FYSE 1025 Chance (Fall)
Do movie reviews affect box-office revenues? Do the U.S. News rankings affect the size of Middlebury's applicant pool? In what sense do these assessments reflect "quality"? The Wall Street Journal recently asked, "Can eating breakfast cereal determine the sex of your baby?" Nowadays, you can't read the news, choose a college, or even enjoy breakfast without encountering statistical claims. Which would you trust to inform your life decisions? We will investigate these questions through readings that include your favorite newspaper, paleobiologist Stephen J. Gould's incisive essays on excellence and variability, and statistician Edward Tufte's trenchant critique of data graphics in the popular press. 3 hrs. sem. DED (W. Peterson)
FYSE 1076 Communism and Fascism (Fall)
In this seminar we will study two major "totalitarian" regimes of the 20th-century, Nazism in Germany and Stalinism in Russia. We will concentrate on the cultural and philosophical origins of Fascism and Bolshevism. Readings will include selections from the writings of Marx, Mill, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Lenin, and Hitler, as well as cinematic works. 3 hrs. sem. HIS PHL EUR (J. West)
FYSE 1080 Mozart Operas: Swains, Countesses and Magic Flutes (Fall)
In this seminar, we will delve into the world of opera by listening, viewing, and thinking. The focus will be three operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Abduction from the Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro, and The Magic Flute. We will delight in the whimsy of these compositions and seek to comprehend the depths of the human condition represented by them, both in musical and verbal form. The topics will come out of our discussions on issues pertaining to these works or other operas of your choice. In addition to papers, there will also be independent creative work performed informally as the schedule of the class allows. 3 hrs. sem. ART EUR (S. Tan)
FYSE 1106 Roads Less Traveled: Literature and Cultures of Northern New England (Fall)
Is there really a culture unique to northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont)? How has the literature from the region expressed that culture? How true are the myths of a pristine world of small towns, beautiful landscapes, and austere and ironic Yankees? In this seminar we will consider these questions and others through various modes of inquiry (readings, film, visitors to class, trips). We will read literary antecedents (Emerson, Thoreau, Frost) as well as more contemporary treatments that make use of the Yankee archetype in telling their stories (John Irving, Howard Frank Mosher, Ernest Hebert, Carolyn Chute). 3 hrs. sem. LIT NOR (K. Lindholm)
FYSE 1121 Representations of Urban Italy: Rome, Florence, Venice (Fall)
Rome, Florence, and Venice are central to the Western image of the city. With ancient Rome as a model, we will enrich our historical knowledge of these cities and their famous sites. We will explore how literature, urban planning, and the arts represent them. Works (in English) include: travel memoirs, classic films (Rome Open City, La dolce vita), adaptations of novels (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Room with a View), "magic realism" (Winterston's The Passion), detective fiction (Donna Leon, Michael Dibdin), modern and contemporary Italian works (Moravia, Ozpetek's Facing Windows), and toga epics (Gladiator, Rome). Culinary history and practice will be included. 3 hrs. sem. HIS EUR (P. Zupan)
FYSE 1123 Close Encounters with the Middle East (Fall)
In the west, few other cultures have evoked such strong emotions or have been so widely misunderstood as the cultures of the Middle East. In this seminar, we will explore alternative understandings of the region by examining various types of historical and contemporary narratives. Rather than focus exclusively on political events and trajectories, we will investigate social and cultural experiences of peoples in the Middle East which have emerged through the intersection of history, identity, modernity, gender relations, and popular expression. This approach allows students to become familiar with the region's inhabitants and cultures, and to think beyond the static images commonly portrayed in today's media. In this seminar we will draw on various sources including film, media, literature, music, among others, and will interpret their ongoing significance in today's world. 3 hrs. sem. HIS SOC AAL CMP (F. Armanios)
FYSE 1133 Faith and Reason (Fall)
In this seminar we will explore perennial and contemporary questions in the philosophy of religion: Is there a God? Are objective proofs of God possible, or is religious belief founded on subjective feelings? What is faith? The modern period has been a time of unprecedented crisis for religion, and we will focus in particular on these challenges and responses to them. Is religion, as Freud thought, just wish-fulfillment? Is religious belief compatible with science? Can any religion claim to be the true religion in a pluralistic world? Authors read will include St. Augustine, St. Anselm, Kant, Kierkegaard, James, Freud, and contemporary philosophers. 3 hrs. sem. PHL (J. Spackman)
FYSE 1145 Voices Along the Way (Fall)
