Unique Courses Prior to 2021
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On November 8th, 1519 the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez first entered Tenochtitlan at the head of an expedition that would ultimately destroy the Aztec Empire. That same year Ferdinand Magellan set out to circumnavigate the globe under a Spanish flag. The events that followed have transformed the world socially, economically, artistically and philosophically in ways that continue to this day. This class will examine La Época de Oro while keeping in mind the profound changes that resulted from the nascent Spanish Empire’s collision with the rest of the world. Upperclassmen with Spanish language proficiency will be encouraged to read the texts in Spanish, however, no knowledge of the Spanish language or culture is required.
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What does “Liberty” mean? In the one hundred and eleven years from the French Revolution to the end of the Belle Epoch, the world was profoundly transformed from agrarian serfdom into the recognizably modern world of popular culture and flying machines. This course brings together artifacts and original source texts, anthologized by the instructors, from the domains of politics, literature, history, philosophy, and art to present an introduction to the dramatic and hotly-contested progress of French society as it entered, and helped to create, the modern age. Deep reading, debate and critical writing are required.
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The Korean peninsula endured a series of profound transformations in the twentieth century. Throughout the century Korean writers have, consciously or not, helped socialize generations of Korean readers into the harsh realities of the nation’s modern history. This course will focus on Korean Literature in translation, which examines this portion of Korean history which is so rife with conflict: colonization, territorial division, civil war, military rule, and the strains of headlong industrialization. Students will also be introduced to Korean culture, a glimpse of its rich past and an overview of the current events and nuclear tensions that threaten the world today. Students will read and discuss short fiction each week, and will choose an additional novel which they will present to the class late in the semester. Students will write one or two multiple draft essays with the option of entering their work in the Sejong Culture Society essay competition early next year.
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It was called Seward’s Folly when purchased from Russia in 1867. But Alaska has proved to be a treasure trove of myth, culture, literature and, yes, gold. As the weather turns a little frosty with the arrival of fall, this seminar will explore Alaska’s history and cultures, its writers and poets. Along the way, we’ll check into different views as to who can claim this vast and beautiful land as their own. Authors explored will include John McPhee, Jean Craighead George, Jack London, and John Muir. Certainly, Secretary Seward knew what he was doing!
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African American Studies will examine the importance and impact of African peoples in the U.S. from 1513 through the new millennium, and contemplate the reasons as to why African American Studies is a crucial field of study. Students will look at artistic and cultural information, as well as historical and philosophical works, to help them better understand the importance of the ideas presented in this course. Texts include: Gates’ Life Upon These Shores, Washington’s Up From Slavery, DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folks, Wright’s Black Boy, Toomer’s Cane, and Hamilton and Ture’s Black Power: the Politics of Liberation.
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In African American Studies, we will explore the impact of African American thought and art on the United States as a whole. We will be discussing racism, equal rights and progress as we examine the works of thinkers and artisans alike. Starting with Booker T. Washington’s seminal text Up From Slavery, we will begin to peel back the push and pull of equality, progress and the growth of thought as we continue through the semester to the Harlem Renaissance.
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American Civil War Poetry examines the horrific events and conflicts that made up this four-year long slaughter and the poems both Northerners and Southerners composed in response. These poems are not only reactionary works to the horrors of the war but also came as calls-to-arms in verse. Beginning with the more contemporary works of Robert Lowell and Allen Tate, American Civil War looks at the debates that split the Union and percolate even now. In addition to examining accounts of battle and historical documents regarding the formation of the Confederacy and the like, poets will include Melville, Whitman, Dickson, Whittier, Longfellow, Bryant, and Julia Ward Howe, as well as lesser-known writers driven to express the war experience through verse.
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The student will examine historical changes in government and economy and mark the effects it has on the consumer. We buy governmental, economical, natural, technological change, whether triumphant or tragic, we buy. Status and stigma alike, we buy. The consumer in culture is nothing new and though we will at times slide back before the scope of this class as well as jump into the present, this class will do its best to contain itself in the era when Vietnam is slowing, deindustrialization is increasing and through when we invest past our means and create the housing bubble crisis.
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Course looks at the American political process to understand who wins elections and why. We will talk about what makes a successful candidate and a successful campaign, as well as what makes a successful president. In other words, how did we get to where we are today?
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American Romanticism is an examination of writers creating the first distinctly American literary voice for a young country. Esteemed literary critic, F.O. Matthiessen, referred to this period as the American Renaissance. It was also a voice questioning that young country’s values and political decisions; a war with Mexico, the Dred Scott case and the Fugitive Slave Act were but a few landmark events that brought these writers to write in protest against a young nation imperfect and heading for a horrific civil war. Exploring the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Fuller and Whitman, among others, this course will examine the impact American Romantics had on social and political scenes as well as explore the elements that separate this literary movement from its European “cousins.”
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This course will trace the development of Ancient Rome as a civilization from the traditional date of monarchy (753 B.C.) through its decline in the 5th century A.D. This course addresses the rise of Roman dominance in Italy, the foundation of the Republic, the conquest of neighboring civilizations, the reign of Caesars and construction of the Empire, and the spread of Christianity. Through intensive reading (of both primary and secondary sources), class discussion, research, written work and creative projects, students will investigate various aspects of Roman politics, culture, warfare, engineering and the arts.
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This course will serve as a basic survey of Cultural Anthropology. Through the use of journal articles and anthologies normally intended for introductory college classes, students will explore the intellectual concepts underpinning the field, including, but not limited to, fieldwork methodology, Whorfianism, ethnomusicology, culinary anthropology and the studies of kinship, gender, power, change and magic. Examples will be taken from cultures diverse in area, population and structure, but the primary focus of the class will be on Cultural Anthropology as a mode of inquiry. What questions does Cultural Anthropology ask and how does it go about answering them? What is naive realism, and how does it shape the way we all see the world? In addition to participating in discussion and reading, students will be expected to read works of ethnography of their own choosing and to conduct their own basic fieldwork.
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This course will focus on the literature and culture of the Arab World. Students will be introduced to various aspects of Arab culture and will read works of literature by writers from different Arab countries. Our discussions will focus on the history of colonialism, the struggle for independence, and the political and cultural transformations taking place in the Arab world today. Special attention will be placed on literature by women whose writing examines culture, religion, and politics through an exploration of gender relationships. The course will begin with an introduction to various aspects of Arab culture, such as language, music, dance, and clothing, followed by reading and discussing literary texts from several Arab countries, and ending with an overview of the Arab American experience. Through this course, students will develop a knowledge and appreciation of Arab culture and improve their ability to understand and analyze literary texts within a historical and political context.
