Courses & Programs of Study

Program Chairman: Wendy Olmsted, HM W601, 702-8593

Program Coordinator: Aimee Burant, C 327, 702-7144,

aaburant@uchicago.edu

Departmental Secretary: Delores A. Jackson, C 330, 702-7148,

djackson@midway.uchicago.edu

Program of Study

The Fundamentals program enables students to concentrate on fundamental questions by reading classic texts that articulate and speak to these questions. It seeks to foster precise and thoughtful pursuit of basic questions by means of (1) rigorous training in the interpretation of important texts, supported by (2) extensive training in at least one foreign language, and by (3) the acquisition of the knowledge, approaches, and skills of conventional disciplines: historical, religious, literary, scientific, political, and philosophical.

Rationale. A richly informed question or concern formulated by students guides the reading of texts. Classic texts are also informed by such questions, for example, Socrates asks: What is virtue? What is the good? What is justice? Aristotle and Cicero explore the relation of civic friendship to society. Freud asks: what is happiness? Can humans be happy? Milton investigates how poetic vocation may be related to political responsibility. Questions of this nature and others like them are often raised in the general education courses, not only in humanities and social sciences but also in the physical and biological sciences. Students who are engaged by these questions, who find them both basic and urgent, may wish to continue to explore them more thoroughly and deeply within the structure of the program which provides the wherewithal to address them on a high level.

That wherewithal is to be found in the fundamental or classic texts (literary, philosophic, religious, historical, and scientific) in which the great writers articulate and examine questions in different and competing ways. These books illuminate the persisting questions and speak to contemporary concerns because they are both the originators and the most exacting critics of our current opinions. Accordingly, these texts serve best not as authorities but as colleagues who challenge us to think that "something else might actually be the case" than what we already think. The most important questions may, at bottom, be the most contested, and those most susceptible to, and most requiring, sustained, probing engagement.

This program emphasizes the firsthand experience and knowledge of major texts, read and reread and reread again. Because they are difficult and complex, only a small number of such works can be studied. Yet the program assumes that intensively studying a profound work and incorporating it into one's thought and imagination prepares one for reading any important book or reflecting on any important issue. Read rapidly, such books are merely assimilated into preexisting experience and opinions; read intensively, they can transform and deepen experience and thought.

But studying fundamental texts is, by itself, not enough. Even to understand the texts themselves, supporting studies and training are necessary: a solid foundation in at least one foreign language and in disciplines and subject matters pertinent to the main questions of students are essential parts of the major. Knowledge of the historical contexts out of which certain problems emerged or in which authors wrote; knowledge of specific subject matters and methods; knowledge of the language in which a text was originally written, as well as an understanding of the shape a given language imparts to a given author; fundamental skills of analysis, gathering evidence, reasoning, and criticism; different approaches and perspectives of conventional disciplines. All these are integral parts of the educational task.

Individual Program Design. Genuine questions cannot be given to a student; they must arise from within. For this reason, a set curriculum is not imposed upon students. It must answer to their interests and concerns, and begin from what is primary for them. One student may be exercised about questions of science and religion, another about freedom and determinism, another about friendship and conversation, another by prudence, romance, and marriage, a fifth about distributive justice. Through close work with a suitably chosen faculty adviser, the choice of texts, text or author courses, and supporting courses for each student is worked out in relation to such beginning and developing concerns. Beginning with a student's questions and interests does not, however, imply an absence of standards or rigor; this program is most demanding.

Application to the Program. Students should apply in Spring Quarter of their first year to enter the program in their second year; the goals and requirements of the program are best met if students spend three years in the major. Students are interviewed and counseled in order to discover whether or not their interests and intellectual commitments would be best served by this program. Students are admitted on the basis of the application statement, interviews, and previous performance.

Program Requirements

A. Course Requirements.

1. Required Introductory Sequence (2). A two-quarter sequence, open to second- and third-year students, serves as the introduction to the major. It sets a standard and a tone for the program as a whole by showing how texts can be read to illuminate fundamental questions. Each course in the sequence is taught by a different faculty member; each course is devoted to the close reading of one or two texts, chosen because they raise challenging questions and present important and competing answers. Students should learn a variety of ways in which a text can respond to their concerns and can compel consideration of its own questions.

