Special Topics in British Literature: From Classic to Modern |
Readings in classical and modern literature stressing the continuities and discontinuities in the Western narrative tradition, stressing changes in the portrayal of heroism. The course will begin with a reading of ancient narrative and continue into the postmodern period and include works by Homer, Shakespeare, Woolf, Hemingway, and others. Papers, possibly a mid-term, and a final examination. |
Greek Art |
This courses explores the art of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period. The focus is on the art of the sixth and fifth centuries BC-the golden age of Greece. |
Shakespeare 56:606:511 (#48554) Cross-listed with 56:350:545:01 Professor Fitter Wednesday 6:00-8:40pm |
Historians are coming to recognize that the 1590s, with its disastrous wars, catastrophic harvests, spiraling inflation, and economic dislocation, was one of the harshest decades in English history; and the first decade under the new Scots king was but slightly improved. In these conditions, Shakespeare rejected the possibility of life as a poet under aristocratic patronage to write for the popular theater, which paradoxically was thriving in the margins of a nervously authoritarian society. Defining his dramatic meanings in terms of stage, not page, this course will seek to discover how Shakespeare outwitted the censor through the potentialities of a distinctively late Elizabethan stagecraft. Each student will be asked to choose one play and think it through in historicized terms. Grades will be determined on the basis of an in-class presentation, and one fifteen-to-twenty page term paper. |
Law, Religious War, and the Rise of Political Absolutism in France 1560-1760 —Special Liberal Studies Class 56:606:512:01(#53914) Professor Soll Tuesday 6:00-8:40pm |
This course examines the rise of the French state during a period of religious strife and civil war. It examines how French kings and ministers–from Henri IV, Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert and Louis XIV–worked to centralize the state and crush their enemies. In it, we will examine the philosophy and the legal framework of how to build a state as well as the methods of politics, war and diplomacy. Students will read classic texts of politics, as well as the personal letters and administrative papers of French statesmen and women to understand the mechanics of how politics work at a key moment in human history. |
Victorian Literature 56:606:521:01(#48829) Cross-listed with 56:350:571:01 Professor Fiske Tuesday 6:00-8:40pm |
This course covers British poetry and non-fiction prose during the Victorian age (1837-1901). In this first half-century of industrialism, rapid shifts in England ’s social structure, the nations quest for material gains, and the expansion of scientific knowledge prompted many poets and essayists to reassess fundamental cultural values. We will explore the dialogues and arguments between and among poets and cultural critics, liberals and conservatives, scientists and humanists, men and women. Our authors include Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, Emily Brontë, Swinburne, Florence Nightingale, Hardy, Pater, Carlyle, Newman, Ruskin, Mill, and Engels. Course requirements include an oral presentation, several short assignments, a mid-term paper, and a final research paper.
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World Literature in English Horror, Guilt, Responsibility: German Literature from 1945 to the Present. 56:606:531:01(#49272) Cross-listed with 56:350:529:01 Professor Dougherty Wednesday 6:00-8:40 |
This course focuses on the former East and West Germany from the years after World War II to the present. The totally different political and economic structures of East and West Germany – one a democracy, the other a dictatorship – gave rise to two different forms of literature that can be understood only against the backdrop of ideological differences and different perceptions of the Holocaust and World War II. This course will explore themes such as guilt, repression, public debate, new beginnings, different ideologies, the role of the individual in a democratic society, and the pressures of uniformity in a dictatorship. Attention will be paid to authors like Wolfgang Borchert, Heinrich Böll, Bernhard Schlink, Uwe Timm, Paul Celan, Bertolt Brecht, Christa Wolf, Peter Schneider. A short individual presentation and a research paper will be required. |
European Painting 1880-1940 |
This course is an analysis of a wide range of avant-garde movements from post-impressionism to surrealism. Emphsis is on the signifcant trends in art in France, Italy, Holland, and Russia |
Contemporary American Fiction 56:606:531:01 Cross-listed with 56:352:594:01 Professor Zeidner Thursday 6:00-8:40pm |
A survey of important authors and trends in American fiction since the 1950s. Novelists include Updike, Nabokov, Vonnegut, Pynchon, DeLillo, and Morrison. We’ll pay particular attention to the postmodern short story–Barth, Barthelme, Coover, Saunders, Moore . Two short response papers and one longer critical paper. |
20th Century Art 56:606:531:03 (#54249) Cross-listed with 50:082:368:01 Professor Tarbell Wednesday 1:30-4:00 p.m. |
This course is the study of major art movements in the United States, from academic classicism to contemporary styles and theories. Topics may vary. |
Photographing South Africa with Trip South Africa 56:606:541:02 (#54270) Cross-listed 50:080:484:04 and 50:082:492:03 Professor Hohing |