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Intertwining with the slow fall of Mediterranean dominance in Western Europe during the 1st Millennium CE was the continuing influence and movement of Germanic people from the north. The Greeks and Romans lumped them in with other outsiders, labeling them “barbarians.” As these folk imprinted themselves and their ideas on the world they inherited from the Roman Empire, they would forge the foundations of modern states that eventually created global empires of their own. This course focuses on barbarian political, social, and cultural change from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. An outline of major historical events and trends will accompany close study of their literary legacy and material culture. Because barbarians wrote little about themselves, students will use period sources, from Strabo to Jordanes, early medieval verse, and archaeological and philological evidence to investigate their world. The semester will end with a look at barbarians in their modern context as political symbol, creative inspiration, and cultural identity. Students will read and discuss 25 – 50 pages a week. Primary texts will be Beowulf, The Nibelungenlied, and The Song of Roland. Students will write two papers and complete a creative project.
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Before Google, Amazon, and the Internet Archive existed, there were Bibliographers: people who could always help you fgure out what books you needed and how to fnd them, for any research topic in their area of passion – even if they’d never seen those books themselves. How? In this student-driven course, we will learn how to begin a long-term or life-long research project, and “map the territory” for others to explore too. As students create online library catalogues and research blogs about their chosen topics, they will learn how to use books they have not read yet, decide which to read, help others use information the students have not yet found, and how to get to know the context that will give the details meaning. Along the way we will learn about the intellectual traditions and market forces that shape book culture, publishing, and DIY learning communities, while taking the first steps in becoming “the one who knows where to look” for the topic that each student loves.
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Beowulf is not merely a good tale about bold kings and evil monsters; it is an epic kaleidoscope of passions and fears, a mysterious puzzle piece of Northern European myth-systems, a window into the changing beliefs of early middle ages England. What can the textual, historic, and poetic evidence in this masterpiece reveal about the people who enjoyed it? What does the poem’s irrepressible popularity throughout the world today say about us? Beowulf: The Monsters and the Translations will focus on building seminar discussion, close reading, research, and textual analysis skills; students will use Beowulf and other works in Old English as the subject of literary criticism and literary history. Students will read 10 to 30 pages a week, work closely with Old English to translate their own passage of the poem, write one critical or research paper, and complete a creative project.
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What is a color? Is it a thing or an idea? Does it have meaning that must be inferred or is it a powerful symbol that is intuitively understood? How does the perception of color change from person to person, culture to culture and over the expanse of history? “Intellectual History” is a genre of inquiry that focused on concepts and theories (whether artistic, philosophical, scientific, religious, or legal) and how they interact with economic, social, and cultural developments. The pedagogic emphasis of this course will be placed on assisting students to develop critical essays while the course content will be generated by student independent research in which “Blue” is explored as a shifting concept over human history.
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“From here to Timbuktu” is a phrase that we still hear from time to time, but many people don’t even know where the city is. Yet in the Middle Ages, it was part of a fabulously wealthy and large empire, the center of intellectual activity south of the Sahara, and hosted a famous university and the largest library in the entire world. When colonization came, the library was hidden by the citizens for generations until after independence. Today, it is a war-torn and poverty-stricken place in which hundreds of people risked their lives to smuggle that library out under the noses of Al Qaeda occupation. Students will embark on a collective research project to explore medieval and modern Mali’s history and culture, seek the reasons for its continued marginalization in Western scholarship, and find methodologies to overcome the challenge that it presents.
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The course is first and foremost a study of the fiction and non-fiction compositions of the great English author and an examination of the social and political ideas he shared through his treasured works. Along with studying Dickens’ Humanistic ideas in the face of the Industrial Revolution and British Colonialism, this course will also examine Dickens’ critique of a young America—a country he both adored and loathed for its vulgar practice of slavery.
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Communism at different times has been defined as a form of government, an economic philosophy, and a utopian philosophy. These multi-faceted views of it have caused ripples in the clarification of what it actually is. The course’s goal is to obtain a stronger understanding and placement of communism in its early stages. Students in this course will explore these concepts by delving into Marx and then looking at Eastern European Communism through the rule of Stalin. Not only should they have a grasp of the historical placement of communism, but also of its effect on art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Texts include: Tolstoy’s The Cossacks, Marx and Engles’ The Communist Manifesto, and Platinov’s The Foundation Pit.
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This class will explore the connection of language and audience. The students will learn forms of logic to help analyze speech, debates and persuasive writings. They will look at some of the historical points of debating and rhetoric, which will also give them tools to consider these within current events. As the class moves through the semester, ethics will be a lens that will also be placed upon how language is disseminated. Students will use the skills learned to write, speak and debate.
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Miguel de Cervantes’ book Don Quixote was written at a time of great, deep-seated change in European society, and had a great impact not only on the future of literature, but how people view the relationships between the individual and society, reason and imagination. It is also one of the great comedies in history, and is still constantly parodied in cartoons, movies, and books today. After thoroughly sampling the medieval literary genres which Don Quixote ridiculed, we will explore all of Part I and parts of Part II of the novel in-depth. We will see how the book reflects Spain’s rich medieval society, the unique effects of Islam and Judaism on Spanish culture, and the rapid political, social, and intellectual changes that were shifting Spain and Europe into the beginnings of the Modern age. We will also see how Cervantes responded and shaped the literary forms that he inherited, to create what is often considered to be the first modern Novel, and apply some of those lessons to create parodies of contemporary genres.
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Beneath the centuries old pop image of samurai lived a much more complicated figure. During Japan’s early-modern period (1600 – 1868), a time of relative peace, outside a core of enfeoffed bureaucrats, many samurai found themselves unemployed – especially prone to lethargy, bankruptcy, decadence, and lawlessness. Early-modern Japan: Consolidation and Change Through the Image of the Samurai Class will explore, through recent scholarship, primary documents, visual artwork, and literature; the shifting political and cultural role of samurai from the medieval to early-modern period; their changing relationship with their subjects, in particular, an increasingly literate, consumer class of urbanizing townsmen (chōnin); and how new intellectual currents and political frustrations helped early-modern samurai set the stage for radical change. Students will work on research, writing, and seminar discussion skills; they will write a research paper and read roughly 30 pages a week.