2. Elected Text and Author Courses (6). The central activity of the program is the study and learning of six classic texts. Late in the second year, each student, with the help of a faculty adviser, begins to develop a list of six texts. The list grows gradually during the following year; a final list of six should be established early in their fourth year. This list should contain works in the area of the student's primary interest that look at that interest from diverse perspectives. The texts selected are usually studied in seminar courses offered by the faculty of the program or in courses cross-listed or approved for these purposes. Some books may, however, be prepared in reading courses or tutorials (independent study), if appropriate. Students write term papers in each of their text or author courses. These are carefully and thoroughly criticized by the responsible faculty members. The books taught come from a variety of times and places, East and West, and the selections reflect both the judgments and preferences of the faculty and the different interests and concerns of the students. Typically, six text or author courses are required for the degree (in addition to the introductory sequence). At the end of their fourth year, students take a Fundamentals examination on the books they have selected (consult following section on Fundamentals Examination).

3. Foreign Language (6). Students in the program are expected to achieve a level of competence in a foreign language sufficient to enable them to study in the original language (other than English) one of the texts on their examination list. Achieving the necessary competence ordinarily requires two years of formal language instruction (with an average grade of B- or better) or its equivalent. The second year of the language may be counted toward the major. In addition, students must demonstrate their language abilities by taking a course or independent study in which one of their texts is read in the original language, or by writing a paper that analyzes the text in its original language and shows the student's comprehension of that language.

4. Elected Supporting Courses (4). Appropriate courses in relevant disciplines and subject matters are selected with the help of the advisers.

5. Electives. Please refer to the Four-Year Curriculum section, under the Sample Programs heading (consult following section on Sample Programs).

B. The Junior Paper. The junior paper provides the opportunity for students to originate and formulate a serious inquiry into an important issue arising out of their work and to pursue the inquiry extensively and in depth in a paper of about twenty to twenty-five pages. At every stage in the preparation of the paper, students are expected to work closely with their faculty adviser. Typically, students elect to register for one course of independent study in the quarter in which they write and rewrite the paper. Acceptance of a successful junior paper is a prerequisite for admission to the senior year of the program.

C. Fundamentals Examination. Sometime in Spring Quarter of their senior year, students are examined on the six fundamental texts they have chosen. Preparation for this examination allows students to review and integrate their full course of study. During a three-day period, students write two substantial essays on questions designed for them by the associated faculty. The examination has a pedagogical intention, more than a qualifying one. Its purpose is to allow students to demonstrate how they have related and integrated their questions, texts, and disciplinary studies.

Summary of Requirements

3 courses in a second-year foreign language*

2 introductory courses

6 elected text or author courses

4 elected supporting courses

junior paper

__ Fundamentals examination

* Credit may be granted by examination.

Grading, Transcripts, and Recommendations. The independent study leading to the junior paper (NCDV 29900) is best evaluated in faculty statements on the nature and the quality of the work. In support of the independent study grade of Pass, both the faculty supervisor and the second reader of the paper are asked to submit such statements to student files maintained in the Office of the New Collegiate Division. Other independent study courses may be taken on a P/F basis (NCDV 29900) or for a quality grade (NCDV 29700); students must write a term paper for any independent study courses taken for a quality grade. Students should request statements of reference from faculty with whom they have worked in all their independent study courses.

At the student's request, the registrar can include the following statement with each transcript:

The New Collegiate Division works with a small, selected group of students. There is less emphasis on letter grades than in other Collegiate Divisions and greater emphasis on independent work (NCDV 29900), including substantial papers submitted at the end of the junior and senior years. Students do some substantial portion of their work in close association with a tutor or tutors, and this work is graded P/F only. Grades are supplemented with qualitative statements available from the Master, New Collegiate Division, The University of Chicago, 5811 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637.

Honors. Honors are awarded by the Fundamentals faculty to students who have performed with distinction in the program. Special attention is paid to both the junior paper and the senior examination. In addition, honors depend on the student's grades, especially in the major; a 3.25 grade point average is roughly the floor, but because some course work may be ungraded, the grade point average standard cannot be stated precisely.

Advising. Students have faculty advisers who are chosen from members of the program with whom the student works most closely. The adviser closely monitors the student's choice of texts, courses, and language studies, allowing for the gradual development of a fitting and coherent program. The faculty adviser supervises and is one of the readers of the junior paper and is responsible for approving the final list of texts for the Fundamentals examination. The program coordinator is available for advice and consultation on all aspects of every student's program.

Sample Programs. The following sample programs show, first, a plan of a four-year curriculum, locating the Fundamentals program in the context of Collegiate requirements, and, second, illustrative courses of study within the major itself, indicating possible ways of connecting fundamental questions and interests to both basic texts and standard courses. These programs are merely for the purpose of illustration; many, many other variations would be possible.

