Electives 2007/08
FALL TERM 2007-08
ART HISTORY
AH220 Conceptual Art
This course looks at changing concepts of art, from Egyptian times to the present, focussing on contemporary positions of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Students will discuss how modern artists have tried to replace the Renaissance ideal of mimesis through a more conceptual approach, and in how far this affects our definition of what constitutes an art work . The course begins with an in-depth analysis of Plato's Theory of Forms (as outlined Book X of the Republic), and continues to examine the relationship between art and ideas by looking at a range of art theoretical texts and visual examples. AYA SOIKA
THEATRE
TH234 Introduction To Acting & Directing:
Through careful examination of Chekhov's Three Sisters and a new play by Charles Mee, participants gain a practical understanding of both scene analysis and the principles of stage naturalism. The course focuses on actual scene-work and staging, supplemented by reading from Stanislavski's An Actor Prepares. DAVID LEVINE
FILM
FM204 Heroes on Screen
One of the perennial topics of the narrative arts - from mythological stories to postmodern computer games - is heroism; especially popular movies feature a lot of heroic characters and brave deeds and thus present examples or even role models for the spectators. This course takes a look at heroes/anti-heroes and heroines on the silver screen and explores ideas of virtue, courage and physical or spiritual powers as well as the development of specific representations of heroism and human beings, both authentic cases and fictitious, in conflict with outer enemies or inner demons.
The course consists of both seminars and film screenings (3 hours a week including screening). MATTHIAS HURST
PHILOSOPHY
PL217 A cosmopolitan pen from Königsberg - an Introduction to Kant
Kant is known and (in)famous as the philosopher of the three critiques: an intimidating system of transcendental philosophy that defines a turning moment in the history of Western philosophy. Yet, there is also the other Kant - the citizen of Königsberg with very wide-ranging interests leading to often celebrated essays: expository pieces that are just as much an engagement with "topics of the day" as they are an introduction to Kant's philosophizing. This elective is an introduction to Kant's way of thinking via his celebrated articles; and due to Kant's extraordinary clear-sightedness, it is an introduction to a number of fundamental topics facing the citizens of states: history, nature, morals, resistance, enlightenment and religion. RAFAEL ZIEGLER
POLITICS
PT231 Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is an emerging field which, as its name indicates, implies the harmonization of potentially contradictory priorities, suggesting business enterprise that is oriented towards social benefits rather than profit, and social engagement which has economic sustainability as a key criterion. It can mean different things in different contexts, signaling the absence of state support for socially-necessary services, or heralding the welfare state's possible decline. A worldwide phenomenon, social entrepreneurship raises an important question about globalization, i.e., the degree to which the latter creates comparable problems of insecurity for citizens across 'third-world' and 'first-world' conditions. It also has a particular relevance for students of the Liberal Arts as they face a newly 'flexible' labour market, since they might find in it a means both of employment and of active social engagement.
The elective has two parts: 1) Backgrounds: Novels by Dickens, Howells and Yates along with texts by Marx, Schumpeter and others open a space for the discussion of reform, entrepreneurialism and revolution. 2) Contemporary Contexts and Issues: Papers (by faculty, guest speakers and others) which comprise a book project on social entrepreneurship will introduce central questions of social entrepreneurship: the nature of work, globalization, social valuation, and self-determination. Students will be asked to give responses to scholarly contributions. The goal is to provide a shared forum of collective work for faculty and students. RAFAEL ZIEGLER/CATHERINE TOAL
MATHEMATICS
MA213 Mathematics as a Liberal Art
This course will have two strands, their relative weights depending on student interest and background. One strand will be on the nature of mathematics: its foundation in logic and what this says about mathematical knowledge. This strand should complement nicely the philosophical discussions of knowledge in the core fall course on classical Athens.
The other strand will be on "quantitative literacy", the myriad ways in which thinking mathematically is an essential component for the informed citizen to understand and make judgments about events in the world around us.