This is a First Year Seminar for international students. In this seminar we will study American philosophy and culture through literature and history. We will read The Declaration of Independence and Emerson's Self-Reliance, and The Slave Narratives, and move towards transplanted writers such as Julia Alvarez and Abraham Rodriguez, Jr. We will also work with non-fiction, such as Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. We will work on oral presentations, research, and writing, which will include short papers as well as longer ones. This seminar will enable a greater understanding of American culture through inquiry. 3 hrs. sem. HIS SOC NOR (H. Vila)
FYSE 1146 The World of the Italian Renaissance Artist (Fall)
Even as a complex guild system, wealthy patrons, and the church directed the fates of many 15th-century artists, these artists shaped the visual language of Italy’s city-states. In this course, we will explore training, technique, patronage, and artistic rivalry in the early Renaissance. A major resource for our discussions will be the exhibit, The Art of Devotion: Panel Painting in Early Renaissance Italy, on view at the Middlebury College Museum of Art in the fall of 2009. First-hand study of works in this exhibit, coupled with readings from important primary documents such as Cennino Cennini’s Craftsman’s Handbook and Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Artists, will bring us closer to understanding the place of the artist at a pivotal moment in the history of art. ART HIS EUR (K. Abbott Smith)
FYSE 1153 Poems, Poets, Poetry (Fall)
In this seminar, we will read a wide range of lyric and narrative poems and explore ways of responding to them, in discussion and in writing. We will contemplate the resources of language and expressive form and structure upon which poets variously depend and draw. We will ask such questions as: can a poem really be "analyzed " or "explicated", and what assumptions lie behind such an attempt? The aim of this seminar is to assist in making poetry accessible and enjoyable without diminishing its complexity or its challenge, and to encourage a sense of poems as companions for life. 3 hrs. sem. LIT (D. Price)
FYSE 1167 Shakespeare's Characters (Fall)
Shakespeare's reputation owes much to his characters; yet memorable as these are, they abound in inconsistencies. What did they mean in Shakespeare's time, and how do they still succeed? What explains the charisma of Bottom, the idiot who cannot act, or the appeal of Shylock, the vicious stereotype of Jewishness? What prompted 19th-century critic William Hazlitt so to embrace Shakespeare's Danish prince as to declare, "It is we who are Hamlet"? Addressing such questions, we will develop critical thinking and writing skills. Texts will include A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and contextual readings. 3 hrs. sem. LIT EUR (J. Berg)
FYSE 1183 Psychology and the Meaning of Life (Fall)
The goal of this seminar will be to explore what psychology can teach us about the meaning of life. We will start with earlier, more philosophical models (Freud, Frankl, Maslow) and conclude with modern empirical approaches to the study of "happiness" and "meaningfulness" (Seligman, Czikszentmihalyi, Kasser). This seminar will include a substantial service learning component in which students will volunteer in community organizations and use those experiences as material for class discussion and assignments. 3 hrs. sem. SOC (M. Kimble)
FYSE 1184 The Journey Within: The Spiritual Pursuit in Literary and Mystical Traditions (Fall)
A fundamental teaching of the world’s religious traditions is that the source of love, the fulfillment of life, and the treasure of heaven are found within. With texts from antiquity to the present as our guides, we shall explore themes such as the concept of the soul, the discovery of a deeper self, the spiritual awakening, and the nature of the mystical experience. We shall consider questions related to religious and psychological experience such as: Where does the self reside? Why is it important to “know thyself”? What is the state of consciousness described as enlightenment? How does one rise above the sorrows and struggles of the world? Finally, we shall try to understand how turning within does not mean fleeing from the world, but engaging in the world around us in a more profound and meaningful way. Readings will include works from the Upanishads, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, St. Teresa of Avila, Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Herman Hesse, and J.D. Salinger. 3 hrs. sem. PHL CMP (M. Hatjigeorgiou)
FYSE 1203 The Beast in the Jungle (Fall)
In this course, we will explore some literary texts in which the practice of exploration itself yields a complex confrontation with, and often breakdown of, identity and will. The westerner’s longing to separate him or herself from home and make contact with a foreign “other” arises from the high purposes that set imperial adventures in motion in the first place. Readings will include Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Forster’s Passage to India, Waugh’s Handful of Dust, Bowles’ Sheltering Sky, Stone’s Dog Soldiers, Duras’ The Lover, Greene’s A Burnt-Out Case. 3 hrs. sem. LIT (R. Cohen)