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English & American Literary Forms is a discussion-based exploration of various styles and genres of poetry, fiction and drama. The course will explore and identify literary expressions in the historical and social context in which they were written. In addition to a dialogue about the assigned works, students will develop skills in writing “critical” essays, finding patterns of meaning through biographical, historical and contextual analysis. This is a yearlong course, with the first semester devoted to examining poetic forms and short fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries. The semester concludes with a look at Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece, Our Town, examining how a work written expressly for the stage qualifies as literature through its own unique and excellent dramaturgy.
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The English Renaissance and Reformation is a semester-long examination of the political, social and cultural changes impacting English and world communities, beginning with the Tudors and ending with the beheading of Charles I and the rise of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. The course will explore how concepts such as Humanism and renewed ties to Classical learning impacted the progression of the English Reformation, from Henry VIII through the Jacobean era. Students will engage in both literary analysis and historical investigation—including analyses of 16th and 17th century letters, diaries, land grants, census documents, woodcuts, proclamations and early newspaper reports in addition to the expected famous plays.
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In this course students will look at the part of intellectual history known as Existentialism. They will read short works, novels, essays to gain knowledge of how thinkers and artists have engaged with the notion of existence. Though the term does not arise until after WWII, the students will also look at the philosophies and literary work that came prior and are now considered to be under the umbrella of Existentialism.
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Expository Writing will focus on developing persuasive writing skills—using various rhetorical tools in order to express and defend ideas and theses. Beginning with a look at specific syntax issues and moving on to paragraph development, students will simultaneously develop an intellectual curiosity about a subject, create purposeful questions about the subject and work to find meaningful material on the subject. Students will work on finding and using secondary sources as well as reading and interpreting primary sources. Along the way students will workshop pieces in order to examine sentence and paragraph structure, strengthen their use of punctuation and syntax, build awareness regarding semantics and argumentative writing. It is the goal to help each student to begin writing persuasive essays with clarity, precision and strength. Students will explore skills that will help them write compelling, argumentative essays that they write for readers as well as for themselves. Students will be encouraged to write to make a point, and will learn that writing is not something to be feared but can be an enjoyable challenge.
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We will explore the women’s movements in America using various primary and secondary sources. We will challenge the social perceptions of feminism and what it means to be a feminist. Students will bring in different contemporary issues and sources and lead students in class discussions. We will question the historical interplay between gender and culture. We will engage with various pieces of literature by writers such as Adichie, O’Connor, Atwood and Alderman. Warning-this will be a reading intensive course.
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Paintings can be important historical texts, and in this humanities class students will learn how to view and read these incredibly rich and intricate visual documents. The focus for this class will be the work of Jan van Eyck, whose great “visual texts” include The Ghent Altarpiece (the most stolen artwork in history), and The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (perhaps the most enigmatic painting of the early Renaissance). Students taking this course will gain an understanding of the history, culture, politics and economics of the Northern European Renaissance. Reading for this course will be relatively light, and essays will be of intermediate length. This is an humanities class, and differs significantly from art history classes. An emphasis will be placed on developing critical thinking in class discussion and effecting employment of persuasive argument in debate and essays.
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In this course we will explore the Medieval worldview in all its many contradictions, discovering both how disorientingly different and yet uncannily familiar it is. Using Umberto’s Eco’s novel Baudolino as a base text, supplemented by the accounts of Marco Polo and a number of primary sources from Livy to Rabelais to the Sepher Yetzirah, students will be immersed first in the political and intellectual world of the 12th Century Holy Roman Empire, then examine Europe’s relations with the Eastern Orthodox and Ottoman Empires, India, and China. We will find that this history was largely determined by an oral culture in which the distinctions between entertainment, news, propaganda, rumor, and mysticism are rarely clear. We will encounter intricate cultural fantasies and utopias projected by Europeans upon the rest of the world, which are then often used as pretexts for conquest. Perhaps more surprisingly, we will discover that to the medieval consciousness, the very ideas of Truth and Reality, Artifice and Faith, functioned quite differently than they do today – or so we hope.
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Born Mary Ann Evans in 1819, she would rise to become one of the great writers and thinkers in Victorian letters. Over these winter months, students will explore her work as a social commentator (as a feminist writer), life in Victorian England as well as a novelist whose skill and observations rivals her contemporaries like Dickens and Thackeray. The course includes two novels: Silas Marner and Middlemarch.
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One part sacred poem, one part urban propaganda, the Gilgamesh epic is alive with the concerns of the Bronze Age mind, a potent meditation on state power, friendship, and human fallibility – as relevant today as ever. In this class students will closely read the standard version of the epic of Gilgamesh, He who saw the Deep, and study the ancient people that propagated the story for over two millennia. Weekly seminars will be supplemented by lectures and packets on important cultural, political and economic changes in ancient Mesopotamian society, and modern interpretations of the Gilgamesh epic. Students will work on close reading, research writing, and creative learning skills.
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This yearlong course will provide students with an understanding of the world around them and how globalization and conflict link people from different countries, continents, and locales together. Students will use current reportage, capsule histories, and maps to explore political, social, and cultural trends in the world. Original research, close and critical reading, data analysis and basic political geographic mastery will be stressed.
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Surrealism is often spoken about as if it were a small, exclusively European movement concerned only with art and literature; but in fact, it was and remains a large global counterculture with active groups in dozens of cities around the world––in Europe, Africa, Asia, and both Americas––and among its most active and important exponents have been dozens of people of color. Moreover, the ‘Surrealist Revolution’ aimed at by these communities encompasses not only the arts, but economics, politics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and consciousness itself, and the Surrealists were among the first organized intellectual groups to place anti-colonial and anti-racist activism at the center of their activity. We will learn the history and prehistory of the movement, experiment with its techniques, and explore its ideas, literature, and art. While attentive to the European roots of the movement, we will focus on it’s relationship with colonialism, and on Surrealism as manifested outside of Europe. We will read portions of Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism, all of Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, and several dozen Surrealist poems, manifestos, and essays. Each student will research and write on the colonial situation of one region in which Surrealist groups were active, and compose a critical essay about a particular Surrealist work, oeuvre, or theme. We will also regularly experiment with Surrealist games, group activities, and writing and mark-making methods, and students will develop pieces from their journals to include in a book to be published at the end of the class.