Throughout we will reflect on what makes mathematics a liberal art and what role mathematics should play at ECLA as it expands to a 4-year program. STEPHEN MAURER
PHILOSOPHY/LITERATURE
PL218 Existence and Masks: The Polyphonic Universe of Søren Kierkegaard
This course introduces the pseudonymous authorship of the Danish philosopher/writer Søren Kierkegaard. We will try to decipher some of the key themes (despair, anxiety, the demonic, faith, subjectivity, existence, paradox, inwardness, passion, repetition and time, choice, infinite resignation and death), diverse modes of existence (aesthetic, ethical, religious) and the use of masks and allegory (characters, messages, authorship, secrets and stories) in Kierkegaard's pseudonymous writings. We will also ask the question why we should read Kierkegaard today and how we might apply his thought to other thinkers and disciplines. There will also be chance to watch some films that might help to express certain themes in Kierkegaard's thought, from film directors such as Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Gabriel Axel and Lars von Trier. BARTHOLOMEW RYAN
LITERATURE
LT207: Wandering through Modernity: Reading James Joyce's Ulysses
In this course, "we analyze the classic twentieth century modernist novel Ulysses by James Joyce published in 1922. The novel encompasses a single day in the life of Leopold Bloom in Dublin, the capital of Ireland in 1904. We will make our way through each chapter, looking at the various symbols, literary techniques, representations of art and the parallels and allusions to Greek and Irish mythology. Ulysses has been called "an endlessly open book of utopian epiphanies". In this elective, we will have the chance to look at the disruptions that Joyce makes between the masculine and the feminine, how he gives voice to the marginalized figures in the world, his critique of institutions such as church, state and empire, and how these various aspects are interlinked towards capturing the hope and despair of the twentieth century and beyond". BARTHOLOMEW RYAN
FILM
FM201 Introduction to Film Studies
Film is a language, and like any other language it has diverse elements of organisation, different accents and different levels of meaning. Understanding the language of film implies the awareness of its structural and lexical development since its invention in the late 19th century. This course is an introduction to film studies and provides an insight into the basic knowledge of film history and theory, film aesthetics and cinematic language. Central topics are modes and styles of filmic presentation, film analysis and different ways of film interpretation. The course explores classical films and directors and investigates the meaning of film as an art form of the modern age, the elements of narration in fiction film and the representative function of film in our modern world and society, i.e. the ability of film to address important social and/or philosophical issues.
The course consists of both seminars and film screenings (6 hours a week including screening). MATTHIAS HURST
WINTER TERM 2007-08
PHILOSOPHY/LITERATURE
PL226 Philosophy and Poetry
This class is intended to continue the investigation of certain themes and problems raised in the AY/PY Fall core: irony, Eros, and what Socrates at the end of the Republic calls the "ancient quarrel" between philosophy and poetry. In the first half of the class, we carefully read Plato's Symposium, the dialogue about Eros in which Sokrates directly confronts poets. The second half of the class is devoted to the reading of lyric poems in which philosophy and/or poetry itself are themes, and in which Eros and/or irony figure prominently. Some essays or excerpts from prose nonfiction will be added to the syllabus as required by the direction and progress of the class discussion. Authors may include: Ezra Pound, C.S. Lewis, Wayne Booth, D.W. Muecke, Cleanth Brooks, and Mark Strand. Poets to be considered may include: Archilochus, Sappho, Mimnermus, Shakespeare, Blake, Keats, Frost, and Stevens. D. HAYES
LITERATURE
LT209 The Novel: Reading Henry James
In this course, we explore the techniques and art of novel-reading through a discussion of works from the middle phase of Henry James's career. We will consider the meaning of the designation 'novel of consciousness,' the markers of 'realism,' the relation between realism and psychological romance, and the plot trajectories and rituals of closure shaping the nineteenth-century novel. C. TOAL
MUSIC
MU212 Music, Politics and Resistance
"Musical innovation is full of danger to the state, for when modes of music change, the laws of the state always change with them." As this quotation from The Republic demonstrates, Plato believed that particular forms of music had the power to invoke particular states of mind. And he wasn't alone: from religious propagandists in the Reformation of the sixteenth century to dictatorships of the twentieth, both music censorship but conversely also the concerted use and promotion of certain music has been a standard means of religious or state control. Conversely, music and particularly singing has been used as a means of resistance and protest. In this course, we will discuss a wide range of examples from Renaissance polyphony to Public Enemy, Shostakovish to South African popular music and ask - what truth is there in Plato's belief? Are there recurring features in the historical examples discussed, and what do these tell us about music's role in social and political life?