FYSE 1207 Stories, Myths, and National Identity (Fall)
What is national identity, and how important is it? How does national identity interact with and affect personal identity? How is the age of a nation determined? How does a nation become a state? Can a state become a nation? What are "invented traditions"? We will look at the way different texts and media are used in creating a sense of belonging, or not belonging, to a nation. We will study texts by Herodotus, Goethe, Fichte, Wagner, Shakespeare, Defoe, Nora, Yeats, Cooper, Turner, others. We will view films including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra), Lawrence of Arabia (Lean), Last of the Mohicans (Mann), The Promise (Trotta). 3 hrs. sem. LIT SOC EUR (M. Geisler)
FYSE 1225 Romantic Comedy: Shakespeare and the Movies (Fall)
How has romantic comedy portrayed courtship and gender relations? We will explore the subject by looking at classic plays and contemporary films. In particular, we will consider the long standing conventions of the romantic comedy to better understand its evolution and contemporary expression. We will begin by reading a selection of Shakespeare's comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It, among others. In addition, we will watch screen adaptations, such as Much Ado About Nothing and related films such as Shakespeare in Love. We will then consider other dramatists of romantic comedy including Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw. Finally, we will shift our focus to contemporary romantic comedy on screen and how the genre has evolved in popular culture. 3 hrs. sem./screen. ART (L. Grindon)
FYSE 1243 Paris, City of Exile (Fall)
Internationally perceived as a place of freedom and enlightenment, Paris is a destination to which have flocked countless foreign exiles and expatriates. At the same time, however, a rather different notion of Parisian exile can be sensed in the ways some writers have expressed their feelings of profound alienation, disaffection, even fear, in the face of the modern metropolis and the form of civilization it is seen to incarnate. In this seminar we will examine the works of a variety of writers and filmmakers, both French (Baudelaire, Zola, Breton, Perec, Truffaut) and non-French (Hemingway, Huston), whose representations of Paris reflect the theme of exile as it relates to their experience of the modern urban landscape. No knowledge of French required. 3 hrs. sem. LIT EUR (C. Nunley)
FYSE 1268 Galapagos: Myth and Reality (Fall)
The Galapagos Islands have stimulated the imagination of writers, naturalists, sailors, and film-makers. Most people know the islands because of their influence on Charles Darwin's thinking about species and evolution, but indeed, their influence is widespread. In this seminar we will read texts by Darwin, Melville, and Dillard to understand the myth of the Galapagos; then we will proceed to books by Weiner (Beak of the Finch) and D'Orso (Plundering Paradise) to understand more about the science and culture of the islands. We will explore the precarious balance between tourism and conservation through readings in the primary literature. 3 hrs. sem./disc. (H. Young)
FYSE 1269 Language Acquisition (Fall)
A normal developing child can acquire any human language in the right environment, yet it is much more difficult for an adult to achieve the same kind of proficiency in a second language. Why is this? In this seminar we will explore the topic of language acquisition. Some of the questions we will ask are: How do children acquire their first language? Is it effortless? Are humans "hardwired" with language? Is it true that after the "Critical Period," the onset of puberty, humans have lost this capacity? We will also explore the social and cultural constraints on both first and second language acquisition, and learn the basic tools for collecting data for language acquisition research. 3 hrs. sem. SOC (H. Du)
FYSE 1270 The Body in American Culture (Fall)
In this course we will explore how the human body has been viewed, exhibited, and objectified in American culture from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will consider the body's function as a site for the construction of meanings based on gender, race, sexuality, nationality, and class. We will also consider the body's relationship to evolving discourses of pornography, disability and disease, technology, and corporal punishment. Course materials will span a range of disciplines, including art, literature, history, film, and advertising. HIS NOR (H. Allen)
FYSE 1271 Contemporary Economics: Principles and Issues (Fall)
What’s going on with the economy? What are the economics of climate change and health care? Can the government help? If so, when and how? And why do economists disagree on such basic questions? In this seminar, we will try to answer these and other key contemporary economic questions—or at least understand how economists of various political and methodological stripes think about them. We will read pop-economics books (e.g., Freakonomics; Economics in One Lesson; Animal Spirits), periodicals, and blogs. Students will apply new "econ-think" skills in regular writing assignments and a series of in-class debates. 3 hrs sem. SOC (C. Rothschild)
FYSE 1272 Literature and Philosophy of Friendship (Fall)
