emphasizing the three great turning points in early history: the evolution of modern humans, the agricultural revolution, and the rise of the state.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 1B:
Global History: The Early Modern World, 1300 to 1800
Topics include early globalization and cross-cultural exchanges; varying and diverse cultural formations in different parts of the world; the growth and interaction of empires and states; the rise of capitalism and the economic divergence of "the west"; changes in the nature of technology, including military and information technologies; migration of ideas and people (including the slave-trade); disease, climate, and environmental change over time. Designed to accommodate beginning students, non-majors, and more advanced history students
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 1C:
Global History: Empires, Technology, and Modernity
How did the power of states evolve around the globe during the modern period? And how did it shape global experiences of modernity? In this course we will examine the development of technologies of rule from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, from the age of empires and revolutions, through the world wars, the Cold War, and the war on terror. We will look at the political, social, cultural, and intellectual roots behind their invention and their results on the ground. In doing so, we will attempt to grasp the way they have shaped the history and experience of ¿modernity.¿ The course offers a broad overview not of a particular region but of the wider set of processes and technologies that connected the historical experiences of far-flung human communities. Topics include the evolution of government bureaucracies and classificatory schemes; the industrial revolution; technologies of rebellion and revolution; technologies of trade, including maps, ships, guns, and railroads; liberalism¿s urban technologies; airpower; the history and practice of development; camps and borders; and anti-colonial critiques of these various tools of empire. Through these, we will attempt to make sense of how the technologies of imperial power have shaped the bonds and inequalities of global capitalism and the world of nation-states. We will focus on different case studies each week to trace the unfolding of large-scale processes. Students will read primary sources (produced in the period) and historians¿ analyses of the events from a distance. The class is appropriate for beginning students, non-majors, and more advanced history students, and may be taken for different levels of credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 12N:
The Early Roman Emperors: HIstory, Biography, and Fiction
Preference to freshmen. The politics, drama, and characters of the period after the fall of the Roman Republic in 49 B.C.E. Issues of liberty and autocracy explored by Roman writers through history and biography. The nature of history writing, how expectations about literary genres shape the materials, the line between biography and fiction,and senatorial ideology of liberty. Readings include: Tacitus' Annals, Suetonius' Lives of the Caesers, and Robert Graves' I Claudius and episodes from the BBC series of the same title.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 20A:
The Russian Empire, 1450-1800
(Same as HISTORY 120A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 120A.) Explores rise of Russian state and expanse of empire; patterns of governance of a Eurasian empire; strategies and institutions of governance; survey of various ethnic and religious groups in empire and their varied cultures and political economies; gender and family; serfdom; Russian Orthodox religion and culture; reforms and Europeanization of 18th century.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
HISTORY 20N:
Russia in the Early Modern European Imagination
Preference to freshmen. The contrast between the early modern image of Europe as free, civilized, democratic, rational, and clean against the notion of New World Indians, Turks, and Chinese as savage. The more difficult, contemporary problem regarding E. Europe and Russia which seemed both European and exotic. Readings concerning E. Europe and Russia from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment; how they construct a positive image of Europe and conversely a negative stereotype of E. Europe. Prerequisite: PWR 1.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 31:
Leonardo's World: Science, Technology, and Art in the Renaissance (HISTORY 131)
What did Leonardo actually know? How did he acquire that knowledge? Explores Leonardo's interests and accomplishments in such fields as painting, architecture, engineering, physics, mathematics, geology, anatomy, and physiology, and more generally the nature of Renaissance science, art, and technology. Considers the nrelationship between the society of fifteenth century Italy and the work of the man nfrom Vinci: why did this world produce a Leonardo? How might we use him to understand creativity, innovation, and invention in the Renaissance and beyond? What was his legacy and how did he become a myth? Designed both for students interested in the history of science, medicine, and technology and for students interested in the history and art of Renaissance Italy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 34A:
European Witch Hunts
(Same as HISTORY 134A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 134A.) After the Reformation, in the midst of state building and scientific discovery, Europeans conducted a series of deadly witch hunts, violating their own laws and procedures in the process. What was it about early modernity that fueled witch hunting? Witch trials and early modern demonology as well as historians' interpretations of events to seek answers to this question.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 36N:
Gay Autobiography (FEMGEN 36N)
Preference to freshmen. Gender, identity, and solidarity as represented in nine autobiographies: Isherwood, Ackerley, Duberman, Monette, Louganis, Barbin, Cammermeyer, Gingrich, and Lorde. To what degree do these writers view sexual orientation as a defining feature of their selves? Is there a difference between the way men and women view identity? What politics follow from these writers' experiences?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 39:
Modern Britain and the British Empire
(Same as HISTORY 139. History majors and others taking 5 units, register in 139.) From American Independence to the latest war in Iraq. Topics include: the rise of the modern British state and economy; imperial expansion and contraction; the formation of class, gender, and national identities; mass culture and politics; the world wars; and contemporary racial politics. Focus is on questions of decline, the fortunes and contradictions of British liberalism in an era of imperialism, and the weight of the past in contemporary Britain.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 42S:
The Circle of Life: Visions of Nature in Modern Science, Religion, Politics and Culture
A new understanding of nature emerged in the 1700s that fundamentally altered our perception of the living world and humanity's relationship with it. By tracing the evolution of this understanding forward, we gain insight into the interactions among science, religion, politics and culture. Topics include: nature in Romantic science, poetry and art; Darwin's theory of evolution and its afterlife in science, literature and popular culture; the science and politics of the 20th-century environmental movement; and the philosophical presuppositions underlying modern debates about biodiversity. In addition to close readings of canonical texts and contemporary commentaries, students will be introduced to digital history methods. Students will design their own final projects in consultation with the instructor.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 44Q:
Gendered Innovations in Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Environment
Section 1 focuses on the history of women in science, medicine, and engineering. Section 2 looks at transforming research institutions so that both men and women can flourish. Section 3 explores how sex and gender analysis can enhance creativity. We discuss concrete examples of how taking gender into account has yielded new research results. Stanford University currently has a multiple year collaboration with the European Commission for Gendered Innovations, and this class will be part of that project. This course fulfills the second level Writing and Rhetoric Requirement (WRITE 2) and will emphasize oral and multimedia presentation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 46N:
Science and Magic in History
Preference to freshmen. This course explores the intertwined histories of science and magic. We will begin with the emergence of experimental modern science from natural magic during the Renaissance and will look closely at the apparatus of the natural magician -- magic lanterns and other optical devices, magnets, siphons and other tricky gadgets -- which supplied the first experimental philosophers with their instruments. We will follow the development of scientific performances through the electrical and pneumatic amusements of the 18th century and the founding of "modern magic" in the 19th. Finally, we will look at the legacy of this joint history for both magic and science today. You may think magic and science sound like opposites, but by the light of history -- presto! -- you will see them merge in surprising ways.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 48:
The Egyptians (AFRICAAM 30, CLASSICS 82, HISTORY 148)
Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Participation in class is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 48Q:
South Africa: Contested Transitions (AFRICAAM 48Q)
Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI, Writing 2
HISTORY 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, AMSTUD 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N)
Preference to freshmen. We will examine the struggles of African American women to define their own lives and improve the social, economic, political and cultural conditions of black communities. Topics will include women's enslavement and freedom, kinship and family relations, institution and community building, violence, labor and leisure, changing gender roles, consumer and beauty culture, social activism, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Spr, Sum
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
HISTORY 91D:
China: The Northern and Southern Dynasties
(Same as HISTORY 191D. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 191D.) Examines one of the most dynamic periods of Chinese history with the emergence of the institutional religions (Buddhism and Daoism), the development of the garden as an art form, the rise of landscape as a theme of verse and art, the invention of lyric poetry, and the real beginnings of the southward spread of Chinese civilization.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 93:
Late Imperial China (CHINLIT 93, FEMGEN 93)
(Same as HISTORY 193. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 193.) A survey of Chinese history from the 11th century to the collapse of the imperial state in 1911. Topics include absolutism, gentry society, popular culture, gender and sexuality, steppe nomads, the Jesuits in China, peasant rebellion, ethnic conflict, opium, and the impact of Western imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 94B:
Japan in the Age of the Samurai
(Same as HISTORY 194B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 194B.) From the Warring States Period to the Meiji Restoration. Topics include the three great unifiers, Tokugawa hegemony, the samurai class, Neoconfucian ideologies, suppression of Christianity, structures of social and economic control, frontiers, the other and otherness, castle-town culture, peasant rebellion, black marketing, print culture, the floating world, National Studies, food culture, samurai activism, black ships, unequal treaties, anti-foreign terrorism, restorationism, millenarianism, modernization as westernization, Japan as imagined community.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 95:
Modern Korean History
(Same as HISTORY 195. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 195.) This lecture course provides a general introduction to the history of modern Korea. Themes include the characteristics of the Chosôn dynasty, reforms and rebellions in the nineteenth century, Korean nationalism; Japan's colonial rule and Korean identities; decolonization and the Korean War; and the different state-building processes in North and South, South Korea's democratization in 1980s, and the current North Korean crisis.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 101:
The Greeks (CLASSICS 83)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 101.) 250 years ago, for almost the first time in history, a few societies rejected kings who claimed to know what the gods wanted and began moving toward democracy. Only once before had this happened--in ancient Greece. This course asks how the Greeks did this, and what they can teach us today. It uses texts and archaeology to trace the material and military sides of the story as well as cultural developments, and looks at Greek slavery and misogyny as well as their achievements. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
HISTORY 102A:
The Romans (CLASSICS 84)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 60.) How did a tiny village create a huge empire and shape the world, and why did it fail? Roman history, imperialism, politics, social life, economic growth, and religious change. Weekly participation in a discussion section is required; enroll in sections on Coursework.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 110C:
The Problem of Modern Europe
(SAME as HISTORY 10C. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 110C.) From the late 18th century to the present. How Europeans responded to rapid social changes caused by political upheaval, industrialization, and modernization. How the experience and legacy of imperialism and colonialism both influenced European society and put in motion a process of globalization that continues to shape international politics today.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 114:
Origins of History in Greece and Rome (CLASSICS 88)
(Formerly CLASSHIS 117.) The beginnings and development of historical writing in the ancient world. Emphasis on major classical historians and various models of history they invented, from local to imperial, military, cultural, biographical, world history and church history. Focus on themes of power, war, loss, growth and decline, as put by the ancients into historical narrative forms and probed by way of historical questioning and explanation. Attention to how these models resonate still today. Readings in translation: Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Livy and others.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
HISTORY 120A:
The Russian Empire, 1450-1800
(Same as HISTORY 20A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 120A.) Explores rise of Russian state and expanse of empire; patterns of governance of a Eurasian empire; strategies and institutions of governance; survey of various ethnic and religious groups in empire and their varied cultures and political economies; gender and family; serfdom; Russian Orthodox religion and culture; reforms and Europeanization of 18th century.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
HISTORY 120B:
The Russian Empire
From Peter the Great to the Bolsheviks. Russia as an empire; its varied regions, including the Caucasus, Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltics. Focus is on the politics and cultures of empire. Sources include novels, political tracts, paintings, music, and other primary sources.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 120C:
20th-Century Russian and Soviet History
The Soviet polity from the 1917 Revolution to its collapse in 1991. Essentials of Marxist ideology; the Russian Empire in 1917. Causation in history; interpretations of the Revolution; state building in a socialist polity; social engineering through collectivization of agriculture, force-paced industrialization, and cultural revolution; terror as concept and practice; nationality policies in a multiethnic socialist empire; the routinization, decline, and collapse of the revolutionary ethos; and the legacy of the Soviet experiment in the new Russia.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 126B:
Protestant Reformation (RELIGST 126)
The emergence of Protestant Christianity in 16th-century Europe. Analysis of writings by evangelical reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Sattler, Hubmeier, Müntzer) and study of reform movements (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Spiritualist) in their medieval context and as expressions of new and influential visions of Christian belief, life, social order.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
HISTORY 131:
Leonardo's World: Science, Technology, and Art in the Renaissance (HISTORY 31)
What did Leonardo actually know? How did he acquire that knowledge? Explores Leonardo's interests and accomplishments in such fields as painting, architecture, engineering, physics, mathematics, geology, anatomy, and physiology, and more generally the nature of Renaissance science, art, and technology. Considers the nrelationship between the society of fifteenth century Italy and the work of the man nfrom Vinci: why did this world produce a Leonardo? How might we use him to understand creativity, innovation, and invention in the Renaissance and beyond? What was his legacy and how did he become a myth? Designed both for students interested in the history of science, medicine, and technology and for students interested in the history and art of Renaissance Italy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 132:
Ordinary Lives: A Social History of the Everyday in Early Modern Europe
What war meant for foot soldiers and the peasants across whose fields they marched. Ordinary people's lives in the eras of Machiavelli, Shakespeare, the Reformation, and the scientific revolution. Topics include: birth, marriage, and death; city life and peasant culture; lay encounters with religious and intellectual ideas; war and crime; and gender and sexuality.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 134A:
The European Witch Hunts
(Same as HISTORY 34A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 134A.) After the Reformation, in the midst of state-building and scientific discovery, Europeans conducted a series of deadly witch hunts, violating their own laws and procedures in the process. What was it about early modernity that fueled witch hunting? Examines witch trials and early modern demonology as well as historians' interpretations of events to seek answers to this question.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 137:
The Holocaust (HISTORY 337, JEWISHST 183, JEWISHST 383)
The emergence of modern racism and radical anti-Semitism. The Nazi rise to power and the Jews. Anti-Semitic legislation in the 30s. WW II and the beginning of mass killings in the East. Deportations and ghettos. The mass extermination of European Jewry.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 139:
Modern Britain and the British Empire
(Same as HISTORY 39. History majors and others taking 5 units, register in 139.) From American Independence to the latest war in Iraq. Topics include: the rise of the modern British state and economy; imperial expansion and contraction; the formation of class, gender, and national identities; mass culture and politics; the world wars; and contemporary racial politics. Focus is on questions of decline, the fortunes and contradictions of British liberalism in an era of imperialism, and the weight of the past in contemporary Britain.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 140A:
The Scientific Revolution
What do people know and how do they know it? What counts as scientific knowledge? In the 16th and 17th centuries, understanding the nature of knowledge engaged the attention of individuals and institutions including Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, the early Royal Society, and less well-known contemporaries. New meanings of observing, collecting, experimenting, and philosophizing, and political, religious, and cultural ramifications in early modern Europe.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 145A:
Africa Until European Conquest
Episodes in African history from the earliest records up until European partition of the continent, focusing on how knowledge about the natural, social, and spiritual worlds was linked to the exercise of power. The effects of technological innovations on states and other forms of social complexity; use of religious beliefs and practices to legitimate or critique authority. The effects of slave trades and imperial conquest on these forms of authority.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
HISTORY 148:
The Egyptians (AFRICAAM 30, CLASSICS 82, HISTORY 48)
Overview of ancient Egyptian pasts, from predynastic times to Greco-Roman rule, roughly 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. Attention to archaeological sites and artifacts; workings of society; and cultural productions, both artistic and literary. Participation in class is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 151:
The American West (AMSTUD 124A, ARTHIST 152, ENGLISH 124, POLISCI 124A)
The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 154:
American Intellectual and Cultural History to the Civil War (AMSTUD 154)
(Same as HISTORY 54. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 154.) How Americans considered problems such as slavery, imperialism, and sectionalism. Topics include: the political legacies of revolution; biological ideas of race; the Second Great Awakening; science before Darwin; reform movements and utopianism; the rise of abolitionism and proslavery thought; phrenology and theories of human sexuality; and varieties of feminism. Sources include texts and images.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 154D:
Religion and War in America (RELIGST 105)
Scholars have devoted much attention to wars in American history, but have not agreed as to whether religion was a major cause or simply a cover for political, economic, and other motives. We will compare interpretations that leave religion out, with those that take it into account. We will also look at the impact of war on the religious lives of ordinary Americans. We will examine both secondary as well as primary sources, beginning with King Philip's War in the 17th century, and ending with the "War on Terror" in the present day.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 165:
Mexican American History through Film (CHILATST 165, CSRE 165C)
Focus is on the 20th century. Themes such as immigration, urbanization, ethnic identity, the role of women, and the struggle for civil rights.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 168:
American History in Film Since World War ll
U.S. society, culture, and politics since WW II through feature films. Topics include: McCarthyism and the Cold War; ethnicity and racial identify; changing sex and gender relationships; the civil rights and anti-war movements; and mass media. Films include The Best Years of Our Lives, Salt of the Earth, On the Waterfront, Raisin in the Sun, Kramer v Kramer, Falling Down, and Never Forever, among others.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 185B:
Jews in the Contemporary World: Faith and Ethnicity, Vulnerability and Visibility (CSRE 185B, HISTORY 385C, JEWISHST 185B, REES 185B)
This course explores the full expanse of Jewish life today and in the recent past. The inner workings of religious faith, the content of Jewish identify shorn of belief, the interplay between Jewish powerlessness and influence, the myth and reality of Jewish genius, the continued pertinence of antisemitism, the rhythms of Jewish economic life ¿ all these will be examined in weekly lectures, classroom discussion, and with the use of a widely diverse range of readings, films, and other material. Explored in depth will the ideas and practices of Zionism, the content of contemporary secularism and religious Orthodoxy, the impact Holocaust, the continued crisis facing Israel and the Palestinians. Who is to be considered Jewish, in any event, especially since so many of the best known (Spinoza, Freud, Marx) have had little if anything to do with Jewish life with their relationships to it indifferent, even hostile?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 191D:
China: The Northern and Southern Dynasties
(Same as HISTORY 91D. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 191D.) Examines one of the most dynamic periods of Chinese history with the emergence of the institutional religions (Buddhism and Daoism), the development of the garden as an art form, the rise of landscape as a theme of verse and art, the invention of lyric poetry, and the real beginnings of the southward spread of Chinese civilization.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 193:
Late Imperial China (FEMGEN 193)
(Same as HISTORY 93. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 193.) A survey of Chinese history from the 11th century to the collapse of the imperial state in 1911. Topics include absolutism, gentry society, popular culture, gender and sexuality, steppe nomads, the Jesuits in China, peasant rebellion, ethnic conflict, opium, and the impact of Western imperialism.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 194B:
Japan in the Age of the Samurai
(Same as HISTORY 94B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 194B.) From the Warring States Period to the Meiji Restoration. Topics include the three great unifiers, Tokugawa hegemony, the samurai class, Neoconfucian ideologies, suppression of Christianity, structures of social and economic control, frontiers, the other and otherness, castle-town culture, peasant rebellion, black marketing, print culture, the floating world, National Studies, food culture, samurai activism, black ships, unequal treaties, anti-foreign terrorism, restorationism, millenarianism, modernization as westernization, Japan as imagined community.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 195:
Modern Korean History (HISTORY 395)
(Same as HISTORY 95. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 195.) This lecture course provides a general introduction to the history of modern Korea. Themes include the characteristics of the Chosôn dynasty, reforms and rebellions in the nineteenth century, Korean nationalism; Japan¿s colonial rule and Korean identities; decolonization and the Korean War; and the different state-building processes in North and South, South Korea¿s democratization in 1980s, and the current North Korean crisis.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
HISTORY 197:
Southeast Asia: From Antiquity to the Modern Era
The history of S.E. Asia, comprising Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, from antiquity to the present. The spread of Indian cultural influences, the rise of indigenous states, and the emergence of globally linked trade networks. European colonization, economic transformation, the rise of nationalism, the development of the modern state, and the impact of globalization.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 205A:
The History of Information (HISTORY 305A)
Examines the history of information from multiple perspectives such as the changing conceptions of facticity and evidence cross-culturally as well as a range of information technologies, from moveable type printing and telegraphy to text messaging and Twitter. Other topics include the ways in which information is shaped by the languages in which it is recorded, stored, and transmitted, and also the ways in which information infrastructures influence what is forgotten and lost.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 207:
Biography and History (HISTORY 308)
The relationship between biographical and historical writing, primarily in Europe and America. Problems of methodology, evidence, dispassion, and empathy. Texts: biographies, critical literature on biographical work, and novels (A. S. Byatt's Possession, Bernard Malamud's Dubin's Lives) that illuminate the intellectual underpinnings of biographical labor.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 208:
Private Lives, Public Stories: Autobiography in Women's History
Changing contexts of women's lives and how women's actions have shaped and responded to those contexts.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
HISTORY 208B:
Women Activists' Response to War (FEMGEN 208B, HISTORY 308B)
Theoretical issues, historical origins, changing forms of women's activism in response to war throughout the 20th century, and contemporary cases, such as the Russian Committee of Soldiers Mothers, Bosnian Mothers of Srebrenica, Serbian Women in Black, and the American Cindy Sheehan. Focus is on the U.S. and Eastern Europe, with attention to Israel, England, and Argentina.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
HISTORY 220G:
Demons, Witches, Old Believers, Holy Fools, and Folk Belief: Popular Religion in Russia (HISTORY 320G, REES 220G, REES 320G)
19th and early 20th centuries. Peasants, parish priests, witches, possessed persons, cults and sects, old believers, saints, and women's religious communities. Nominally Christian, and members of the Orthodox Church, Russians embraced beliefs and customs that combined teaching from Church and folk traditions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 221A:
Men, Women, and Power in Early Modern Russia, 1500-1800
Social values, gender relations, and social change in an era of rapid change; challenges to established norms by new constructions of deviance (witchcraft, religious reform, and revolt) and new standards of civility; encounters with non-Russians and the construction of national consciousness. Social values as political ethos: patrimonial autocracy and the reality of female rule in the late 17th and 18th century.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-SI
HISTORY 223:
Art and Ideas in Imperial Russia (HISTORY 323)
Poetry, novels, symphonic music, theater, opera, painting, design, and architecture: what they reveal about the politics and culture of tsarist Russia.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 230A:
The Witness in Modern History: Memoir, Reportage, Image
The rise of the witness as icon and debates about its reliability as a historical source. The power of eyewitness accounts to convict accused criminals, inspire indignation about war and genocide, and attract attention to humanitarian crises. Their notorious unreliability due to exaggeration and misapprehension. Sources include reportage, photography, and documentary film. Case studies include criminal cases, war, poverty, and natural disasters.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 231C:
The Great War: WWI in Literature, Film, Art, and Memory (FRENCH 258, FRENCH 358, HISTORY 332C)
This course concerns how writers, artists, and other cultural producers understood and represented the traumas of the First World War and its aftermath. Rather than tracing a political or military history of the conflict, we¿ll focus on how the horrors of War (both in the trenches and on the home front) fostered broader social and cultural shifts, as people questioned the very foundations of European civilization. Most specifically, we'll explore the connections between the War and the emergence of post-War modernist movements, as writers and artists created new works to help them make sense of the catastrophe and the new world it wrought. Though France provides our starting point, we'll also travel beyond the Hexagon to incorporate other views and major works. Course readings will be in English, though students may elect to read works in French if they wish.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 231E:
Paper, Printing, and Digital Revolutions: Transformations of the Book (HISTORY 331E)
What is a book? This seminar explores the conceptual implications of approximately two millennia of transformations in the physical and material properties of books. How have the meaning and authority we assign the written word changed as technologies of book production and dissemination have evolved, and how have they remained continuous? Topics covered include the rise of the medieval manuscript codex, the emergence of print culture in early modern Europe, and current debates over the nature of text in the digital age.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 232A:
Power, Art, and Knowledge in Renaissance Italy (HISTORY 332A)
Provides a fundamental understanding of the cultural and political imagination of the Italian Renaissance, with particular emphasis on Florence between 1300 and 1600 CE. Topics include political and social upheavals, radical shifts in religious practice and devotion, the commercial revolution in trade and banking, the rediscovery of classical philosophy and style, and the flowering of the literary and visual arts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 232D:
Rome: The City and the World, 1300-1800 (HISTORY 332D)
What lies beyond the ruins of an ancient city? How did Rome revive? The history of Rome from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance to the age of the Grand Tour. Topics include: the history of the papacy; the everyday world of Roman citizens; the relationship between the city and the surrounding countryside; the material transformation of Rome and projects to map the city; and its meaning for foreigners.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 233C:
Two British Revolutions (HISTORY 333C)
Current scholarship on Britain,1640-1700, focusing on political and religious history. Topics include: causes and consequences of the English civil war and revolution; rise and fall of revolutionary Puritanism; the Restoration; popular politics in the late 17th century; changing contours of religious life; the crisis leading to the Glorious Revolution; and the new order that emerged after the deposing of James II.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 233F:
Political Thought in Early Modern Britain
1500 to 1700. Theorists include Hobbes, Locke, Harrington, the Levellers, and lesser known writers and schools. Foundational ideas and problems underlying modern British and American political thought and life.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 236:
The Ethics of Imperialism
Can a commitment to liberty, progress, and universal rights be reconciled with imperialism? The ethical underpinnings of empire; how modern Europeans provided ethical and political justifications for colonial expansion. How European ideals were used to defend and justify inequality, violence, and genocide. The ethics of American-driven globalization and humanitarianism. Texts include primary sources, philosophical treatises, and historical studies.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 236B:
Hobbes to Habermas: The Idea of Society in Modern Thought (HISTORY 336B)
Classic texts in social theory from the seventeenth century to the present. Readings include Locke, Smith, Hegel, Comte, and Durkheim, and Weber.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 239E:
Paris: The Making of a Modern Icon (FRENCH 227, URBANST 142)
Few places have been as heavily romanticized and mythologized as Paris. To many observers, Paris and its attractions serve as icons of modernity itself. By engaging with fiction, film, journalism, painting, photography, poetry, song, and other media, we¿ll trace how different people at different times have used Paris as both backdrop and main protagonist, and we'll consider how the city itself has incorporated and rebelled against such representations. The scope of our inquiry will stretch from the late 18th century to the present, covering a host of topics, figures, and sites: from the French Revolution to the protests of May '68, from Baudelaire to Hemingway, from the Impressionists to the Situationists. Taught in English
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 239F:
Empire and Information (HISTORY 339F)
How do states see? How do they know what they know about their subjects, citizens, economies, and geographies? How does that knowledge shape society, politics, identity, freedom, and modernity? Focus is on the British imperial state activities in S. Asia and Britain: surveillance technologies and information-gathering systems, including mapping, statistics, cultural schemata, and intelligence systems, to render geographies and social bodies legible, visible, and governable.
