|
91246 |
LIT 3033 Toward (A)
Moral Fiction |
Mary
Caponegro |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 305 |
ELIT |
The novels in this course each grapple with
ethical issues through fictive means. In navigating them, we will try to assess
the way in which literature can create, complicate, or resolve ethical
dilemmasor eschew morality altogether. We will also attend to craft,
investigating how these authors concerns are furthered by formal
considerations. Students will read one novel per week, occasionally
supplemented by theoretical texts. Analytical writing will be the primary mode
of response, but a creative option will be given for students to find their own
fictive path to a social, ethical or political issue. The syllabus will draw from
the following texts: Kleists Michael Kohlhaas, Graham Greenes The
Power and the Glory or The Heart of the Matter, Margaret
Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, Roberto Bolanos By Night in Chile,
Michel Tourniers The Ogre, Elfriede Jelineks Wonderful Wonderful
Times, J.M. Coetzees Disgrace, Rikki Docornets Netsuke,
J.G. Ballards Crash, Michael
Houellebecqs The Possibility of an Island, Kenzaburo Oes Nip
the Buds Shoot the Kids, Martin Amiss Times Arrow, and Doris
Lessings The Fifth Child. Class size: 15
|
91705 |
LIT 3040 Junior Seminar: Romanticism and the Philosophy of
Language |
Cole
Heinowitz |
. . W . . |
1:30
3:50 pm |
OLIN
308 |
ELIT |
The power of languageto represent and to
misrepresent, to reveal and to obscurewas a central preoccupation of
Romantic-era poets. Is language entirely subjective, relating to thoughts
alone? Is language essentially social, the set of shared signs that allows for
mutual understanding? Or does language reflect our connection to nature and the
divine? In this course, we will pursue these questions through the poetry and
prose of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats, as well as through the
writings of the philosophersincluding Locke, Leibniz, Rousseau, and Schellingwho
informed their ideas. We will also consider the works of twentieth-century
thinkers such as Saussure, Foucault, Heidegger, and Agamben. Class
size: 15
|
91734 |
LIT 3147
T. S. Eliot
and Modernity |
Matthew Mutter |
M . . . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 306 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: American Studies This course explores the work of T.S.
Eliot in its intellectual, cultural, and political contexts. Eliot described the mind of the poet as a
catalyst that converted the elements surrounding it into art; we will approach
Eliot as a mind that converted the crises and contradictions of modernity into
poetry, drama, and criticism. To that
end, the course will examine his engagement with the burgeoning discourses of
anthropology, psychology, and sociology; his philosophy of radical skepticism;
his critique of Romanticism; his responses to urbanization, cultural
fragmentation, and world war; and the controversial religious and political
attitudes of his later career. We will
investigate Eliots poetic and philosophical influences (Charles Baudelaire,
Jules Laforgue, Ezra Pound, F.H. Bradley, Emile Durkheim, James Frazer, and
others), and consider the fortunes of his reputation among poets and
academics. Fulfills the American Studies Junior Seminar requirement. Class
size: 15
|
91601 |
LIT 3205 Dante |
Joseph Luzzi |
. T . . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 310 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Italian Studies, Medieval
Studies This course
will introduce students to the world and work of the so-called founder of all
modern poetry, Dante Alighieri. Our close reading of the entire Divine
Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) will consider
such issues as the phenomenology of poetic inspiration, medieval theories of
gender, Dantes relationship with the literary ghosts Vergil and Cavalcanti,
the sources and shapes of the human soul, and how the weight of love (pondus
amoris) can save this same soul. We will also read the story of Dantes
poetic apprenticeship the Vita nuova (The New Life). Conducted in
English, readings in English translation; option of work in Italian if student
wishes. This course counts as pre-1800 offering. Class size: 15
|
91285 |
LIT 3219 War of 1812 Bicentennial: Leo
Tolstoy's "War and Peace" |
Marina
Kostalevsky |
. T . . . |
3:10 -5:30 pm |
OLINLC 208 |
FLLC |
War is
not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to
understand that and not play at war. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Cross-listed: Russian & Eurasian Studies There is no doubt that the Napoleonic wars
are listed among the most important historical events which, once again,
reshaped the political landscape of Europe. There is also little doubt that Leo
Tolstoy's epic War and Peace, built around this formidable event, reshaped
the literary landscape of the European novel. The bicentennial of 1812, the
pivotal year in the entire military conflict between European nations, gives us
renewed incentive to read Tolstoys masterpiece as a multidisciplinary text
that explores the boundaries between artistic, political, military,
philosophical, and religious writing.
Therefore, the class will be reading other selected writings by Tolstoy
on art, history, war, causation, and ethics, as well as ancillary texts by
various scholars on the theory of the novel, the history of Napoleonic wars,
Leo Tolstoys life, art, and ideas. We will also read major works of literary
criticism inspired by the novel, including studies of Russian formalists and
contemporary literary scholars. Special
attention will be given to Tolstoys use of language and literary devices.