In this seminar, we will explore major works of literature and philosophy from earlier centuries on the topic of friendship to see how they support or challenge our own notions of what defines a "true" friend. What are the obligations of friendship? Is it like love or antithetical to it? How is friendship between the sexes different from same-sex friendships? Can an enemy be a friend? Can only humans be friends? What does our choice of friends say about us? Readings include Aristotle, Seneca, Plutarch, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Bacon, Kant, and Emerson, as well as selected texts in non-European traditions. 3 hrs. sem. LIT PHL EUR CMP (T. Billings)
FYSE 1273 Family Matters (Fall)
In this seminar, we will examine stories about families, from the Victorian period to the current day. Novels, plays, and memoirs as well as popular and sociological studies of the family will be discussed. Marital relations, relationships between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons; intergenerational relationships; and domestic configurations will be recurring topics of interest in the course. Readings may include Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (1839); D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (1913); Harold Pinter, The Homecoming (1965); Timothy Mo, Sour Sweet (1982); Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003); and Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle (2006). 3 hrs. sem. LIT (E. Napier)
FYSE 1274 Bombay in Fiction and Film (Fall)
Sekuta Mehta coined the phrase "maximum city" to convey the vitality and variety of Bombay, re-named Mumbai in 1996. This dizzying abundance and range of experience is represented in the many novels and films about Bombay that have gained world-wide recognition. In this seminar, we will explore the many facets of Bombay in a cultural and historical context through films such as Shri 420, Salaam Bombay, Bombay, and Slum Dog Millionaire and novels such as No God in Sight, Love and Longing in Bombay, and A Fine Balance, framing these in in order to explore the many facets of Bombay. 3 hrs. sem. LIT SOC AAL (Y. Siddiqi)
FYSE 1275 The Geological Landscape of Native America (Fall)
In this seminar we will examine numerous issues related to the geology of America prior to the 15th-century. What types of landscapes were encountered by early Native Americans? Did they first arrive here via a Siberia-Alaska land bridge a mere 12,000 years ago, or have people lived in America for longer, say 50,000 years? Perhaps longer? How have American landscapes evolved over the millennia, and how did early Americans adapt? Many of the answers to these questions are contained in the geological record of lake sediments, river terraces, and other geological environments. Readings will include popular and scientific literature and oral histories. 3 hrs. sem./ lab. SCI NOR (P. Ryan)
FYSE 1276 B/ORDERS? Border Spaces, Border Crossings, and Imagined Communities (Fall)
Doors, gates, fences, walls, and other borders between inside and outside, me and you, us and them, define our daily lives. In this seminar we will explore the concept of borders and border spaces and discuss border crossings portrayed in fiction and non-fiction, film, and other media. Our primary loci of inquiry will be U.S./Mexican and the U.S./Canadian borders, and "The Wall", which separated East and West Germany until 1989. However, we will extend our discussions from these geopolitical borders to linguistic, racial, cultural, and economic ones. Readings will include texts by Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King, Luis Alberto Urrea, Benedict Anderson, Justin Akers-Chacón and Mike Davis. Films will include The Tunnel (2001) and Frozen River (2008) 3 hrs. sem./screenings LIT NOR (N. Eppelsheimer)
FYSE 1277 Birth of the Cool: American Culture at Mid-Century (Fall)
In the years immediately following World War II, the United States transitioned from backwater to a frontrunner in the fields of design, technology, arts, and letters. In this seminar we will explore how the concept of American "cool" was the product of postwar prosperity as well as cold war conflict. We will use cultural analysis of the 1950s and 1960s to examine issues such as internal migration, foreign policy, gender, race relations, and presidential politics. Students will engage a wide variety of textual and visual sources, from novels like Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit and films such as Rebel Without A Cause to scholarly works on the period. 3 hrs. sem. HIS NOR (J. Mao)
FYSE 1278 Picturing Nature: Environmental Images through Time (Fall)
From Ansel Adams's landscapes to photographs of oily shorebirds in the wake of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, images of nature have influenced Americans' understanding of the physical environment over time. In this seminar we will investigate how photographs and other visual materials have both shaped and reflected American ideas about, and transformations of, nature. With thousands of historical photographs now accessible in digital archives, we will use the web carefully and critically, along with other scholarly sources, to identify and research images, formulate historical questions, and craft analytical essays, research projects, and web exhibits. Our discussions will include widely-published photographs as well as little-seen images that reveal less obvious and more complicated human connections to the natural world. Research collections will include the Farm Security Administration Archive from the 1930s and 1940s and the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress. 3 hrs. sem. HIS NOR (K. Morse)