Last offered: Autumn 2005
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
| Repeatable
for credit
HISTORY 239K:
Revolutionary Moments in French Thought (FRENCH 128)
French intellectual and political culture has often been associated with revolutionary attempts to break free from the hold of tradition. Indeed, the concept of "revolution" has itself become a French tradition of sorts. Over the last 500 years, these revolutions have taken place in a number of arenas. In philosophy, René Descartes challenged all traditional learning and defined new principles that were central to the so-called ¿Revolution of the Mind.¿ In religion, Enlightenment thinkers not only advocated the toleration of different faiths but also questioned the veracity of Christianity and of all theistic worldviews. In politics, the French Revolution redefined the very concept of a political revolution and set the stage for modern conceptions of sovereignty. French socialist thinkers of the 19th century, in turn, reshaped the ways their contemporaries thought about socio-economic arrangements. Finally, 20th-century existentialists have attempted to rethink the very purpose of human existence. In this course, we will explore these and other seminal revolutionary moments that not only transformed French society, but that also had implications for European and, indeed, global culture. Taught in English, readings in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
HISTORY 254:
Popular Culture and American Nature
Despite John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson, it is arguable that the Disney studios have more to do with molding popular attitudes toward the natural world than politicians, ecologists, and activists. Disney as the central figure in the 20th-century American creation of nature. How Disney, the products of his studio, and other primary and secondary texts see environmentalism, science, popular culture, and their interrelationships.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
HISTORY 255:
Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Social Gospel and the Struggle for Justice
The religious and political thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., using the documentary resources of the King Institute at Stanford. His social gospel Christianity and prophetic message of radical social transformation. Readings include the forthcoming The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume VI: Advocate of the Social Gospel.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 256G:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (CSRE 246, HISTORY 356G, RELIGST 246, RELIGST 346)
This seminar focuses on the interrelationships between social constructions of race, and social interpretations of religion in America. How have assumptions about race shaped religious worldviews? How have religious beliefs shaped racial attitudes? How have ideas about religion and race contributed to notions of what it means to be "American"? We will look at primary and secondary sources, and at the historical development of ideas and practices over time.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 286:
Jews Among Muslims in Modern Times (HISTORY 386, JEWISHST 286, JEWISHST 386)
The history of Jewish communities in the lands of Islam and their relations with the surrounding Muslim populations from the time of Muhammad to the 20th century. Topics: the place of Jews in Muslim societies, Jewish communal life, variation in the experience of communities in different Muslim lands, the impact of the West in the Modern period, the rise of nationalisms, and the end of Jewish life in Muslim countries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 288:
Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (HISTORY 388, JEWISHST 288, JEWISHST 388)
This course examines some salient issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the late 19th century to the present. At the end of the course you should be able to articulate the positions of the major parties to the conflict, with the understanding that there is no single, unified Zionist (or Jewish) or Palestinian (or Arab) position. One quarter does not allow sufficient time to cover even all of the important topics comprehensively (for example, the role of the Arab states, the USA and the USSR, and the internal history of Israel receive less attention than is desirable). Some prior knowledge of Middle East history is desirable, but not required. Vigorous debate and criticism are strongly encouraged. Criticism and response expressed in a civil tone is an important way to get a fuller and more truthful picture of something. This is not only a fundamental democratic right and a basic citizenship skill, but it is essential to interpreting information and making good policy. Rights not used are easily lost.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
HISTORY 295J:
Chinese Women's History (CHINLIT 295J, FEMGEN 295J)
The lives of women in the last 1,000 years of Chinese history. Focus is on theoretical questions fundamental to women's studies. How has the category of woman been shaped by culture and history? How has gender performance interacted with bodily disciplines and constraints such as medical, reproductive, and cosmetic technologies? How relevant is the experience of Western women to women elsewhere? By what standards should liberation be defined?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 296:
Communism and Revolution in China
From the formation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921 through the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Topics include: early theories of socialism in China; the relationship between Chinese communism and the Communist International and Soviet Union; agrarian reformulation of communism by Mao; the communist-nationalist civil war; the Communist Revolution of 1949; and the consolidation of communist power in the PRC.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HISTORY 297F:
Religion and Power in the Making of Modern South Asia (RELIGST 255, RELIGST 355)
This course examines the diverse ways that religious traditions have been involved in the brokering of power in South Asia from the late seventeenth century to the present day. We will examine the intersection of religion and power in different arenas, including historical memory, religious festivals, language politics, and violent actions. At the core of our inquiry is how religion is invoked in political contexts (and vice-versa), public displays of religiosity, and the complex dynamics of religion and the state. Among other issues, we will particularly engage with questions of religious identity, knowledge, and violence. Undergraduates must enroll in RELIGST 255 for 5 units. Graduate students must enroll RELIGST 355 for 3-5 units. HISTORY297F must be taken for 4-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HPS 60:
Introduction to Philosophy of Science (PHIL 60)
The nature of scientific knowledge: evidence and confirmation; scientific explanation; models and theories; objectivity; science, society, and values.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
HPS 61:
Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution (PHIL 61)
Galileo's defense of the Copernican world-system that initiated the scientific revolution of the 17th century, led to conflict between science and religion, and influenced the development of modern philosophy. Readings focus on Galileo and Descartes.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
HUMBIO 74:
Ethics in a Human Life (PHIL 74A)
Ethical questions pervade a human life from before a person is conceived until after she dies, and at every point in between. This course raises a series of ethical questions, following along the path of a person's life - questions that arise before, during, and after she lives it. We will explore distinctive questions that a life presents at each of several familiar stages: prior to birth, childhood, adulthood, death, and even beyond. We will consider how some philosophers have tried to answer these questions, and we will think about how answering them might help us form a better understanding of the ethical shape of a human life as a whole.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
HUMBIO 175H:
Literature and Human Experimentation (AFRICAAM 223, COMPLIT 223, CSRE 123B, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
HUMBIO 175L:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ILAC 122:
Literature and Politics - Two Mediterranean Cases: Catalonia and Italy (ITALIAN 136)
A comparison between the different roles played by writers as members of the intellectual establishment in Catalonia, Spain and Italy. Focus on the relation between intellectuals and politics in shaping national identity. We will give especially consideration to the role played by intellectuals during the Fascist and Francoist dictatorships and during Spain's transition to democracy. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ILAC 130:
Introduction to Iberia: Cultural Perspectives
The purpose of this course is to study major figures and historical trends in modern Iberia against the background of the linguistic plurality and social and cultural complexity of the Iberian world. We will study the fundamental issues of empire, the Napoleonic occupation of Spain, Latin American independence, recurring civil wars, federal republicanism, and the historic nationalisms (Galician, Basque, and Catalan), all leading up to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), which is a defining moment in modern Spanish and European history, with ongoing consequences still felt and debated painfully today in contemporary Spain. This course is designed to help prepare students for their participation in the Stanford overseas study programs in Barcelona and Madrid. Taught in Spanish.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ILAC 131:
Introduction to Latin America: Cultural Perspectives
Part of the Gateways to the World program, this is an introductory course for all things Latin American: culture, history, literature, and current events. By combining lecture and seminar formats, the class prepares you for all subsequent research on, and learning about, the region. Comparative discussion of independence movements in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Andean Region, Brazil, and the Southern Cone. Other topics vary yearly, including: representations of ethnicity and class, the Cold War, popular culture, as well as major thinkers and writers. Open to all. Recommended for students who want to study abroad in Santiago, Chile. Required for majors in Spanish or Iberian and Latin American Cultures (ILAC). In Spanish.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ILAC 136:
Modern Iberian Literatures
1800 to the mid 20th century. Topics include: romanticism; realism and its variants; the turn of the century; modernism and the avant garde; the Civil War; and the first half of the 20th century. Authors may include Mariano Jose de Larra, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Rosalia de Castro, Benito Perez Galdos, Jacint Verdaguer, Eca de Queiros, Miguel de Unamuno, Ramon de Valle-Inclan, Antonio Machado, and Federico García Lorca. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisites: SPANLANG 13 or equivalent.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ILAC 140:
Migration in 21st Century Latin American Film (CHILATST 140)
Focus on how images and narratives of migration are depicted in recent Latin American film. It compares migration as it takes place within Latin America to migration from Latin America to Europe and to the U.S. We will analyze these films, and their making, in the global context of an evergrowing tension between "inside" and "outside"; we consider how these films represent or explore precariousness and exclusion; visibility and invisibility; racial and gender dynamics; national and social boundaries; new subjectivities and cultural practices. Films include: El niño pez, Bolivia, Ulises, Faustino Mayta visita a su prima, Copacabana, Chico y Rita, Sin nombre, Los que se quedan, Amador, and En la puta calle. Films in Spanish, with English subtitles. Discussions and assignments in Spanish.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ILAC 157:
Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Literatures
Survey of Iberian literature from the medieval and early modern periods. When covering texts in languages other than Spanish, translations into English or Spanish will be made available. Taught in Spanish; prerequisite: SPANLANG 13 or equivalen
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ILAC 161:
Modern Latin American Literature
From independence to the present. Topics include romantic allegories of thennation; modernism and postmodernism; avant-garde poetry; regionalism versus cosmopolitanism; indigenous and indigenist literature; magical realism and the literature of the boom; Afro-Hispanic literature; and testimonial narrative. Authors may include: Bolívar, Bello, Gómez de Avellaneda, Isaacs, Sarmiento, Machado de Assis, Darío, Martí, Agustini, Vallejo, Huidobro, Borges, Cortázar, Neruda, Guillon, Rulfo, Ramos, García Marquez, Lispector, and Bolaño. Taught in Spanish.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ILAC 193:
The Cinema of Pedro Almodovar (ILAC 393)
Pedro Almodóvar is one of the most recognizable auteur directors in the world today. His films express a hybrid and eclectic visual style and the blurring of frontiers between mass and high culture. Special attention is paid to questions of sexuality and the centering of usually marginalized characters. This course studies Pedro Almodóvar's development from his directorial debut to the present, from the "shocking" value of the early films to the award-winning mastery of the later ones. Prerequisite: ability to understand spoken Spanish. Readings in English. Midterm and final paper can be in English. Majors should write in Spanish.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ILAC 193Q:
Spaces and Voices of Brazil through Film (PORTLANG 193Q)
The manners in which a country is perceived and defines itself is a result of many complex forces, and involves the reproduction of social relations and complex social constructions both on the part of those who live there and those who see it from a distance. The perceptions of what Brazil is and what defines the country has changed throughout times, but has conserved some clear pervasive defining traits. This course is an introduction to the history, culture, politics and artistic production of Brazil as seen through feature films, documentaries and some complementary readings. Movies include, among others, Banana is my Business, Black Orpheus, Olga, They Don't Use Black-Tie, City of God, Central Station, Gaijin, and Four Days in September-among others. In English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
ILAC 210:
Queer Almodovar (FEMST 210)
Focus on the representation of non-normative sexualities and genders in films by Pedro Almodóvar, one of the most recognizable auteur directors in Europe today. Analysis of his hybrid and eclectic visual style complemented by critical and theoretical readings in queer studies. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ILAC 240E:
Borges and Philosophy
Analysis of the Argentine author's literary renditions of philosophical ideas. Topics may include: time, free will, infinitude, authorship and self, nominalism vs. realism, empiricism vs. idealism, skepticism, peripheral modernities, postmodernism, and Eastern thought. Close reading of short stories, poems, and essays from Labyrinths paired with selections by authors such as Augustine, Berkeley, James, and Lao Tzu. The course will be conducted in English; Spanish originals will be available. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major in Philosophy and Literature.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ILAC 277:
Spanish and Society: Rock en Español
Can music be a medium to study how a society communicates? This course wants to answer this question by paying attention to how has Spanish changed and adapted in recent history. Taking rock and pop as a global musical phenomenon, the focus of the course will be the most prominent bands and songs in Spanish language. Emphasis is on the analysis of the use of Spanish in real-world contexts. In Spanish.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ILAC 280:
Latin@ Literature (CHILATST 200, CSRE 200, ILAC 382)
Examines a diverse set of narratives by U.S. Latin@s of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Dominican heritage through the lens of latinidad. All share the historical experience of Spanish colonization and U.S. imperialism, yet their im/migration patterns differ, affecting social, cultural, and political trajectories in the US and relationships to "home" and "homeland," nation, diaspora, history, and memory. Explores how racialization informs genders as well as sexualities. Emphasis on textual analysis. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
INTNLREL 136R:
Introduction to Global Justice (ETHICSOC 136R, PHIL 76, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336)
This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
INTNLREL 141A:
Camera as Witness: International Human Rights Documentaries
Rarely screened documentary films, focusing on global problems, human rights issues, and aesthetic challenges in making documentaries on international topics. Meetings with filmmakers.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
ITALIAN 41N:
Imagining Italy
No city in Italy has inspired the imagination of writers, artists, and filmmakers more than Venice, with its golden dance of water and stone, its carnival masks, and its melancholic intimations of mortality. This course will be devoted to the city¿s imaginary life in literature and film. Readings include Marco Polo, Henry James¿s The Aspern Papers, Italo Calvino¿s Invisible Cities, John Ruskin¿s The Stones of Venice, and Joseph Brodsky¿s Watermarks. Films include ¿Dangerous Beauty,¿ ¿Casanova,¿ ¿Don¿t Look Now,¿ ¿Death in Venice,¿ and ¿The Comfort of Strangers.¿
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 100:
Masterpieces: Dante
An exploration of Dante's "Inferno" (the first of the three canticles of The Divine Comedy). The aim is to learn how to read the poem in detail and in depth, through both slow reading and ongoing reconstruction of Dante's world. We will also ask to what extent Dante's civic identity as a Florentine, especially his exile from Florence, gave momentum to his literary career and helped him become the author of one of the masterpieces of Western literature. Special emphasis is placed on Dante's ethical world view and his representation of character. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 101:
Italy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Renowned for its rich cultural tradition, Italy is also one of the most problematic nations in Europe. This course explores the contradictions at the heart of Italy by examining how art and literature provide a unique perspective onto modern Italian history. We will focus on key phenomena that contribute both positively and negatively to the complex "spirit" of Italy, such as the presence of the past, political realism and idealism, revolution, corruption, decadence, war, immigration, and crises of all kinds. Through the study of historical and literary texts, films, and news media, the course seeks to understand Italy's current place in Europe and its future trajectory by looking to its past as a point of comparison. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ITALIAN 127:
Inventing Italian Literature
An introduction to the study of literature in Italian, especially short prose fiction and poetry. Attention will be given to building a vocabulary and critical tool-set for the interpretation of literary texts from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 128:
The Italian Renaissance and the Path to Modernity
The literature, art, and history of the Renaissance and beyond. Readings from the 15th through 18th centuries include Moderata Fonte, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Tasso, Galileo, and Goldoni. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 129:
Modern Italian Culture: Avant-garde and Politics
This course will provide students with an introduction to twentieth century Italian literature and culture through the lens of major trends in literary aesthetics, with an emphasis on the experimental and avant-garde. We will focus on gaining an understanding of the interrelationship between different aesthetic approaches and their expression in works of literature and film. We will also investigate political culture in twentieth-century Italy, in an attempt to map historical changes alongside ideas about literature. Taught in Italian. Prerequisites: ITALLANG 22A or equivalent (2 years of Italian)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 136:
Literature and Politics - Two Mediterranean Cases: Catalonia and Italy (ILAC 122)
A comparison between the different roles played by writers as members of the intellectual establishment in Catalonia, Spain and Italy. Focus on the relation between intellectuals and politics in shaping national identity. We will give especially consideration to the role played by intellectuals during the Fascist and Francoist dictatorships and during Spain's transition to democracy. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 154:
Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, FRENCH 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)
Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 155:
The Mafia in Society, Film, and Fiction
The mafia has become a global problem through its infiltration of international business, and its model of organized crime has spread all over the world from its origins in Sicily. At the same time, film and fiction remain fascinated by a romantic, heroic vision of the mafia. Compares both Italian and American fantasies of the Mafia to its history and impact on Italian and global culture. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 214:
Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 281E, COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 314)
In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 215:
Italian Film, Fashion, and Design, 1950-1968 (ITALIAN 315)
In a close analysis of films by Fellini, Antonioni, Rossellini, Pasolini, and Bertolucci, we will explore the various contradictions that fueled the Italian cultural imagination in the 50s and 60s: minimalism and multiplicity, male and female, industrial and archaic, comic and tragic, wealth and poverty. Special emphasis placed on fashion, design, and modernist art. Taught in English, with the option of an additional discussion section in Italian. Occasional screenings Monday evenings at 7pm.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 220:
Early Modern Seminar (DLCL 323)
Explores some of the key texts of European early modernity and the critical paradigms according to which the idea of the "Renaissance" has been formed, analyzed, and questioned since the 19th century. Will aim to provide a broad introduction to Early Modern studies from the point of view of the Italian Renaissance and its reception in different European contexts. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 224:
Leopardi, Baudelaire, and Modernity (FRENCH 224, FRENCH 324, ITALIAN 324)
A close reading of Giacomo Leopardi's Canti and Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen in the context of 19th-century Europe. Discussion of the poetry will be enriched by selections from their essays on literature and art and by notes from the Zibaldone and Mon coeur mis à nu. Key themes and concepts include language, imagination, "noia," "spleen," and the oppositions between nature and civilization, modernity and antiquity. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 225:
Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 225E, COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 325)
In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
ITALIAN 234:
Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages (COMPLIT 221A, FRENCH 234)
A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 247:
Shakespeare and Italy
Focus on Italy's presence in Shakespeare's corpus; his use of Italian literary sources, and the Italian settings of some of his plays. It will also look at the reception of Shakespeare in Italy, especially in Italian opera and film. Readings will include Petrarch, Boccaccio, Bandello and Machiavelli; Shakespeare's sonnets and some of his major plays that are set in Italy. We will also discuss Verdi's opera, Otello, and Zeffirelli's movie Romeo and Juliette, among others Italian renditions of Shakespeare's plays. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 251:
Writing, Memory, and Self-Fashioning (FRENCH 251)
Writing is not a mere recording of the past, but a selection and reinvention of our experiences. We will look at how writing is central to the philosophical project of fashioning the self, even as it reveals that much of what we call the self is a fictional construct. Materials include fiction and memoirs (Primo Levi, Michel Tournier, Melania Mazzucco, Jonathan Littell), and theoretical works in philosophy (Bergson, James, Freud, Jung, Derrida, Wyschogrod, Nehamas), psycholinguistics, and neuroscience. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
ITALIAN 266:
Women's Voices in Contemporary Italian Literature
The traditional canon of Italian literature consists almost exclusively of male authors. Yet Italian women writers have been active since the time of Dante. This presents an overview of women's prose fiction of the last 100 years, from Sibilla Aleramo's groundbreaking feminist novel *Una donna* (1906) to novels from the 80's and 90's. We will examine such issues as the central issue of sexual violence in many female autobiographies; the experience of motherhood; the conflict between maternal love and the desire for self-determination and autonomy; paths to political awareness; reinventing the historical novel. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JAPANGEN 60:
Asian Arts and Cultures (ARTHIST 2)
An introduction to major monuments, themes, styles, and media of East and South Asian visual arts, in their social, literary, religious, and political contexts. Through close study of primary monuments of architectural, pictorial, and sculptural arts and related texts, this course will explore ritual and mortuary arts; Buddhist arts across Asia; narrative and landscape images; and courtly, urban, monastic, and studio environments for art from Bronze Age to modern eras.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 75N:
Around the World in Seventeen Syllables: Haiku in Japan, the U.S., and the Digital World
Preference to freshmen. Origins of the haiku form in Japan, its place in the discourse of Orientalism during the 19th and early 20th centuries in the West, its appropriation by U.S.devotees of Zen and the beat poets after WW II, and its current transformation into a global form through the Internet.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 79:
Japanese Ghosts: The Supernatural in Japanese Art and Entertainment (JAPANGEN 179)
The complex meanings of ghosts in Japanese culture. Representations of the supernatural in images, drama, oral narratives, prose, film, comics and animation at different moments in Japanese history.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
JAPANGEN 82N:
Joys and Pains of Growing Up and Older in Japan
What do old and young people share in common? With a focus on Japan, a country with a large long-living population, this seminar spotlights older people's lives as a reflectiion of culture and society, history, and current social and personal changes. Through discussion of multidisciplinary studies on age, analysis of narratives, and films, we will gain a closer understanding of Japanese society and the multiple meanings of growing up and older. Students will also create a short video/audio profile of an older individual, and we will explore cross-cultural comparisons. Held in Knight Bldg. Rm. 201.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
JAPANGEN 92:
Introduction to Japan
Required Japanese majors. Introduction to Japanese culture in historical context. Previous topics include:shifting paradigms of gender relations and performance, ancient mythology, court poetry and romance, medieval war tales, and the theaters of Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 121:
Translating Japan, Translating the West (COMPLIT 142B, JAPANGEN 221)
Translation lies at the heart of all intercultural exchange. This course introduces students to the specific ways in which translation has shaped the image of Japan in the West, the image of the West in Japan, and Japan's self-image in the modern period. What texts and concepts were translated by each side, how, and to what effect? No prior knowledge of Japanese language necessary.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JAPANGEN 124:
Manga as Literature (JAPANGEN 224)
Analysis of representative manga as narratives that combine verbal and visual elements, with attention to historical and cultural background. Representative manga by Tezuka Osamu, Tatsumi Yoshihiro, Koike Kazuo, Taniguchi Jiro, Natsume Ono, Kono Fumiyo, and others. All readings in English.nnClass meets in Knight Bldg, Rm 018. Contact instructor (sdcarter@stanford.edu) for place
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 137:
Classical Japanese Literature in Translation (JAPANGEN 237)
Prose, poetry, and drama from the 10th-19th centuries. Historical, intellectual, and cultural context. Works vary each year. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 138:
Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture (COMPLIT 138A, JAPANGEN 238)
This class introduces key literary texts from Japan's modern era (1868-present), locating these works in the larger political, social, and cultural trends of the period. Primary texts include: Futabatei Shimei's Floating Clouds, Higuchi Ichiyô's Child's Play, Natsume Sôseki's Kokoro, Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Boat, Ôe Kenzaburô's The Catch, and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchen. Examination of these literary works will be contextualized within larger political trends (e.g., the modernization program of the Meiji regime, the policies of Japan's wartime government, and postwar Japanese responses to the cold war), social developments (e.g., changing notions of social class, the women's rights movement, and the social effects of the postwar economic expansion), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, and postmodernism of the 1980s). The goal of the class is to use literary texts as a point of entry to understand the grand narrative of Japan's journey from its tentative re-entry into the international community in the 1850s, through the cataclysm of the Pacific War, to the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
JAPANGEN 141:
Japanese Performance Traditions (JAPANGEN 241)
Major paradigms of gender in Japanese performance traditions from ancient to modern times, covering Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku, and Takarazuka.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
JAPANGEN 148:
Modern Japanese Narratives: Literature and Film (JAPANGEN 248)
Central issues in modern Japanese visual and written narrative. Focus is on competing views of modernity, war, and crises of individual and collective identity and responsibility. Directors and authors include Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Ogai, Akutagawa, Tanizaki, Abe, and Oe.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
JAPANGEN 149:
Screening Japan: Issues in Crosscultural Interpretation (JAPANGEN 249)
Is the cinematic language of moving images universal? How have cultural differences, political interests, and genre expectations affected the ways in which Japanese cinema makes meaning across national borders? Sources include the works of major Japanese directors and seminal works of Japanese film criticism, theory, and scholarship in English. No Japanese language skills required.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
JAPANGEN 179:
Japanese Ghosts: The Supernatural in Japanese Art and Entertainment (JAPANGEN 79)
The complex meanings of ghosts in Japanese culture. Representations of the supernatural in images, drama, oral narratives, prose, film, comics and animation at different moments in Japanese history.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
JAPANGEN 184:
Aristocrats, Warriors, Sex Workers, and Barbarians: Lived Life in Early Modern Japanese Painting (ARTHIST 184, ARTHIST 384, JAPANGEN 384)
Changes marking the transition from medieval to early modern Japanese society that generated a revolution in visual culture, as exemplified in subjects deemed fit for representation; how commoners joined elites in pictorializing their world, catalyzed by interactions with the Dutch.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
JAPANGEN 185:
Arts of War and Peace: Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan, 1500-1868 (ARTHIST 187, ARTHIST 387)
Narratives of conflict, pacification, orthodoxy, nostalgia, and novelty through visual culture during the change of episteme from late medieval to early modern, 16th through early 19th centuries. The rhetorical messages of castles, teahouses, gardens, ceramics, paintings, and prints; the influence of Dutch and Chinese visuality; transformation in the roles of art and artist; tensions between the old and the new leading to the modernization of Japan.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
JAPANGEN 186:
Theme and Style in Japanese Art (ARTHIST 186, ARTHIST 386, JAPANGEN 286)
A mixture of lecture and discussion, this course presents a chronological introduction to some of the defining monuments in the history of Japanese visual culture from prehistory to the mid-19th century. This introductory class presumes no prior knowledge of art history or of Japan. We will emphasize certain overarching themes like religious life; notions of decorum appropriate to various classes (court, warrior, and commoner); the relationship between and among the arts, such as the visual and the verbal, or the symphonic assemblage arts as seen in the tea ceremony; pervasive cultural tropes like nostalgia, seasonality, or the sense of place; and broader issues such as censorship, patronage, gender issues, and the encounters between Japanese and foreign cultures.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