Four-Year Sample Curriculum. Courses that meet College general education requirements are labeled (GE). Courses that are underlined fulfill requirements of the Fundamentals major. The Fundamentals program comprises fifteen courses, over and above the fifteen courses constituting the College-wide general education requirement. Yet of these fifteen courses, only five are true requirements, that is, fixed courses that must be taken and, usually, at a prescribed time: the two-quarter introductory sequence is strictly required and prescribed for students who are in the first year of the program and, in most cases, a second year of foreign language study (in a language chosen by the students) is also prescribed. All the remaining ten courses (text and supporting courses) are truly elective, and are freely chosen by students with advice from their faculty advisers. Students interested in Fundamentals are well advised to take Humanities and a language in the first year.

First Year

Humanities (GE) 3

Social Sciences (GE) 3

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences

or Mathematics (GE) 3

Foreign Language I 3

Subtotal 12

Second Year Introductory Fundamentals Sequence 2

Physical Sciences or Biological Sciences

or Mathematics (GE) 3

Foreign Language II 3

Civilization Sequence (GE) 3

Text or Author Course 1

Subtotal 12

Third Year Text or Author Courses 3

Supporting Courses 2

Musical, Visual, or Dramatic Arts (GE) 1

Electives* 3

Subtotal 9

Fourth Year Text or Author Courses 2

Supporting Courses 2

Electives* 5

Subtotal 9

Total 42

* Typically students take one unit of independent study to write the
junior paper and another to prepare for the Fundamentals examination.

Questions, Texts, and Supporting Courses. All Fundamentals students, working with their advisers, develop their own program of study. Because students come to Fundamentals with diverse questions, they naturally have diverse programs. Examples of programs completed by Fundamentals students are listed below.

One student asked the question, "How does telling a story shape a life?" She studied Homer's Odyssey, Augustine's Confessions, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Goethe's Autobiography, Saint Teresa's Life, and the Bhagavad-Gita, and studied in supporting courses, Reading and Writing Poetry (Fundamentals), Myth and Literature (German), Autobiography and Confession (Divinity School), and Comparative Approaches to Psychotherapy (Psychology).

A second student asked a question about the ethics of violence, "Is there a just war?" He read Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, Aristotle's Ethics, the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, the Bhagavad-Gita, Machiavelli's The Prince, and Weber's "Politics as a Vocation," and studied in supporting courses World War II (History), The Military and Militarism (Sociology), Introduction to Indian Philosophical Thought (South Asian Languages and Civilizations), and Introduction to the New Testament (Early Christian Literature).

A third Fundamentals student investigated the question, "Is the family a natural or a cultural institution?" The texts studied were Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Aristotle's Politics, Aristophanes' Clouds, Sophocles' Antigone, and Rousseau's Emile. The supporting courses included The Family (Sociology), Men and Women: A Literary Perspective (Fundamentals), Political Philosophy of Locke (Political Science), and Sophocles (Greek).

A fourth student, interested in natural right and natural law, read Genesis, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Ethics, Rousseau's Second Discourse, Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws, and the Federalist Papers. In supporting courses, this student studied Machiavelli to Locke, Rousseau to Weber, and the Political Philosophy of Plato (all Political Science).

A fifth asked the question, "What is marriage?" and concentrated on these texts: Genesis, Homer's Odyssey, Sophocles' Antigone, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Goethe's Elective Affinities, and took, as supporting courses, Contemporary Ethical Theory (Philosophy), History of American Women (History), The Family (Sociology), and Sex Roles and Society (Psychology).

These programs indicate the diversity of issues and books Fundamentals represents. They are intended to suggest the cohesion of the individual program's texts and supporting courses within the context of a broad question. Obviously, many, many other programs could be devised.

Activities of Graduates. The Fundamentals program serves the purposes of liberal education, regarded as an end in itself, and offers no specific pre-professional training. Yet Fundamentals graduates have successfully prepared for careers in the professions and in scholarship. Some are now pursuing work in law, medicine, journalism, ministry, government service, business, veterinary medicine, and secondary school teaching. Others have gone on to graduate schools in numerous fields, including classics, English, comparative literature, Slavic, history, philosophy, social thought, theology, religious studies, clinical psychology, political science, development economics, mathematics, film studies, and education.