Conducted in English. Class size: 15
|
91257 |
LIT 331 Translation
Workshop |
Peter
Filkins |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 303 |
FLLC |
The workshop is intended for students
interested in exploring both the process of translation and ways in which meaning
is created and shaped through words. Class time will be divided between a
consideration of various approaches to the translation of poetry and prose,
comparisons of various solutions arrived at by different translators, and the
students' own translations into English of poetry and prose from any language
or text of their own choosing. Prerequisite: One year of language study or
permission of the instructor. Class size: 15
|
91236 |
LIT 333 New
Directions in Contemporary Fiction |
Bradford
Morrow |
M . . . . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLIN 101 |
ELIT |
This seminar is devoted to close readings of
novels and collections of short stories by innovative contemporary fiction
writers published over the last quarter century, with an eye toward exploring
both the great diversity of voices and styles employed in these narratives as
well as the cultural, historical, and social issues they chronicle. Particular emphasis will be placed on
analysis of fiction by some of the more pioneering practitioners of the form, including
Cormac McCarthy, William Gaddis, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Kazuo
Ishiguro, Don DeLillo, David Foster Wallace, Michael Ondaatje, Ian McEwan,
Jamaica Kincaid, along with two or three authors who will visit class to
discuss their books and read from recent work. Class size: 15
|
91266 |
LIT 349 Junior Seminar: Victorian Bodies |
Deirdre
d'Albertis |
. . . Th . . T . . . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm 11:00 - 12:00 pm |
OLIN 101 OLIN LC 206 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Gender & Sexuality Studies; Science, Technology
& Society; Victorian Studies The
very term Victorian is synonymous with an outmoded sense of decorum,
prudishness, and inhibition. Yet as
Foucault memorably asserted, we other Victorians remain profoundly influenced
by notions of the body and sexual difference established in the nineteenth
century. We will study a series of
Victorian textsliterary and non-literaryto explore a range of somatic
cultures. We will also consider
Victorian bodies in the aggregate. Why
did the body come to be used by the Victorians as a figure for the state? How
did British imperial discourse purport to classify and study subject bodies?
Finally, what properties, sensations, and affective responses did the human
body represent for nineteenth-century thinkers? Authors considered may include:
Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hughes, Richard Burton, Robert Baden-Powell, Oscar
Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, John Ruskin, Rudyard Kipling, and
Lewis Carroll, among others. Upper
College standing assumed; enrollment limited to fifteen. This is a writing intensive course. The
general goals of the writing component of the course are to improve the
development, composition, organization, and revision of analytical prose; the use
of evidence to support an argument; strategies of interpretation and analysis
of texts; and the mechanics of grammar and documentation. Regular short writing
assignments will be required. Class
size: 15
|
91256 |
LIT 3640 Memorable 19th
Century Continental Novels |
Justus
Rosenberg |
. T . . . |
10:10 - 12:30 pm |
OLIN 307 |
ELIT |
This course offers an in-depth examination of
continental novels that are part of the literary canon, such as Dostoyevskys Brothers Karamazov, Tolstoys War and Peace, Stendhals The Red and the Black, Flauberts Madame Bovary, Balzacs Cousin Bette and Thomas Manns The Buddenbrooks, which collectively
provide a realistic picture of the major artistic, social, political, and
philosophical trends and developments in 19th century Europe. We explore these writers portrayals of the
rising middle class, the corrosion of religious beliefs and romantic notions,
the position of women in society, the birth of radical ideologies, the debate
between materialism and idealism as philosophical concepts, and analyze the diversity
of their narrative strategies. Our
readings are enhanced by selected screen adaptations of some novels. Class size: 15
|
91565 |
LIT 3742 Gertrude
Stein & John Cage |
Joan
Retallack |
. . . Th . |
1:30 -3:50 pm |
OLINLC 118 |
ELIT |
Gertrude Stein and John Cage are arguably the
most influential American figures in the experimental arts of the 20th
and 21st centuries. In this class well read, view, and listen to
selections from their work while noticing key connections to important developments
in the fields with which they are most closely associated: literature, visual
arts, music, dance, and other performance arts. Though Cage credited Stein as a
major early influence on his own work, the two never met. In this class
they will. Well study what they each had to say about their own aesthetics and
then put key examples into conversation with one another, ending the semester
with an assessment of their contributions to the way we view and practice the
arts today. Along the way, well bring the work of a number of important
modernists, postmoderns and contemporaries into the mixincluding Picasso and
Virgil Thomson (Stein); Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns
(Cage). The steady current throughout will be attentive, conversational
readings (and performances) of their poetry, poetics, and lecture texts in
order to make sense and meaning of their unparalleled inventiveness. Students
will compose two portfolios of essays and experiments in Steinian/Cagean
poeticsone due at mid-term, the other at the end of the semester. Admission to
class by permission of professor. Class size: 15
|
91570 |
LIT 405
DD
Senior Colloquium: Literature |
Deirdre
dAlbertis |
M . . . . |
4:45 -6:30 pm |
OLIN LC 115 |
N/A |
Literature Majors writing a project are
required to enroll in the year-long Senior Colloquium. Senior Colloquium is an integral part of the
8 credits earned for Senior Project. An
opportunity to share working methods, knowledge, skills and resources among
students, the colloquium explicitly addresses challenges arising from research
and writing on this scale, and presentation of works in progress. A pragmatic focus on the nuts and bolts of
the project will be complemented with life-after-Bard skills workshops, along
with a review of internship and grant-writing opportunities in the discipline.
Senior Colloquium is designed to create a productive network of association for
student scholars and critics: small working groups foster intellectual
community, providing individual writers with a wide range of support throughout
this culminating year of undergraduate study in the major. Class
size: 25