JAPANGEN 187:
Romance, Desire, and Sexuality in Modern Japanese Literature (FEMGEN 187, JAPANGEN 287)
This class is structured around three motifs: love suicide (as a romantic ideal), female desire, and same-sex sexuality. Over the course of the quarter we will look at how these motifs are treated in the art and entertainment from three different moments of Japanese history: the Edo period (1615-1868), the modern period (1920-65), and the contemporary period (1965-present). We will start by focusing on the most traditional representations of these topics. Subsequently, we will consider how later artists and entertainers revisited the conventional treatments of these motifs, informing them with new meanings and social significance. We will devote particular attention to how this material comments upon issues of gender, sexuality, and human relationships in the context of Japan. Informing our perspective will be feminist and queer theories of reading and interpretation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JAPANLIT 170:
The Tale of Genji and Its Historical Reception (JAPANLIT 270)
Approaches to the tale including 12th-century allegorical and modern feminist readings. Influence upon other works including poetry, Noh plays, short stories, modern novels, and comic book ( manga) retellings. Prerequisite for graduate students: JAPANLNG 129B or 103, or equivalent.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JEWISHST 18N:
Religion and Politics: Comparing Europe to the U.S. (RELIGST 18N)
Interdisciplinary and comparative. Historical, political, sociological, and religious studies approaches. The relationship between religion and politics as understood in the U.S. and Europe. How this relationship has become tense both because of the rise of Islam as a public religion in Europe and the rising influence of religious groups in public culture. Different understandings and definitions of the separation of church and state in Western democratic cultures, and differing notions of the public sphere. Case studies to investigate the nature of public conflicts, what issues lead to conflict, and why. Why has the head covering of Muslim women become politicized in Europe? What are the arguments surrounding the Cordoba House, known as the Ground Zero Mosque, and how does this conflict compare to controversies about recent constructions of mosques in Europe? Resources include media, documentaries, and scholarly literature.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 71:
Jews and Christians: Conflict and Coexistence (RELIGST 71)
The relationship between Judaism and Christianity has had a long a controversial history. Christianity originated as a dissident Jewish sect but eventually evolved into an independent religion, with only tenuous ties to its Jewish past and present. At the same time, Judaism has at times considered Christianity a form of idolatry. It seems that only since the catastrophe of the Holocaust, Jews and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) have begun the serious work of forging more meaningful relationships with each other. This course explores the most significant moments, both difficult and conciliatory ones, that have shaped the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and introduces students to some of the most important literature, art, and music that are part of it. nSelected literature: Gospel according Matthew, the letters of St. Paul, St. Augustine, the Talmud (selections), Maimonides, Martin Luther's sermons on the Jews, Nostra Aetate (Vatican II)nArt and Music: Medieval art and sculpture, Haendel's Messiah.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 80T:
Jewish Music in the Lands of Islam (MUSIC 80T)
An Interdisciplinary study of Music, Society, and Culture in communities of the Jewish Diaspora in Islamic countries. The course examines the diverse and rich musical traditions of the Jews in North Africa and the Middle East. Based on the "Maqamat" system, the Arabic musical modes, Jewish music flourished under Islamic rule, encompassing the fields of sacred music, popular songs, and art music. Using musicological, historical, and anthropological tools, the course compares and contrasts these traditions from their original roots through their adaptation, appropriation, and re-synthesis in contemporary art music and popular songs.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 106:
Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature (AMELANG 126, COMPLIT 145)
How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views.nnGuest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 120:
Sex and Gender in Judaism and Christianity (FEMGEN 130, RELIGST 130)
What role do Jewish and Christian traditions play in shaping understandings of gender differences? Is gender always imagined as dual, male and female? This course explores the variety of ways in which Jewish and Christian traditions - often in conversation with and against each other - have shaped gender identities and sexual politics. We will explore the central role that issues around marriage and reproduction played in this conversation. Perhaps surprisingly, early Jews and Christian also espoused deep interest in writing about 'eunuchs' and 'androgynes,' as they thought about Jewish and Christian ways of being a man or a woman. We will examine the variety of these early conversations, and the contemporary Jewish and Christian discussions of feminist, queer, trans- and intersex based on them.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
JEWISHST 129:
Modern Jewish Thought (RELIGST 129)
From 1870 to the late twentieth century, Jewish thought and philosophy attempted to understand Judaism in response to the developments and crises of Jewish life in the modern world. In this course we shall explore the responses of figures such as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Hermann Cohen, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Joseph Soloveitchik, Emil Fackenheim, and Emmanuel Levinas. Central topics will concern ethics and politics, faith and revelation, redemption and messianism, and the religious responses to catastrophe and atrocity. We shall discuss Judaism in European culture before and after World War I and in North America in the postwar period and after the Six Day War. A central theme will be the ways in which attempts to understand Jewish experience are related to history.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JEWISHST 143:
Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 133, FRENCH 133)
This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the cultural, political and literary aspects at play in the literatures of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Our primary readings will be Francophone novels and poetry, though we will also read some theoretical texts, as well as excerpts of Francophone theater. The assigned readings will expose students to literature from diverse French-speaking regions of the African/Caribbean world. This course will also serve as a "literary toolbox," with the intention of facilitating an understanding of literary forms, terms and practices. Students can expect to work on their production of written and spoken French (in addition to reading comprehension) both in and outside of class. Required readings include: Aimé Césaire, "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal," Albert Memmi, "La Statue de Sel," Kaouther Adimi, "L'envers des autres", Maryse Condé, "La Vie sans fards". Movies include "Goodbye Morocco", "Aya de Yopougon", "Rome plutôt sue Vous". Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
JEWISHST 148:
Writing Between Languages: The Case of Eastern European Jewish Literature (JEWISHST 348, SLAVIC 198, SLAVIC 398)
Eastern European Jews spoke and read Hebrew, Yiddish, and their co-territorial languages (Russian, Polish, etc.). In the modern period they developed secular literatures in all of them, and their writing reflected their own multilinguality and evolving language ideologies. We focus on major literary and sociolinguistic texts. Reading and discussion in English; students should have some reading knowledge of at least one relevant language as well.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
JEWISHST 155D:
Jewish American Literature (ENGLISH 145D, REES 145D)
A study of Jewish-American literature from its Russian roots into the present. What distinguishes it from American mainstream and minority literatures? We will consider the difficulties of displacement for the emigrant generation who struggled to sustain their cultural integrity in the multicultural American environment, and the often comic revolt of their American-born children and grandchildren against their grand)parents¿ nostalgia, trauma, and failure to assimilate. Authors: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Babel, Olsen, Paley, Yezierska, Ozick, Singer, Malamud, Spiegelman, Roth, Bellow, Segal, Baldwin.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 183:
The Holocaust (HISTORY 137, HISTORY 337, JEWISHST 383)
The emergence of modern racism and radical anti-Semitism. The Nazi rise to power and the Jews. Anti-Semitic legislation in the 30s. WW II and the beginning of mass killings in the East. Deportations and ghettos. The mass extermination of European Jewry.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
JEWISHST 185B:
Jews in the Contemporary World: Faith and Ethnicity, Vulnerability and Visibility (CSRE 185B, HISTORY 185B, HISTORY 385C, REES 185B)
This course explores the full expanse of Jewish life today and in the recent past. The inner workings of religious faith, the content of Jewish identify shorn of belief, the interplay between Jewish powerlessness and influence, the myth and reality of Jewish genius, the continued pertinence of antisemitism, the rhythms of Jewish economic life ¿ all these will be examined in weekly lectures, classroom discussion, and with the use of a widely diverse range of readings, films, and other material. Explored in depth will the ideas and practices of Zionism, the content of contemporary secularism and religious Orthodoxy, the impact Holocaust, the continued crisis facing Israel and the Palestinians. Who is to be considered Jewish, in any event, especially since so many of the best known (Spinoza, Freud, Marx) have had little if anything to do with Jewish life with their relationships to it indifferent, even hostile?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
JEWISHST 242:
Beyond Casablanca: North African Cinema and Literature (COMPLIT 247F, FRENCH 242)
This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, exile, language métissage, race and gender relations, collective memory, parallax, nationalism, laicité, religion, emigration and immigration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to judeo-maghrebi history, and to the notions of francophone / maghrebi / "beur" / diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Leila Sebbar, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Tenja, Le Chant des Mariées, Française, Bled Number One, Omar Gatlato, Casanegra, La Saison des Hommes. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
JEWISHST 286:
Jews Among Muslims in Modern Times (HISTORY 286, HISTORY 386, JEWISHST 386)
The history of Jewish communities in the lands of Islam and their relations with the surrounding Muslim populations from the time of Muhammad to the 20th century. Topics: the place of Jews in Muslim societies, Jewish communal life, variation in the experience of communities in different Muslim lands, the impact of the West in the Modern period, the rise of nationalisms, and the end of Jewish life in Muslim countries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
JEWISHST 288:
Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (HISTORY 288, HISTORY 388, JEWISHST 388)
This course examines some salient issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the late 19th century to the present. At the end of the course you should be able to articulate the positions of the major parties to the conflict, with the understanding that there is no single, unified Zionist (or Jewish) or Palestinian (or Arab) position. One quarter does not allow sufficient time to cover even all of the important topics comprehensively (for example, the role of the Arab states, the USA and the USSR, and the internal history of Israel receive less attention than is desirable). Some prior knowledge of Middle East history is desirable, but not required. Vigorous debate and criticism are strongly encouraged. Criticism and response expressed in a civil tone is an important way to get a fuller and more truthful picture of something. This is not only a fundamental democratic right and a basic citizenship skill, but it is essential to interpreting information and making good policy. Rights not used are easily lost.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
MATH 163:
The Greek Invention of Mathematics (CLASSICS 136)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 103.) How was mathematics invented? A survey of the main creative ideas of ancient Greek mathematics. Among the issues explored are the axiomatic system of Euclid's Elements, the origins of the calculus in Greek measurements of solids and surfaces, and Archimedes' creation of mathematical physics. We will provide proofs of ancient theorems, and also learn how such theorems are even known today thanks to the recovery of ancient manuscripts.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
MS&E 197:
Ethics, Technology, and Public Policy
Ethical issues in science- and technology-related public policy conflicts. Focus is on complex, value-laden policy disputes. Topics: the nature of ethics and morality; rationales for liberty, justice, and human rights; and the use and abuse of these concepts in policy disputes. Case studies from biomedicine, environmental affairs, technical professions, communications, and international relations.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
MUSIC 1A:
Music, Mind, and Human Behavior
An introductory exploration of the question of why music is a pervasive and fundamental aspect of human existence. The class will introduce aspects of music perception and cognition as well as anthropological and cultural considerations.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 2C:
An Introduction to Opera
The lasting appeal of opera as a lavishly hybrid genre from the 1600s to the present. How and why does opera set its stories to music? What is operatic singing? Who is the audience? How do words, music, voices, movement, and staging collaborate in different operatic eras and cultures? Principal works by Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Britten, and Adams. Class studies and attends two works performed by the San Francisco Opera.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 6A:
From Gamelan to Kabuki: Musical Traditions of Far East Asia
Introduction to the musical traditions of Far East Asia. Study of prominent examples from diverse regions with an emphasis on Indonesia, China and Japan. Exploration of ethnic, social, cultural, and global perspectives. Survey of instruments and ensembles in a wide range of performance contexts, from sacred rituals to secular dance and theater. Traditional genres and their impact on contemporary composers. No musical background required. Lectures, listening to live and recorded music, attendance of a concert, video screenings.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 7B:
Musical Cultures of the World
An overview of selected musical cultures from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Course objectives: cultivate an appreciation for the diversity of human musical expression; discover how music is used to shape social interactions and systems of meaning; develop active listening skills that can be used when encountering any music; gain a preliminary understanding of ethnomusicological concepts and vocabulary. No musical experience is necessary. Class format: Lecture, discussion, listening, guest performances, musical participation, and a concert analysis.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 8A:
Rock, Sex, and Rebellion
Development of critical listening skills and musical parameters through genres in the history of rock music. Focus is on competing aesthetic tendencies and subcultural forces that shaped the music. Rock's significance in American culture, and the minority communities that have enriched rock's legacy as an expressively diverse form. Lectures, readings, listening, and video screenings. Attendance at all lectures is required.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 11N:
A View from the Podium: The Art of Conducting
How a conductor interprets music, realizes a personal vision through the rehearsal process, and communicates with orchestra and audience. Conducting as based on human communication skills. How to apply these lessons to other fields of endeavor.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
MUSIC 13N:
Bollywood and Beyond: South Asian Popular and Folk Music
This seminar is an introduction to regional and popular music of South Asia¿India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. An immense variety of South Asian music¿everything from drumming to wedding songs to movie scores¿is woven into the social lives of both audiences and performers. Through their music, people across South Asia express social criticism, bring about political change, engage in worship, mark rites of passage, and cope with rapid and unsettling socio-economic changes. For example, Marathi kirtan, a form of devotional song/storytelling from Western India, has been used to teach spiritual lessons and oppose colonial occupation; musicians from South Indian oppressed castes enlist drums to protest their low social status; and the ever-popular Bollywood dance music creates a sense of home for Indians living abroad. In this seminar you will have the opportunity to acquire listening skills that will enhance your appreciation of the variety and depth of South Asian folk and popular music. We will draw on areas such as folklore and ethnomusicology to gain an understanding about what makes these musical practices thrive. And we will go on three field trips, which will give you an opportunity to engage first-hand with South Asian music and musicians in our local community. No musical experience is required.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
MUSIC 13Q:
Classical Music and Politics: Western Music in Modern China
Preference to sophomores. Social history, cultural studies, China studies, international relations, and music. From the Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci who presented a clavichord to the Chinese emperor to the emergence of a modern generation of Chinese musicians.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
MUSIC 14N:
Women Making Music
Preference to freshmen. Women's musical activities across times and cultures; how ideas about gender influence the creation, performance, and perception of music.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 15N:
The Aesthetics of Data
Focus on visual and auditory display of data, specifically, the importance of aesthetic principles in effective data display, and the creative potential of scientific, biological, environmental and other data as inspiration for artistic expression.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 17N:
The Operas of Mozart
Preference to freshmen. Four of Mozart's mature operas, the earliest works in the operatic repertoire never to go out of fashion. What accounts for this extraordinary staying power? Focus on the history of their composition, performance, and reception, and their changing significance from Mozart's time to the present.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 17Q:
Perspectives in North American Taiko (ASNAMST 17Q)
Preference to sophomores. Taiko, or Japanese drum, is a newcomer to the American music scene. Emergence of the first N. American taiko groups coincided with increased Japanese American activism, and to some it is symbolic of Japanese American identity. N. American taiko is associated with Japanese American Buddhism. Musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko. Hands-on drumming. Japanese music and Japanese American history, and relations among performance, cultural expression, community, and identity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 18A:
Jazz History: Ragtime to Bebop, 1900-1940 (AFRICAAM 18A)
From the beginning of jazz to the war years.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 18B:
Jazz History: Bebop to Present, 1940-Present (AFRICAAM 18B)
Modern jazz styles from Bebop to the current scene. Emphasis is on the significant artists of each style.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 19A:
Introduction to Music Theory
For non-music majors and Music majors or minors unable to pass the proficiency test for entry to MUSIC 21. The fundamentals of music theory and notation, basic sight reading, sight singing, ear training, keyboard harmony; melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic dictation. Skill oriented, using piano and voice as basic tools to develop listening and reading skills.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 19B:
Intermediate Music Theory
This course is an introduction to music theory geared toward students who have basic literacy skills (i.e. fundamental notation, identifying major and minor scales, keys, etc). Using musical materials from repertoire selected from campus and area concerts, and incorporating the opportunity to attend these concerts, the course will introduce elements of harmony, melody, form, orchestration and arrangement. The course is an appropriate successor to Music 19A. Students who successfully complete Music 19B can go on directly to Music 21.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 20A:
Jazz Theory (AFRICAAM 20A)
Introduces the language and sounds of jazz through listening, analysis, and compositional exercises. Students apply the fundamentals of music theory to the study of jazz. Prerequisite: 19 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 20B:
Advanced Jazz Theory
Approaches to improvisation through listening and transcribing, and developing familiarity with important contributors to this music. Topics: scale theory, altered dominants, and substitute harmony. Prerequisite: 20A or consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 21:
Elements of Music I
Preference to majors. Introduction to tonal theory. Practice and analysis. Diatonic harmony focusing on melodic and harmonic organization, functional relationships, voice-leading, and tonal structures. Students must concurrently enroll in an Ear-training and musicianship lab (MUSIC 24a, 24b, or 24c as appropriate). Music majors must take 4 courses in ear training, and pass an ear training exit exam in their Junior year. Enrollment limited to 40. Prerequisites: (1) Piano Proficiency Exam (must be passed within the first two weeks of the term) or MUSIC 12A (may be taken concurrently); (2) Passing grade on a basic musical skills proficiency examination on the first day of class or MUSIC 19.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 22:
Elements of Music II
Preference to majors. Introduction to chromatic harmony focusing on secondary functions, modulations, harmonic sequences, mode mixture, and the Neapolitan, and augmented sixth chords. Analysis of musical forms and harmonizations complemented by harmonic and melodic dictation, sight singing, and other practical skills. Students must concurrently enroll in an Ear-training and musicianship lab (MUSIC 24a, 24b, or 24c as appropriate). Music majors must take 4 courses in ear training, and pass an ear training exit exam in their Junior year. Prerequisites: (1) MUSIC 21; (2) Piano Proficiency Exam or MUSIC 12B (may be taken concurrently).
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 23:
Elements of Music III
Preference to majors. Continuation of chromatic harmony and complex forms of late Romantic period. Students must concurrently enroll in an Ear-training and musicianship lab (MUSIC 24a, 24b, or 24c as appropriate). Music majors must take 4 courses in ear training, and pass an ear training exit exam in their Junior year. Prerequisites: (1) MUSIC 22; (2) Piano Proficiency Exam or MUSIC 12C (may be taken concurrently).
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 27N:
The British Invasion
Examination of three generations of British popular music in the `60s and `70s: the Beatles (and the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who); progressive rock (art rock) as embodied in Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; the emergence of punk in its revolutionary (the Clash) and nihilistic (the Sex Pistols) forms. Among other issues, the manner in which marginal American culture (particularly African-American blues) is neglected by Americans and venerated by foreigners and the subsequent mainstream consumption of a transformed and repackaged American minority culture is discussed.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 30N:
A Stranger in a Strange Land: Jewish Musics in Translation
What does it mean to be a stranger in a strange land? For centuries Jewish people have struggled to shape their identities in unfamiliar surroundings, using music to remember the past and generate new, hybrid identities. In this class we adopt the metaphor of translation to think about how minority Jewish communities bridge distinct languages, musical idioms, and cultural practices. Our theme will take us on a journey across time and space¿from Italy to India, New York, Syria, Russia, and Israel. We consider the case of Salamone Rossi, a 17th-century Italian Jewish composer who moved uneasily between dual careers in the synagogue and a secular/Christian court. We also explore a group of Indian Jews (Bene Israel) who combine idioms learned from Jewish and Christian missionaries with local Hindu musical traditions. In all our examples musicians translate languages, musical styles, and cultures to unite memories of a Jewish past with the realities of minority status in the present. The class format includes listening, discussion, some singing, student presentations, and guest lectures.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 32N:
Sculpting with Sounds, Images, and Words
Throughout history and from East to West, cultures abound in multimedia forms. Whether in Coldplay's Music Video or Fantasia, Pepsi TV adds or Wagner's opera, Miyazaki anime or traditional Noh Theater of Japan, the three modes of expression¿sounds, images, and words¿are interwoven in distinctive ways. What are their individual and combined powers? How can one harness them in an online context? Can Web be a stage for multimedia theater? What is unique about the poetry of intermodal metaphor? The course will be an opportunity to face these questions in creative web-based projects as well as through in-class viewing of multimedia works, analysis and debates, readings, and student presentations. The seminar will be taught at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics where students will have access to new media technologies. Prior experience in music, literature, art practice or computer programming is welcome but not required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 34N:
Performing America: The Broadway Musical
Musical theater as a site for the construction of American identity in the twentieth century to the present. Issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality; intersections with jazz, rock, and pop; roles of lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, producer, performers. Individual shows (Showboat, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Wicked, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Book of Mormon), show tunes in jazz performance, film musicals, and television. Opportunities for performance and attendance at local productions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 36N:
Humor in Music
Through theoretical readings the course will touch on psychological and neurological bases of humor, explore contingent, tactical, modal, and ontological difficulties in the apprehension of humor, and address ethical issues surrounding humor in music. In addition to in-class listening and screening sessions, analytic discussions will be led by students who will find and present examples of humor in music. Students will also be invited to compose original humorous song lyrics and to create collaborative works of musical humor.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
MUSIC 38N:
Singing Early Music
Preference to freshmen. 15th- and 16th-century musical repertories and their contexts; performance practice.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 40:
Music History to 1600
Pre- or corequisite: 21.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 41:
Music History 1600-1830
Pre- or corequisite: 22.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 42:
Music History Since 1830
Pre- or corequisite: 23.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 80T:
Jewish Music in the Lands of Islam (JEWISHST 80T)
An Interdisciplinary study of Music, Society, and Culture in communities of the Jewish Diaspora in Islamic countries. The course examines the diverse and rich musical traditions of the Jews in North Africa and the Middle East. Based on the "Maqamat" system, the Arabic musical modes, Jewish music flourished under Islamic rule, encompassing the fields of sacred music, popular songs, and art music. Using musicological, historical, and anthropological tools, the course compares and contrasts these traditions from their original roots through their adaptation, appropriation, and re-synthesis in contemporary art music and popular songs.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 122A:
Counterpoint
Analysis and composition of contrapuntal styles from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Use of keyboard, ear training, and sight singing underlies all written work. Prerequisites: MUSIC 23 and MUSIC 24C; passing piano-proficiency examination; or, consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 122B:
Analysis of Tonal Music
Complete movements, or entire shorter works of the 18th and 19th centuries, are analyzed in a variety of theoretical approaches. Prerequisites: MUSIC 23 and MUSIC 24C; passing piano-proficiency examination; or, consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
MUSIC 122C:
Introduction to 20th-Century Composition
Contemporary works, with emphasis on music since 1945. Projects in free composition based on 20th-century models. Prerequisites: MUSIC 23 and MUSIC 24C; passing piano-proficiency examination; or, consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
MUSIC 123:
Undergraduate Seminar in Composition
Current trends in composition. May be repeated for credit a total of 7 times. Prerequisites: Music major; 23 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
| Repeatable
8 times
(up to 24 units total)
MUSIC 127:
Instrumentation and Orchestration
Individual instruments, instrumental groups within the orchestra, and combinations of groups. Arrangements from piano to orchestral music. Score analysis with respect to orchestration. Practical exercises using chamber ensembles and school orchestra. Prerequisite: 23.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 140J:
Studies in Music of the Middle Ages: Music and Memory (MUSIC 240J)
Prerequisites: MUSIC 21, MUSIC 40. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 141J:
Studies in Music of the Renaissance (MUSIC 241J)
Prerequisites: MUSIC 21, MUSIC 40. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 142J:
Studies in Music of the Baroque: Monteverdi's Theater Music (MUSIC 242J)
Prerequisites: MUSIC 22, MUSIC 41. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 143J:
Studies in Music of the Classical Period: Franz Joseph Haydn (MUSIC 243J)
Music and Musicians in the Age of EnlightenmentnPrerequisites: MUSIC 22, MUSIC 41. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 144J:
Studies in Music of the Romantic Period: Faust in 19th-century Music (MUSIC 244J)
Prerequisites: MUSIC 23, MUSIC 42 (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 145J:
Studies in Western Art Music Since 1900: The Music & Ideas of Charles Ives (MUSIC 245J)
Prerequisites: MUSIC 23, MUSIC 42. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 146J:
Studies in Ethnomusicology: Listening to the Local: Music Ethnography of the Bay Area (CSRE 146J, MUSIC 246J)
An introduction to music ethnography through student research on musical life in the Bay Area. Focus is on the intersections of music, social life, and cultural practice by engaging with people as they perform music and culture in situ. Techniques taught include participant-observation, interviewing and oral history, writing fieldnotes, recording, transcription, analysis, and ethnographic writing. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 147J:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: The Soul Tradition in African American Music (AFRICAAM 19, AMSTUD 147J, CSRE 147J, MUSIC 247J)
The African American tradition of soul music from its origins in blues, gospel, and jazz to its influence on today's r&b, hip hop, and dance music. Style such as rhythm and blues, Motown, Southern soul, funk, Philadelphia soul, disco, Chicago house, Detroit techno, trip hop, and neo-soul. Soul's cultural influence and global reach; its interaction with politics, gender, place, technology, and the economy. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 147K:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: Music and Urban Film (MUSIC 247K)
How music and sound work in urban cinema. What happens when music's capacity to transform everyday reality combines with the realism of urban films? Provides an introduction to traditional theories of film music and film sound; considers how new technologies and practices have changed the roles of music in film. Readings discuss film music, realistic cinema, urban musical practices and urban culture. Viewing includes action/adventure, Hindi film, documentary, film noir, hip hop film, the musical, and borderline cases by Jean-Luc Godard, Spike Lee, Wong Kar-Wai and Tsai Ming-Liang. Pre- or corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 unit level only.)