No previous knowledge of musicology or music theory is necessary for this course, nor is the ability to read music. M. GRANT
LITERATURE
LT210 Dante's Divine Comedy
Written in the early years of the 14th century, the Divine Comedy gives expression to many currents in medieval philosophy, theology and political thought. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this course will focus on the Inferno and Purgatorio and trace the way in which these currents, and the status of poetry itself, are related to the ultimate metaphysical context of Dante's poem. All texts for this course will be read in translation. T. COLONY
PHILOSOPHY
PL222 Moral Objectivity and Moral Subjectivity
Are moral claims objective or subjective? If subjective how do we account for the apparent objectivity of everyday moral claims like, "Murder is wrong" or "Genocide is wrong"? If objective, what sort of objectivity can they have? How would it differ from other sorts of objectivity (especially scientific objectivity)? Attention will be paid to the way in which the answers to the objectivity/subjectivity question influence the substantive theories which spring up around them. Some of the authors we will read will be Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Nagel, and Williams. J. SCHWARTZ
FILM
FM220 Woody Allen: A Poetics of Fun and Philosophy
"That's […] how I feel about life: Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness. And it's all over much too quickly."
Woody Allen is one of the most original American film directors, with specific appeal to European audiences. In his films he shows us the absurdities of life and the comical side of death and he succeeded in a unique way to transform comedy into philosophy.
The central topics of human existence - love, sex, the meaning of life and death - are his cinematic obsessions and he explores them together with the notions and illusions of happiness and the bleak realities of modern life.
In this course we discuss the films of Woody Allen, the philosophical questions raised by his work and his development as an artist of the cinema.
The course consists of both seminars and film screenings. M. HURST
LITERATURE
LT228 "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On": Reading Samuel Beckett
Following in the shadow of James Joyce's revolutionary work in literature, Samuel Beckett broke free from his predecessor to create a unique voice in twentieth century literature. Familiar with the rich Western philosophical and literary tradition, Beckett forges his sense of the discontinuous being, the fragmentation of the "I" and of going nowhere. Beckett's landscape is a barren terrain that brings to mind a pre-modern world where bicycles outnumber motorcars, clothes are fastened by buttonhooks and rags and hope is a distant memory. And yet, the human spirit in Beckett's work is such that one must go on regardless. In this elective, I will be focusing on his most famous plays Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape and some of his exceptional prose writing such as The Unnamable, The First Love and the Nohow On trilogy. B. RYAN
PHILOSOPHY
PL224 The Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer
This elective would provide a useful continuation and connection with Kant and Kierkegaard from the first semester, and as a precursor to the elective on Nietzsche in the final semester. We will focus on Schopenhauer's masterpiece: The World as Will and Representation. This elective can be conceived in two ways, first on Schopenhauer's philosophy - on the will and nature, epistemology, aesthetics (especially on music), and his philosophy of life, love, death and religion; and second to both his use and influence of other ideas, philosophers and artists both before and after him. I will present Schopenhauer as a highly readable and elegant thinker, and as one of the most cosmopolitan of all philosophers. His contribution to philosophy and aesthetics can be applied to both the ancient and the modern. B. RYAN
SPRING TERM 2007-08
PHILOSOPHY
PL220 Introduction to the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
The influence of Nietzsche's work upon later continental philosophy is perhaps unparalleled. In this course we will read selections from his major works in order to trace the central themes of his philosophy. Special attention will also be given to the history of the reception of his work. All texts will be read in translation, however, parallel readings in the original German will be supported and encouraged. T. COLONY
ART HISTORY
AH221 Leonardo Da Vinci
This course considers the work of Leonardo da Vinci in relation both to its context in the Italian Renaissance and to larger issues in the history of Western art. Topics include key paintings such as the Adoration of the Magi, the Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa, as well as a sustained examination of Leonardo's drawings, by far the largest part of his surviving corpus. Focus is given to such issues as the problem of natural dynamism in Leonardo's work, the invention of sfumato and its later influence, naturalism and hypernaturalism, portraiture and death, and the artist's central role in the origins of European landscape painting. In addition, through a study of Leonardo's drawings and notebooks, his place within the history of science is examined. Throughout the course, selected passages from Leonardo's notebooks are discussed in conjunction with his pictorial works. G. LEHMAN