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This course will examine the world in the late sixteenth century beginning with the dysfunctional House of Tudor as it emerges from the Middle Ages. Queen Elizabeth fashioned herself into a living symbol out of necessity, and now she can be seen as representing the beginning of the modern world. The Elizabethan era emits all of the “cloak and dagger” intrigue of a Shakespeare tragedy, and yet it also heralds the rise of global trade, the dark shift toward European colonization and slavery. It also exists at a time when international diplomacy was so rife with religious sectarianism that an apocalyptic end for many sovereign states and ingenious people seemed assured. In addition to studying the principle text, students will research and present numerous aspects of Elizabethan life, art and culture.
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For nearly the entire one hundred years of the fifth century BCE Athens experienced a “Golden Age.” It overthrew its despot rulers and founded the first Democracy, under which Greek theater, architecture, philosophy and painting reached its zenith. The great playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes were also soldiers, statesmen and social critics that helped hone the democratic functions of their state. During this same 5th century BCE, Greeks turned back two massive invasions by the Persian superpower of their day, created a large and wealthy empire, built a glittering city and spent decades embroiled in a brutal war against Sparta that was to end in the destruction of the Athenian democracy. In this class we will read 10 important plays and place them in the context of their times. We will read Herodotus, the father of history, and Thucydides, the trusted chronicler of the Peloponnesian war. We will look at the politics and ideas upon which the first democracy was built and the economic and military reasons for its collapse. Students will be assigned five plays, which they will read, write careful notes about, and lead class discussion on. Students will also have to present five prepared monologues to the class – one on each play. Students will also be required to write three essays (variations based on the essay prompt provided, or on an approved thesis presented by a student). Students will be expected to take a number of pop-quizzes on the plays and readings throughout the semester.
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Gothic Literature is a survey course of some of the best known and not-so-well known works of the genre, and an exploration of what makes a work “Gothic.” Writers for the course will include Horace Walpole, Henry James, Ann Radcliffe, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanael Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Louis Stevenson, Algernon Blackwood and Shirley Jackson. Students will also explore how these works have been explored through other media like film and opera (e.g. the Hammer film adaptations of Poe’s tales or Benjamin Britten’s excellent opera of The Turn of the Screw).
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L’Association, a French artist-run publishing cooperative founded in 1990, radically restructured the popular concept of the comic book. In many ways, the small press and independent comics movement have their origins in the expressions of the guiding principles espoused by the L’Association: establish a clear break from the commercial comics industry, publish only important books, and present comics as a legitimate cultural form that operates beyond the demands of the market. This class will focus on graphic novels by artists that belong to, or have a strong connection with, L’Association. The goal of this class is to heighten students’ visual and critical literacy though improving skills in in reading, deciphering and decoding the visual language of comics. Students are expected to write three complete drafts of one long research paper, in addition to weekly presentations and participating in daily discussions and critiques. Copies of Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics are available for every student, and there is a small selection of graphic novels available for students in the school library. It is recommended that every student should possess a valid Roanoke City Library card as the downtown library has a number of graphic novels of value to this class.
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The Grimm Brothers published their Household Tales at a time when the German-speaking peoples were forced to be subjects of Napoleon’s French Empire. Although the brothers’ purpose for these tales was primarily scholarly, they also felt it necessary to add moral instruction and the seeds of national identity to these startlingly brutal tales that bear little resemblance to the Disney movies familiar to us all. This course will look at these tales as coded cultural enigmas to be dissected and interpreted within the socio-historical context of their times, their mythological purpose, contemporary psychological interpretation and we will also look at them through the more recent lens of post-colonial and gender studies. Students will close read the Grimm texts and the class will explore how to compare, interpret and analyze them using a variety of academic.
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Modern Germany can trace its origin, in part, to the years in which the Grimm’s Brothers were collecting folk tales and studying the roots of the German language. This course will look at the ways in which we construct identity: though our social and historical contexts, philosophical perspectives, the language we speak, and yes, the fairytales we read as children. The objective of the course will be to teach students critical thinking skills and ways to use them through presentation, writing, and participation. We will explore literary theory, the linguistic origins of language and modern abnormal psychology using the first edition of the Brothers Grimm Folk & Fairy Tales as our guide. Students will be encouraged to consistently step outside their comfort area, to be prepared to try things they are not good at, to seek the uncanny valley and will be expected to apply all that they’ve learned to short stories by Franz Kafka at the end of the term.
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This course will provide context to a prominent era in U.S., and global, history. Students will be expected to link the social with the political, propaganda with fear, and art with revolution. During this course, students will gain a more comprehensive understanding of historical research and methods used to decipher the past. In conjunction, they will also be expected to critically understand art as commentary and art as reaction. Texts include: McMahahon’s Cold War: A Very Short Introduction, Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, and Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as articles from a variety of contemporary sources.
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This course will look at print journalism in the United States and the important part it has played in the knowledge citizens have gained throughout. The class will tackle distribution, audience, journalism and the ethics therein. The students will also examine celebrity within print journalism and how that influences readership. Reading and researching newspapers will allow students to gain comfort with primary source research as well as understanding causal relationships.
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We will use Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories as evidence to explore the British Empire on the cusp of the 20th Century. Holmes appeared in a period of rapid change. British colonialism was economically exploiting and dismantling cultures across the globe, but those cultures were also affecting European life and thought. The technological revolution had begun, transforming the realms of communication, transportation, information collection and systems-development; these innovations were seized by the British state and used for national co-ordination, control, and espionage. In order to discover Holmes’ effects on literature, law enforcement, and forensics, we will approach the stories from several angles, applying Holmes techniques to literary criticism, historical research, and the observation of everyday life. Through deduction activities, self-guided research, readings of Holmes and other related texts, students will hone their research methodology and critical thinking, while exploring the sometimes blurred borders between “fact” and “fiction”.
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Be they visionary warriors like Jean d’Arc (burnt at the stake), rebel leaders like Wat Tyler (stabbed, hospitalized, then beheaded) and Jacques Bonhomme (tortured and beheaded), or radical priests like John Ball (hanged, then drawn and quartered), many commoners help drive social change during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Often viewed historically as an endless slaughters of dynastic succession between French and English elites, upon closer examination the Hundred Years War period shows common people sowing the seeds of national identity and class consciousness in both countries. Students will research the changing military, political, and cultural phenomena of the era, beef up expository writing skills, and devise a creative project.