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
MUSIC 148J:
Studies in Perf Practice: Reactions to the Record: Early Recordings, Lost Styles, and Music's Future (MUSIC 248J)
This is a seminar on the transformation of musical style in the era of recordings in light of their roots in cultural trends, including shifting hierarchies between composer and performer, work and notation, text and act. Early recordings will be studied as documents of musical values and conceptions different from those around us today. Methodologies of performance analysis will be explored and used to contextualize sources, which include historic recordings from Stanford's Archive of Recorded Sound, performance documents, and field research with performers, composers, critics, and listeners. Repertoire includes works for orchestra, piano, strings, chamber ensemble and voice. Outstanding contributions from seminar members may be featured in the Music Department¿s May 2014 Reactions to the Record symposium. May be repeated for credit. Pre- or corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4-unit level only.)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
MUSIC 154A:
Sound Art I (ARTSTUDI 131)
Acoustic, digital and analog approaches to sound art. Familiarization with techniques of listening, recording, digital processing and production. Required listening and readings in the history and contemporary practice of sound art. (lower level)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
MUSIC 185:
Music Across Media: Music Video to Postclassical Cinema (FILMSTUD 141, FILMSTUD 341, MUSIC 385)
What makes music videos, YouTube clips and musical numbers in today's films engaging? What makes them tick? Emphasis is on aesthetics and close reading. How music videos and its related forms work. Uses of the body, how visual iconography operates, what lyrics and dialogue can do, how and what music can say, and how it can work with other media. Questions of representation such as how class, ethnicity, gender, race, and nationality function. Viewership and industry practices.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
MUSIC 186:
Religion and Music in South Asia (MUSIC 286, RELIGST 259)
How music and other arts in South Asia are intertwined with religion. Classical, devotional, folk, and popular examples introduce Gods as musicians, sound as God, music as yoga, singing as devotion, music as ¿ecstasy¿-inducing, music as site for doctrinal argument, music and religion as vehicles for nationalism. Co-taught by professors of Music and Religious Studies, focusing Hinduism and Islam in India, Pakistan, and the diaspora. Music practice along with academic study; guest artists and films; no background required.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
NATIVEAM 143A:
American Indian Mythology, Legend, and Lore (ENGLISH 43A, ENGLISH 143A)
(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143A.) Readings from American Indian literatures, old and new. Stories, songs, and rituals from the 19th century, including the Navajo Night Chant. Tricksters and trickster stories; war, healing, and hunting songs; Aztec songs from the 16th century. Readings from modern poets and novelists including N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko, and the classic autobiography, "Black Elk Speaks."
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPBEIJ 17:
Chinese Film Studies
Stages of Chinese cinema from the establishment of P.R. China in 1949 to the present. State policies, filmmaking trends, representative filmmakers and films, and the state of the industry in the different periods, with close readings of some important films. Historical perspective and broad knowledge of Chinese cinema; academic approaches to film studies.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPBEIJ 48:
Chinese Literature: Tradition in Transformation
Classical Chinese literature from the beginning (ca. 1000 BC) to the 14th centure. Primary texts in translation with attention to the poetic works that feature Chinese literary tradition. Understanding of past experience of Chinese people living in another cultural space through observation, analysis, and reconstruction.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPBEIJ 60:
Chinese Philosophies and Modern China
Introduction to Chinese philosophy. Daoism, Confucianism, the Confucian development in the Song and Ming periods, the "liberal" and Legal school of thought, Buddhism, the Confucian thinkers of the Modern period, and "Dialectical Materialism." Chinese form of "liberalism" since the 1980s and the future of Confucian scholarship in the postmodern era. How central questions of Western philosophy pertain to the Chinese tradition, and how relevant Chinese philosophy is to the differences in approaches taken to such issues as truth, good, beauty, mind, body, spirit, being, cosmology, ontology, and epistemology.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPBER 17:
Split Images: A Century of Cinema
20th-century German culture through film. The silent era, Weimar, and the instrumentalization of film in the Third Reich. The postwar era: ideological and aesthetic codes of DEFA, new German cinema, and post-Wende filmmaking including Run Lola Run and Goodbye Lenin. Aesthetic aspects of the films including image composition, camera and editing techniques, and relation between sound and image.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
OSPBER 25:
Architecture, Memory, Commemoration
Exploration of questions about architectural form together with a sense of place in Berlin and surrounding regional cities. Interdisciplinary approach to the study of urbanism and memory through the concerns of cultural geography, anthropology, history, fiction and films. Trips to sites to explore how memory is visualized in the built environment. Themes of the course include: "About Form," "Mapping the City," and "Heritage and Commemoration."
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPBER 60:
Cityscape as History: Architecture and Urban Design in Berlin
Diversity of Berlin's architecture and urban design resulting from its historical background. Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his artistic ancestors. Role of the cultural exchange between Germany and the U.S. Changing nature of the city from the 19th century to the present.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPBER 68:
Protestant Reformation
New forms of Christian religious thought and practice that emerged in Western Europe in the early to mid-sixteenth century and decisively shaped the course of Western history. Religious status quo and other forms of religious dissent that challenged late medieval Christendom; proposals for reform exemplified by Martin Luther, Andreas Karlstadt, Thomas Müntzer; impact of the changes in religion and the conflicts over religion for society more broadly.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPBER 70:
The Long Way to the West: German History from the 18th Century to the Present
Battles still current within Germany¿s collective memory. Sources include the narrative resources of museums, and experts on the German history in Berlin and Potsdam. Field trips.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
OSPBER 101A:
Contemporary Theater
Texts of plays supplemented by theoretical texts or reviews. Weekly theater visits, a tour of backstage facilities, and discussions with actors, directors, or other theater professionals. In German. Prerequisite: completion of GERLANG 3 or equivalent.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 11:
Film, Food and the Italian Identity
Food in Italian cinema staged as an allegory of Italy's social, political and cultural milieu. Intersections between food, history and culture as they are reflected in and shaped by Italian cinema from the early 1900s until today. Topics include: farmer's tradition during Fascism; lack of food during WWII and its aftermath; the Economic Miracle; food and the Americanization of Italy; La Dolce Vita; the Italian family; ethnicity, globalization and the re-discovery of regional culinary identity in contemporary Italy. Impact of cinema in both reflecting and defining the relationship between food and culture.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 17:
The Evolution of Modern Italian Design
Cultural context that gave rise to the globally recognized phenomenon of "Italian Design" in the 20th century. Historical complexity of Italian design through an analysis of selected case studies. Several on-site visits to important areas of design innovation and production offer students hands-on opportunities.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 20:
Design Driven Innovation: Italian Excellence
Focus on fashion, furniture and food, the three F¿s of Italian style. Historical knowledge combined with contemporary analysis; tools to understand the role of Italian design and its contribution to the innovation process. Masters and masterpieces of each discipline starting from the point of view of design itself with case studies specifically dedicated to each of the three F¿s. On-site classes complement lectures.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 34:
The Virgin Mother, Goddess of Beauty, Grand Duchess, and the Lady: Women in Florentine Art
Influence and position of women in the history of Florence as revealed in its art. Sculptural, pictorial, and architectural sources from a social, historical, and art historical point of view. Themes: the virgin mother (middle ages); the goddess of beauty (Botticelli to mannerism); the grand duchess (late Renaissance, Baroque); the lady, the woman (19th-20th centuries).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 48:
Sharing Beauty in Florence: Collectors, Collections and the Shaping of the Western Museum Tradition
The city's art and theories of how art should be presented. The history and typology of world-class collections. Social, economic, political, and aesthetic issues in museum planning and management. Collections include the Medici, English and American collectors of the Victorian era, and modern corporate and public patrons.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 49:
On-Screen Battles: Filmic Portrayals of Fascism and World War II
Structural and ideological attributes of narrative cinema, and theories of visual and cinematic representation. How film directors have translated history into stories, and war journals into visual images. Topics: the role of fascism in the development of Italian cinema and its phenomenology in film texts; cinema as a way of producing and reproducing constructions of history; film narratives as fictive metaphors of Italian cultural identity; film image, ideology, and politics of style.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 54:
High Renaissance and Mannerism: the Great Italian Masters of the 15th and 16th Centuries
The development of 15th- and early 16th-century art in Florence and Rome. Epochal changes in the art of Michelangelo and Raphael in the service of Pope Julius II. The impact of Roman High Renaissance art on masters such as Fra' Bartolomeo and Andrea del Sarto. The tragic circumstances surrounding the early maniera: Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino and the transformation of early Mannerism into the elegant style of the Medicean court. Contemporary developments in Venice.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 58:
Space as History: Social Vision and Urban Change
A thousand years of intentional change in Florence. Phases include programmatic enlargement of ecclesiastical structures begun in the 11th century; aggressive expansion of religious and civic space in the 13th and 14th centuries; aggrandizement of private and public buildings in the 15th century; transformation of Florence into a princely capital from the 16th through the 18th centuries; traumatic remaking of the city's historic core in the 19th century; and development of new residential areas on the outskirts and in neighboring towns in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 67:
The Celluloid Gaze: Gender, Identity and Sexuality in Cinema
Film in the social construction of gender through the representation of the feminine, the female, and women. Female subjects, gaze, and identity through a historical, technical, and narrative frame. Emphasis is on gender, identity, and sexuality with references to feminist film theory from the early 70s to current methodologies based on semiotics, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Advantages and limitations of methods for textual analysis and the theories which inform them.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPFLOR 75:
Florence in the Renaissance: Family, Youth and Marriage in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Using a series of texts written by 14th and 15th century Florentines, look at the urban values of the city's citizens. Topics include: thinking about urban space; social relations; the values attached to politics, money, family, religion. How meanings of words such as "state", "government", and "family" might have changed over time.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 77:
The Convergence of the Arts and Sciences Since the Renaissance
The integration of scientific inquiry and artistic expression is widely considered to be a principal feature of the Renaissance. Anatomical drawing melded scientific and aesthetic goals. New astronomical and physical theories demanded novel means of representation and expression. Complex geometric proportions became integral to architecture, painting, and music. We will explore aesthetic, scientific, and perceptual principles that arose in 15th century Florence ¿ with particular focus on music, architecture, and the visual arts. Students' residency in Florence provides a distinct and unique opportunity to combine historical, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives on the arts and sciences. We will make full use of the city, with regular visits to museums and architectural landmarks, and attendance at concerts and performances. Students will conduct acoustic experiments to replicate and validate renaissance principles including the visual and musical representations developed by Galileo and Kepler. We will study basic perceptual principles in vision and audition as understood in Renaissance Italy and their neuro-scientific correlates as understood today.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
OSPFLOR 111Y:
From Giotto to Michelangelo: The Birth and Flowering of Renaissance Art in Florence
Lectures, site visits, and readings reconstruct the circumstances that favored the flowering of architecture, sculpture, and painting in Florence and Italy, late 13th to early 16th century. Emphasis is on the classical roots; the particular relationship with nature; the commitment to human expressiveness; and rootedness in the real-world experience, translated in sculpture and painting as powerful plasticity, perspective space, and interest in movement and emotion.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPFLOR 115Y:
Building the Cathedral and the Town Hall: Constructing and Deconstructing Symbols of a Civilization
The history, history of art, and symbolism of the two principal monuments of Florence: the cathedral and the town hall. Common meaning and ideological differences between the religious and civic symbols of Florence's history from the time of Giotto and the first Guelf republic to Bronzino and Giovanni da Bologna and the Grand Duchy.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPISTAN 64:
Travels in the Ottoman History with Evliya Çelebi
Studies by modern historians related to Ottoman history compared to writings of Evliya Çelebi.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPISTAN 65:
Comparative Political Economy of Emerging Powers
Political economy account of the rise of emerging powers. Topics include: contemporary debates on political economy of the late industrialization; relationship between development and democracy; relationship between state and the economy; importance of institutions in the development process; rise of BRICS and near-BRICS in the changing global order. Theoretical themes are applied to the case studies of China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia and Poland; the political economy of Turkey in comparative perspective.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:DB-SocSci
OSPISTAN 67:
Istanbul, the Fabric of its "Cities"
Long lasting stories that have preceded and shaped the contemporary city of Istanbul. Urban histories: fragments and insights within the locality that makes the urban and suburban spaces of Istanbul. Chronological progression with general approaches paralleled by plunges in specific themes, peoples and spaces. Long processes of transformations with subtle meanings that historians, archaeologists, art historians and others try capturing through research and on-site work. Field work in Istanbul to uncover some of the more subtle and hidden sides of the city's histories.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPKYOTO 13:
Contemporary Japanese Religion
Japanese attitudes to religion and popular forms of religiosity. Syncretic nature of beliefs and practices drawn on a variety of interwoven concepts, beliefs, customs and religious activities of native Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Indian origins as background. Topics include: pursuit of worldly benefits, religion and healing, fortune-telling, ascetic practices, pilgrimage, festivals (matsuri), new religions and their image, impact of the internet, response of religion in times of crisis.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPMADRD 22:
Spain on Stage: La cartela de 2014
Students attend theater and analyze works currently in performance in Madrid, including canonical plays, and performances at smaller historical and alternative theaters. History of Spanish theater; background on the plays. Skills and strategies for reading dramatic works as literature and analyzing scenic languages of performance.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPMADRD 43:
The Jacobean Star Way and Europe: Society, Politics and Culture
The Saint James' Way as a tool to understand historic dynamics from a global perspective. Its effect on the structures that form a political and institutional system, and its society, economy, and ideology.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
OSPMADRD 45:
Women in Art: Case Study in the Madrid Museums
Viewing the collections at the Prado Museum through study and analysis of the representations of women. Contemporary literary texts and images that situate paintings in the historical, social, and political conditions that produced the works.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPMADRD 74:
Islam in Spain and Europe: 1300 Years of Contact
Primary problems and conflicts in the contemporary Islamic world and its relations with the West, as well as the relationship between Spain and Islam throughout history. Special attention to the history of al-Andalus, an Islamic state in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, evaluating the importance of its legacy in Europe and in contemporary Spain. Spain's leading role in relations between Europe and the Mediterranean Islamic states from the Modern Era to the present day.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
OSPOXFRD 15:
British Architecture and the Renaissance: 1500-1850
The influence of classicism and the Renaissance. Insights into European art and architecture and the history of Britain from the Tudor era to the Industrial Revolution. Study trips to London and elsewhere in England.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPOXFRD 17:
Novels of Sensation: Gothic, Detective Story, Prohibition, and Transgression in Victorian Fiction
Literary and moral value of transgressive sub-genres of the novel; what they reveal about Victorian society's anxiety over prohibited elements in the domestic and public spheres. Sources include gothic and detective novels.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPOXFRD 27:
Medical Ethics through Literature and Film
Readings by authors who were or are physicians including Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Bulgakov, William Carlos Williams, Audry Shafer, and Atul Gawande - poems, short and long fiction. Works about medicine or characters who have medical conditions affecting their lives and interactions with others. Practice of medicine and its effects on both physicians and patients, with attention to the ethical and moral issues intrinsic to health and disease. We will also consider movies and plays. Topics: doctor patient relationship; infectious disease such as plague and TB; mental illness; death and dying; disability; surgery.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPOXFRD 57:
The Rise of the Woman Writer 1660-1860
Emergence and rise of the professional woman writer from playwright and Royalist spy Aphra Behn (1640-89) to novelist and proto-feminist Charlotte Bronte (1816-55). How women writers dealt with criticism for writing publicly, placing each author and text in its historical and literary context. Range of poets, playwrights, and novelists including Eliza Haywood, Frances Burney, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Topics: gender roles and proto-feminism, the public versus the private sphere, sexuality, courtship and marriage.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
OSPOXFRD 60:
Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Study of Shakespeare's work alongside that of his contemporaries. Characteristics of his art as well as insight into this period of British history. Visits to performances of plays.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
OSPOXFRD 93:
Collecting the World
The art, science, and culture of the creation, transmission and collection of valuable, useful and informative objects and texts before the twentieth century, and the associated theories, purposes, and methods for collecting `worldly' goods and other valuables. Means by which local academic practices engaged with global developments in the arts and sciences through examination of primarily early modern material and intellectual culture in and around Oxfordshire. Assessments of quality, meaning, usage, cultural significance and the reception of material ¿treasures¿ in the storage rooms, vaults, and on display in museums, galleries, and libraries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
OSPOXFRD 221Y:
Art and Society in Britain
Themes in 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century British art. Painting, sculpture, and design. Comparisons between the British experience and that of continental Europe and the U.S. Readings address questions related to the role of art in modern society. Limited Enrollment.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPPARIS 30:
The Avant Garde in France through Literature, Art, and Theater
Multiple artistic trends and esthetic theories from Baudelaire to the Nouveau Roman, from the Surrealists to Oulipo, from the theater of cruelty to the theater of the absurd, from the Impressionists to Yves Klein. Interdisciplinary approach to reflect on the meaning of avant garde and modernity in general, and on the question of why revolutionary artists in France remained in search of institutional recognition, nonetheless.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPPARIS 34:
Franco-American Encounters: Paris-New York in the 20th Century
Double vision of American artists and intellectuals of Paris, as well as their French counterparts of New York, throughout the 20th century. Exploration of Franco-American relations through two very problematic itineraries. Superposing the two will create a rich and complex image of the interaction between the two cultures. Migration of American artists and intellectuals to Paris in the 1920¿s and of French artists and intellectuals to New York during the Second World War. Through study of films, texts and images, view the two cities through eyes of immigrants, both temporary and permanent. Major figures such as Hemingway, Josephine Baker, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPPARIS 54:
The Artist's World: The Workshop, Patronage and Public in 19th and 20th Century France
Synergy between artists, their workshops, patrons, models and the public in 19th and 20th century France. Weekly sessions in museums, artists' studios, and special venues within and around Paris, attempting to understand the world of the artist, and how, in many cases, this world became not only a place of refuge, but a metaphor of the artistic creation itself.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPPARIS 72:
The Ceilings of Paris
Seventeenth century transformation of the ceilings of Paris, religious, private and public. Itinerary of this transformation from artists¿ initial drawings to their finished work. In conjunction with an exhibition in the Louvre on this topic, study the original drawings as well as the venues in and around Paris. Sites vary from the most illustrious (Versailles) to the lesser known (Hôtel Lauzun). Reflection on the changing religious, social and political aspirations as represented in these new artistic forms.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
OSPPARIS 92:
Building Paris: Its History, Architecture, and Urban Design
The development of Parisian building and architecture from the 17th century to the present. Interaction of tradition and innovation in its transformation and its historical, political, and cultural underpinnings. Visits and case studies throughout Paris illustrate the formation of the city landscape and its culture.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
OSPPARIS 186F:
Contemporary African Literature in French
Focus is on African writers and those of the diaspora, bound together by a common history of slave trade, bondage, colonization, and racism. Their works belong to the past, seeking to save an oral heritage of proverbs, story tales, and epics, but they are also contemporary.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPSANTG 14:
Women Writers of Latin America in the 20th Century
Key figures in poetry, narrative fiction, theater, and testimonio, such as Mistral, Garro, Lispector, Poniatowska, Valenzuela, Eltit and Menchú. Close reading technique. Issues raised in literary texts that reflect the evolution of the condition of women in Latin America during the period. Topics include gender differences and relationships, tradition versus transgression, relationship between changes in the status of women and other egalitarian transformations, and women writers and the configuration of literary canons.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPSANTG 28:
The Literature and Philosophy of Place (PHIL 28)
Literature and philosophy, primarily, but not exclusively from Latin America, that raises questions about place and displacement through migration and exile, about how location shapes our understanding of ourselves and of our responsibilities to society and environment, about the multiple meanings of home. Among the questions we will consider are the difference between the experiences of people who are at "home" and those who are "away," how one person's claim on home can be another's experience of being invaded, the interdependence of self and place, the multiple meanings of "environment." Readings by Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Carmen Lyra, Jorge Gracia, Otavio Paz, Maria Lugones, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
OSPSANTG 30:
Short Latin American Fiction of the 20th Century
Introduction to short narrative fiction produced in Latin America during the 20th Century. Key features of the short story genre, as defined by Chekhov in the 19th Century and redefined by Kafka and Borges in the 20th Century. Main literary movements of the period in Latin America, including Regionalism, Social Realism, the Avant-Garde, the Boom of the 1960s and Magical Realism, the Post-Boom, etc. Close reading course with strong emphasis on analysis and discussion of the required texts. Readings placed in the context of the main developments in Latin American history and culture in the period.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 1:
Introduction to Philosophy
Is there one truth or many? Does science tell us everything there is to know? Can our minds be purely physical? Do we have free will? Is faith rational? Should we always be rational? What is the meaning of life? Are there moral truths? What are truth, reality, rationality, and knowledge? How can such questions be answered? Intensive introduction to theories and techniques in philosophy from various contemporary traditions. Students must enroll in lecture AND and one of the discussion sections listed.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 2:
Introduction to Moral Philosophy (ETHICSOC 20)
A survey of moral philosophy in the Western tradition. What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong? What is it to have a virtuous rather than a vicious character? What is the basis of these distinctions? Why should we care about morality at all? Our aim is to understand how some of the most influential philosophers (including Aristotle, Kant, and Mill) have addressed these questions, and by so doing, to better formulate our own views. No prior familiarity with philosophy required.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 6N:
Pictures and the Imagination
Paintings, drawings, and photographs often function as pictures or images of the preexisting things they take as subjects. They represent these subjects from specific spatial vantage points in ways that may be more or less definite, more or less detailed, and more or less faithful to what the subjects are actually like. One longs to know how this works: how vision, imagination, and background knowledge come together when we experience a picture as a picture. Certain forms of imagining and remembering involve mental picturing, mental imagery. Sometimes we imagine or remember things in visual terms from a specific spatial vantage point, with the result that we feel brought face to face with the things imagined or remembered, however far away they may actually be. How is the physical picturing that goes on in paintings, drawings, and photographs both like and unlike the mental picturing that goes on when things swim before the mind's eye? What role does mental picturing play in physical picturing? What kinds of artistic value and interest attach to paintings, drawings, and photographs in virtue of what they picture and how they picture it?
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 7Q:
What is Truth
This question can be answered precisely in some important cases. We begin with the language of propositional logic where truth is defined by simple tables. This is already sufficient for description of many important problems and leads to a famous ($1 000 000) problem P=NP. We use Sudoku puzzles for illustration. Close connection between propositional truth and proof is established by the resolution method forming a basis of most automated theorem provers. The language of predicate logic covers much more and illustrates the notion of completeness. Register machines provide connection with computations and lead to a fundamental classification of problems of truth with respect to decidability. The language of arithmetic exhibits a new phenomenon of incompleteness that changed significant part of philosophy in 20-th century.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 8N:
Free Will and Responsibility
In what sense are we, or might we be free agents? Is our freedom compatible with our being fully a part of the same natural, causal order that includes other physical and biological systems? What assumptions about freedom do we make when we hold people accountable morally and/or legally? When we hold people accountable, and so responsible, can we also see them as part of the natural, causal order? Or is there a deep incompatibility between these two ways of understanding ourselves? What assumptions about our freedom do we make when we deliberate about what to do? Are these assumptions in conflict with seeing ourselves as part of the natural, causal order?nWe will explore these and related questions primarily by way of careful study of recent and contemporary philosophical research on these matters.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 9N:
Philosophical Classics of the 20th Century
Last century's best and most influential philosophical writings. Topics include ethics (what is the nature of right and wrong?), language (how do meaning, reference, and truth arise in the natural world?), science (can science claim objectively accurate descriptions of reality?), existence (are there things that don't exist?), and the mind (could robots ever be conscious?). Authors include Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap, Willard Quine, Thomas Kuhn, John Rawls, and Saul Kripke. The lay of the land in contemporary philosophy.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 11N:
Skepticism
Preference to freshmen. Historical and contemporary philosophical perspectives on the limits of human knowledge of a mind-independent world and causal laws of nature. The nature and possibility of a priori knowledge. Skepticism regarding religious beliefs..
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 14N:
Belief and the Will
Preference to freshmen. Is there anything wrong with believing something without evidence? Is it possible? The nature and ethics of belief, and belief's relation to evidence and truth. How much control do believers have over their belief?