FYSE 1279 Greece vs. Rome: The Eighteenth-Century Quest for the Sources of Western Civilization (Fall)
A fiery debate regarding the respective merits of ancient Greece and Rome as the "true" fountainhead of Western civilization pervaded 18th-century Rome. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose magnificent prints celebrated ancient Rome's greatness, defended the Roman camp. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, whose writings emphasized ancient Greece's aesthetic and moral superiority, spearheaded the ultimately victorious Greek camp. As a result, James Stuart and Nicholas Revett explored ancient Greece first-hand, leading to the publication of the influential Antiquities of Athens. We will revisit this debate by scrutinizing its protagonists, studying their publications and art, and co-curating an accompanying exhibition at the College Museum of Art. 3 hrs. sem. ART HIS EUR (P. Broucke)
FYSE 1280 Breaking the Code: The Enigma of Alan Turing (Fall)
British mathematician Alan Turing broke the German military's prized Enigma cipher in World War II, created the foundations of modern computer science, and pioneered the fields of artificial intelligence ("Can Machines Think?") and neural networks. Turing was arrested for homosexuality and forced to undergo hormone treatments that may have led to his apparent suicide by cyanide poisoning at a relatively young age. His brilliant achievements and tragic death have been the subject of biographies, essays, plays, novels, and films. We will explore the life and works of this remarkable individual in the context of the World War II and its aftermath. There will be two sections of this seminar meeting in adjacent rooms. At times we will bring all the students and both instructors into the same room for a common lecture or presentation. At other times, we will meet separately to promote better discussions and work on writing. 3 hrs. sem./screening DED EUR (R. Martin, M. Olinick)
FYSE 1281 Experiments in Sound (Fall)
In acoustics, scientists experiment with sound; avant-garde musicians claim to do the same. How do these two endeavors overlap and differ? What is a successful experiment? How does one cultivate a culture of experimentation? What are its benefits? With readings in science, music criticism, and philosophy, we will explore these questions. In addition to writing papers, students will conduct their own experiments, create and perform experimental music, and organize a large group project combining scientific and musical experiments. No formal science or music background is necessary, though students must be willing to make weird noises in public places. 3 hrs. sem. ART PHL (K. Khalifa)
FYSE 1282 Chaos, Complexity, and Self-Organization (Fall)
How does the complex emerge from the simple? Can complex phenomena such as life and consciousness be reduced to a physical description in terms of "fundamental particles" interacting through "fundamental forces"? Are there phenomena so complex that they cannot be reduced to a more fundamental level? Questions such as these lie at the heart of complexity science, an interdisciplinary field that provides a conceptual framework for understanding emergent complexity in the natural and social sciences. The texts will include James Gleick, Chaos, M. Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity, and Steven Strogatz, Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. We will use algebra and simple pre-calculus. 3 hrs. sem. SCI DED (J. Dunham)
FYSE 1283 Transitional Justice: Reckoning with the Past (Fall)
In this seminar we will examine how emerging democracies reckon with former authoritarian regimes and their legacies. In contrast to stable democracies, societies in transition that seek to overcome a legacy of large scale human rights violations—and minimize the risks of their recurrence—must search for a delicate political compromise that will bring some justice without undermining the new order. Several case studies from Asia, Latin America, South Africa, and postcommunist Europe will help us understand the forces and factors that shape the dilemma: to prosecute and punish versus to forgive and forget. Course readings will be supplemented by documentaries and fiction films. 3 hrs. sem. HIS SOC CMP (M. Kraus)
FYSE 1284 Latin America in the World (Fall)
In this seminar we will focus on the interaction of Latin America with the “outside” world from historical, political, economic, and cultural perspectives. We will concentrate on post-independence Latin America, and in particular look at the way Latin Americans have viewed their relationship with the outside world in the 20th and early 21st-centuries. We will read a wide variety of texts, including writings and speeches of historical figures and intellectuals such as Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Che Guevara, and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, political tracts by intellectuals such as Eduardo Galeano, and novels by prominent Latin American writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Luisa Valenzuela. Among the themes we will discuss are nationalism, imperialism, economic development, and cultural identity. 3 hrs. sem. SOC AAL (J. Cason)