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In this course we are going to plunge deep into the origins of Western Literature- nearly 3000 years deep. If you are interested in Greek Mythology, the Trojan War, Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations, or just want to know more about the Bronze age collapse this is the course for you! Homer’s Iliad is more than just a book to read that is incredibly graphic (in violence) and visual (in metaphors). It is a great place to learn some essential skills for being a successful student: close reading techniques, effective note taking strategies, evidence evaluation, persuasive writing and critical reasoning. Students will examine Stanley Lombardo’s translation of the epic poem, read articles presenting evidence from the scholarly perspectives of archeology, anthropology and linguistics. There will be an assignment due for each and every class and those are listed below in this syllabus. There will be a mid-term and final exam, but don’t worry as we will also discuss test taking strategies that will help you study.
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We will examine the sources and patterns of mass moral hysteria as we consider how webs of circumstance could bring 19 convicted witches to the gallows in Salem or prompt prosecutors to file more than 200 charges of child abuse against seven teachers at a California day care center. We will consider the causes and nature of evil as we discuss the trial of major Nazi leaders in Nuremberg or Klan murders of civil rights workers in Mississippi. The course as a whole will be both far-reaching and kaleidoscopic, revealing how societies across the globe and throughout history have used trials to resolve key issues and decide the fates of evildoers, abusers of power, champions of free speech, and innocent people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. We will end our tour of great trials with thoughts about how famous trials can educate, entertain, and still resolve important questions of guilt and innocence, as well as reading literature that attempts to bring these questions to life. Spanning from Socrates to (OJ) Simpson, we will note how great trials can alter the course of history.
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This course will provide an opportunity for students to develop or increase their understanding of research methodologies through critical exploration of research language, ethics, and approaches. The course introduces the language of research, ethical principles and challenges, and the elements of the research process within mixed subject matters.
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While in Introduction to Western Philosophy, students will study various schools of philosophy, read works by an assortment of philosophers from Plato to Kant, and learn the importance of thought in forming an argument. They will use the knowledge acquired to form an argument within a modern ethical situation. They will frame logical responses to writings found about these situations by using critical thought to analyze the work and respond. This course will deviate from the norm at Community High School by leaning more towards survey, though keeping the school’s philosophy by embracing discourse and inquiry instead of lecture.
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We are faced daily with the explicit contradictions of an immigrant’s “American Dream.” The phrase summons visions of economic success, religious freedom, a flourishing middle-class, and social mobility. At the same time, we cannot help but remember a core of exploitation, discrimination, environmental destruction, and social entrenchment. From either perspective, we are all intimately involved with the ever-developing narrative of immigrant experience and, thus, The American Dream. So, what exactly is this dream? How is it both fruitful and problematic? And who are we who dream it? This class will examine works of fiction, nonfiction, visual art, poetry, and film that speak to the immigrant (and therefore the American) experience.
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Persian life through the lens of the family. In this class students will closely read and discuss poetry, short fiction, long fiction and serial graphic narratives by Persian authors. They will identify and analyze aspects of these differing literary forms; sharpen comprehension, research, study, discussion and testing skills; read forty to fifty pages a week; and complete several writing assignments geared toward their unique needs as developing writers.
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This course examines an aged struggle between two very similar cultures over a relatively small piece of land: the land that has been called Canaan, Palestine, Israel, and now Israel and the occupied territories of The West Bank and Gaza. While this course does not presume to offer solutions to the long-standing conflict over this region, it examines its history, culture and the literary response to the land, and how said disputes have impacted its people. Ideas of Diaspora, Zionism, Intifada, and other related concepts will be explored along with the very conflicting notions about Israel within Judaism initiated by notions of the “messianic.” Authors include Israeli and Palestinian poets and writers: SY Agnon, Nathan Alterman, David Grossman, Amos Oz, Liyana Badr, Ibtisam Barakat, and Mahmoud Darwish, among others. Additionally, a visit to the National Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. will be included as part of the course.
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“O Italy, the apothecary of poison, for all nations: how many kinds of weapons has thou invented for malice” (Thomas Nashe). Here is an element on which, according to scholar Simon Trussler, Jacobean tragedy thrives. Malice, revenge, and intrigue! How is it possible that such lyrical soap opera and marvelous farce should dominate the English stage in an era of a King noted for sponsoring a rather conservative translation of the Bible? Why Italy? Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, England faced radical changes culturally and aesthetically: the Jacobean era brought forth a radically changing geo-political landscape, the expansion of English Colonialism, diverse ideas about religion and tolerance as well as debate about the role of women in society. The theater changes too. Gone are the timeless “folkloric characters one might find in Twelfth Night or As You Like It;” on stage, tragedy grows more vulgar and violent; comedy borders on the outrageous and more often depraved. This course examines dramaturgical ideas by English playwrights active during the reign of King James I (1603-1625). In addition to exploring changes James made in his commissioned Biblical translation, playwrights covered include William Shakespeare, John Webster, Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont and Thomas Middleton. The semester includes a trip to see the American Shakespeare Center’s production of Macbeth.
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World War II fundamentally reoriented the global economic and political order of the 20th century, jump-started the atomic age and showed humanity’s capacity for organized mass destruction of life on a scale that dwarfed all previous wars combined. Through the window of cultural and political relations between the Empire of Japan and the United States of America, this class investigates the major factors that brought these nations into WWII, how individual citizens weathered the events of the war, and how they groped for understanding and regeneration in its aftermath. This class will focus on building research and writing skills while also teaching students the broader significance of the war for the major combatant nations and the world at large. Students will give a presentation and write a research paper. Readings of ten to thirty pages can be expected each week.
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Jewish America during the Great Emigration to America begins with the unique year of 1881—following the assassination of Czar Alexander II—which saw the first major pogroms in Russia and throughout Europe. This course examines the existing diasporic Jewish culture in Europe through fictional and non-fictional accounts. Following the mass movement to the so-called New World, the course will focus on the experiences of immigrants in New York and the impact these immigrants would have on American culture and commerce. Additionally, the course will focus on the assimilation process Jewish immigrants either found necessary for survival or refused as some desperately held on to old social and religious customs. The course will look at the Jewish community’s connection to the American Socialist movements of the 1930’s, and conclude with an examination of the impact on American families of the Holocaust. Writers include: Shalom Aleichem, Irving Howe, Emma Lazarus, Henry Roth, Abraham Cahan, Clifford Odetts, Muriel Rukeyser, Barbara Lebow, Isaac Bashevis Singer.
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The Great Emigration to America begins with the unique year of 1881—following the assassination of the Czar, Alexander II—causing first major of pogroms in Russia and throughout Europe. This course examines the existing Jewish culture in Europe (already considering itself in exile—the great diaspora) though fictional and non-fictional accounts. Following the mass movement to the so-called New World, the course will focus on the experiences of immigrants in New York (its famed lower east side) and the impact these immigrants would have on American culture and commerce. Additionally, the course will focus on the assimilation process Jewish immigrants either found necessary for survival or refused as some desperately held on to old social and religious customs.