This course will focus on basic camera operation and photographic techniques for portraiture, landscape, and wildlife photography. Students are required to attend pre and post trip seminars to be scheduled in early spring. Locations in South Africa include Johannesburg , Cape Town , Soweto , and open-air wildlife preserves. Contact instructor or the International Studies Office for a full itinerary. Grade credit can be earned through participation in the group photography project “Messages to America ,” which investigates societal issues and international perceptions through portraiture and sociological data collection. Student-proposed projects must be approved by the appropriate academic department and the instructor. No pre-requisite or prior photographic knowledge is required. Students must supply their own camera equipment. Estimated price: $2995; $1000 deposit by December 8, additional $1000 by January 15, balance by February 24 |
Cross-Cultural Development and Mental Health (Six 2.5 hour classes followed by trip to Japan during spring break) 56:606:542:01 Cross-listed with 50:830:458:40 Professors Marmorstein & Duffy |
In this class, we will discuss how culture influences development and mental health. We will consider the traditional perspective of developmental psychology and consider how understanding culture helps us better account for cultural variability in psychological processes. As we think about these processes, we will discuss how they relate to psychological symptoms and disordersboth how they are experienced and how they are viewed and treated around the world. The class will consist of six 2 1/2 hour seminars (meeting on Friday afternoons before spring break), a trip to Japan during spring break, and a project to be completed independently by each student following the trip. During the six weeks of class meetings, reading and writing assignments will be fairly intensive to accommodate the fact that all group academic work for the semester must take place during that period. |
International Studies: South African Literature (8 weeke course with trip to South Africa over spring break) 56:606:542:02 (#54208) Cross-listed with 56:350:505:01and 50:350:389:01 Professor Hoffman Tuesday 6:00-8:40 p.m |
In this course we will read work by some of the most accomplished writers in the English language, all of whom live (or lived) in South Africa . The history of South Africa is a violent one, but in recent years, with the end of the racist apartheid state, a new multiracial democratic society has emerged and the process of healing and reparation has begun. The literature—short stories, novels, poetry, and plays—we read will take account of this remarkable history and the diverse ethnic population of the country, which includes (as a result of European colonization and forced enslavement) British, Dutch, and Southeast Asian peoples, in addition to native Africans. The course will focus on literature of the last thirty or forty years and will include two Nobel Prize winners, Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee, as well as Athol Fugard, Richard Rive, Nelson Mandela, Njabulo Ndebele, Zakes Mda, Jeremy Cronin, Zoe Wicomb, Ahmed Essop, and Agnes Sam, among others. We will also watch several films of the post-apartheid era, including Tsotsi and Red Dust. The course lasts eight weeks and culminates in a trip during Spring Break to South Africa, where we will experience first-hand some of the places we have read about, visiting world-class wineries, reading on the beach by the Indian Ocean, and going on safari in Kruger National Park. We will also tour several museums, meet with practicing writers, and go to a play or two in Johannesburg . (NB: In early January, over Winter Break, the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia will be staging a play by Fugard that we will make plans to see together.) |
The Red and the Black: American Indians and African Americans 56:606:541:01 (#48655) Cross-listed 50:920:448:01 Professor Hazard Donald Tuesday-Thursday 11:00-12:20 |
DESCRIPTION COMING SOON |
International Study |
Description Forthcoming Estimated price: TBA
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American Political Thought 56:606:621 (#53916) (Cross-listed with 50:790:375:01) Professor Tarr Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 11:15– 12:20 p.m. |
This course considers various thoughtful and provocative analyses of American society and American politics, including a range of authors with distinctive and often incompatible views on freedom, equality, human nature, historical dynamics, and the prospects of American society. All assigned readings in the course are from primary sources. The course beings with a discussion of theoretical underpinnings of the American republic, focusing on the thought of Thomas Jefferson and of The Federalist Papers. It next examines nineteenth-century understandings of American society and politics, emphasizing de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the thought of Abraham Lincoln. It then turns to challenges to the American consensus through an examination of African-American political thought (Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X) and radical political thought (Emma Goldman). It concludes with a consideration of twentieth-century liberalism (Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and conservatism (Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman). |
Research in Liberal Studies 56:606:689:01 (#47859) Dr. S. Charme By Arrangement |
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Research in Liberal Studies 56:606:690:01 (#47860) Dr. S. Charme By Arrangement |
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Matriculation Continued 56:606:800:01(#44960) Dr. S. Charme By Arrangement |
If for some reason, you cannot register for courses in Spring 2006, you should register for Matriculation Continued. You pay only a $57 fee, which allows you to remain a member in good standing of the Liberal Studies Program and saves you from the trouble of being re-admitted in the following semester. |