Faculty

The faculty of the Fundamentals program comprises humanists and social scientists, representing interests and competencies in both the East and the West and scholarship in matters ancient and modern. This diversity and pluralism exists within a common agreement about the primacy of fundamental questions and the centrality of important books and reading them well. The intention is for the students to see a variety of serious men and women presenting their approach to and understanding of books which they love, which they know well, and which are central to their ongoing concerns. The members of the Fundamentals faculty are

E. Asmis, M. L. Behnke, B. Cohler, W. Doniger, C. Fasolt, A. Kass, L. Kass, J. Lear,
M. Lilla, J. MacAloon, S. Meredith, W. Olmsted, J. Redfield, W. Schweiker, J. Z. Smith,
N. Tarcov, C. von Nolcken, D. Wray

Courses

Fundamentals: Issues and Texts (fndl)

Courses preceded by an asterisk (*) will be part of the required introductory sequence in 2005-06.

20700. Aquinas on God and Human Nature. (=RLST 23301) In this course, we read writings of St. Thomas Aquinas (mostly from the Summa Theologiae) on what human beings can know about God, as well as how the relationship between human beings and God defines human nature. We emphasize the Treatise on Man, addressing such issues as the following: Are human beings composed of a body and a soul? What are the general and specific powers of the soul? What is the last end of human beings? What are acts of the will and the good and evil of human acts? Finally, we try to use the ideas of Thomas to address the meaning of "human nature" in the age of biotechnology. S. Meredith. Winter.

20900. Augustine's Confessions. (=HUMA 22700, RLST 25100) This course is a close reading of Augustine's work, with particular attention to the phenomenon of conversion. M. Lilla. Winter.

21300. James Joyce's Ulysses. Among the themes considered in this course are the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity and maternity; the meaning of "the Return"; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucination; and Joyce's experimentation and use of language. S. Meredith. Winter.

21402. Ovid's Metamorphoses. (=CLCV 25000) Prior reading of books 1 through 3 recommended. This course examines in depth Ovid's interlocking tales of transformation. The structure of the work, as well as aspects of narrative, myth and philosophy, are topics of discussion. The course also considers the nachleben of The Metamorphoses and its influence on art and literature. Students choose an outside text/art work in which the theme of transformation is key. M. L. Behnke. Spring.

21403. Shakespeare I: Histories and Comedies. (=ENGL 16500, ISHU 26550) This course is an exploration of Shakespeare's major plays in the genres of history plays and romantic comedy, from the first half (roughly speaking) of his professional career: Richard III, Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Troilus and Cressida. D. Bevington. Winter.

21404. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. (=ENGL 16600, ISHU 26560) ENGL 16500 recommended but not required. This course studies the second half of Shakespeare's career, from 1600 to 1611, when the major genres that he worked in were tragedy and "romance" or tragicomedy. Plays read include Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear (two versions), Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. C. Mazzio. Spring.

*21412. Homer's Iliad. (=CLCV 26900) Required of new majors; open to others with consent of instructor. Class limited to fifteen students. This undergraduate seminar is a close reading of the text that examines such issues as human excellence, the role of Troy, and ritual and memory, as well as the rhetorical structure of the work as a whole. Texts in English. M. L. Behnke. Winter.

21703. Plato's Republic. (=CLCV 24800, HIPS 20101, PHIL 25704) We read the entirety of Plato's Republic, as well as a little secondary literature. The goal is to follow the argument of the Republic in a sustained way, from the opening disputes about the definition of justice, through the foundation of a city in speech and the nature of philosophy, to the criticism of poetry and the concluding myth. Throughout, we attempt to see how Socrates appeals to his interlocutors (and, by extension, to us) on the basis of reasons; that is, we consider whether he gives us good reasons for the views he espouses. J. Beere. Winter.

21711. Tolstoy's War and Peace. This course is devoted to a close reading of the novel. In addition to paying careful attention to the lives of its five main protagonists, we address its major themes that include: the nature of war and peace; the meaning of history and human freedom; and the relations between reason and passion, spontaneity and self-consciousness, and love and human happiness. Text in English. A. Kass, L. Kass. Spring.

21811. Heinrich von Kleist: Stories and Plays. (=GRMN 24600) This course introduces the stories and plays of Heinrich von Kleist, one of the greatest and yet most enigmatic writers in the history of German literature. Kleist was deeply admired by writers as diverse as Kafka and Thomas Mann. His play The Broken Jug is perhaps the only comedy in the German language to achieve Shakespearean greatness. His stories are notable for their dramatic compression, their violence, and their stylistic perfection. D. Wellbery. Autumn.