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This course provides an introductory overview of modern and contemporary Korean literature in translation. Korea began the hundred years or more covered by this course as a Confucian monarchy content in its isolation, but was forced to experience in rapid succession: western style diplomacy and modernization, invasion, colonization, forced conscription, national division, a devastating war, dictatorships, rapid industrialization, economic success, financial crisis, and global cultural ascendancy. Through close readings of a dozen literary texts, among them Kim’s Your Republic Is Calling You and Kwon and Bruce’s Modern Korean Fiction: An Anthology, we will grapple with some fundamental issues: how were the perspectives of authors changed and affected by external modernizing forces, what happens to national identity after extended occupation and civil war, what do we learn about our culture when we engage a very different culture from ours, and how do we avoid projecting our cultural values when trying to appreciate the literature of Others?
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This course will explore the ways in which American society has viewed and treated mental illness over the years, focusing on biological and psychoanalytical methods. Once this historical approach has been realized, we will move our focus to the criminalized mentally ill and the current therapeutic environments created to work with this population. In the latter part of the semester, we will read various novels depicting mental illness and appraise them with a critical eye.
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If there were ever a playwright to rival Shakespeare in the 16th Century, it would be Christopher Marlowe. This course will examine Marlowe’s work as a poet as well as his major plays—Tamburlaine, Edward II and Dr. Faustus. Though his career came to an abrupt end in a brawl, Marlowe’s literary output remains astonishing and his impact on the English stage immense. Or did his career come to an abrupt end in just a brawl? Was he targeted and murdered? Was Marlowe actually a spy for Queen Elizabeth, or a Double agent, circulating about London and France for the Pope? Our semester explores Marlowe as a literary student and then his work as a popular playwright. This course will look at the English stage as it stood at the end of the 16th century as well as the political and social affairs of the day.
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The nineteenth century around the world was a period of social upheaval, civil wars and revolutions. Ireland had more than its share of these struggles at home, but it also provided the manpower and gun fodder for many of the global conflicts as well. One obvious reason that the Irish poured out of their country to fight and die overseas was the human catastrophe of the potato famine. Millions of Irish were faced with emigration or death by starvation, and many of those emigrants became very successful in their newly adopted homelands. Surprisingly perhaps, the nineteenth century was a high point for Irish literature as well. This class will read historical texts, examine famous speeches, listen to ballads, read poetry and short fiction that will help us examine Ireland in the nineteenth century holistically. The class will be assigned weekly readings, and will be required to write three essays (variations based on the essay prompt provided, or on an approved thesis presented by a student). Students will be expected to view a short (4 episode) TV Series on their own time, and will take viewing quizzes on the films we watch in class.
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This course will study Mexican History from 1810 to 1910. The historical events that this course will include are the Mexican Independence Movement, the U. S. – Mexican War, the French Intervention, the U.S. Civil War, and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. It will also include an overview of the Aztec Empire and the Spanish Conquest, both of which are key to understanding all of the above.
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The Spanish Civil War has been called a dress rehearsal for the Second World War because German, Italian and Soviet military forces used it as a testing ground for their planes, tanks and battle tactics. It was also a war of ideas and political ideologies that attracted artists, philosophers and fighters from around the world. But the conflict is nevertheless a very Spanish event, with ancient roots and contemporary consequences. Students will select several novels to read independently throughout this course in addition to weekly assigned reading and several research projects on writers, artists and artworks. The objective of this class is to enhance students’ critical thinking skills by emphasizing and improving writing and research techniques.
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From soldiers’ songs and trench art to bestselling novels and hit TV series, satire has been used for more than a century to critique war, the military, and the human condition in general. In this class students will closely read and critically write about Catch-22, a definitive work of the genre. Lectures and packets will help position Catch-22 in context and introduce students to other works of military satire: ‘The Wipers Times’, The Good Soldier Svejk, and MASH. We will ask how these works use satire to examine the military; how they touch upon universal aspects of human life, including issues of belief, race, class and gender; and investigate the effect of canonization on their potency. Students will read roughly 40 pages a week, write critical and satirical pieces, keep a reading journal, and participate in weekly seminars.
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Ireland has produced some of the most significant writers of the twentieth century, including Joyce, Beckett and Flann O’Brien. Students will be introduced to methods of critical analysis, advanced textual inquiry and a variety of approaches to the development of effective essays with strong organizational thesis. Students will be expected to complete three written assignments: A three to five page literary analysis, a comparative essay and presentation on a work and author from the recommended reading list, and a final long research paper ten pages or more OR a creative paper related to postmodernism.
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During this course, students will examine one of the most crucial empires in history. Spanning over nine million square miles, reaching from The Sea of Japan into Europe, the Khanate not only acquisitioned land but also ideas, ideologies and culture. Students will study the influences this empire had on Europe, China, and the Middle East. They will also look at the history of the Mongols through the eyes of Europeans, Persians and Chinese to better understand the empire. Texts include: Morgan’s The Mongols, Khan’s Secret History of Mongols: the Origin of Chingis Khan and Genghis Khan and Weatherford’s The Making of the Modern World.
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Much of the training and practice actors take on these days has its roots in the Moscow Arts Theatre. The acting practice takes the apt name, the Method, and branches into a number of schools—all beginning with the work of Constantine Stanislavsky. In addition to exploring Stanislavsky’s philosophical and literary production, this course will explore the playwrights—including Chekhov and Gorky—whose work prospered under such inspired guidance.
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This course will investigate Native American history, from the initial European invasion to Indian Removal to current events that impact Native Americans in today’s society. We will use a number of primary source documents to launch this investigation, as well as literature from Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich and Linda LeGarde Grover to supplement our studies. Film will also be used to address stereotypes of Native Americans, in order to give students a multimedia opportunity to approach these subjects.
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With a stroke of the pen, Napoleon Bonaparte doubled the size of the United States, while the similar élan he dismantled and abolished many of the most archaic institutions of Europe. He is largely responsible for ushering in this era of ubiquitous democratic government while he himself was a tyrant capable unspeakable inhumanity. This short research and presentation focused class will examine the fall and rise of the Emperor of the French – beginning with the remarkable euphoria invoked by the placement of his remains in a mausoleum in 1861 and progressing in a series of critical “flashbacks” through his career in the 1789 Revolution that spurred his rise from obscurity.