HISTORY
HI211 Human/animal Relations in Historical Perspective
Non-human/human animal relations have occupied the thoughts of philosophers, clerics, artists, historians and politicians since antiquity, though it is only relatively recently that the West has had an identifiable notion of 'animal rights', emerging towards the end of the eighteenth century in Britain and thereafter becoming embedded in Europe and North America. The evolution of 'animal rights' is by no means complete, as contemporary scholars ponder on questions of the animal person, the animal citizen and speciesism (discrimination against non-human animals). This course aims to explore the history of non-human animals in human thought, society and culture. Incorporating approaches to this subject from religion, art, anthropology, philosophy, literature and politics, students should gain an awareness of the historicity of the meaning of 'animal' (and 'human', for that matter), and the ways in which inter-species relations have changed over time. Broadly, the course asks the following question: to what extent is the history of animals a window onto the human condition? R. BODDICE
HISTORY
HI221 Issues in Historical Thought
History, for better or for worse, is a value discipline. It is not an old subject (apologies to Thucydides) in the disciplinary sense, yet the history of historical thought (which we may label 'historiography') is diverse and controversial, and contains, though often concealed, all the grand questions of life. This course is designed to tease out the value questions of historians since the 'beginning' of the discipline in the nineteenth century. We shall explore the controversies of 'facts' and their nature; questions of historical production as 'art' and 'science', and the slipperiness of such terminology; historical determinism and the place of cause and effect; what historians 'should' and 'shouldn't' do, and how they should 'practice'; the problem of value judgments for historians; the effects of other disciplines, in particular questions of how one studies the mind, thoughts and emotions of the past, and the implications of the past as 'a foreign country'; feminism and post-feminism; the inroads since the linguistic turn, prompting a return to questions of fact, truth, reliability and invention; before finally positing the question, what is now is store for the future of history? R. BODDICE
FILM
FM213 Film Genres
In the world of movie fantasies there are different genres: for instance comedy, melodrama, thriller, war film, western, epic, film noir, musical, horror or science fiction. Each genre has its own themes, rules and narrative conventions, its own aesthetics and iconography, its own history and development, its classic films and, of course, specific audience responses. Thus each genre provokes different approaches of interpretation and understanding. Usually spectators know what to expect from a certain film genre, and these expectations become a challenge for writers and directors who use genre films to entertain the audience and/or to communicate meaning. M. HURST
POLITICS
PT230 Thinking About The Just Society: An Introduction To Contemporary Theories Of Social Justice
This elective introduces recent debates about social justice. Beginning with John Rawls's Theory of Justice, we will critically examine different contemporary approaches to the concept of social justice, such as liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, and the 'politics of difference'. The course also considers how these theories might be applied to political problems in the real world, such as the distribution of income and wealth, the rights of cultural minorities, free speech and the requirements of global justice. K. VOIGT
THEATRE
TH232 Installation
This is a studio art class. Participants acquire the means to manipulate sound, light, space and video by creating a series of room-based installations during the trimester. Participants are assigned a new studio with each unit, to accustom them to working with different kinds of space. D. LEVINE
NOTE: This is a single elective (3 credits) with 6 hours of in-class/studio time.
ART HISTORY/LITERATURE
AH/LT260 Words and Images: Manifestos of the Avant-garde
This interdisciplinary course focuses on manifestos and artworks of some of the most important European avant-garde movements, such as Futurism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, and investigates the relationship between visual and literary discourses in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Students investigate the genre of the manifesto and its various forms, the programmatic interpenetration of word and image, and examine the methodological issues implicit in the dialogue between visual and written texts. In the seminars students explore specific political, philosophical and cultural aspects of modernity. L.SCURIATTI