ENROLL

Yaron Klein

This course is an exploration of the world of the Thousand and One Nights, the most renowned Arabic literary work of all time. The marvelous tales spun by Shahrazad have captured and excited the imagination of readers and listeners--both Arab and non-Arab--for centuries. In class, we will read in Arabic, selections from the Nights, and engage some of the scholarly debates surrounding this timeless work. We will discuss the question of its origin in folklore and popular culture and the mystery of its "authorship," as well as the winding tale of its reception, adaptation and translation. Readings and class discussions will be in both Arabic and English.

Prerequisite: Arabic 206 or equivalent

Jessica Keating, Kathleen Ryor

Kathleen Ryor

Jessica Keating

Prerequisite: One Art History course or instructor permission

Baird Jarman

This course surveys the history of European architecture while emphasizing firsthand encounters with actual structures. Students visit outstanding examples of major transnational styles--including Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Moorish, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Modernist buildings--along with regionally specific styles, such as Spanish Plateresque, English Tudor and Catalan Modernisme. Cultural and technological changes affecting architectural practices are emphasized along with architectural theory, ranging from Renaissance treatises to Modernist manifestos. Students also visit buildings that resist easy classification and that raise topics such as spatial appropriation, stylistic hybridity, and political symbolism.

Requires participation in OCS Program: Architectural Studies in Europe

Baird Jarman

This course explores the theory and practice of cultural resource management by investigating how various architectural sites and urban historic districts operate. Students will consider cultural, financial, ethical and pedagogical aspects of contemporary tourism practices within a historical framework that roots the travel industry alongside religious pilgrimage customs and the aristocratic tradition of the Grand Tour. Interacting with professionals who help oversee architectural landmarks and archaeological sites, students will analyze and assess initiatives at various locations, ranging from educational programs and preservation plans to sustainability efforts and repatriation debates.

Participation in OCS Architectural Studies Program

Carol Donelan

Sophomore Priority. Extra Time required for screenings

Waitlist for Juniors and Seniors: CAMS 110.WL0 (Synonym 55131)

Jay Beck

This course is designed to introduce students to recent film history, 1970-present, and the multiple permutations of cinema around the globe. The course charts the development of national cinemas since the 1970s while considering the effects of media consolidation and digital convergence. Moreover, the course examines how global cinemas have reacted to and dealt with the formal influence and economic domination of Hollywood on international audiences. Class lectures, screenings, and discussions will consider how cinema has changed from a primarily national phenomenon to a transnational form in the twenty-first century.

Extra Time required. Evening Screenings.

Carol Donelan

The purpose of this seminar is guide students in developing and consolidating their conceptual understanding of theories central to the field of cinema studies. Emphasis is on close reading and discussion of classical and contemporary theories ranging from Eisenstein, Kracauer, Balazs, Bazin and Barthes to theories of authorship, genre and ideology and trends in contemporary theory influenced by psychoanalysis, phenomenology and cognitive studies.

Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission

Lei Yang

This course introduces to students the essentials of classical Chinese through a close reading of authentic materials. A wide range of genres, including prose, poems, idioms, and short stories, will be introduced to enrich students’ understanding of various writing conventions and styles. The historical, cultural, and literary forces that shape these cultural works also will be examined.

Prerequisite: Chinese 206 or equivalent.

Chico Zimmerman

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the early Greek epics for the classical world and the western literary tradition that emerged from that world. This course will study closely both the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as Hesiod’s Theogony, and then consider a range of works that draw upon these epics for their creator’s own purposes, including Virgil’s own epic, the Aeneid. By exploring the reception and influence of ancient epic, we will develop an appreciation for intertextuality and the dynamics of reading in general as it applies to generations of readers, including our own.

Jessica Leiman

Timothy Raylor

Corrine E Collins

This course introduces the black speculative tradition from the nineteenth century to Black Panther (2018). We will situate our readings within the science fiction/fantasy genre to investigate the ways black authors construct narratives about technology and the future to advocate for racial, sexual, and gender equality. We will discuss dichotomies of human/alien life, blackness and technology, and purity and hybridity, in addition to cosmic narratives of gender and sexuality and interspecies tolerance. Course materials include works by Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delaney, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Janelle Monae.

Peter Balaam

Michael Kowalewski

A survey of some of the central movements and texts in American literature, from World War I to the present. Topics covered will include modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat generation and postmodernism.

Susan Jaret McKinstry

Kofi Owusu

Michael Kowalewski

Extra Time required.

Constance Walker

The Romantic era (1785-1830) was a time of extraordinary political, intellectual, and social volatility and vitality. With London as our classroom, we will explore the life of the great city at the hub of Romanticism by means of its magnificent public and domestic architecture, fashion and décor, dances, fine arts, journalism and political satire, and literature, including the poetry of Byron, Shelley, and Keats, the essays of Hazlitt and Lamb, and the novels of Austen. Field trips will include visits to the Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Library, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Pump Room and Costume Museum at Bath, and the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

Prerequisite: Participation in OCS London program

Participation in Carleton OCS London Program

Constance Walker

Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading. We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a 3-day theater trip. Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design. Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors. Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays.

Requires participation in OCS Program: Living London

Jessica Leiman

Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course

Kofi Owusu

Prerequisite: One English foundations course and one other 6 credit English course or instructor permission

Sandra Rousseau

Through texts, images and films coming from different continents, this class will present Francophone cultures and discuss the connections and tensions that have emerged between France and other French speaking countries. Focused on oral and written expression this class aims to strengthen students’ linguistic skills while introducing them to the academic discipline of French and Francophone studies. The theme will be school and education in the Francophone world.

Prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent

Cathy Yandell

Prerequisite: French 204 or equivalent

Scott Carpenter

The rise of newspapers and magazines in the nineteenth century promotes a variety of short genres that will remain popular to the present day: short stories, prose poetry, vignettes, theatrical scenes. In this short course (first five weeks of the term) we'll study short works by such authors as Diderot, Sand, Balzac, Mérimée, Flaubert, Allais, Tardieu, Le Clézio. Conducted in French.

Prerequisite: One French course beyond French 204 or instructor permission

1st 5 weeks

Scott Carpenter

Decried as scandalous, heralded as the first "modern" novel, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (published in 1857) sparked debate, spawned both detractors and followers, and became a permanent fixture in French culture and even the French language. In this five-week course we will read the novel, study its cultural context and impact, and see how it has been variously re-interpreted in film and other media. Conducted in French.

Prerequisite: One French course beyond French 204 or instructor permission

2nd 5 weeks

Seth Elliott E Meyer

What is it to be human? What is the difference between human and animal? How do technology and AI alter our understanding of humanity? How does the rhetoric of personhood affect our judgment of others? What is an immigrant, a migrant, a refugee, a foreigner, an alien? In this English-language survey of German thought and literature, we will ask these questions with foundational philosophers from the Enlightenment to the present, engage with contemporary theorists on post-colonialism and nationalism, and rethink the concept of personhood by analyzing crucial new contributions from literature, theater, film, and art. Taught in English.

Kiley Kost

Are natural disasters ever really natural? In this course, taught in German, we will read works of literature and poetry that portray disaster. Focusing on disaster as the site of interaction between humans and the environment, we will explore and discuss the impact of modern technology, contemporary environmental issues, and the concept of disaster in the shadow of war. Thinking in terms of environmental justice, we will also consider who is impacted by such disasters and in what ways. We will read various genres of literature including works by Hoffmann, Frisch, Wolf, Haushofer and Maron among many others.

Prerequisite: German 204 or equivalent

Jake Morton

In 63 BC, a frustrated Roman nobleman named Catiline attempted to start a revolution to overthrow the Roman government, only to be exposed and stopped by the politician Cicero. At least, that is how Cicero depicts it, and we will read part of Cicero's speech that led to Catiline's condemnation. However, we will also read the contemporary Roman historian Sallust's magisterial account of the events which reveals a more complicated story about both Catiline and the senators' response. These are two of the greatest works in Latin literature and reading them together will allow us to investigate what really happened in 63 BC.

Prerequisite: Latin 204 or equivalent

Sandra Rousseau

This class introduces students to the various theoretical frameworks and the many approaches scholars can use when analyzing a text (whether this text is a film, an image, a literary piece or a performance). What do words like ‘structuralism,’ ‘ecocriticism,’ 'cultural studies,' and ‘postcolonial studies’ refer to? Most importantly, how do they help us understand the world around us? This class will be organized around interdisciplinary theoretical readings and exercises in cultural analysis.

Prerequisite: At least one 200- or 300-level course in Literary/Artistic Analysis (in any language) or instructor permission

Andy Flory

A survey of American music with particular attention to the interaction of the folk, popular, and classical realms. No musical experience required.

Justin London

An investigation into the nature of musical sounds and the way they are combined to form rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and form. Topics include the spectral composition of musical pitches, the structure of musical scales and their influence on melody, chords and their interval content, and the symmetry and complexity of rhythmic patterns. Student work includes building a musical instrument, programming a drum machine, analyzing the statistical distribution of pitches in a folksong corpus, and form in the music of the Grateful Dead.

Prerequisite: Music 103, or permission of the instructor as assessed by a diagnostic examadministered at the start of the term

Caitlin Schmid

This course explores the relationship between western art music and social dance, staged productions, or stylized concert genres based on social dance and staged productions. Students will examine how bodies have moved to music by asking the questions: which music? and which bodies? Repertoire will range from sixteenth-century French court ballets, to the un-danceable waltzes of Chopin and Brahms, to Hamilton, where hip hop meets colonial American country dance.

Caitlin Schmid

“Piano Piece for David Tudor #3: most of them were very old grasshoppers.” –La Monte Young (1960). What is an avant-garde? How can music be “ahead of its time”? In this class, students will explore the histories, aesthetics, and socio-cultural contexts of musical avant-gardes and musical experimentalism post-WWII. While the course focuses on art music of the 1950s-1970s (from concert pieces by Stockhausen and Cage, to the “intermedial” art forms promoted by Fluxus, to the avant-jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane), students will also consider what a musical avant-garde in 2020 might sound like, look like, or act like.

Jorge Brioso

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Silvia Lopez

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or equivalent

Silvia Lopez

Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or proficiency

Not open to seniors

Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

In this course we will study the various meanings of what has been labeled, aesthetically and sociologically, as the Post-Modernist age, or Late Modernity. We will also study the relationship between "postmodernism," the late-capitalist era and what has been called the "culture of contentment" or "culture of well-being." In addition, we will attempt to understand the interactions that exist between consumer culture, market societies and dominant ideology. To develop this theme we will focus on Spain, but will also continually establish cross-cultural comparisons with other countries. This course addresses many different genres (e.g. fictional essays, documentaries, gag cartoons, graphic novels, comics). The course also features evening films and guest lectures.

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or 207

Extra Time Required

Jorge Brioso

Prerequisite: Spanish 205 or above

Kate M Powers-Kusio

A study of women playwrights, performance-makers, and performers and the representations of women they create on stage. Playwrights addressed will range from historical figures like Lillian Hellman to their more recent descendants, such as Caryl Churchill, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Young Jean Lee. More broadly, the course will look at women who have figured prominently as directors or creators of non-traditional performance, such as Hallie Flanagan, founder of the Federal Theater Project, or more recently, Elizabeth LeCompte, artistic director of the experimental Wooster Group.