The following Liberal Arts courses are available for Spring 2013 registration. Learn about the rest of our Spring 2013 electives here, or find a complete list of courses offered in other years here.
China and Japan in the 20th Century
Students will explore the political, social, and cultural transformation of China and Japan in the 20th century, tracing their rise from insular, traditional societies threatened by Western nations to great powers with imperial ambitions of their own. In readings, discussions, and lectures, we will analyze the fall of China’s imperial government, the rise of warlordism, the horrors of the Second World War in Asia, the triumph of Mao Zedong’s regime, with its legacy of the Cultural Revolution, and the subsequent retreat of the Chinese Communist Party from radical communism to market economics. We will also examine Japan’s equally dramatic shift from insular feudal regime to modern industrial state, its quest for empire through military conquest, and its re-emergence as a democratic society in our own era.
taught by James Klein
Wilderness to Wasteland: American Landscape and Identity
Terrifying, awe-inspiring, inviting, soothing, threatening, infinite, confining: however perceived, U.S. landscapes have loomed large in the American imagination. Focusing on literature, painting, photography, and music, this course explores how narratives and images of American landscapes have shaped ideas about national identity. We will examine prominent conceptions of the American landscape—the virgin land, the wilderness, the frontier, the sublime, the pastoral, the wasteland, the urban jungle—and investigate their limitations. Also looking at race, ethnicity, gender, global economies, and diverse American experiences, we will ask: What is “Americanness”? How are place, nation, and identity related? Which landscapes are seen as “quintessentially American” and which are denied or overlooked?
taught by Jill Gatlin
Postmodernism
This interdisciplinary course will focus on the styles and statements of postmodernist writers, architects, artists, and musicians, considering how this era presents us simultaneously with dark, inescapable labyrinths—“modernism with the optimism taken out”—and outlets for formless, reckless joy—“the sheer pleasure of . . . invention.” We’ll enter these labyrinths but also find these inventive pleasures as we tackle postmodernist theories about art and originality, knowledge and experience, performative identities, the loss of reality in a highly technological culture, cyberpunk culture, and late capitalism. We will also examine postcolonial countertraditions, seeking to understand the concerns of both prominent and marginalized postmodernists.
taught by Jill Gatlin
Advanced Seminar: Freud: The Personal and Social Theories of Freudian Psychoanalysis in the Modern Age
In a sense, we are all Freudians now, and this seminar offers students the opportunity to investigate the fundamental ideas of Sigmund Freud. Together, we will read, discuss, and analyze representative works from Freud’s long and diverse career as the leading voice – the conquistador – of 20th century psycho-analytic thought. Through readings and discussion, we will critically examine his controversial ideas and insights, as well as their development – and transformation - over the course of Freud’s long intellectual career. We will then study his application of personal psycho-analytic methods to larger questions of religion, society, and – ultimately – our entire civilization. In doing so, we will explore Freud’s controversial theories about the relationship between the irrational unconscious and humankind’s most notable achievements in art, music, and culture.
taught by James Klein
2012-11-06
LOUIS ARMSTRONG