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
PHIL 15N:
Freedom, Community, and Morality
Preference to freshmen. Does the freedom of the individual conflict with the demands of human community and morality? Or, as some philosophers have maintained, does the freedom of the individual find its highest expression in a moral community of other human beings? Readings include Camus, Mill, Rousseau, and Kant.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 28:
The Literature and Philosophy of Place (OSPSANTG 28)
Literature and philosophy, primarily, but not exclusively from Latin America, that raises questions about place and displacement through migration and exile, about how location shapes our understanding of ourselves and of our responsibilities to society and environment, about the multiple meanings of home. Among the questions we will consider are the difference between the experiences of people who are at "home" and those who are "away," how one person's claim on home can be another's experience of being invaded, the interdependence of self and place, the multiple meanings of "environment." Readings by Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Carmen Lyra, Jorge Gracia, Otavio Paz, Maria Lugones, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
PHIL 41Q:
Truth
Preference to sophomores. Central issues animating current work in the philosophy of truth. What is truth? What is it about a statement or judgment that makes it true rather than false? Are there any propositions that are neither true nor false? Could truth be relative to individuals or communities? Do people have different notions of truth for different enterprises such as mathematics and ethics? Might truth be a matter of degree? Sources include the instructor's book manuscript and other contemporary writers.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 42:
Philosophy through Theater: Choice and Chance
Dramatic literature as a window into philosophical work on freedom of the will and indeterminism. Students participate in the production of original one-act plays.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 60:
Introduction to Philosophy of Science (HPS 60)
The nature of scientific knowledge: evidence and confirmation; scientific explanation; models and theories; objectivity; science, society, and values.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 61:
Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution (HPS 61)
Galileo's defense of the Copernican world-system that initiated the scientific revolution of the 17th century, led to conflict between science and religion, and influenced the development of modern philosophy. Readings focus on Galileo and Descartes.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 74A:
Ethics in a Human Life (HUMBIO 74)
Ethical questions pervade a human life from before a person is conceived until after she dies, and at every point in between. This course raises a series of ethical questions, following along the path of a person's life - questions that arise before, during, and after she lives it. We will explore distinctive questions that a life presents at each of several familiar stages: prior to birth, childhood, adulthood, death, and even beyond. We will consider how some philosophers have tried to answer these questions, and we will think about how answering them might help us form a better understanding of the ethical shape of a human life as a whole.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
PHIL 76:
Introduction to Global Justice (ETHICSOC 136R, INTNLREL 136R, POLISCI 136R, POLISCI 336)
This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PHIL 77S:
Philosophy of Religion (RELIGST 36)
(Formerly RELIGST 62S) Explores fundamental questions about the existence of God, free will and determinism, faith and reason, through traditional philosophical texts. Course is divided into four sections: first asks what is religion; second surveys the western philosophical tradition from Boethius through Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard regarding the foundation for theist beliefs; third investigates questions mystical experience raises through both western and Buddhist materials; and fourth takes up the ethics of belief, what we have a right to believe, through the Clifford and James debate and the opposing stances of Camus and Pascal.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 80:
Mind, Matter, and Meaning
Intensive study of central topics in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language and mind in preparation for advanced courses in philosophy. Emphasis on development of analytical writing skills. Prerequisite: one prior course in Philosophy or permission of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors: ;
Donaldson, T. (PI);
Hussain, N. (PI);
Darmalingum, M. (TA);
Kim, H. (TA);
Kim, R. (TA);
Lee, T. (TA);
Parmer, W. (TA);
Paterson, G. (GP);
Paterson, G. (TA);
Simon, A. (TA);
Turman, J. (TA)
PHIL 81:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, SLAVIC 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 100:
Greek Philosophy
We shall cover the major developments in Greek philosophical thought, focusing on Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic schools (the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Topics include epistemology, metaphysics, psychology, ethics and political theory.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 101:
Introduction to Medieval Philosophy (PHIL 201)
This course is an introduction to medieval moral philosophy, broadly construed. In addition to doctrines that we would nowadays readily think of as falling within the domain of ethics, we will be looking at closely related topics that might today be thought to belong more properly to metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, or the philosophy of human nature.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 102:
Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant
Major figures in early modern philosophy in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Writings by Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 103:
19th-Century Philosophy
Focus is on ethics and the philosophy of history. Works include Mill's Utilitarianism, Hegel's The Philosophy of World History, Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death, and Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 104:
Philosophy of Religion
Key issues in the philosophy of religion. Topics include the relationship between faith and reason, the concept of God, proofs of God's existence, the meaning of religious language, arguments for and against divine command theory in ethics and the role of religious belief in a liberal society.
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 106:
Ancient Skepticism (PHIL 206)
The ancient Pyrrhonian skeptics who think that for any claim there is no more reason to assert it than deny it and that a life without any beliefs is the best route to happiness. Some ancient opponents of the Pyrrhonian skeptics and some relations between ancient and modern skepticism.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 107:
Early Plato (PHIL 207)
We shall focus on Plato¿s early or Socratic dialogues (e.g. the Crito, the Gorgias, and the Protagoras). In these dialogues, Plato focuses on ethics and ethical psychology without explicitly drawing on epistemological and metaphysical claims. We¿ll try to determine whether the Socrates of these dialogues is a purely destructive critic or whether he has a positive ethical view that he advances.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 107A:
The Greeks on Irrationality (PHIL 207A)
In this course, we shall examine the views of some central Greek philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans, and the Stoics) on the irrational and non-rational aspects of human life. What makes something irrational and what roles (negative and perhaps positive as well) does the irrational play in our lives? We shall examine their views on anger, fear, madness, love, pleasure and pain, sexual desire and so on. We shall also consider more briefly some depictions of these psychic items in ancient Greek literature.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 108:
Aristotle's Metaphysics Book Alpha (PHIL 208)
An introduction both to Aristotle's own metaphysics and to his treatment of his predecessors on causality, included the early Ionian cosmologists, atomism, Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Plato. Prerequisite: one course in ancient Greek philosophy.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 109:
Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Art and Rhetoric (PHIL 209)
Plato's and Aristotle's views on the nature of art and rhetoric and their connections with the emotions, reason and the good life. Readings include Plato's Gorgias, Ion and parts of the Republic and the Laws and Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric.
Last offered: Autumn 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 109A:
Special Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle's Metaphysics Zeta (PHIL 209A)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 12 units total)
PHIL 109B:
Greek philosophers read their ancestors: Intro to the ancient reception of Presocratic philosophy (PHIL 209B)
The first Greek philosophers are known to us only through fragments of their original works, generally few in number and transmitted by later authors, as well as through a set of testimonies covering a thousand years and more. Thus it is crucial, in order to understand archaic thought, to get a sense of how they were read by those to whom we owe their transmission. What was their aim, their method, their presuppositions or prejudices?nn The course will employ this perspective to examine authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Diogenes Laertius, Simplicius ¿ among others. We shall also reflect, on the basis of the paradigmatic case of the Presocratics, on some of the more general problems raised by literary and philosophical approaches to the notion of reception.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 110:
Plato's Republic (PHIL 210)
The Republic is one most famous and influential texts in the history of Western philosophy. We shall read in its entirety closely (along with some other related Platonic texts) focusing on its epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of art, and political philosophy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 111:
Aristotle's Logic (PHIL 211)
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 113:
Hellenistic Philosophy (PHIL 213)
Epicureans, skeptics, and stoics on epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and psychology.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 115:
Problems in Medieval Philosophy: Islamic Aristotelianism and Western Scholasticism (PHIL 215)
The western world adopted Aristotle's metaphysics and natural philosophy as the foundation of its educational system and scholarly life between 1210 and 1255. Christian Europe was thereby following the example set by Islam in Spain and the Near East. Today some people believe that this development was independent, and others think that the scholastics copied even their methods from Arabic philosophers. Historical evaluation of those claims.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 117:
Descartes (PHIL 217)
(Formerly 121/221.) Descartes's philosophical writings on rules for the direction of the mind, method, innate ideas and ideas of the senses, mind, God, eternal truths, and the material world.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 118:
British Empiricism, 1660s-1730s
Focus is on the big three British Empiricists and their developments of thought based on the foundational role that they give to sensory perception or experience as the source of knowledge. Topics may include the theory of ideas, idealism, personal identity, human agency, moral motivation, causation, and induction. Readings predominantly from Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 119:
Rationalists (PHIL 219)
Developments in 17th-century continental philosophy. Descartes's views on mind, necessity, and knowledge. Spinoza and Leibniz emphazing their own doctrines and their criticism of their predecessors. Prerequisite: 102.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 120A:
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (PHIL 220A)
Correspondence on metaphysics, theology, and science.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 122:
Hume (PHIL 222)
(Formerly 120/220; graduate students enroll in 222.) Hume's theoretical philosophy, in particular, skepticism and naturalism, the theory of ideas and belief, space and time, causation and necessity, induction and laws of nature, miracles, a priori reasoning, the external world, and the identity of the self.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 124:
Topics in Early Modern Philosophy
Philosophical views of the highly influential rationalist philosophers Benedict (or Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677) and G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716). Topics to be treated include: the nature of God and the question of his providential care for human beings, the concept of substance and its extension, the ontological relation of finite beings to God, the mental and its relation to the corporeal, and the nature of human freedom.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 125:
Kant's First Critique (PHIL 225)
(Graduate students register for 225.) The founding work of Kant's critical philosophy emphasizing his contributions to metaphysics and epistemology. His attempts to limit metaphysics to the objects of experience. Prerequisite: course dealing with systematic issues in metaphysics or epistemology, or with the history of modern philosophy.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 126B:
Kant's Ethical Theory (PHIL 226B)
(Graduate students register for 226B.) Kant's moral philosophy based primarily on the Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals, Critique of Practical Reason, and The Metaphysics of Morals.
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 127A:
Kant's Value Theory (PHIL 227A)
(Graduate students register for 227A.) The role of autonomy, principled rational self-governance, in Kant's account of the norms to which human beings are answerable as moral agents, citizens, empirical inquirers, and religious believers. Relations between moral values (goodness, rightness) and aesthetic values (beauty, sublimity).
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 128:
Fichte's Ethics (PHIL 228)
(Graduate students register for 228.) The founder of the German Idealist movement who adopted but revised Kant's project of transcendental philosophy basing it on the principle of awareness of free self-activity. The awareness of other selves and of ethical relations to them as a necessary condition for self-awareness. His writings from 1793-98 emphasizing the place of intersubjectivity in his theory of experience.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 130:
Hegel (PHIL 230)
(Formerly 122/222; graduate students register for 230.) Introduction to Hegel's philosophy, emphasizing his moral and political philosophy, through study of his last major work (1821). May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: course in the history of modern philosophy.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
PHIL 133T:
Atheism: Hegel to Heidegger (RELIGST 183)
The radical changes in ideas of God between Hegel and Heidegger, arguing that their questions about theism and atheism are still pertinent today. Texts from Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger: on God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature. N.B.: Class size limited. Apply early at tsheehan@stanford.edu.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 134:
Phenomenology and Intersubjectivity (PHIL 234)
(Graduate students register for 234.) Readings from Husserl, Stein, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty on subjects related to awareness of others. Topics include solipsism, collective experience, empathy, and objectification of the other.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 135:
Existentialism (PHIL 235)
Focus is on the existentialist preoccupation with human freedom. What constitutes authentic individuality? What is one's relation to the divine? How can one live a meaningful life? What is the significance of death? A rethinking of the traditional problem of freedom and determinism in readings from Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, and the extension of these ideas by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, including their social and political consequences in light of 20th-century fascism and feminism.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER
PHIL 136:
History of Analytic Philosophy (PHIL 236)
(Formerly 147/247; graduate students register for 236.) Theories of knowledge in Frege, Carnap, and Quine. Emphasis is on conceptions of analyticity and treatment of logic and mathematics. Prerequisite: 50 and one course numbered 150-165 or 181-90.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 137:
Wittgenstein (PHIL 237)
(Graduate students register for 237.) An exploration of Wittgenstein's changing views about meaning, mind, knowledge, and the nature of philosophical perplexity and philosophical insight, focusing on the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 138:
Recent European Philosophy: Between Nature and History (PHIL 238)
A critical introduction to the novel understandings of time, language, and cultural power developed by 20th-century continental thinkers, with close attention to work by Heidegger, Saussure, Benjamin, and Foucault.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 143:
Quine (PHIL 243)
(Formerly 183/283; graduate students register for 243.) The philosophy of Quine: meaning and communication; analyticity, modality, reference, and ontology; theory and evidence; naturalism; mind and the mental.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 160A:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 260A)
(Graduate students register for 260A.) 17th-century efforts in science including by Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Huygens, that formed the background for and posed the problems addressed in Newton¿s Principia.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 160B:
Newtonian Revolution (PHIL 260B)
(Graduate students register for 260B.) Newton¿s Principia in its historical context, emphasizing how it produced a revolution in the conduct of empirical research and in standards of evidence in science.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 163:
Significant Figures in Philosophy of Science (PHIL 263)
(Graduate students register for 263.) Directed study of two or more thinkers, past or present, who have made a lasting impact on contemporary philosophy of science. Subjects last year were Henri Poincaré, Pierre Duhem, and Gaston Bachelard.
Last offered: Winter 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 164:
Central Topics in the Philosophy of Science: Theory and Evidence (PHIL 264)
(Graduate students register for 264.) Is reductionism opposed to emergence? Are they compatible? If so, how or in what sense? We consider methodological, epistemological, logical and metaphysical dimensions of contemporary discussions of reductionism and emergence in physics, in the ¿sciences of complexity¿, and in philosophy of mind.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 165:
Philosophy of Physics (PHIL 265)
Graduate students register for 265.) Central topic alternates annually between space-time theories and philosophical issues in quantum mechanics; the latter in Winter 2013-14. Conceptual problems regarding the uncertainty principle, wave-particle duality, quantum measurement, spin, and their treatment within the 'Copenhagen interpretation' of quantum mechanics, and the related doctrine of complementarity. The issue of quantum entanglement as raised by Einstein and Schrödinger in the 1930s and the famous EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) paper of 1935. Examination of EPR-type experimental set-ups and a result due to Bell in the 1960s, according to which no "hidden variables" theory satisfying a certain locality condition (apparently assumed by EPR) can reproduce all the predictions of quantum mechanics. Survey of several live interpretive options for standard quantum mechanics: Bohmian mechanics (a.k.a. 'pilot wave theory'), 'spontaneous collapse' theories, and Everett¿s relative-state interpretation. Critical scrutiny of the ¿decoherence¿ program that seeks to explain the classical-to-quantum transition, i.e., the emergence of the world of classical physics and macroscopic objects from quantum physics. May be repeated for credit if content is different.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
for credit
PHIL 167A:
Philosophy of Biology (PHIL 267A)
(Graduate students register for 267A.) Evolutionary theory and in particular, on characterizing natural selection and how it operates. We examine debates about fitness, whether selection is a cause or force, the levels at which selection operates, and whether cultural evolution is a Darwinian process.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 167B:
Philosophy, Biology, and Behavior (PHIL 267B)
(Graduate Students register for 267B) Philosophical study of key theoretical ideas in biology as deployed in the study of behavior. Topics to include genetic, neurobiological, ecological approaches to behavior; the classification and measurement of behaviors: reductionism, determinism, interactionism. Prerequisites: one PHIL course and either one BIO course or Human Biology core; or equivalent with consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 167C:
Associative Theories of Mind and Brain (PHIL 267C)
After a historical survey of associative theories from Hume to William James, current versions will be analyzed including the important early ideas of Karl Lashley. Emphasis will be on the computational power of associative networks and their realization in the brain.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 167D:
Philosophy of Neuroscience (PHIL 267D, SYMSYS 206)
Can problems of mind be solved by understanding the brain, or models of the brain? The views of philosophers and neuroscientists who believe so, and others who are skeptical of neurophilosophical approaches to the mind. Historical and recent literature in philosophy and neuroscience. Topics may include perception, memory, neural accounts of consciousness, neurophenomenology, neuroscience and physics, computational models, and eliminativism. (Not open to freshmen.)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 169:
Evolution of the Social Contract (PHIL 269)
Explore naturalizing the social contract. Classroom presentations and term papers.nTexts: Binmore - Natural Justicen Skyrms - Evolution of the Social Contract.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 170:
Ethical Theory (ETHICSOC 170, PHIL 270)
A more challenging version of Phil 2 designed primarily for juniors and seniors (may also be appropriate for some freshmen and sophomores - contact professor). Fulfills the Ethical Reasoning requirement. Graduate section (270) will include supplemental readings and discussion, geared for graduate students new to moral philosophy, as well as those with some background who would like more.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 170B:
Metaphor (PHIL 270B)
In metaphor we think and talk about two things at once: two different subject matters are mingled to rich and unpredictable effect. A close critical study of the main modern accounts of metaphor's nature and interest, drawing on the work of writers, linguists, philosophers, and literary critics. Attention to how understanding, appreciation, and pleasure connect with one another in the experience of metaphor. Consideration of the possibility that metaphor or something very like it occurs in nonverbal medial: gesture, dance, painting, music.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 171:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 271, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
PHIL 172:
History of Modern Moral Philosophy (PHIL 272)
This course traces the development of moral philosophy in Britain just prior to the nearly simultaneous emergence of Kant's moral philosophy and Bentham's utilitarianism in the 1780's. Emphasis is on the dialogue between empiricists and rationalists on the subject of the relationship between the natural and the normative. Authors include Hobbes, Clarke, Hutcheson, Hume, Smith, Price, and Bentham. Prerequisite: some familiarity with Kant's moral theory and utilitarianism, and demonstrated interest in philosophy.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 172B:
Recent Ethical Theory: Moral Obligation (PHIL 272B)
Some moral obligations are "relational," "directional," or "bipolar" in structure: in promising you to act in a certain way, for example, I incur an obligation to you to so act and you acquire a corresponding claim or right against me that I so act. This entails that if I violate my obligation to you, I will not merely be doing something that is morally wrong, but will be wronging you in particular. What does explain this? Do all moral obligations have this structure? We will discuss how different moral theories (consequentialist, deontological, contractualist) try to account for such obligations. Readings include Adams, Anscombe, Darwall, Feinberg, Hart, Parfit, Raz, Scanlon, Skorupski, Thompson, Thomson, Wallace, and Wolf.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 172D:
Bernard Williams (PHIL 272D)
An exploration of some central themes from the work of Bernard Williams. Particular attention will be paid to his discussion of the character and identity of the self, his sustained critique of morality and moral philosophy. We will also read several of Williams¿ interlocutors, including Nagel, Parfit, Korsgaard, and Herman.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 173A:
Aesthetics: Metaphor across the Arts
What if a metaphor is an instructively compact work of art, or if finding a metaphor apt is an instructively simple case of finding something aesthetically valuable? What does this reveal about the nature of art and language? Introduction to the philosophical study of art and aesthetic value, organized around metaphor. Contemporary accounts of metaphor as a verbal device. Arguments for the existence of nonverbal metaphor in nonliterary arts. The power and appeal of metaphors drawn from art, art criticism, theoretical inquiry, and everyday life.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 173B:
Metaethics
This is an undergraduate only class. Can moral and ethical values be justified or is it just a matter of opinion? Is there a difference between facts and values? Are there any moral truths? Does it matter if there are not? Is anything in life really valuable or meaningful? Focus is not on which things or actions are valuable or morally right, but what is value or rightness itself. Contemporary metaethics. Prerequisites: 1 and 80.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 174:
Freedom and the Practical Standpoint (PHIL 274)
(Graduate students register for 274.) Confronted with the question of how to act, people think of themselves as freely determining their own conduct. Natural science poses a challenge to this by explaining all events, including human actions, in terms of causal processes. Are people justified in thinking of themselves as free? Major philosophical approaches to this question: incompatibilism, compatibilism, and the two-standpoint view.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 174A:
Moral Limits of the Market (ETHICSOC 174A, PHIL 274A, POLISCI 135P)
Morally controversial uses of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, education, and child labor. Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient; if it did, would it thereby be justified? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? Readings include Walzer, Arrow, Rawls, Sen, Frey, Titmuss, and empirical cases.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 175:
Philosophy of Law
This course will explore foundational issues about the nature of law and its relation to morality, and about legal responsibility and criminal punishment, with a focus on criminal culpability for attempts. Prerequisite: PHIL 80 and one additional PHIL course.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 175M:
Two Ethical Theories and Being a Person (PHIL 275M)
The distinction between the ethics of being a person and the ethics of rules as opposed to the distinction between Kantian ethics and utilitarianism or consequentialism consequentialism. Comparison of these two types of ethics with respect to their relationship to agency and being a good person. Relations between Western ethics and those of other continents.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 176:
Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (PHIL 276, POLISCI 137A, POLISCI 337A)
(Graduate students register for 276.) Why and under what conditions do human beings need political institutions? What makes them legitimate or illegitimate? What is the nature, source, and extent of the obligation to obey the legitimate ones, and how should people alter or overthrow the others? Study of the answers given to such questions by major political theorists of the early modern period: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 176C:
Religion and Politics: a Latin American Perspective (ETHICSOC 276R, ETHICSOC 376R, PHIL 276C)
Religion has traditionally been banished from politics in some places in Latin America. Religious symbols may not be displayed in public buildings, political discourse is expected to be free from all religious content, and religious ministers are not allowed to run for public office, among other measures. This course examines the political motivation for this kind of policies towards religion taking a comparative perspective with American and French variants of secularism.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 180:
Metaphysics (PHIL 280)
This course is a survey of the philosophy of time and modality, as organized around the following central issue. There are two competing ways to think about time. On one conception, time is space-like. Just as space consists in a three-dimensional spatial manifold, time forms a one-dimensional temporal manifold. On another conception, time is modality-like, and should be understood on analogy with notions like possibility and necessity. Topics covered include the nature of time, time¿s passage, spacetime and relativity, modal realism, actualism, and powers-based theories of modality. Although modal logic and temporal logic will be introduced in the class, an independent background in logic is crucial. Students should have taken (i) PHIL 49/50 or a higher-level logic course and (ii) a writing-intensive philosophy course such as PHIL 80.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 180A:
Realism, Anti-Realism, Irrealism, Quasi-Realism (PHIL 280A)
Realism and its opponents as options across a variety of different domains: natural science, mathematics, ethics, and aesthetics. Clarify the various conceptions that fall under these terms and outline the reasons for and against adopting realism for the various domains. Highlight the general issues involved. Prerequisites: 80, 181
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 181:
Philosophy of Language (PHIL 281)
The study of conceptual questions about language as a focus of contemporary philosophy for its inherent interest and because philosophers see questions about language as behind perennial questions in other areas of philosophy including epistemology, philosophy of science, metaphysics, and ethics. Key concepts and debates about the notions of meaning, truth, reference, and language use, with relations to psycholinguistics and formal semantics. Readings from philosophers such as Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Grice, and Kripke. Prerequisites: 80 and background in logic.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 182:
Truth (PHIL 282)
Philosophical debates about the place in human lives and the value to human beings of truth and its pursuit. The nature and significance of truth-involving virtues such as accuracy, sincerity, and candor. Prerequisite Phil 80 or permission of the instructor.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 184:
Epistemology (PHIL 284)
This is an advanced introduction to core topics in epistemology -- the philosophical study of human knowledge. Questions covered will include: What is knowledge? Can we know anything outside our own minds? Must all knowledge rest on secure foundations? Does knowing something require knowing that you know it? What are the connections between knowledge and rationality? Does 'knowledge' mean the same in the philosophy classroom as it does in everyday life? Prerequisite Phil 80 or consent of the instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 184C:
Epistemology of Testimony (PHIL 284C)
Many of our beliefs come from others, and not from direct experience. Is testimony a source of fundamental reasons¿reasons that do not have to be supported or validated by other sources like perception or inference? What sort of responsibility does one have to one¿s hearers, when one gives testimony?
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 184F:
Feminist Theories of Knowledge (FEMST 166, PHIL 284F)
Feminist critique of traditional approaches in epistemology and alternative feminist approaches to such topics as reason and rationality, objectivity, experience, truth, the knowing subject, knowledge and values, knowledge and power.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
PHIL 184P:
Probability and Epistemology
Confirmation theory and various ways of trying to understand the concept of evidence. Discuss a series of issues in epistemology including probabilism (the view that you should assign degrees of belief to various propositions), conditionalization, confirmational holism, reliabilism and justification, and disagreement.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 185:
Memory
Structure, content, functional role, and epistemic authority of human memories. Sources include philosophical and psychological literature from different schools and historical periods.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 185B:
Philosophy of Perception (PHIL 285B)
The nature of perceptual experience and the role it plays in securing empirical knowledge. Focus will be on what is sometimes called "the problem of perception": the question of how perception could provide us with direct awareness of the surrounding environment given the possibility of illusions or hallucinations. Topics, include the relationship between perception and belief, the nature of perceptual phenomenology, whether or not perceptual experiences are representational states, and the philosophical relevance of empirical research on perception.