*21902. Hamlet and Macbeth. Required of new majors; open to others with consent of instructor. The focus of this course is a close reading and discussion of the plays. Both plays engage audiences in discerning the relationship between fantasy and actuality, the supernatural and the psychological. We discuss the religious, psychological, and ethical questions that arise in the plays as a result of these ambiguities, and we study the political implications of these questions as well as their impact on the family, marriage, and friendship. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

22615. Philosophical Introduction to Psychoanalysis. (=PHIL 23700/33700) Although this course has a seminar format, central ideas of psychoanalysis are explained. They include the unconscious, sexuality, fantasy, transference, psychological structure, and neurosis. We examine these ideas in the context of a philosophical inquiry into questions of how they relate to traditional concerns with happiness and freedom. Readings include texts by Freud and other psychoanalytic writers, along with some contemporary work in moral psychology. J. Lear. Winter.

23303. Psychology and Biography. (=HUDV 21501, PSYC 21503) Starting with Freud's perspective on psychology and his psychobiography of Leonado Da Vinci, this course focuses on the contributions of psychoanalysis to the study of lives in biography. We discuss classical and contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives reflected in Erik Erikson's study of Martin Luther, Jean Strousse's study of Alice James, and recent psychobiographical studies of Abraham Lincoln. B. Cohler. Spring.

23401. The Political Thought of Tacitus. (=PLSC 22615) Class limited to fifteen students. This class is an exploration of the political thought of Tacitus through a reading of his Agricola, Germania, and Dialogue on Oratory, as well as excerpts from the Annals and the History. N. Tarcov. Spring.

23500, Darwin's Origin of Species. (=CHSS 38400, HIPS 28400, HIST 25000/35000, PHIL 28500/38500) This lecture/discussion course traces the development of Darwin's theory of evolution through the early stages (just after the Beagle voyage) to his Origin of Species. The principal focus of the course is on the Origin of Species, especially its several editions and the debates concerning the theory of evolution by natural selection. We also assess the logical and rhetorical structure of Darwin's argument; and we consider the status of the contemporary alternative to Darwin's theory, namely, "intelligent design." R. Richards. Autumn.

23700. Constitution of Community. (=HUMA 22200, IMET 21100, LLSO 21700) Attention is once again being given to how a "we," a community, establishes itself. This interest often assumes that discussion and deliberation will play a, perhaps the major role, and often coincides with the notion that the organization of the community should be through government by discussion. This course will use one major example of the constitution of a community, the United States. This course is not a repetition of the typical "historical," "legal," or "philosophical" interpretations given and uses made of these events and texts. D. Smigelskis. Winter.

23802. Thinking with Stories. (=RELH 23802, RLST 27900) Open only to College students. This course focuses on understanding the thoughtful and argumentative character of folktales, legends, and myths through the reading of successive or parallel versions of the same narrative or narrative elaborations of the same motif in written texts (i.e., Mesopotamian, biblical, classical materials), as well as in oral narratives from traditional societies. J. Z. Smith. Spring.

24100. Ulysses. (=ENGL 24000) This course takes students through Joyce's novel, exposing them to various recent critical approaches. We take some additional excursions into materials contemporary to Ulysses that can be placed in dialogue with the novel. L. Ruddick. Spring.

24201. Longus and Rousseau. (=CLAS 34700, CLCV 24700, CMLT 23600) The focus of this course is on Longus's Daphnis and Chloe and Rousseau's Emile. Daphnis and Chloe is an ancient Greek novel that was immensely popular in early modern Europe. It shows how two young innocents, growing up in the country, attained sexual maturity, love, and marriage. Rousseau inserts himself as narrator and educator into a similar story line, developing the themes of natural goodness, natural religion, sexual desire, compassion, love, and marriage. Using Longus's novel as a backdrop, the class focuses on how Rousseau proposes to preserve a child from corruption by society and to fashion a being who is fully human. E. Asmis. Autumn.

24401. American Originals: Franklin and Lincoln. (=LLSO 27401, NCDV 27401) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing, and consent of instructor. We study readings from two American originals, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, with attention to their distinctive understanding of the worlds they inhabited, prudence and statesmanship, moral virtues and vices, the power and limits of language, and wit. D. Hutchinson, R. Lerner. Winter.

24611. Fundamentals Colloquium. PQ: Open only to fourth-year students majoring in Fundamentals. Using a text to be decided, students participate by offering presentations. Spring.

24802. The Magic Mountain. This course is a close reading of Mann's novel, with an eye toward understanding his analysis of modern Western culture. M. Lilla. Spring.

