Fall 2008 Courses - M.A. in Humanities
Syllabi will be posted as they become available.
HUM233E Non-fiction Writing: Memoir (Marcos Villatoro) [Saturday]
The form of non-fiction, essay writing was considered high art in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Today, it’s nearly a lost art. Students are re-introduced to the essay and other non-fiction forms that include memoirs, journals, and letters. (Syllabus)
HUM230E Creative Writing Fiction: The Short Story (Joan Eyles Johnson) [Sunday]
You will read, talk and write “story” in short form from one sentence to no more than a few pages. By the end of the course you should be happily addicted to putting stories on paper. It will be an exploration, a quest and a hopeful trip into your consciousness with something to bring home as a product. (Syllabus)
HUM244E Passports in Prose: Contemporary World Fiction (Benjamin Huang) [Sunday]
In this course we will read texts by contemporary writers from six countries: Pakistan, China, Nigeria, Iran, Colombia, and England. These writers are highly recognized yet do not possess the superstar status of a Marquez or Rushdie. Each of these writers share a common concern with identity, transformation, and geographic and cultural dislocation. (Syllabus)
HUM269H Historical Fiction: The Novel as History (Fred Simonelli) [Sunday]
This course will look at one of the most popular forms of American Literature, the historical novel, and examine how that art form shaped both our culture and our historical memory. The class will probe the nexus between fact and fiction, art and history, and how that synthesis helped create a national memory of the American past. (Syllabus)
HUM264H Culture and History: “Serpents in the Garden: Religious Dissent in Medieval Europe” (Jane Crawford) [Saturday]
European society during the period c.1000-1500 was molded and dominated by the Medieval Church, but religious dissenters (“heretics”) increasingly challenged the orthodoxy of the time. Join us for a look at the heretics, the Inquisition and the dissenters’ legacy to the West; we will consider “popular” groups like the Waldensians and Cathari as well as some intellectual dissenters such as the Latin Averroists, who prized Aristotle over Christianity. (Syllabus)
HUM268H TS: The African Slave Trade (Fred Simonelli) (Information) (Itinerary) (Syllabus)
HUM201 Humanities Through Art: Michelangelo (Jill Kiefer) [Sunday]
The life and art of Michelangelo will be explored through his sculpture, painting, architecture, drawings, and writings. His development will be analyzed in social, political, religious, intellectual, historical, philosophical, and cultural contexts. We will discuss his early development in the Florence of Lorenzo de’ Medici and his association with Pope Julius II and Leo X as well as Leonardo, Raphael, and others. (Syllabus)
HUM275CS “Third World”/ “First World”: Encounters in Fiction and Cinema [Sunday]
(Justine VanMeter)
We will explore literature, theory and films produced during and after colonial rule in various parts of Africa, the Middle East, India/Pakistan/Great Britain and Ireland and will consider what our increasingly globalized experiences and realities suggest about future relationships and identities. Required reading include: various handouts, Tayeb Salih’s “Season of Migration to the North”, Fadia Faqir’s “Pillars of Salt”, Salmon Rushdie’s “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” and Conor McPherson’s “The Weir." (Syllabus)
HUM289CS Special Topics: Performance and Resistance in Latin America [Saturday]
(Shanna Lorenz)
Explores the way performance in Latin America has been used to negotiate power relations in the social, political, and economic realms since the Conquest by examining work of artists and artistic movements in Latin America and the U.S. Focusing on performances that utilize music, dance, and theatre, students will analyze the hybridization of African, European, Asian, and Native American performance strategies. (Syllabus)
HUM296A Capstone Project Proposal Workshop (Millie Kidd) [Saturday]
Prerequisite: Must have completed 15 units or more of course work. (Syllabus) September 27th and November 22nd.
HUM296B Capstone Project
HUM297A Capstone Project Continuation
HUM297B Capstone Project Continuation
HUM297C Capstone Project Continuation
HUM298 Introduction to the Humanities (Fred Simonelli) [Weekend] September 13th and 14th
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