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 186:
Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 286)
(Graduate students register for 286.) This is an advanced introduction to core topics in the philosophy of mind. Prerequisite: PHIL 80
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 186B:
Inner Sense
Often the label "inner" is used to describe aspects of ourselves we believe are not immediately observable to another. Thoughts, feelings, sensations; these all happen on the "inside," whereas speech, mannerisms, and actions are "outward" expressions. But how useful is this way of thinking? And what does it assume about what is "inner" versus what is "outer"? How reliable are the various internal mechanisms that allow us to know ourselves? Do we have a special kind of direct access to our own inner lives? And what can we know about the inner lives of others? Readings from philosophy of mind and cognitive science.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 187:
Philosophy of Action (PHIL 287)
(Graduate students register for 287.) Contemporary research in the philosophy of action. Topics include: What is it to be an agent? Is there a philosophically defensible contrast between being an agent and being a locus of causal forces to which one is subject? What is it to act purposively? What is intention? What is the relation between intention and belief? What is it to act intentionally? What is it to act for a reason? What is the relation between explaining why someone acted by citing the reasons for which she acted and causal explanation of her action? What is the relation between theoretical and practical rationality? What is the nature of our knowledge of our own intentional activity? What is it to act autonomously? What is shared cooperative activity? Prerequisite: 80.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 188:
Personal Identity (PHIL 288)
Do you persist through time the way that a skyscraper persists through space, by having different parts at different locations? Or are you ¿wholly present¿ at every moment of your life, in something more like the way that an elevator is present in each place as it travels up to the top floor? What criteria determine whether you now are the very same person as some unique person located at some time in the past? Is the continuity of your memories or other mental states sufficient for your survival? Can you survive the loss or destruction of your body? Do you really exist for more than just the present moment? How do different answers to these questions bear on your moral, personal, and professional obligations? What kinds of considerations could possibly help us to answer these questions? This course explores these and related issues. Readings include a mix of introductory survey, historical, and contemporary material.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 189:
Examples of Free Will (PHIL 289)
Examples drawn from three domains: choice, computation, and conflict of norms. Conceptually, a distinction is made between examples that are predictable and those that are not, but skepticism about making a sharp distinction between determinism and indeterminism is defended.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 193C:
Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 293C)
Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 193D:
Dante and Aristotle (ENGLISH 106E)
Students will read all of Dante¿s Commedia alongside works by Aristotle and various ancient and medieval philosophers. Our aim will be to understand the way an Aristotelian worldview informs the Commedia. For instance, what is the role of pleasure in the ethical life? What is the highest good of the human being? All readings will be in translation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PHIL 193H:
The Art of the Movies: Story, Drama, and Image
A philosophical study of how movies coordinate and transform elements they borrow from older arts of literary narrative, live theater, and graphic illustration. Examples from the career of Alfred Hitchcock.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 193W:
Nietzsche, Doestoevsky, and Sartre
Literary works in which philosophical ideas and issues are put forward, such as prose poems, novels, and plays. Ideas and issues and the dramatic or narrative structures through which they are presented. Texts include: Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov; and Sartre, Nausea and No Exit.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194C:
Time and Free Will
Classic and contemporary reading on free will, with special attention to the consequence argument for incompatibilism, and issues involving causation and time.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194L:
Montaigne
Preference to Philosophy seniors. Philosophical and literary aspects of Montaigne's Essays including the nature of the self and self-fashioning, skepticism, fideism, and the nature of Montaigne's philosophical project. Montaigne's development of the essay as a literary genre.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 194N:
Philosophical Issues in Cognitive Science
Philosophers generally do not perform systematic empirical observations or construct computational models. But philosophy remains important to cognitive science because it deals with fundamental issues that underlie the experimental and computational approach to mind. Abstract questions such as the nature of representation and computation. Relation of mind and body and methodological questions such as the nature of explanations found in cognitive science. Normative questions about how people should think as well as with descriptive ones about how they do. In addition to the theoretical goal of understanding human thinking, cognitive science can have the practical goal of improving it, which requires normative reflection on what we want thinking to be. Philosophy of mind does not have a distinct method, but should share with the best theoretical work in other fields a concern with empirical results.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 194P:
Naming and Necessity
Saul Kripke's lectures on reference, modal metaphysics, and the mind/body problem.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
PHIL 194R:
Epistemic Paradoxes
Paradoxes that arise from concepts of knowledge and rational belief, such as the skeptical paradox, the preface paradox, and Moore¿s paradox. Can one lose knowledge without forgetting anything? Can one change one's mind in a reasonable way without gaining new evidence?
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PHIL 234B:
The Later Heidegger: Art, Poetry, Language (RELIGST 277, RELIGST 377)
Lectures and seminar discussions of the problematic of the later Heidegger (1930 - 1976) in the light of his entire project. Readings from "On the Origin of the Work of Art" and Elucidations of Holderlin's Poetry.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
POLISCI 103:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
POLISCI 124A:
The American West (AMSTUD 124A, ARTHIST 152, ENGLISH 124, HISTORY 151)
The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
POLISCI 135P:
Moral Limits of the Market (ETHICSOC 174A, PHIL 174A, PHIL 274A)
Morally controversial uses of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, education, and child labor. Would a market for organ donation make saving lives more efficient; if it did, would it thereby be justified? Should a nation be permitted to buy the right to pollute? Readings include Walzer, Arrow, Rawls, Sen, Frey, Titmuss, and empirical cases.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
POLISCI 136R:
Introduction to Global Justice (ETHICSOC 136R, INTNLREL 136R, PHIL 76, POLISCI 336)
This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
POLISCI 136S:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 103C, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
POLISCI 137A:
Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition (PHIL 176, PHIL 276, POLISCI 337A)
(Graduate students register for 276.) Why and under what conditions do human beings need political institutions? What makes them legitimate or illegitimate? What is the nature, source, and extent of the obligation to obey the legitimate ones, and how should people alter or overthrow the others? Study of the answers given to such questions by major political theorists of the early modern period: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
PORTLANG 193Q:
Spaces and Voices of Brazil through Film (ILAC 193Q)
The manners in which a country is perceived and defines itself is a result of many complex forces, and involves the reproduction of social relations and complex social constructions both on the part of those who live there and those who see it from a distance. The perceptions of what Brazil is and what defines the country has changed throughout times, but has conserved some clear pervasive defining traits. This course is an introduction to the history, culture, politics and artistic production of Brazil as seen through feature films, documentaries and some complementary readings. Movies include, among others, Banana is my Business, Black Orpheus, Olga, They Don't Use Black-Tie, City of God, Central Station, Gaijin, and Four Days in September-among others. In English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
PSYCH 29N:
Growing Up in America
Preference to freshmen. To what extent is it possible to describe an "American" experience? How are different people included in or excluded from the imagined community that is America? How do a person's race, class, gender and sexuality affect his or her experience of belonging to this country? These are just some of the questions we will consider as we familiarize ourselves with the great diversity of childhood and young adult experiences of people who have grown up in America. We will read and discuss narratives written by men and women, by urban, suburban, and rural Americans, and by Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Latina/os, and European Americans.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
PSYCH 118F:
Literature and the Brain (ENGLISH 118, ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 118, FRENCH 318)
Recent developments in and neuroscience and experimental psychology have transformed the way we think about the operations of the brain. What can we learn from this about the nature and function of literary texts? Can innovative ways of speaking affect ways of thinking? Do creative metaphors draw on embodied cognition? Can fictions strengthen our "theory of mind" capabilities? What role does mental imagery play in the appreciation of descriptions? Does (weak) modularity help explain the mechanism and purpose of self-reflexivity? Can the distinctions among types of memory shed light on what narrative works have to offer?
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
PUBLPOL 103C:
Justice (ETHICSOC 171, IPS 208, PHIL 171, PHIL 271, POLISCI 103, POLISCI 136S, POLISCI 336S, PUBLPOL 307)
Focus is on the ideal of a just society, and the place of liberty and equality in it, in light of contemporary theories of justice and political controversies. Topics include financing schools and elections, regulating markets, discriminating against people with disabilities, and enforcing sexual morality. Counts as Writing in the Major for PoliSci majors.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER
REES 145D:
Jewish American Literature (ENGLISH 145D, JEWISHST 155D)
A study of Jewish-American literature from its Russian roots into the present. What distinguishes it from American mainstream and minority literatures? We will consider the difficulties of displacement for the emigrant generation who struggled to sustain their cultural integrity in the multicultural American environment, and the often comic revolt of their American-born children and grandchildren against their grand)parents¿ nostalgia, trauma, and failure to assimilate. Authors: Gogol, Dostoevsky, Babel, Olsen, Paley, Yezierska, Ozick, Singer, Malamud, Spiegelman, Roth, Bellow, Segal, Baldwin.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
REES 185B:
Jews in the Contemporary World: Faith and Ethnicity, Vulnerability and Visibility (CSRE 185B, HISTORY 185B, HISTORY 385C, JEWISHST 185B)
This course explores the full expanse of Jewish life today and in the recent past. The inner workings of religious faith, the content of Jewish identify shorn of belief, the interplay between Jewish powerlessness and influence, the myth and reality of Jewish genius, the continued pertinence of antisemitism, the rhythms of Jewish economic life ¿ all these will be examined in weekly lectures, classroom discussion, and with the use of a widely diverse range of readings, films, and other material. Explored in depth will the ideas and practices of Zionism, the content of contemporary secularism and religious Orthodoxy, the impact Holocaust, the continued crisis facing Israel and the Palestinians. Who is to be considered Jewish, in any event, especially since so many of the best known (Spinoza, Freud, Marx) have had little if anything to do with Jewish life with their relationships to it indifferent, even hostile?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
REES 220G:
Demons, Witches, Old Believers, Holy Fools, and Folk Belief: Popular Religion in Russia (HISTORY 220G, HISTORY 320G, REES 320G)
19th and early 20th centuries. Peasants, parish priests, witches, possessed persons, cults and sects, old believers, saints, and women's religious communities. Nominally Christian, and members of the Orthodox Church, Russians embraced beliefs and customs that combined teaching from Church and folk traditions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 1:
Religion Around the Globe
A survey of significant religious traditions of the world with emphasis on contemporary manifestations. We will address aspects of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. In addition, we will discuss interaction between individuals and communities in diverse and complex religious settings such as East Asia, the Middle East, and North America.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 2:
Is Stanford a Religion?
This course seeks to introduce students to the study of religion by posing a two-part question: What is a religion, and does Stanford qualify as one? Scientific, pragmatic, seemingly secular, Stanford may not seem at all similar to religions like Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism, but a deeper look reveals that it has many of the qualities of religion--origin stories, rituals and ceremonies, sacred spaces and times, visions of the future, even some spirits. By learning some of the theories and methods of the field of religious studies, students will gain a better understanding not just of Stanford culture but of what motivates people to be religious, the roles religion plays in people's lives, and the similarities and differences between religious and secular culture.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 11N:
The Meaning of Life: Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Religious Perspectives
Raise ultimate questions about life. Yes, the unexamined life is not worth living, but also the unlived life is not worth examining. Students and professor examine their own lives in the light of questions that the readings and lectures bring up: 1. The big picture: Is there such a thing as "the" meaning of life? 2. What is entailed in making personal-existential sense of one's own life? 3. What constitutes the good life, lived in society? 4. How can a university education bear upon the search for a meaningful life? 5. What "methods" for or approches to life can one learn from studies in the humanities? After introductory lectures, the seminar studies a series of artworks, poems, diverse texts, and a film, all of which bear on the questions mentioned above -- works such: 1. Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from "The Republic" 2. Manet's "A bar at the Folies Bergere" 3. A comparison/contrast of Monet's early (1862) "Still Life" and van Gogh's late (1889) "Irises" 4. Lyric poetry T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Waste Land," and "East Coker"; Edwin Muir: "The Heart Could Never Speak"; Philip Larkin: "Days" 5. Martin Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics?" 6. Jean-Paul Sartre's novel "Nausea" 7. Marx's Paris Manuscripts of 1844 8. Bergman's "The Seventh Seal"
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 12N:
Perspectives on the Good Life
The question is how to approach and evaluate different perspectives on the good life, especially when those perspectives are beautifully, and elusively, presented to us as texts. We will consider both classic and modern writers, from the West and from China; some are explicitly religious, some explicitly secular; some literary, some philosophical. Most of the class will revolve around our talk with each other, interpreting and questioning relatively short texts. The works we will read - by Dante, Dickenson, Zhuangzi, Shklar, and others - are not intended to be representative of traditions, of eras, or of disciplines. They do, however, present a range of viewpoint and of style that will help frame and re-frame our views on the good life. They will illustrate and question the role that great texts can play in a modern 'art of living.' Perhaps most important, they will develop and reward the skills of careful reading, attentive listening, and thoughtful discussion. (Note: preparation and participation in discussion are the primary course requirement. Enrollment at 3 units requires a short final paper; a more substantial paper is required for the 4-unit option.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 13Q:
Mystical Journeys: Beyond Knowing and Reason
What makes a mystic a mystic? This question has many sides. Why do we call someone a mystic? Is there such a thing as mystical experience? Do experiences make a mystic? Do beliefs? Practices? Many religious traditions have records of visionaries whose lives and writings open windows on the more hidden and aspirational aspects of belief and practice. These writings also take many forms: poems, letters, teachings, and accounts of visions, which we will encounter in the course of the quarter. Readings for the course will cover a cross-section of texts taken from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Native American sources.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
RELIGST 14N:
Demons, Death, and the Damned: The 'Other' and the Otherwordly in America
This course will examine how beliefs about the "other world" actually shape and are shaped by Americans' this-worldly actions and interactions (i.e. in the demonization of the "other," whether defined religiously, racially, ethnically, or in gendered terms). Students will ask how ideas about demons and death, heaven and hell have reflected the concerns, values, and identities of Americans over time. Students will learn how to read primary sources against secondary literature.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 17N:
Love, Power, and Justice: Ethics in Christian Perspective
From its inception, the Christian faith has, like all religions, implied an ethos as well as a worldview, a morality and way of life as well as a system of beliefs, an ethics as well as a metaphysics. Throughout history, Christian thinkers have offered reasoned accounts of the moral values, principles, and virtues that ought to animate the adherents of what eventually became the world's largest religion. We will explore a variety of controversial issues, theological orientations, and types of ethical reasoning in the Christian tradition, treating the latter as one 'comprehensive doctrine' (John Rawls) among many; a normative framework (actually a variety of contested religious premises, moral teachings, and philosophical arguments) formally on par with the religious ethics of other major faiths as well as with the various secular moral theories typically discussed in the modern university. We will learn to interpret, reconstruct, criticize, and think intelligently about the coherence and persuasiveness of moral arguments offered by a diverse handful of this religious tradition's best thinkers and critics, past and present.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
RELIGST 18N:
Religion and Politics: Comparing Europe to the U.S. (JEWISHST 18N)
Interdisciplinary and comparative. Historical, political, sociological, and religious studies approaches. The relationship between religion and politics as understood in the U.S. and Europe. How this relationship has become tense both because of the rise of Islam as a public religion in Europe and the rising influence of religious groups in public culture. Different understandings and definitions of the separation of church and state in Western democratic cultures, and differing notions of the public sphere. Case studies to investigate the nature of public conflicts, what issues lead to conflict, and why. Why has the head covering of Muslim women become politicized in Europe? What are the arguments surrounding the Cordoba House, known as the Ground Zero Mosque, and how does this conflict compare to controversies about recent constructions of mosques in Europe? Resources include media, documentaries, and scholarly literature.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 20A:
The Sun Also Shines on the Wicked: The Problem of Evil in Religious Thought
The problem of Evil has plagued religious thinkers and philosophers for centuries. If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, then why is there Evil in the world? We will read and discuss the key thinkers and foundational texts from Plato and the Book of Job to Fyodor Dostoevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud in order to appreciate the diverse responses to this most vexed of questions. We will survey some of the major approaches to the problem of Evil such as skepticism and theodicy in the works of the Classical authors and in those of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thinkers like Augustine, Maimonides, and al-Ghazali. We will also engage with dualist traditions such as Zoroastrianism and Manicheism, and with the ethics of the major figures of the Enlightenment such as Leibniz, Hume, and Kant. We will end the quarter by reading the most strident atheistic responses from contemporary scientists and philosophers such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 21:
Religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Science fiction and fantasy create alternate worlds that incorporate religious institutions and beliefs that illuminate how we think about religion now and for the future. Texts work off diverse religious traditions: Islam, Buddhism, Catholic and Protestant forms of Christianity, Mayan religion, and Voudou are some that appear. Themes of free will and determinism, immortality, apocalypse and redemption. Myth, ritual, prophecy, the messianic hero, monasticism and mysticism. Texts like Dune, Count Zero, Sandman, Grass and the like explore religion in the contemporary imagination. Main assignment: write a short story.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
RELIGST 26:
The Bible and its Interpreters
Introduction to major stories, figures, and themes of the Christian Bible and their retellings in theological writing, art, literature, film, and music throughout the ages.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 29:
Religion, Violence & Nonviolence (Lecture Series)
College courses and public events often address "religion and violence"--an important topic, but one-sided. We will study ways in which religious leaders, movements, and discourses have (1) promoted violent conflict, aggression, and oppression; and (2) contributed to nonviolence, peace-building, and liberation of the oppressed. An overarching theme will be a view of religions as fields of interpretation. No religion is essentially violent or peaceful; intricately connected to the world around them, religions become what they become through interpretation and action. Each week will have two meetings: one featuring an outstanding guest lecturer and one to discuss the lecture topic, with assigned readings and films. Topics under consideration include: Buddhism and Violence; Dorothy Day and Catholic Nonviolent Resistance to Nuclear Weapons; Just War and Jihad; The Contribution of Negro Spirituals to Liberation; The Quakers: Pacifist Convictions and Activism; Violence/Nonviolence in Jainism; The Role of Christian Faith in M.L. King¿s Political Work; Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding. Lectures series with required attendance and written reflections for 2 units; full course for 4 units please sign up for RELIGST 119.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 31:
The Religious Life of Things
Temples, prayer beads, icons, robes, books, relics, candles and incense, scarves and hats, sacred food and holy water; objects of all sorts play a prominent role in all religions, evoking a wide range of emotional responses, from reverence, solace and even ecstasy, to fear, hostility and violence. What is it about these things that makes them so powerful? Is it beliefs and doctrines that inspire particular attitudes towards certain objects, or is it the other way around? Many see a tension or even contradiction between religion and material pursuits and argue that the true religious life is a life without things. But is such a life even possible? This course adopts a comparative approach, drawing on a variety of traditions to examine the place of images, food, clothing, ritual objects, architecture and relics in religious thought and practice. Materials for the course include scholarship, scripture, images and at least one museum visit.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 36:
Philosophy of Religion (PHIL 77S)
(Formerly RELIGST 62S) Explores fundamental questions about the existence of God, free will and determinism, faith and reason, through traditional philosophical texts. Course is divided into four sections: first asks what is religion; second surveys the western philosophical tradition from Boethius through Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard regarding the foundation for theist beliefs; third investigates questions mystical experience raises through both western and Buddhist materials; and fourth takes up the ethics of belief, what we have a right to believe, through the Clifford and James debate and the opposing stances of Camus and Pascal.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 50:
Exploring Buddhism
From its beginnings to the 21st century. Principal teachings and practices, institutional and social forms, and artistic and iconographical expressions. (Formerly RELIGST 14.)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 61:
Exploring Islam
This course introduces some of the most important features of the Islamic religious tradition. It explores the different ways in which Muslims have interpreted and practiced their religion. The main subjects of discussion --- including the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur¿an, law, ritual, mysticism, theology, politics, and art --- will be considered with reference to their proper historical contexts. Some of the topics covered include abortion, gender, rebellion and violence, and the visual vocabulary of paintings. Students will be exposed to important theories and methods in the academic study of religion. No prior knowledge is required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 62:
Philosophy of Religion
Classic and modern questions in the philosophy of religion traced through Western and Eastern traditions: the coherence of theism, relativism, verification and ethics of belief, and mystical experience. Readings from traditional and modern texts.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 65:
Exploring Global Christianity
Explore the world¿s largest religion as a multicultural, global faith, with attention to Christianity¿s origins, spread and impact around the world up to the present. Special attention to recent shifting demographics leading to declining numbers in mainline Christian denominations in North America and Europe and the rapid expansion of Christianity in Africa, Asia, and South America; the explosion of international Pentecostalism and other new Christianities; Christianity, global politics, and the global economy; Christian-Muslim relations and conflicts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 71:
Jews and Christians: Conflict and Coexistence (JEWISHST 71)
The relationship between Judaism and Christianity has had a long a controversial history. Christianity originated as a dissident Jewish sect but eventually evolved into an independent religion, with only tenuous ties to its Jewish past and present. At the same time, Judaism has at times considered Christianity a form of idolatry. It seems that only since the catastrophe of the Holocaust, Jews and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) have begun the serious work of forging more meaningful relationships with each other. This course explores the most significant moments, both difficult and conciliatory ones, that have shaped the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and introduces students to some of the most important literature, art, and music that are part of it. nSelected literature: Gospel according Matthew, the letters of St. Paul, St. Augustine, the Talmud (selections), Maimonides, Martin Luther's sermons on the Jews, Nostra Aetate (Vatican II)nArt and Music: Medieval art and sculpture, Haendel's Messiah.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 81:
Exploring Indian Religions
This course provides an overview of Indian religious traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and Sikhism. We will spend approximately half the course on Hindu thought and traditions from the Vedic period until the present day, emphasizing the diverse forms of this religion in different times and places. The second half of the course will be devoted to religions that emerged in South Asia (e.g., Jainism) and those that came to find a home and particular forms of expression on the subcontinent (e.g., Islam). Throughout students will read selections from a range of theological texts, epics, and literature that have permeated many aspects of daily religious life in India. We will also emphasize ritual activities, visual experiences in temples, and networks of pilgrimage places that dot the subcontinent. We will often pair primary sources (in translation) with later interpretations and impacts of those texts in modern South Asia. We will also survey the modern incarnations of particular Indian religious traditions throughout South Asia and the diaspora. By the conclusion of this course, students will be conversant with the texts, beliefs, and practices of the major Indian religions in their cultural and historical contexts and also have a working knowledge of basic categories important for the study of religion more broadly.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 82:
Approaches to the Study of Religion: Exploring Christianity
Historical and contemporary Christianity from four viewpoints: ritual and prayer; sacred texts and creeds; ethics and life; and community governance.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 86:
Exploring the New Testament (CLASSICS 43)
The New Testament is many things to many people. Around the globe, it is and has been for two millennia a source of culture, law, and faith. It has been used both to undergird battles for civil rights and to fight against them. It has been used both to justify wars and to argue that all war is unjust. Yet, many people haven¿t read the New Testament and still more haven¿t looked at it from historical, sociological, comparative and literary frameworks. This course will provide you the opportunity to read the New Testament and to study it closely. We will ask questions of the New Testament about the early Jesus movement, how it fits into its historical context and how it developed. We will look at the range of opinions and views about Jesus present in this literature. We will explore the different genres used by early Christians. We will examine how this set of Early Christian texts came to be considered the canon.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 95:
How to Read the Bible
What does the Bible mean? Seeks to help students answer this question for themselves by introducing some of the many ways in which the Bible has been read over the ages. The focus will be the book of Genesis, but the real subject is the history of biblical interpretation¿how Genesis has been understood by theologians, writers, artists, scholars and others¿and the ultimate goal is not merely to engage the Bible itself but to gain a better appreciation of the act of reading, why people read differently and the consequences of that difference for religious history.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 104:
Religion, Counterculture, and the Radical Imagination
Counterculture: A radical culture, esp. amongst the young, that rejects established social values and practices; a mode of life opposed to the conventional or dominant. Cf. alternative adj. ~ O.E.D.nnWe will critically examine contemporary and past countercultural religious movements in light of larger debates on such perennially important issues as race, politics, environmentalism, and gender. In particular, we will focus on how mysticism, myth, and the radical religious imagination are mobilized to affect real change in the sociocultural realm. We will engage primary materials such as text, film, and music: a multimedia approach that will foreground the complex strategies used to transform ideas into actions, propositions into performances. To this end, assignments will offer creative yet critical opportunities to think through the complexities of the construction of our own group and individual identities. Subject matter treated will include sex, drugs and rock & roll¿as well as polite conversations about other things normally avoided in polite conversation. No prior experience with religious studies or philosophy is necessary. All materials will be in English. Everyone is welcome.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 105:
Religion and War in America (HISTORY 154D)
Scholars have devoted much attention to wars in American history, but have not agreed as to whether religion was a major cause or simply a cover for political, economic, and other motives. We will compare interpretations that leave religion out, with those that take it into account. We will also look at the impact of war on the religious lives of ordinary Americans. We will examine both secondary as well as primary sources, beginning with King Philip's War in the 17th century, and ending with the "War on Terror" in the present day.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 106:
Religion and the Environment: The Moral Meanings of Nature
What does it mean to live in "harmony" with nature? What do humans seek and find in nature and our relationship to it? How have understandings of nature oriented human actions and values and given "place" to humanity in the cosmos? From religious texts to Deep Ecology, American conservationism to Buddhist and Romantic nature poetry, naturalist critics of religion to religious naturalists, and finally debates over the role of religion in dealing with environmental crisis, this course is designed as a general introductory survey of the topic of religion and the environment. It will be guided by the question of how conceptions of nature have been a source of reflection on the goals of life and the ways in which humans are to understand their existential "lot". Readings will include primary texts from major religious traditions, poetry, and scholarly and philosophical texts from figures including, among others, Descartes, Goethe, Nietzsche, J.S. Mill, Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Gary Snyder, and Peter Singer.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
RELIGST 107:
Hindus and Muslims in South Asia
Hindus and Muslims have lived together in the subcontinent for over 1000 years, joined by Sikhs in the last 500. Contrasting narratives may emphasize composite cultures and interdependent societies, or separation and conflict. In the first half we will introduce these traditions and communities and highlight composite cultures in religion, literature, and music. In the second half we will examine key moments of conflict: the 11th-century invasions of Mahmud of Ghazni and narratives about them in Hindu and Muslim sources; the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan; the Khalistan movement and the 1984 massacre of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination; the 2002 Gujarat riots. Learning goals: critically examine the categories `Hindu,' `Muslim,' `Sikh,' `religion'; analyze differing narratives of the same events; clarify the complex factors involved in violent `religious' conflict.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 108:
Indian Epics: Past and Present (COMPLIT 148B)
The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, the two great epics of India, have been crucial texts in South Asian literatures and cultures for millennia. In this course, we will explore the diverse traditions of both epics from their Sanskrit versions, first composed more than 2,000 years ago, through retellings in newer media forms well into the twenty-first century. Among our primary interests will be comparing versions of each epic that have circulated in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West at different times. We begin with abridged translations of both the Sanskrit Mahabharata (including the Bhagavadgita) and the Ramayana. We will discuss the major literary, religious, and social themes of each text as well as subsequent translations and transcreations of the stories in Indian and Southeast Asian contexts during the last thousand years. We will also investigate the modern lives of the epics, including their transformations into Indian television serials, film versions of both narratives (from India and America), and invocations of the epic stories in contemporary art, culture, and political disputes. Students will gain exposure to some of the foundational texts for the study of South Asia, both past and present. More broadly, students will cultivate the ability to fruitfully approach texts from different cultures and learn to critically analyze the impacts and roles of stories in various religious, literary, and historical contexts.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 109:
Emperor, Explorer, and God: Alexander the Great in the Global Imagination (CLASSICS 142)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 109.) This course will survey the changing image of Alexander the Great from the Hellenistic world to the contemporary. We shall study the appropriation of his life and legend in a variety of cultures both East and West and discuss his reception as both a divine and a secular figure by examining a variety of media including texts (primary and secondary) and images (statues, coins, mosaics, illuminated manuscripts, film, and TV) in the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Jewish, Islamic, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern contexts. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations in film and popular culture, such as Alexander directed by Oliver Stone and Pop Art in order to better appreciate his enduring legacy.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 113B:
Japanese Religion Through Film
Themes in premodern and modern Japanese religion though animations, movies and documentaries
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 113C:
Asceticism: The Discipline of Desire
Asceticism is an intense negotiation of the self with its desires, usually taking the form of the attempt to repress or curtail desire. Asceticism is often understood as a radical response to the problem of obsessive desire. Excessive attachments to food, money, and sex are among the most common of these concerns¿today we refer to these as addictions¿both in the contemporary world and to those living in a pre-modern context. In this course, we will discuss the experiences of ascetic figures throughout history not as relics of history but as intelligible responses to the problem of obsessive desire common to all ages. We will comparatively examine case studies from the ancient Christian world and the modern Indian world. The first part of the course will be devoted to understanding some of the most notable theoretical approaches to ascetic behavior in the field of religious studies while the second part of the course will be devoted to close readings of the cases in light of these theoretical approaches. Cross-cultural comparison and contrast will also be stressed. In the final part of the course, we will turn to modern philosophical reflections on ascetic behavior, attempting to answer the question, does the ascetic response to obsessive desire make sense in the world we live in today?