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In the beginning a gargantuan cow licks the primordial ice and frees a giant named Ymir. The gods kill him and carve up his body to make the worlds, which eventually end after hounds eat the sun and the moon during an epic duel of monsters and gods. Why are people shaped by centuries of science and organized religion still fascinated by tales such as these? The written and archaeological evidence points to their authentic, if unstable, role in the lives of Germanic people. And their continuing ability to entertain and inspire, to be recast and told in new ways, may tell us something about the ancient and recent pasts they echo. This class will investigate Norse myths in their earliest known written versions and highlight and compare various treatments and adaptations old and new. Students will explore the myths both as creative works and reflections of the people who shared and upheld them, the Scandinavians that gave shape to Europe from the 8th to 11th centuries – the so-called Viking Age – and revivalist movements of modern ages. Students will read from Snorri Sturluson’s Edda the ‘Gylfaginning’ and significant portions of ‘Skaldskaparmal’, read many works from the Poetic Edda, write one critical essay and complete a creative project.
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The Old Testament is one of the most explored pieces of literature in the western world. Its influence is vast and an understanding of the text will help students feel more culturally literate. With a close exploration of the Pentateuch, students will consider the ties between Judaism and Christianity and examine the use of different hypotheses in establishing origins of the texts. We will also look into the Historical, Poetical/Wisdom, and Prophetic Books of the Old Testament to consider how the sections work. The students will also be exposed to other works to see the impact of the Old Testament on art.
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Do you think you know Edgar Poe? He was not only the father of the horror genre, but a pioneer of the science fiction and mystery genres, a critic and satirist, a poet, a metaphysician, one of the first to propose the Big Bang theory, a hoaxster – and a deeply bigoted, greatly flawed, and often unlikeable human being. We will explore all these aspects of Poe, and his massive, diverse influence on American and European culture. Students will explore both the elements of Poe’s literary work and his complex relationship with the emerging national culture of an America still trying to define itself against Europe, and grapple with the many unavoidable contradictions in his life, work, and legacy.
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The concept of piracy in popular culture is bursting with vivid yet contradictory stereotypes: murderous criminals, heroic underdogs, drunken ne’er-do-wells, expert seamen, cowardly smugglers, misunderstood freedom-fighters. We will examine these stereotypes, the history and theories of piracy, and explore many of the forms piracy has taken, from Viking raids to the Buccaneers to pirate publishing and intellectual property to piracy along the coasts of contemporary Africa. In the process, we will find that history and legend cannot always be distinguished, and that our subject raises important and thorny questions about historical methodology and the status of historical Truth itself. Behind the legends, we will look at the economic and political dimensions of Piracy, and the important roles it played in defining, through opposition, the modern concepts of Property and the Nation-State. We will be presented with a tricky paradox: on one hand it will be confirmed that most pirates have been motivated by self-interest and many have been guilty of murder, rape, and sometimes torture to remarkable degrees; on the other hand, we will find that most pirate communities were democratic long before “legitimate” society, and that at many times and places in history, pirate society has offered a refuge to those marginalized or brutalized by mainstream society, offering degrees of social, racial, and political justice unrivaled in the world of Law. Together we will explore what these paradoxes can tell us about history, society, economics, and human nature itself.
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As a means of exploring and writing about poetry this course will focus on poems solely written about cats. Some of theses poems have become cultural phenomena, exploring feline misadventure with or without human beings, and it investigates cultural ties with cats. A variety of forms and voices will be explored, examining genre, language, lives of various poets and one truly bizarre musical. The semester’s reading list will include such poets as T.S. Eliot, Edward Lear, W.B. Yeats, Charles Baudelaire, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Atwood and William Carlos Williams.
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During the post-World War II decades, as the fruits of political devolution and postcolonialism matured, many indigenous Oceanians experienced a reawakening of oral, literary and musical traditions that stretch back thousands of years. While trying to revive stifled cultural identities, they also began coming to grips with the hidden impacts of their colonial past. This class will begin by looking at postwar indigenous Australian experiences through the short stories of Archie Weller, who lived the urban poverty and race trouble that appear in his stories. Students will research, present and write critically on the creative work of an Oceanian and the postcolonial experience of their people.
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The decades following the end of WWII witnessed dramatic shifts in United States domestic and foreign policy, coinciding with rapid upheaval of social and cultural norms that fell largely on generational lines. A blossoming of social and political movements both responded to and greatly influenced these radical changes. The Civil Rights Movement, Anti-Nuclear Movement, Anti-War Movement, American Indian Movement, Black Power Movement, Mexican American Movement, Second Wave Feminism, Gay (LGBT) Liberation Movement, Environmental Movement and responding conservative and traditionalist movements, to name a few, fought for change during these tumultuous decades, a period sometimes referred to as a second civil war. Often at the vanguard of these movements were countercultures that sought radical changes not only in US policy, but in our nation’s fundamental values and ways of life. This class will focus primarily on US countercultures from the Civil Rights through the Vietnam era. Students will explore the roots of countercultures in reform and resistance movements prior to WWII; the major domestic and world events that influenced these movements; how their art reflected their values and strategies; how change differently manifested in their political activities, worldview and lifestyles; and their reach and memory within society today. Class content will be offered in packets of primary source material, media sources available on the web, lectures, and research projects. Students will compose one research paper, a creative project, weekly class activities and regular written responses to text and media sources.
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Comics are enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability in Academia right now, as they have become an accessible, vernacular literary form equivalent to genre fiction- and even lofty literary fiction. Literary fiction aims to provide insight that creates a stronger understanding of the world and of the human condition. Genre fiction can tackle complex themes as well, but it’s more of an entertaining story that allows the reader to escape from reality. You could say that Graphic Novels are comics that take themselves seriously. Many of today’s most respected graphic novels, such as “Persepolis” and “Maus”, are actually non-fiction and therefore not really novels at all, but the label “Graphic Novels” has been generally accepted for the form, so we’ll let that slide. This class will focus on over a dozen of the most respected and influential graphic novels in print today. We will lean in the direction of “literary fiction” and focus particularly on issues of identity that are explored in this medium. We will also look at Literary genres, sub genres and narrative forms in addition to the examining the language of visual narrative. The objective of this course is to develop the empathy and attention to detail that will help us become better readers, better writers and better humans.