25211. Pragmatism and Religion: William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience Today. (=RLST 24302) This course studies James's The Varieties of Religious Experience both as a history of philosophy and as a philosophy of religion. Our goal is to investigate how James understood religion, religious experience, and pragmatism, as well as what contributions he thought pragmatism could make to religion and why. We assess, both constructively and critically, the contribution of James's proposal. L. Schweitz. Spring.

25301. Lewis Carroll. After the Bible and the works of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland is the most quoted work in the history of literature. It has been translated into over 125 languages; it was met with such popularity upon its publication that Carroll was invited to Russia by adoring fans of the adventures. We read Alice with care for its concerns with language and concerns for its care with language games. We also attempt to ascertain its universal allure even while, or because of, revealing that allure's mechanisms and returns. M. Sternstein. Spring.

25500. Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion. (=GNDR 25900, HUMA 21600) This course considers novels by Jane Austen in terms of how they treat gender, class, socioeconomic circumstances, family structure, and geographical places as constraining and facilitating the agency of characters. In response to change, Austen's characters bridge difference of class, gender, family history, and geographical place to form friendships and marriages that change their self-understandings and capacities for productive social and personal activities. We discuss Austen's representations of evolving selves and how they develop or fail to develop growing powers of agency as they respond to historical and socioeconomic circumstances. W. Olmsted. Winter.

25700. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. (=ENGL 15500) Prior knowledge of Middle English not required. This course examines Chaucer's art as revealed in selections from The Canterbury Tales. Our primary emphasis is on a close reading of individual tales, although we also pay some attention to other relevant medieval works. C. von Nolcken. Winter.

26502. The Philosophy of Socrates. (=PHIL 26401) We read selected texts by Plato to gain a sense of the method of argument used by Socrates as well as his conception of philosophy. J. Lear. Autumn.

27000. The Brothers Karamazov. (=HUMA 23300, RUSS 24300) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course is a close reading and discussion of the primary text: Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov in English translation (Norton Critical Edition). Students are asked to prepare one background reading in advance: Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground. The emphasis is on moral, intellectual, and religious issues, as well as, to a lesser extent, on novelistic technique. Text in English. N. Ingham. Winter.

27411. Plato and Rhetoric: Gorgias and Phaedrus. (=HUMA 22207, LLSO 22411) This course offers a close reading of two dialogues that focus on the question of whether rhetoric is merely a kind of cleverness or whether it can persuade persons toward wise actions in a polity. Gorgias examines the problem of the demagogue and searches for knowledgeable persuasion. Phaedrus articulates the natures of eros and prudence as sources of persuasive speech. We analyze relations between rhetoric, eros, knowledge, dialectic, and politics. We also consider questions such as the following: Is self-controlled rhetoric superior to impassioned rhetoric? Whom ought one to consult about politics, the philosopher, or the orator? Texts in English. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

27611. Wordsworth's "The Prelude" and St. Augustine on Memory and Time in "The Confessions." PQ: Prior reading of Books 1 through 9 of "The Confessions." Wordsworth's lengthy autobiographical poem contains his reflections on the formation of an imaginative consciousness and his vocation as a poet. Like St. Augustine, these memories are captured from childhood, adolescence, formal education, love, and exposure to radical changes in his world (elements integral to his commitment to a high calling). The course focuses mainly on the poetry, with attention as well to St. Augustine's position on memory and time in Books 10 and 11 of "The Confessions." B. Brown. Autumn.

28202. Introduction to the New Testament. (=BIBL 32500, NTEC 21000/32500, RLST 12000) This course is an immersion in the texts of the New Testament with the following goals: through careful reading to come to know well some representative pieces of this literature; to gain useful knowledge of the historical, geographical, social, religious, cultural, and political contexts of these texts and the events they relate; to learn the major literary genres represented in the canon (i.e., "gospels," "acts," "letters," "apocalypse") and strategies for reading them; to comprehend the various theological visions to which these texts give expression; and to situate oneself and one's prevailing questions about this material in the history of interpretation. M. Mitchell. Winter.

29303. Education for Liberty: Locke and Rousseau. (=PLSC 33015) PQ: Consent of instructor and prior knowledge of the political thought of at least one of the authors. This course is a reading of Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Rousseau's Emile. We consider the texts in relation to their political thought. N. Tarcov. Spring.

29313. Machiavelli and the Arthashastra. (=HREL 34800, PLSC 32115) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course is a comparative reading of Machiavelli's Prince and Discourses on Livy and Kautilya's Arthashastra. W. Doniger, N. Tarcov. Autumn.