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 114:
Yoga Ancient and Modern
Originating in ancient India, yoga went through many developments over more than 4000 years in India and other parts of Asia. Having migrated to Euro-America in the late nineteenth century, today yoga is everywhere--studios, schools, gyms, malls, resorts, ashrams, retreat centers. It comes in many flavors¿austere, with meditative instructors and Sanskrit chants; stylish, in 105-degree heat, with portable-miked instructors loudly motivating students to go through poses with speed and intensity; niche-crafted to meet the needs of busy professionals, pregnant women, senior citizens, or people with back problems. It may appear as a spiritual path or as a heavily marketed commodity. It generates lawsuits as teachers dispute ownership of certain styles, or as some Americans oppose its teaching yoga in public schools. In the first half of the course we will study the history of yoga in India, reading primary texts composed between about 500 BCE and 1600 CE. In the second half we will learn about yoga's globalization in the last century. Participating in a yoga class is recommended. 2 units of independent study (S-NC) are offered for those who participate in a weekly yoga class and write short reflections on the experience.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 116:
Who Speaks for Religion? Scholars Versus Believers
This course introduces students to the Insider /Outsider problem in the study of Religion focusing on questions of location, position, relation and boundaries. Who possesses the authority to decide on which people are inside/outside a religion, religious group or tradition? How do we conceive of the participant observer relationship and the speaking and writing about religion? How should we think about the scientific pretensions of religious studies as a reductionist approach? How do we meaningfully engage with questions of faith, theology, and the beliefs of others as part of a historical narrative of religious studies that both privileges lived experience of believers and extols the need for critical distance on the part of scholars?
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 117:
Christianity in 21st-century America
As the largest religion practiced in the United States, Christianity not only shapes the lives of a large number of its citizens but also impinges on public discourse, policies, and debates. This course investigates the ways in which Christianity in America is changing and what these changes bode for its role in the public and private spheres. Issues include shifting demographics lead to declining numbers in 'mainline' denominations; the polarization of Christian conservatives and religious 'nones'; interfaith toleration and cooperation alongside interreligious conflict; the rise of 'spiritual, not religious' young adults; the effects of immigration; religion and science.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 118:
Gandhi, Nonviolence, Religion
We will study Gandhi and his era, focusing on sources that relate Gandhi¿s theory and practice of nonviolence to religion and ethics. Topics include Gandhi¿s biography and personal influences; his construction of Hinduism and inclination to asceticism; his encounters with Jainism and Christianity; his attempts to negotiate the increasingly intractable and violent issues between Hindus and Muslims leading up to independence/partition; and the religious arguments involved in his bitter break with the leader of the anti-caste and ¿untouchable¿ liberation movement, B.R. Ambedkar. We will locate discussions of religion within larger political and social circumstances. Readings include The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Hind Swaraj, and other writings by Gandhi; the Bhagavad Gita; Erik Erikson¿s psychoanalytic study, Gandhi¿s Truth; and recent critical works on Gandhi and religion.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 119:
Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence
College courses and public events often address "religion and violence"--an important topic, but one-sided. We will study ways in which religious leaders, movements, and discourses have (1) promoted violent conflict, aggression, and oppression; and (2) contributed to nonviolence, peacebuilding, and liberation of the oppressed. An overarching theme will be a view of religions as fields of interpretation. No religion is essentially violent or peaceful; intricately connected to the world around them, religions become what they become through interpretation and action. Each week will have two meetings: one featuring an outstanding guest lecturer and one to discuss the lecture topic, with assigned readings and films. Topics under consideration include: Buddhism and Violence; Dorothy Day and Catholic Nonviolent Resistance to Nuclear Weapons; Just War and Jihad; The Contribution of Negro Spirituals to Liberation; The Quakers: Pacifist Convictions and Activism; Violence/Nonviolence in Jainism; The Role of Christian Faith in M.L. King's Political Work; Spirituality and Religious Peacebuilding. For lecture series with required attendance and written reflections for 2 units, take RELIGST 29.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
RELIGST 124:
Sufi Islam
The complex of Islamic intellectual and social perspectives subsumed under the term Sufism. Sufi mystical philosophies and historical and social evolution. Major examples include: Qushayrî, Râbi'a, Junayd, Hallâj, Sulamî, Ibn al-'Arabî, Rûmî, Nizâm al-Dîn Awliyâ'. Social and political roles of Sufi saints and communities. Readings include original prose and poetry in translation, secondary discussions, and ethnography.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 126:
Protestant Reformation (HISTORY 126B)
The emergence of Protestant Christianity in 16th-century Europe. Analysis of writings by evangelical reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Sattler, Hubmeier, Müntzer) and study of reform movements (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Spiritualist) in their medieval context and as expressions of new and influential visions of Christian belief, life, social order.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 128:
The Five Books of Moses
A survey of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy¿that will explore their authorship, form and meaning.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 129:
Modern Jewish Thought (JEWISHST 129)
From 1870 to the late twentieth century, Jewish thought and philosophy attempted to understand Judaism in response to the developments and crises of Jewish life in the modern world. In this course we shall explore the responses of figures such as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Hermann Cohen, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Joseph Soloveitchik, Emil Fackenheim, and Emmanuel Levinas. Central topics will concern ethics and politics, faith and revelation, redemption and messianism, and the religious responses to catastrophe and atrocity. We shall discuss Judaism in European culture before and after World War I and in North America in the postwar period and after the Six Day War. A central theme will be the ways in which attempts to understand Jewish experience are related to history.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 130:
Sex and Gender in Judaism and Christianity (FEMGEN 130, JEWISHST 120)
What role do Jewish and Christian traditions play in shaping understandings of gender differences? Is gender always imagined as dual, male and female? This course explores the variety of ways in which Jewish and Christian traditions - often in conversation with and against each other - have shaped gender identities and sexual politics. We will explore the central role that issues around marriage and reproduction played in this conversation. Perhaps surprisingly, early Jews and Christian also espoused deep interest in writing about 'eunuchs' and 'androgynes,' as they thought about Jewish and Christian ways of being a man or a woman. We will examine the variety of these early conversations, and the contemporary Jewish and Christian discussions of feminist, queer, trans- and intersex based on them.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 132C:
How Jesus the Jew became God
Contemporary historical-critical methods in investigating how one might study Jewish and Christian texts of the 1st century CE. Social contexts including economic realities and elite ideological views. What can be known historically about 1st-century Judaism and Jesus' part it in it. How Jewish apocalyptic messianism shaped the birth of Christianity and its trajectory through the 1st century.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 132D:
Early Christian Gospels (CLASSICS 145)
An exploration of Christian gospels of the first and second century. Emphasis on the variety of images and interpretations of Jesus and the good news, the broader Hellenistic and Jewish contexts of the gospels, the processes of developing and transmitting gospels, and the creation of the canon. Readings include the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary and other canonical and non-canonical gospels.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 133:
Inventing Christianity in Late Antiquity
The transformation of an apocalyptic sect into an imperial religion from 200 to 600 C.E. Shifts in structures of authority, worship, and belief mapped against shifts in politics, economics and religion in the larger Roman empire. Cultural visions of this history including Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Dan Brown's conspiracy theory in The Da Vinci Code, and Elaine Pagels' The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 140:
RELIGION AND ETHICS: The Limits of Dialogue
How do religious traditions address ethical problems? Although ¿the good¿ seems like a universal goal, religious traditions force us to consider non-universal ways of defining it. From marriage to genetic engineering, from abortion to organ donation, issues of community, faith, and practice continue to complicate our ethical thinking. Exploration of case-studies and concepts, with readings from Kant, Foucault, Butler and others, as well as Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Bible.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas
RELIGST 144:
John Calvin and Christian Faith
Close reading and analysis of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion as a classic expression of Christian belief.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 146:
Religious Mystery and Rational Reflection
Explores the boundaries of rational knowledge about Christian faith through a careful reading of the transcendental project of Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. Rahner¿s thought, informed by various sources (e.g., the mystics, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel and Ignatius Loyola), results in an interpretation of Christian faith that strives for intellectual honesty in the face of challenges from science, atheism and post-modern culture. Yet it leaves room for a fundamental human openness to the source and goal of self-transcendence, what Rahner calls Holy Mystery. Weekly short position papers will be required to stir both reflection and discussion.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 148:
From Jesus to Paul
Jesus considered himself God's definitive prophet, but he did not think he was God, and had no intention of founding a new religion. How did this Jewish prophet become the gentile God and the founder of Christianity? The role of Paul.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 148A:
St. Paul and the Politics of Religion
The major letters written by Paul, the Apostle, and his biography, Acts of the Apostles. Historical context in first century Jewish cultural politics. Origins of Christianity, and the split into Judaism and Christianity. The relationship between Jews and non-Jews. The juxtaposition of law and faith. Origins of cultural universalism. Paul as Jewish radical versus Paul, the first Christian thinker and theologian. Recent philosophical readings of Paul (Taubes, Badiou, and Agamben).
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 150:
The Lotus Sutra: Story of a Buddhist Book
The Lotus school of Mahayana, and its Indian sources, Chinese formulation, and Japanese developments.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 161:
Modern Religious Thought: From Galileo to Freud
The three centuries following the Protestant Reformation led to a gradual clarification of the notions of the religious and secular and gave rise to a new genre of religious thought, ideally freed from theology, church or synagogue-a secular philosophy of religion, or in some cases a religiously-imbued philosophy. We will examine some of the foundations of religious thought in modernity, including Galileo, Spinoza, Diderot, Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud.
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 162X:
Spirituality and Nonviolent Urban and Social Transformation (CSRE 162A, URBANST 126)
A life of engagement in social transformation is often built on a foundation of spiritual and religious commitments. Case studies of nonviolent social change agents including Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement, César Chávez in the labor movement, and WIlliam Sloane Coffin in the peace movement; the religious and spiritual underpinnings of their commitments. Theory and principles of nonviolence. Films and readings. Service learning component includes placements in organizations engaged in social transformation. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 168:
Philosophy of Religion
Course traces efforts within the Western tradition from Boethius through Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Kierkegaard to Camus to establish a rational foundation for theist belief and its consistency or coherence with everyday experience. We will deal extensively with the criticisms that that effort has cast up and then turn to investigate issues that extraordinary or mystical experience raises. We will incorporate a look at Buddhist traditions as well as those in the west to gain insight into these questions. And finally, we will look at the ethics of belief, at our responsibility toward our commitments, and some of the varying positions available to us.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 173:
What is Enlightenment? Religion in the Age of Reason
Many contemporary attitudes towards religion were forged in 17th- and 18th-century Europe in the midst of heated debates over the meaning and value of Christianity in a world 'come of age': Liberal calls for justice, toleration, and pluralism in matters religious; secular suspicions about religious superstition, fanaticism, and ideology; skepticism regarding the solubility of ultimate questions of meaning and metaphysics. Seminal readings on religion from Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz, Voltaire, Hume, Mendelssohn and Kant.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 174:
Religious Existentialism-Kierkegaard
Existentialism is often understood to be a secular or anti-religious philosophy of life, a substitute for Christian ethics in a post-theistic world come of age. Yet this twentieth-century philosophical movement owes many of its concerns and much of its vocabulary to the hyper-Protestant Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard, and much of the best Christian and Jewish thought in the 20th-century (Bultmann, Buber, Tillich) adopted existentialism as the 'best philosophy' for making sense of these traditions in a secular age. This course will examine the origins of existentialist thought in the writings of Kierkegaard and its appropriation by a handful of influential 20th-century religious thinkers.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 176:
Religious Diversity: Theoretical and Practical Issues
What does it mean for a religion to be true? If one religion is true, what about the truth of other religious possibilities? How, and why, should religious traditions be compared? Readings address tolerance and pluralism, relativism, comparative theory, and new religious virtues.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 179:
Doing the Sacred: Religion and Performance
This course investigates religion as practice and performance, rather than as belief and doctrine. A performance-centered emphasis helps us understand how domination and authority, as well as creativity and individual resistance, underlie culture. From initiatory rites to cyber sermons, human action offers raw, physical data that unveils the mechanisms of social control, ideology, and individual resistance. Reorienting religion from the perspective of religious acts / actors -- those who are doing something they consider sacred -- evokes many interpretive possibilities: How do these performances create and maintain communities? How do they resolve conflicts that arise within everyday affairs? In what ways do they generate meaning and shape identity? What can these enactments reveal about the constructions of power, gender, and race? This course explores such issues, probing the complicated relationship between human intention and social reality. Ultimately, a study of religion and performance seeks to understand how performance and transcendence interact to make participants into who they are.nnThe readings cover an array of religious traditions -- medieval and evangelical Christian, Hindu, Native American, Jewish, Buddhist, African and Haitian Vodou -- all of which present a rich repertoire of sacred drama, dance, and music. We will discuss performances that make modern readers uncomfortable, such as sacrifice and flagellation, and examine why they are meaningful within their specific cultural context. Finally, we will consider how secular practices and the internet mimic religious behavior. However divergent, all of these examples demonstrate how religious performance is no mere artifice, but a vehicle for the practitioner's own pious posturing -- one that is spiritually innovative and self-affirming -- yet shaped by hierarchical regimes.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
RELIGST 183:
Atheism: Hegel to Heidegger (PHIL 133T)
The radical changes in ideas of God between Hegel and Heidegger, arguing that their questions about theism and atheism are still pertinent today. Texts from Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger: on God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature. N.B.: Class size limited. Apply early at tsheehan@stanford.edu.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 185:
Prophetic Voices of Social Critique
Judges, Samuel, Amos, and Isaiah depict and question power, strong leaders who inevitably fail, the societal inequities and corruption inevitable in prosperity, and the interplay between prophet as representative of God and the human king. How these texts succeed in their scrutiny of human power and societal arrangements through attention to narrative artistry and poetic force, and condemnation of injustice. Includes service-learning component in conjunction with the Haas Center.
Last offered: Spring 2007
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 188A:
Issues in Liberation: Central America
Within the context of US intervention in Latin America the course investigates the history of liberation movements in El Salvador and Nicaragua (including liberation theology), as well as ethical questions relating economic, social, and political issues in those countries. This class will likely include immersion travel to El Salvador or Nicaragua over spring break and consequently the size of this course is limited. Students will be given an application by email. All applications will be reviewed to determine final class enrollment.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 201:
Islamic Law (RELIGST 301)
(This course is combined with LAW 586) Topics include marriage, divorce, inheritance, ritual, war, rebellion, abortion, and relations with non-Muslims. The course begins with the premodern period, in which jurists were organized in legal traditions called ¿schools of law.¿ After examining the nature and functions of these institutions, we turn to the present era to study the relationship between customary law, state law, and the Islamic legal heritage in Egypt and Indonesia. The course explores Muslim laws and legal institutions and the factors that have shaped them, including social values and customs, politics, legal precedents, and textual interpretation.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 201A:
Gender in Classical Islamic Law (RELIGST 301A)
The course examines classical Islamic society and law. It covers historical development, the unity and diversity of Muslim legal traditions, and the relationship between laws and values. Constructions of gender in law are examined through rituals, marriage, divorce, birth control, child custody, and sexuality.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 202A:
Monsters, Ghosts and Other Fantastic Beings: The Supernatural and the Mysterious in Japanese Culture
Examine the development of strange and fantastic creatures in Japan. Mysterious creatures in folklore, literature, art, manga and movies. Through them see how the concept of the strange or mysterious have evolved and how they inform Japanese modernity.
Last offered: Autumn 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 203:
Myth, Place, and Ritual in the Study of Religion (RELIGST 303)
Sources include: ethnographic texts and theoretical writings; the approaches of Charles Long, Jonathan Z. Smith, Victor Turner, Michael D. Jackson, and Wendy Doniger; and lived experiences as recounted in Judith Sherman's Say the Name: A Survivor's Tale in Prose and Poetry, Jackson's At Home in the World, Marie Cardinal's The Words to Say It, and John Phillip Santos¿ Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 205:
Religious Poetry
Religious poetry drawn from the Islamic, Christian, Confucian and Daoist traditions. Limited enrollment or consent of the instructor required.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 208A:
Ex Oriente Lux: Orientalism and the Study of Religion (RELIGST 308A)
This seminar is designed to expose students to issues relating to discourse and subjectivity within the textual constructions of Oriental religions in the colonial era. We will begin with Edward W. Said¿s provocative work on notions of representation and power embedded in the discourse on the Orient that established, produced, and, ultimately, perpetuated western knowledge about the Other. We will then discuss the impact of the Oriental Renaissance and the vital role that Eastern wisdom played in constructing the field of Comparative Religious Studies. In addition, students will also read ethnographies, fables, and travelogues that both support and undermine Said¿s thesis of an active West constructing a largely passive East.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209:
Priests, Prophets, and Kings: Religion and Society in Late Antique Iran (CLASSICS 147, CLASSICS 247, RELIGST 309)
This course is designed as a broad introduction to the religious and social history of the Sasanian Empire, encompassing the period from 224-651 CE as well as the early years of Islamic rule in Iran. Among the topics we will discuss are: the lives and deeds of the powerful Iranian emperors such as Shapur I and II in relation to the the Roman emperors Diocletian and Constantine; the transformation of Zoroastrianism into a powerful official religion of the state and its subsequent orthodoxy; the emergence of the prophet Mani and the confrontation of Manicheism with the Zoroastrian priesthood; the conversion of Constantine to Christianity and its political and social ramifications in Iran; the establishment of an independent Iranian Christian church; the importance of Armenia in the Sasanian- Roman conflict; and a brief discussion of the history of the Jewish community under the Sasanians. We will end the quarter by examining the Arab¿Islamic¿conquests of Iran and the profound social changes experienced by the Zoroastrian communities in the early centuries of Islam in Iran.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
RELIGST 209A:
Sugar in the Milk: Modern Zoroastrianism as Race, Religion, and Ethnicity (RELIGST 309A)
Modern Zoroastrian experience¿as race, religion, and ethnic identity. Some 60,000 Zoroastrians now live in India and have resided there for a millennium. In the 19th century, these peoples from Persia¿Parsis¿became colonial elites yet were acutely aware that they were not quite Indian, British, or Persian. Diverse ways this experience of dislocation has served as a defining characteristic in Parsi communal identity and contrast these South Asian experiences with the minority socio-politics of those who remained in Iran. Survey the colonial and post-colonial communities in England, East Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and North America and examine the expression of these global diasporic experiences in literature and the arts.
Last offered: Winter 2012
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209D:
`Crow Eaters' & `Fire Worshippers': Exploring Contemporary Zoroastrianism Thru Reading Parsi Lit (RELIGST 309D)
In the past three decades Parsi fiction has rapidly emerged as a unique and creative voice in modern Anglophone literature from South Asia. From Bapsi Sidhwa to Thrity Umrigar to Rohinton Mistry, Parsi novelists address the most poignant concerns of Zoroastrians living in an era of rapid social, political, and religious transformation. The erosion of tradition; the breakdown of the Parsi family; the demise of religion among the young; and the cultural losses and gains of living in diaspora are common themes in their works. The unique vantage point of the Parsis; neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither quite Indian nor quite British; will serve as a lens for examining the inherent tensions in multicultural societies both East and West.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 209E:
Imperishable Heroes and Unblemished Goddesses: Myth, Ritual, and Epic in Ancient Iran (CLASSICS 148, CLASSICS 248, RELIGST 309E)
Designed as a broad introduction to the world of ancient Iran, students will be introduced to the Indo-European inheritance in ancient Iranian culture; the shared world of ritual, religion, and mythology between Zoroastrianism in Iran and Vedic Hinduism in India; and to the contours of early Zoroastrian religious thought. We will also survey mythoepic literature in translation from the archaic Avesta through the late antique Zoroastrian Middle Persian corpus to the early medieval national epic of Iran, the Book of Kings of Ferdowsi.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
RELIGST 212:
Chuang Tzu
The Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi) in its original setting and as understood by its spiritual progeny. Limited enrollment.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 216:
Japanese Buddhism
Focus on the religious lives of lay people in medieval Japan, as evidenced in collections of Buddhist stories (setsuwashu), narrative picture scrolls (emaki), and related historical materials. All readings are in English, but the instructor will also work with students interested in reading the original Japanese.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 221:
The Talmud (RELIGST 321)
Strategies of interpretation, debate, and law making. Historical contexts. Prerequisite: Hebrew.
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 221B:
What is Talmud? (RELIGST 321B)
In what sense can Talmud be studied as literature? Which voices can be identified? Concepts of author, editor, or redactor. The basic textual units of Talmud: sugya, chapter, and tractate. The sugya as literary genre. The aesthetic of talmudic dialectics.nnPrerequisite: reading Hebrew with some understanding of biblical Hebrew
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 222B:
Sufism Seminar (RELIGST 322B)
Sufism through original texts and specialized scholarship. Prerequisite: ability to read at least one major language of Islamic religious literature (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu).