FYSE 1285 Interpersonal Process (Fall)
Two people chat with one another in what seems like an easy, natural exchange. Careful scrutiny of their words, gestures, and appearance, however, reveals that their interaction is a complex, carefully choreographed dance of expectations, impressions, self-presentations, messages, and meta-messages. In this seminar, we will explore the psychological science behind such interpersonal processes, drawing heavily from the scholarly literature in psychology and sociology, and occasionally from popular works. We will maintain a skeptical eye throughout, asking questions such as: How convincing is the evidence? and Why does it not always square with our personal experience? 3 hrs. sem. SOC (S. Gurland)
FYSE 1286 The Keys to Angels and Demons (Fall)
In this project-oriented seminar we will seek to distinguish fact from fiction in the Dan Brown novel Angels and Demons (2000), popularized by the May 2009 movie. The Illuminati, ambigrams, Vatican traditions, and the history and geography of Rome and Vatican City will serve as the platform for this exploration. We will use the latest technologies—wikis, 3D imaging, Google mapping, graphics and video—to construct a 21st-century guide to the novel. 3 hrs. sem. LIT EUR (T. Beyer)
FYSE 1287 Latin American Immigration and the American Dream (Fall)
Transnational migration, especially from Latin America, is transforming the ethnic composition of the Unites States at a time when our class inequalities are widening and our consumption levels are becoming unsustainable. In this seminar we will focus on migration streams from Mexico and Central America, compare them to earlier migration streams, and explore the implications for future generations. Will large migration streams make American society more tolerant and increase economic opportunities for the poor? Are large migration streams the product of inevitable historical forces, or do they instead result from decision-making by American elites? 3 hrs. sem. SOC AAL CMP (D. Stoll)
FYSE 1288 Higher Education in the US (Fall)
You got into Middlebury College, but how and why are you here? What will college do to and for you? And where are your peers? We will explore the answers to these questions by examining the determinants of high academic achievement, the admissions process to liberal arts colleges, the effects of college on students with different characteristics, and the range of institutions of higher education (including community colleges, military schools, religious colleges, and single-sex schools). In this seminar we will draw on a broad variety of readings, from biography, history, journalism, and sociological studies. 3 hrs. sem. SOC NOR (M. Nelson)
FYSE 1289 Introduction to Robot Culture: An Artificial Ethnicity (Fall)
In this seminar, we will focus on major literary and cinematic texts that have formed international perceptions of what could be defined as mechanical beings. We will study pre-20th-century narratives; the identification of robots with industrial workers before World War II (Čapek's R.U.R.); and their first portrayals as beings with an individual sense of identity (Asimov's I Robot). We will also discuss non-American portrayals (Tezuka's Astro Boy) and end with two important contemporary texts: Battlestar Galactica and Wall-E. Through an examination of fictional robots, this seminar aims to help students understand the artificiality of the construction of such societal concepts as ethnicity, gender, and class. 3 hrs. sem. LIT ART (E. Garcia)
FYSE 1290 Images of Africa and Africa's Self-Image (Fall)
What are our current images of Africa? What implicit and explicit colonialist representations persist? How and when do they fall apart? Why is African culture often viewed as “traditional” and thus distinct from contemporary (i.e. Western) culture? In this seminar we will explore how Africa is portrayed in film, folklore, literature for children and adults, popular culture, and mass media, and how these representations shape and are shaped by current and traditional politics, economics, and education. We will consider how Africa itself is negotiating the challenges of self-representation in the 21st-century through specific studies of different countries. 3 hrs. sem. LIT SOC AAL CMP (C. Cooper)
FYSE 1291 The Art of the Personal Essay (Fall)
"One writes out of one thing only -- one's own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art." Launching ourselves from James Baldwin’s assertion, we will examine the artfulness of the personal essay by reading and critiquing examples from the genre’s beginnings in Michel de Montaigne’s essais (“attempts”) in the 1580s to those being posted and published in 2009. What is essential to the genre? What has changed and continues to change? We will also make our own attempts at writing from personal experience. 3 hrs. sem. LIT ART (K. Skubikowski)