15207 |
LIT
3048 EXTRAORDINARY BODIES: Disability in american
Fiction AND CULTURE |
Jaime Alves |
. . . . F |
12:30pm-2:50pm |
OLIN 301 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed American Studies, Human
Rights In this course, we will examine
American fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama to understand how writers of
the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries represent
the “normal” body, as well as a constellation of bodies presented as
extraordinary: bodies disfigured at birth or by illness or war; bodies paraded
as “freaks”; bodies that don’t fit into established categories. We begin in the
early nineteenth century, when popular Enlightenment ideology suggested
Americans could control their own destinies, making and remaking their
characters, and even their bodies, at will. What ideas emerged here about the
kind of self one should make, and the kinds of bodies that should be discarded?
How were those ideas proffered in and shaped by literary imaginings? How have
they persisted and changed over time, especially in relation to ideas about
American identity? Our reading list takes us into the present day, and includes
an introduction to the major questions and scholarly perspectives under debate
in the emerging field of Disability Studies. Possible readings include short
fiction by Poe, Hawthorne, Steinbeck, O’Connor, and Morrison; novels by Howe (The Hermaphrodite), Phelps (The Silent Partner), Davis (Life in the Iron Mills), and Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night-time); memoirs by Keller, Mairs, Fries, and Kuusisto; drama by
Nussbaum (Mishuganismo); and poetry
by Whitman and Barnes, and from the groundbreaking recent anthology, Beauty
is a Verb. Class size: 15
15208 |
THTR
310 Survey of Drama: the birth of tragedy, the death of tragedy |
Thomas Bartscherer |
M . . . . |
4:40pm-7:00pm |
BLUM HALL |
HUM |
Cross-listed: Classical Studies,
Experimental Humanities, Literature, Philosophy
Two pivotal works in the history of the interpretation of tragic drama—The
Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche and The Death of Tragedy by
George Steiner—will set the agenda for our inquiry into the origins of western
theater in the dramas of classical antiquity and the fate of tragedy as an art
form in the modern world. In addition to assiduous study of Nietzsche and
Steiner, we shall be reading a broad selection of the tragedies these authors
discuss, including plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare,
Racine, Büchner, and Beckett. We shall also watch film adaptations of selected
tragedies and, schedule permitting, attend a staged performance. The course
will integrate close reading, literary and philosophical analysis, and
practical scene work. All readings will be in English. Class
size: 15
15618 |
LIT 3149 FLORENCE: PORTRAIT OF A CITY |
Joseph
Luzzi |
…Th. |
1:30pm -3:50pm |
OLIN 303 |
ELIT |
Cross-listed: Italian Studies How did the small Tuscan city of
Florence become the birthplace of the European Renaissance? How did it produce
geniuses on the level of Dante, Botticelli, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Galileo,
and Rossini, to name a few? And how did Florentine culture nurture
groundbreaking innovation in the history of art, literature, and music? This
new interdisciplinary course will explore the extraordinary impact of Florence
in the arts and sciences. We will read the great authors associated with the
city—from famous native sons Dante and Machiavelli to illustrious literary
pilgrims Leopardi and Montale—and study the incredible ferment in painting and
sculpture that made the city a center for aesthetic innovation. Topics include
Florence’s role in the history of music, especially its role in the invention
of opera; the emergence of Florence as birthplace of the Italian language;
representation of the city on screen by Roberto Rossellini and other
filmmakers; Florence’s presence in Futurist and avant-garde aesthetics; and
such epochal Florentine historical events as the civil war between Dante’s
Guelphs and rival Ghibellines, the French siege of the city in 1494, Florence’s
time as capital of the recently unified Italy in the 1860s, and the disastrous
Flood of 1966 that threatened to destroy some of the city’s most precious works
and buildings. We will also examine how the city is reshaping its storied past
to ensure its ongoing relevance in the new multicultural Italy. All readings
and course work in English. Class size: 15
15321 |
THTR
317 20th Century Avant Garde Performance |
Miriam Felton-Dansky |
M . . . . |
1:30pm-3:50pm |
FISHER CONFERENCE |
AART |
Cross-listed: Art History,
Experimental Humanities, Literature "Set fire to the library shelves!"
wrote the Italian Futurists in their first manifesto of 1909. With their
revolutionary politics, audience provocations, and enthusiastic embrace of the
new, the Futurists inaugurated a century of avant-garde performance. This
course will investigate that century, tracing the European and American
theatrical avant-gardes from 1909 to 1995, including movements and artists
such as Expressionism, Surrealism and Dada; John Cage, Allan Kaprow, and
Happenings; utopian collectives of the 1960s; Peter Handke, Heiner Müller, the
Wooster Group and Reza Abdoh. We will explore questions including: the
implications of assuming the mantle of the "avant-garde"; the
contested status of the dramatic text in avant-garde performance; the
relationship between performance and emerging media forms; and avant-garde
artists’ efforts to create radical fusions of art and life. This course will
require a research paper, reading responses, and a presentation. Class size: 15
15209 |
LIT
3315 THE ART OF MisbehAvIng IN Renaissance England |
Noor Desai |
. T . . . |
1:30pm-3:50pm |
OLIN 307 |
ELIT |
New English Renaissance drama is filled with audacious overreachers,
defiant women, impertinent clowns, and deceptive tricksters—not to mention an
expansive collection of rogues, spies, murderers, and thieves. This course
explores what depictions of rule-breakers and outlaws on stage can tell us
about the organization of political and cultural power in the period, and also
how these plays can help us interrogate our own position with respect to codes
governing behavior. By reading works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, and
others alongside both modern works of social theory and fascinating primary
documents such as etiquette guides and political manifestos, we will
investigate the ideological foundations of good behavior. More importantly, we
will consider what can be gained by breaking some rules! Our units will focus
on specific categories such as the braggart, the tomboy, the outcast, and the
rebel as we analyze misbehavior in order to reevaluate confining categories
such as class, gender, sexuality, and race.This course counts as pre-1800
offering. Class size: 15
15210 |
LIT
333 New Directions in Contemporary Fiction |
Bradford Morrow |
M . . . . |
1:30pm-3:50pm |
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. We will explore both the great diversity of voices, styles,
and forms employed in these narratives as well as the cultural, historical,
political, and philosophical issues they chronicle. Particular emphasis
will be placed on analysis of fiction by some of the groundbreaking
practitioners of the form, including Cormac McCarthy, William Gaddis, Angela
Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Kazuo Ishiguro, David Foster Wallace, Robert
Coover, Ian McEwan, and Jamaica Kincaid. One or two authors will visit class to
talk with students about their books and writing process, and read from recent
work. Class size: 15
15595 |
LIT / THTR
336 FEMALE
INFERNOS: Parks, Churchill, Jelinek |
Jean Wagner |
. T . . . |
4:40pm-7:00pm |
FISHER STUDIO NORTH |
AART |
See Theater
section for description.
15214 |
LIT
405 Senior COLLOQUIUM: Literature |
Deirdre d'Albertis |
M . . . . |
4:45pm-6:00pm |
RKC 103 |
|
0 credits
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: 40