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 223:
Studying Islam: History, Methods, Debates
Islam as a subject of academic inquiry since the 19th century. Origins and critiques of major methodological perspectives in Islamic studies such as philology, religious studies, history, art history, and anthropology. Landmarks in the development of the field and the work of major scholars. Academic debates regarding unity versus diversity, orientalism, fundamentalism and Islamism, Sufism, and gender. Current trends in scholarship on medieval and modern Muslim societies. Prerequisite: course work in Islamic studies or methodology in religious studies.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 224:
Classical Islamic Texts (RELIGST 324)
The course is based on readings in primary Arabic sources in the key fields of pre-modern Islamic scholarship. The list of readings and topics will depend on the interests of the students. In addition to focusing on the language, contents, and context of the texts covered, the course introduces genre-specific historical research methods. The reading selections may be derived from Qur¿anic interpretation (tafsir), the hadith literature, adab, biographical dictionaries, fiqh, ta'rikh, kalam, or Sufism. Reading knowledge of Arabic is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 9 units total)
RELIGST 224B:
Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination (RELIGST 324B)
Poetry and prose in translation as well as historical studies. Islamic movements invested in the idea that the sensory world has a hidden or esoteric counterpart that can be understood or experienced through following particular religious programs. Various forms of Shi'ism and Sufism, millenarian and apocalyptic movements, the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Philosophical propositions, historical contexts, and the role of ritual in the construction of religious systems.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 226A:
Judaism and Hellenism (RELIGST 326A)
interactions and conflicts between Jews and Greeks in the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the cultural/religious repercussions of their encounter. In what ways were Jews influenced by Greek culture? In what ways, and for what reasons, did they resist it? And how the interaction of these cultures shape the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity? Jewish texts in the Greco-Roman period, including Jewish-Greek writers like Philo of Alexandria, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, selected writings from the New Testament, and the Passover Haggadah.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 227:
The Qur'an (RELIGST 327)
Early history, themes, structure, chronology, and premodern interpretation. Relative chronology of passages.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 229:
Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire (CLASSICS 146, CLASSICS 246, RELIGST 329)
Stretching from India to Ethiopia, the Persian Empire¿the largest empire before Rome¿has been represented as the exemplar of oriental despotism and imperial arrogance, a looming presence and worthy foil for the ¿West¿ and Greek democracy. This course will provide a general introduction to the Persian Empire, beginning in the 6th century BCE to the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. We shall not only examine the originality of the first world empire of antiquity, but the course will also attempt to present a broad picture of the diverse cultural institutions and religious practices found within the empire. Readings in translation from the royal edicts and the inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, and Xerxes will allow us to better appreciate the subtle ways in which these Persian kings used religion to justify and propagate the most ambitious imperial agenda the world had ever seen. In concluding the quarter, students will evaluate contemporary representations of Persia and the Persians in politics and popular culture in a wide array of media, such as the recent film 300 and the graphic novel on which it is based, in an attempt to better appreciate the enduring legacy of the Greco-Persian wars.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 230B:
Zen Studies (RELIGST 330B)
Readings in recent English-language scholarship on Chan and Zen Buddhism
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 235:
Religion in Modern Society: Secularization and the Sacred (RELIGST 335)
What is the status of religion in modern life? Is the modern world "secular" in some fundamental, irreversible way and what does this mean? This course will explore these questions through variety of readings from leading sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists. Our goal will be to understand in what ways industrialization, political liberalization, the rise of technology, and the success of modern science have been used to support the "secularization" thesis that the modern West rendered religion a thing of the past. A central question to be asked will be: do assessments of the place of religion in modernity necessitate a philosophy of history i.e., a theory not only of historical change, but of the meaning of this change as well?n The course will begin by looking at the origins of the theory of secularization from its beginnings in Enlightenment attempts to understand the meaning of history. We will then turn to contemporary debates over the term "secular" against its counterpart, "religious", and the problems with their application to non-Western societies. We will read works by Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Max Weber, Charles Taylor, Jürgen Habermas, and Pope Benedict XVI.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
RELIGST 238:
Christian Neo-Platonism, East and West (RELIGST 338)
Christianity's shift to neo-Platonic Greek philosophical categories and its significance for contemporary spirituality. Readings from Plotinus, Proclus, Greek fathers such as Pseudo-Dionysus, and from Ambrose and Augustine.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 239:
Luther and the Reform of Western Christianity (RELIGST 339)
Luther's theology, ethics, biblical interpretation, and social reforms and their significance for the remaking of Western Christianity. Readings include Luther's own writings and secondary sources about Luther and his world.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 245:
Religion, Reason, and Romanticism
The late 18th-century European cultural shift from rationalist to romantic modes of thought and sensibility. Debates about religion as catalysts for the new Zeitgeist. Readings include: the Jewish metaphysician, Mendelssohn; the dramatist, Lessing; the philosopher of language and history, Herder; the critical idealist, Kant; and the transcendental idealist, Fichte.
Last offered: Autumn 2007
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 246:
Constructing Race and Religion in America (CSRE 246, HISTORY 256G, HISTORY 356G, RELIGST 346)
This seminar focuses on the interrelationships between social constructions of race, and social interpretations of religion in America. How have assumptions about race shaped religious worldviews? How have religious beliefs shaped racial attitudes? How have ideas about religion and race contributed to notions of what it means to be "American"? We will look at primary and secondary sources, and at the historical development of ideas and practices over time.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 247B:
Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: The Lingbao Scriptures (RELIGST 347B)
A survey of the original Lingbao scriptures. Composed in the late-4th / early 5th century, these texts radically revised Daoist practice, incorporated elements of Buddhist thought and practice, and created liturgies that are still used in Daoist communities today. (Reading knowledge of Literary Chinese ¿¿ required).
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 248A:
Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall (RELIGST 348A)
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250:
Classics of Indian Buddhism
Texts in English translation includING discourses (sutras), philosophical treatises, commentaries, didactic epistles, hymns, biographies, and narratives.
Last offered: Spring 2008
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251:
Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 351)
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 25 units total)
RELIGST 252:
Hearts and Diamonds: The Lives of Buddhist Sacred Texts
An exploration of two key Mahayana Buddhist scriptures (the Heart & Diamond Sutras) and their histories, looking at what they say and how they have been used, from the first millennium to the present day.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 253:
Mountains, Buddhist Practice, and Religious Studies (RELIGST 353)
The notion of the sacred mountain. Readings from ethnographic and theoretical works, and primary sources.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 255:
Religion and Power in the Making of Modern South Asia (HISTORY 297F, RELIGST 355)
This course examines the diverse ways that religious traditions have been involved in the brokering of power in South Asia from the late seventeenth century to the present day. We will examine the intersection of religion and power in different arenas, including historical memory, religious festivals, language politics, and violent actions. At the core of our inquiry is how religion is invoked in political contexts (and vice-versa), public displays of religiosity, and the complex dynamics of religion and the state. Among other issues, we will particularly engage with questions of religious identity, knowledge, and violence. Undergraduates must enroll in RELIGST 255 for 5 units. Graduate students must enroll RELIGST 355 for 3-5 units. HISTORY297F must be taken for 4-5 units.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
RELIGST 258:
Japanese Buddhist Texts (RELIGST 358)
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
RELIGST 261A:
Belief (in a post-Christian Age)
The post-Chritain (or post-modern) age has given rise to new forms of faith, ranging from secular humanism and cultural atheism to rediscovery of the transcendent in the cosmos and quantum mechanics. However, unlike the era of "Christendom," belief is no longer necessarily hinged to faith. This course explores the origins of this phenomenon in Thomas Aquinas, and then newer philosophical approaches to understanding belief, ranging from Charles Taylor and Talal Asad and their theories of the secular, to Catherine Bell and the role of practice in believing. Finally, we turn to the work of three contemporary theorists of religious belief: Gianni Vattimo, Jean-Luc Marion, and Richard Kearney, who endeavor to cast believing outside established theological categories, yet still speak of "god."
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 263:
Judaism and the Body
Representations and discourses of the body in Jewish culture; theories of body and ritual. Case studies of circumcision, menstrual impurity, and intersexuality. Readings include classical texts in Jewish tradition and current discussions of these textual traditions.
Last offered: Autumn 2006
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
RELIGST 271A:
Dante's Spiritual Vision
Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas Aquinas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Students may take 271A without taking 271B. Consent of the instructor required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 271B:
Dante's Spiritual Vision
Poetry, ethics, and theology in Dante's Divine Comedy. Supplementary readings from classical authors such as St. Thomas, and from modern writers, such as Jorge Borges. Fulfills capstone seminar requirement for the Philosophy and Literature tracks. Prerequisite: 271A
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 273:
Historicism and Its Problems: Ernst Troeltsch, the Study of Religion, and the Crisis of Historicism (RELIGST 373)
Examination of the early twentieth-century historian of religion, philosopher of culture, sociologist of religion, Christian theologian, and philosopher of history, Ernst Troeltsch, within the context of the late nineteenth-century "crisis of historicism," i.e., the historicization and relativization of religious, ethical, social, and political norms. Attention to seminal theorists of history (Herder, Kant, Ranke, Hegel, Nietzsche) in the post-Enlightenment German intellectual tradition and the attempts of Christian and Jewish thinkers in the Weimar era (Barth, Gogarten, Rosenzweig, L. Strauss) to "overcome" the crisis wrought by a radically historical approach to human culture.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 274:
From Kant to Kierkegaard (RELIGST 374)
(Graduate students register for 374. Undergrads register for 274 for 5 units.) The philosophy of religion emerged from the European Enlightenment as a new genre of reflection on religion distinct from both dogmatic theology and rationalist dreams of a "natural" religion of reason. Neither beholden to pre-critical tradition, nor dismissive of what Thomas Nagel has termed "the religious attitude," this new, ostensibly secular, genre of religious thought sought to rethink the meaning of Christianity at a time of immense philosophical ferment. The main currents of religious thought in Germany from Kant's critical philosophy to Kierkegaard's revolt against Hegelianism. Emphasis on the theories of religion, the epistemological status of religious discourse, the role of history (especially the figure of Jesus), and the problem of alienation/reconciliation in seminal modern thinkers: Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, and Kierkegaard.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
RELIGST 275:
Kierkegaard (RELIGST 375)
(Graduate students register for 375.) Close reading of Kierkegaard's magnum opus, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments, in its early 19th-century context.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 277:
The Later Heidegger: Art, Poetry, Language (PHIL 234B, RELIGST 377)
Lectures and seminar discussions of the problematic of the later Heidegger (1930 - 1976) in the light of his entire project. Readings from "On the Origin of the Work of Art" and Elucidations of Holderlin's Poetry.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 278:
Heidegger: Confronting the Ultimate (RELIGST 378)
Heidegger's work on meaning, the self, and the sacred. Texts include Being and Time, courses and opuscula up to 1933, the Letter on Humanism, and Contributions of Philosophy.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 279A:
Heidegger on human being and God (RELIGST 379A)
This lecture-seminar first raises the question of essential characteristics of human being, such as temporality, mortality, hermeneutics and the relation to meaning, and then, via readings from Karl Rahner, asks whether human being is open to a possible relation to a supernatural divinity.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 280:
Schleiermacher: Reconstructing Religion (RELIGST 380)
Idealist philosopher, Moravian pietist, early German Romantic, co-founder of the University of Berlin, head preacher at Trinity Church, translator of Plato's works, Hegel's opponent, pioneer in modern hermeneutics, father of modern theology. Schleiermacher's controversial reconception of religion and theology in its philosophical context.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 283A:
Heidegger, Hölderlin, and the Gods (RELIGST 383A)
The radical transformations in Western notions of God between the death of Hegel and the birth of historical materialism, arguing that questions about theism and atheism, humanism, and history formulated in the period 1831-50 are still pertinent. Texts from Hegel, the young Hegelians, Feuerbach, and Marx on issues of God, history, and the social dimensions of human nature.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 290:
Majors Seminar
Required of all majors and combined majors. The study of religion reflects upon itself. Representative modern and contemporary attempts to "theorize," and thereby understand, the phenomena of religion in anthropology, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, and philosophy. WIM.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
SLAVIC 77Q:
Russia's Weird Classic: Nikolai Gogol
This seminar investigates the work and life of Nikolai Gogol, the most eccentric of Russian authors, the founder of what was dubbed Fantastic (or Magic) Realism. Our investigation will be based on close reading of the works written in various genres and created in various stages of Gogol's literary career. This study provides a perspective on the relationship between Romanticism and Realism in Russian literature (the so-called "Natural School" of the 1830-1840s), and between the popular Ukrainian culture and "high" Russian and West European traditions in Gogol's oeuvre. The seminar traces Gogol's influences on subsequent Russian literature (Dostoevsky in particular) and investigates the impact of his work on XX century modernist literature, theatre, music, and painting (Vladimir Nabokov, literature of the absurd, Dmitry Shostakovich, Marc Chagall). The seminar is intended for students interested in literature and literary studies.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
SLAVIC 146:
The Great Russian Novel: Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (SLAVIC 346)
The development of 19th-century Russian novel through close reading and broad cultural examination of three masterpieces: Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov (1859), Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866), and Leo Tolstoy¿s Anna Karenina (1877) - the novels which have been part of the European literary canon long before Oprah Winfrey put them in her reading list. Through the analysis of the novels and their adaptations, students will study the aesthetic contours of Russian Realism and its intermedial capacities. Special attention will be paid to the questions of genre, discource, medium and itermediality, relationship between artist, audience, and critic.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
SLAVIC 147:
Modern Russian Literature and Culture: The Age of War and Revolution (SLAVIC 347)
The Age of Revolution: Readings in Russian Modernist Prose of the 1920-30s: What makes Russian modernist prose special? Or is there anything special about Russian modernist prose? This course aims to answer these questions through close readings of works by Babel, Mandelstam, Zoshchenko, Platonov, Olesha and Bulgakov. Aesthetic issues such as hero, plot, and narrative devices will be addressed with the aid of contemporaneous literary theory (Shklovsky, Tynianov, Eikhenbaum, Bakhtin). Novels and theory will be read in English.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
SLAVIC 156:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 115, COMPLIT 315, SLAVIC 356)
Nabokov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel "The Gift," "Lolita" (the novel and screenplay), and "Pale Fire." Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SLAVIC 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, COMPLIT 181, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
SLAVIC 190:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 190, COMPLIT 390, SLAVIC 390)
Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
SLAVIC 195:
Russian and East European Theater (SLAVIC 395)
Evolution of modernist Russian/EEur. dramaturgy, theatrical practices, landmark productions from Chekhov-Meyerhold-Grotowski to present; re-performance of classics; techniques of embodiment. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SLAVIC 198:
Writing Between Languages: The Case of Eastern European Jewish Literature (JEWISHST 148, JEWISHST 348, SLAVIC 398)
Eastern European Jews spoke and read Hebrew, Yiddish, and their co-territorial languages (Russian, Polish, etc.). In the modern period they developed secular literatures in all of them, and their writing reflected their own multilinguality and evolving language ideologies. We focus on major literary and sociolinguistic texts. Reading and discussion in English; students should have some reading knowledge of at least one relevant language as well.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SLAVIC 236:
The Russian Long Take
"Time flows in a film not by virtue but in defiance of montage-cuts," wrote the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. An exploration of the phenomenon of long take (a single continuous shot which presents `a vision of time') and its aesthetic and philosophical significance to the art of cinema. Key films by cult Russian/Soviet auteurs such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Paradzhanov and Aleksandr Sokurov will be used as case studies and read through the prism of film theory (Gilles Deleuze, Andre Bazin and Jean Epstein). Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SLAVIC 251:
Dostoevsky: Narrative Performance and Literary Theory (COMPLIT 219)
In-depth engagement with a range of Dostoevsky's genres: early works (epistolary novella Poor Folk and experimental Double), major novels (Crime and Punishment, The Idiot), less-read shorter works ("A Faint Heart," "Bobok," and "The Meek One"), and genre-bending House of the Dead and Diary of a Writer. Course applies recent theory of autobiography, performance, repetition and narrative gaps, to Dostoevsky's transformations of genre, philosophical and dramatic discourse, and narrative performance. Slavic students read primary texts in Russian, other participants in translation. Course conducted in English. For graduate students; undergraduates with advanced linguistic and critical competence may enroll with consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SLE 91:
Structured Liberal Education
Focusing on great works of philosophy, religion, literature, painting, and film drawn largely from the Western tradition, the SLE curriculum places particular emphasis on artists and intellectuals who brought new ways of thinking and new ways of creating into the world, often overthrowing prior traditions in the process. These are the works that redefined beauty, challenged the authority of conventional wisdom, raised questions of continuing importance to us today, and - for good or ill - created the world we still live in. Texts may include: Homer, Sappho, Greek tragedy, Plato, Aristotle, Zhuangzi, Confucius, the Heart Sutra, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and the Aeneid.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 8
| UG Reqs: College, GER:DB-Hum, GER:IHUM-1, THINK, WAY-A-II, Writing SLE
SLE 92:
Structured Liberal Education
Focusing on great works of philosophy, religion, literature, painting, and film drawn largely from the Western tradition, the SLE curriculum places particular emphasis on artists and intellectuals who brought new ways of thinking and new ways of creating into the world, often overthrowing prior traditions in the process. These are the works that redefined beauty, challenged the authority of conventional wisdom, raised questions of continuing importance to us today, and - for good or ill - created the world we still live in. Texts may include: Augustine, the Qur'an, Dante, Rumi, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Las Casas, Descartes, Locke, Mill, Schleiermacher, and Flaubert.
Terms: Win
| Units: 8
| UG Reqs: College, GER:DB-Hum, GER:IHUM-2, THINK, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER, Writing SLE
SLE 93:
Structured Liberal Education
Focusing on great works of philosophy, religion, literature, painting, and film drawn largely from the Western tradition, the SLE curriculum places particular emphasis on artists and intellectuals who brought new ways of thinking and new ways of creating into the world, often overthrowing prior traditions in the process. These are the works that redefined beauty, challenged the authority of conventional wisdom, raised questions of continuing importance to us today, and - for good or ill - created the world we still live in. Texts may include: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Du Bois, Eliot, Woolf, Kafka, Brecht, Vertov, Beauvoir, Sartre, Fanon, Gandhi, and Morrison.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 8
| UG Reqs: College, GER:DB-Hum, GER:IHUM-3, THINK, WAY-EDP, Writing 2, Writing SLE
SPANLIT 102N:
Contemporary Latin American Theater
Representative playwrights and theater troupes of Spanish speaking Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasizing the 60s and 70s. Topics: representation and politics; theatrical language and poetics; avant gardes and performance; teatro comprometido; psychodrama; influence of Brecht, Artaud, and the Theater of the Absurd. Plays by Emilio Carballido, Sabina Berman, Virgilio Piñera, Jose Triana, René Marqués, Luis Rafael Sánchez, La Candelaria, Yuyachkani, Osvaldo Dragún, Griselda Gambaro, Eduardo Pavlovsky, Egon Wolff.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SPANLIT 105N:
Don Quixote
Preference to freshmen. Topics include: theories of language and the novel; history of early modern Iberia; Muslims in Europe. Close reading technique. Sources include filmed version.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SPANLIT 106N:
Contemporary Latin American Novel in Translation
Preference to freshmen. Representative Latin American novelists who attained international readership after the literary boom. Critical readings and theoretical debates. Topics include: latinoamericanidad, reactions to magical realism, crime and the city, politics of translation, economies of prestige, revisions of dictatorship, relations with contemporary art, representations of class and gender, globalization. Works by Piglia, Vallejo, Aira, Bellatin, Melo, and Bolaño. Film adaptations by Piñeyro and Schroeder.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
SPECLANG 75:
Greek Culture, Ideals, and Themes
Introduction to Greek culture and its global influence in a social historical context, through images from its past and institutions in contemporary Greek society. Limited enrollment.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
| Repeatable
for credit
(up to 99 units total)
SPECLANG 198Q:
Modern Greece in Film and Literature
Preference to sophomores. Cultural and literary highlights. Filmmakers include Kakoyannis, Dassen, Boulmetis, Angelopoulos, and Scorsese; readings from Eugenides, Gage, Kavafis, Kazantzakis, Samarakis, Seferis, and Elytis.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
STS 200D:
Text Technologies: A History (ENGLISH 184H)
Beginning with cave painting, carving, cuneiform, hieroglyph, and other early textual innovations, survey of the history of writing, image, sound, and byte, all text technologies employed to create, communicate and commemorate. Focus on the recording of language, remembrance and ideas explicating significant themes seen throughout history; these include censorship, propaganda, authenticity, apocalypticism, technophobia, reader response, democratization and authority. The production, transmission and reception of tablet technology, the scroll, the manuscript codex and handmade book, the machine-made book, newspapers and ephemera; and investigate the emergence of the phonograph and photograph, film, radio, television and digital multimedia.The impact of these various text technologies on their users, and try to draw out similarities and differences in our cultural and intellectual responses to evolving technologies. STS majors must have senior status to enroll in this senior capstone course.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
TAPS 1:
Introduction to Theater and Performance Studies
TAPS 1 provides you with a solid foundation in Theater Studies and traces the development of the burgeoning field of Performance Studies. We will consider a range of canonical plays and emerging performance forms, and explore how ¿performance¿ can also function as an interpretive framework for analyzing a broad range of social behaviors, sites, and institutions. Through a series of close readings, discussions, written and practical exercises, and viewings of live performance, this course will help you achieve a richer understanding of the performances you see and the performances you may wish to make. This quarter, TAPS 1 will serve as the platform for the Theater & Performance Studies professionalization series. We will host several guest speakers (directors, actors, playwrights, and dance practitioners), who will give you some real connections in the theater world and will provide you with information and skills to help you build a career in the arts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
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: Aut
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 12N:
To Die For: Antigone and Political Dissent (CLASSICS 17N)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 6N.) Preference to freshmen. Tensions inherent in the democracy of ancient Athens; how the character of Antigone emerges in later drama, film, and political thought as a figure of resistance against illegitimate authority; and her relevance to contemporary struggles for women's and workers' rights and national liberation. Readings and screenings include versions of Antigone by Sophocles, Anouilh, Brecht, Fugard/Kani/Ntshona, Paulin, Glowacki, Gurney, and von Trotta.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-ER
TAPS 14N:
Imagining India: Art, Culture, Politics in Modern India (COMPLIT 14N, CSRE 15N, FEMGEN 14N)
This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
TAPS 151C:
Hamlet and the Critics (ENGLISH 115C)
Focus is on Shakespeare's Hamletas a site of rich critical controversy from the eighteenth century to the present. Aim is to read, discuss, and evaluate different approaches to the play, from biographical, theatrical, and psychological to formalist, materialist, feminist, new historicist, and, most recently, quantitative. The ambition is to see whether there can be great literature without (a) great (deal of) criticism. The challenge is to understand the theory of literature through the study of its criticism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 151T:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (COMPLIT 151B, COMPLIT 351B, TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakepeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 160:
Performance and History: Rethinking the Ballerina (DANCE 160, FEMGEN 160, TAPS 260)
The ballerina occupies a unique place in popular imagination as an object of over-determined femininity as well as an emblem of extreme physical accomplishment for the female dancer. This seminar is designed as an investigation into histories of the ballerina as an iconographic symbol and cultural reference point for challenges to political and gender ideals. Through readings, videos, discussions and viewings of live performances this class investigates pivotal works, artists and eras in the global histories of ballet from its origins as a symbol of patronage and power in the 15th century through to its radical experiments as a site of cultural obedience and disobedience in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
TAPS 162:
Performance and the Text (TAPS 262)
Formal elements in Greek, Elizabethan, Noh, Restoration, romantic, realistic, and contemporary world drama; how they intersect with the history of performance styles, character, and notions of action. Emphasis is on how performance and media intervene to reproduce, historicize, or criticize the history of drama.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
TAPS 162I:
The Idea of a Theater
Examines the idea of a theater from the religious street theater of Medieval York, though Shakespeare's Globe, and onto the mental theater of the Romantic reader and the alienation effects of Brecht's radical playhouse in the 20th cent
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
TAPS 167:
Introduction to Greek Tragedy: Gods, Heroes, Fate, and Justice (CLASSICS 112)
(Formerly CLASSGEN 110.) Gods and heroes, fate and free choice, gender conflict, the justice or injustice of the universe: these are just some of the fundamental human issues that we will explore in about ten of the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
TAPS 177:
Writing for Performance: The Fundamentals (CSRE 177, FEMGEN 177, TAPS 277)
Course introduces students to the basic elements of playwriting and creative experimentation for the stage. Topics include: character development, conflict and plot construction, staging and setting, and play structure. Script analysis of works by contemporary playwrights may include: Marsha Norman, Patrick Shanley, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Octavio Solis and others. Table readings of one-act length work required by quarter's end.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-CE
TAPS 180Q:
Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Resistance
Preference to sophomores. Chomsky's ideas and work which challenge the political and economic paradigms governing the U.S. Topics include his model for linguistics; cold war U.S. involvements in S.E. Asia, the Middle East, Central and S. America, the Caribbean, and Indonesia and E. Timor; the media, terrorism, ideology, and culture; student and popular movements; and the role of resistance.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER, WAY-SI
TAPS 197:
Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America (DANCE 197)
This class works collaboratively with a local juvenile hall to use civic engagement and performance to explore the aesthetic, cultural and legal issues in the lives of incarcerated youth. In the process students gain an understanding of incarceration on an immediate and personal scale. Taught jointly by a Dance Studies scholar and a lawyer specializing in Juvenile Justice, we will consider what unique understandings are possible if we position the arts as central to an exploration of punishment, rehabilitation and recidivism in America. The course will examine case studies, historical and contemporary narratives about the social, imaginative and behavioral change possible through arts programs in prison.Half of the class meetings will be in Hillcrest Juvenile Hall in San Mateo, where our class will join with a group of 13-18 year old youths currently detained there. Dance will be used to help shape their individual expressive voices, and ours, through collaborative hip hop dance classes. Books to be read are Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, and Last Chance in Texas by John Hubner.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP
TAPS 248:
Family Drama: American Plays about Families
Plays written by 20th century writers that concentrate on the family as the primary source of dramatic conflict and comedy. Writers include Williams, O'Neill, Wilder, Albee, Vogel, Parks, Lindsay-Abaire, and Hwang.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
UGXFER GER3A1:
GER 3A SUBSTITUTION (1ST)
| Units: 0-99
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
UGXFER GER3A2:
GER 3A SUBSTITUTION (2ND)
| Units: 0
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
| Repeatable
for credit
URBANST 126:
Spirituality and Nonviolent Urban and Social Transformation (CSRE 162A, RELIGST 162X)
A life of engagement in social transformation is often built on a foundation of spiritual and religious commitments. Case studies of nonviolent social change agents including Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement, César Chávez in the labor movement, and WIlliam Sloane Coffin in the peace movement; the religious and spiritual underpinnings of their commitments. Theory and principles of nonviolence. Films and readings. Service learning component includes placements in organizations engaged in social transformation. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
URBANST 142:
Paris: The Making of a Modern Icon (FRENCH 227, HISTORY 239E)
Few places have been as heavily romanticized and mythologized as Paris. To many observers, Paris and its attractions serve as icons of modernity itself. By engaging with fiction, film, journalism, painting, photography, poetry, song, and other media, we¿ll trace how different people at different times have used Paris as both backdrop and main protagonist, and we'll consider how the city itself has incorporated and rebelled against such representations. The scope of our inquiry will stretch from the late 18th century to the present, covering a host of topics, figures, and sites: from the French Revolution to the protests of May '68, from Baudelaire to Hemingway, from the Impressionists to the Situationists. Taught in English
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