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The first four decades of the twentieth century were particularly difficult for Mexico as it struggled to answer existential questions- many of which are relevant to us today: What is a “National Identity” and who gets to decide; who does the government serve, who is excluded and why? Does a stagnant ruling elite indifferent to public demand for change lead inevitably to a Revolution? Mexico’s history offers us dire warnings, but it also offers us hope and many positive directions for the future. This class will focus on the art (mostly Muralists), literature and political events of the first 4 decades of the 20th century. Students will have the opportunity to concentrate on either a) delving into an historical research or b) undertaking a study of an important artwork/ literary work and its author within the context of this course.
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Students will be introduced to a wide array of research skills, focusing on archival and primary-document research, while coming into a deeper appreciation of the place they live and the ways politics, culture, and economics affect daily life for everyday citizens. They will come to understand historiography from the ground up, by pursuing the entire historical process from identifying relevant archival documents all the way through curating and presenting material in oral presentations, papers, and museum-style exhibits. They will come to understand the social dimensions of academic work, both through the civic nature of the content and through collaborative research and continuous sharing of their findings with their peers. Students will finish the course with a strong and confident grasp of research methodologies, citizenship, and historical processes, preparing them for future success in the Humanities.
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Russian Absurdists: Leningrad’s Interwar Literary Hooligans explores the turbulent politics and culture of early 20th century Russia from an artist’s-eye view, with a particular focus on the work of the OBERIU group – the direct inheritors of Russian Futurism and Suprematism. Close reading and discussion of poetry, short fiction, prose miniatures and visual art will help students to build their contextual interpretation and critical analysis skills. Students will read twenty to thirty pages a week, author one essay, give a class presentation and complete a take-home exam essay.
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Our semester comes with a focus on the rise and fall of the Globe Theatre and a few of Shakespeare’s plays that were performed during its first run. In addition to analyzing how elements of the plays were determined by the limits and advances the Globe provided, the next twelve weeks explores the socio-political environment in which theater artists operated from the years 1599-1613. “Shakespeare & the Globe” gives attention to important military triumphs like the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and one its infamous military disasters—campaigns in Ireland. For the former, such an unlikely victory opened for Elizabethan Englanders great optimism, economic growth and the new ideas about odd vagrants roaming the English streets, actors. The later haunted Londoners as the Globe rose by the Thames. Viewing actors as perhaps viable professionals allowed for the first permanent theaters in England to pop up like mushrooms as England begins to rise as a colonial and economic world power. The course will include close readings of As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, The Tempest and Henry VIII, the show that was on the boards when the Globe burned to the ground.
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The Iron Curtain! Despite its oppressive might, it feared the written word. Following the Prague Spring (1968), Soviet-blocked Czechoslovakia sought to shut down any form of expression that might disagree or threaten the ruling regime. Theaters were shut down, while actors and directors were arrested. Yet the theater maintained a powerful pulse—underground—by creating its own language—in metaphor and movement. This course looks at the history of the country and how theater played a significant role in bringing democracy back to the Czech people before and during the Velvet Revolution—a bloodless rebellion against communist rule and oppression. In addition to exploring the Czech Republic’s history, a number of key Czech playwrights and other theater artists will be explored, including that nation’s future (and democratically-elected) president, Vaclav Havel. In addition to Havel, writers covered include Karel Capek and Pavel Kohout as well as various critics and historians.
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To the point: Leo Tolstoy: Teacher for a Russian Spring will touch on what makes Russia such a complicated geo-political landscape. Should this ancient nation fall under the influence of westernization or should it hold on to its ethnic roots, despite the vast diversity within her ethnicity? Leo Tolstoy: Teacher for a Russian Spring examines these swift changes challenging Russian life throughout the 19th century and into the next epoch. Argument: should the Russian people accept Europeanization or maintain a Slavic identity? What should be done with the Serfs? What about the Czar? The Decembrists were a political revolt before a pleasant rock band. In short, this course will examine concepts that have made up Russian identity as well as sample Tolstoy’s prose, which reflects such changes in his homeland.
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In this course we will survey the political, economic, and cultural history of what has become the United States between European colonization and living memory. First semester, students will be introduced to historical method and perspectives as we explore how the initial interactions of European colonists, Native American societies, and African slaves affected the shape that the future nation would eventually take, and examine the growth of major colonies, the founding and territorial expansion of the United States, and the many developments in American culture, self-image, and economics up through the Civil War. We will trace struggles for equality in race, gender, and class within the country, and its effect on other societies with which it has interacted. In the second semester, we will follow these threads up to the present day, while consolidating skills in historical analysis and research. Students will develop their historical literacy and critical sensibilities, in order to understand the processes of historical change and the roles and effects of the U.S. on its citizens and the world, laying the groundwork for responsible citizenship and for their further studies in the Humanities.
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Humanity seems constantly to dream of more perfect places and of horrific places, and strives to achieve both. We will read about many imaginary utopias and dystopias from the Garden of Eden to the present day, and look at real-life attempts to put utopian ideas into practice, from Medieval monasteries to contemporary phenomena such as utopian schools and the Occupy encampments of 2011. We will find that often, one person’s/group’s utopia is another’s dystopia.
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The story of Vietnam as a nation tells of people in constant pursuit of an independent self-determined country. Therefore, Vietnam: Colonialism, Nationalism, Immigration takes as its focus events that have impacted a country from the years following World War II to the present. Starting with the reemergence of French colonialism, the course will examine how and why the United States became entangled with this corner of the world. With readings from novelists, playwrights and poets as well as non-fictional accounts, the course will explore the impact decades of war had on those who lived there and those who found themselves in a foreign land fighting in the midst of another country’s civil war. The course concludes with a look at Vietnamese immigration to America and exploring their lives through fiction and poetry as well as a look at the loves of Americans impacted by what was once America’s longest military engagement.
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Battle heart, shell shock, nostalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder; many are the names for the lasting damage that war experience imposes on its survivors, a spectrum of reactive conditions researchers and caretakers are still grappling with fully understanding. In this class students will investigate war trauma from the perspective of the individual, with a special focus on late 20th and early 21st century U.S. conflicts. Students will explore issues of honor, duty, war culture, class, and training that impact the soldier’s circumstances; the experience of combat trauma, as told through eyewitness accounts, which results in the unique mental and physiological damage in survivors of war; the role technology plays on the battlefield; the history of popular and specialized understandings of these conditions; and the unique problems of war trauma and its treatment in the home and community upon a soldier’s return to domestic life, as well as medical treatment. Core texts will be The Things they Carried, On Killing, No More Heroes, and Redeployment.
Pick back up starting with 20/21 Spring courses