Return to Table of Contents

Go to Program of Study

Go to bottom of document

Courses

201. Introduction to Film II (=CMS 102, Eng 109). PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter course. The two parts are offered in alternate years and may be taken in sequence or individually. This quarter builds upon the skills of formal analysis, knowledge of basic cinematic conventions, and familiarity with the institutions of cinema acquired in the first quarter. In this course we address intertextual and contextual problems, such as those associated with genre, authorship, stars, and various responses to the classical Hollywood film. Alternatives studied include documentary, European national cinemas, "art cinema," animation, and various avant-garde movements. Staff. Autumn.

202. American Cinema to 1934 (=CMS 201, Eng 285). This course moves through, roughly, three phases of American film history: early cinema, the elaboration of the classical Hollywood mode of film practice, and the transition to sound. We focus on the following issues: the emergence of cinema in the public sphere of turn-of-the-century commercial entertainments; the social composition of early audiences and the role of mixed audiences into a mass culture of consumption; the development of the star system and fan cults; the interplay of technological, economic, and aesthetic factors in the transition to sound; and the threat of censorship and the implementation of the Production Code in 1934. M. Hansen. Winter.

206. Classical Film Theory (=CMS 270, Eng 283). This course examines basic questions associated with the film medium through the writings of some of its earliest and most influential theorists. Beginning with the question of what constitutes a "theoretical" or "philosophical" approach to film, we pursue a series of persistent issues. What is the nature of film's relationship to reality? Are there "essential" features of the medium that determine (or should determine) its form? How do images and editing make meaning? We place writers (such as Vachel Lindsay, Hugo Münsterberg, Sergei Eisenstein, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, André Bazin, and others) in historical and cultural terms, and use their work to frame our own theoretical questions about the cinema. J. Lastra. Spring.

209. Women's Cinema in Germany: Feminism and Female Spectatorship (=CMS 227, German 219, Hum 227). This course is designed to offer students an introduction to both feminist film theory and feminist filmmaking in Germany. By bringing together questions of gender and representation with questions of spectatorship and the cinema (as an institution), the syllabus aims to challenge how we think about concepts such as women's cinema and feminism in general and more specifically in the Federal Republic. We consider a range of issues in postwar German history as well as various formal experiments with genre (e.g., documentary, melodrama, the essay film, and comedy) and consider the "feminism" of certain filmic approaches to topics such as World War II, the consumer culture of the fifties, the student movement, the women's movement, terrorism, and the situation of "foreigners." Films in German with English subtitles. T. Caprio. Autumn.

210/310. Postwar Cinema and History: "History Written in Lightning" (=CMS 225, ComLit 341, German 232/332). From its beginning, the cinema has been preoccupied with historical subjects to restage the past. This course focuses on a body of postwar films (including works by Rossellini, Straub and Huillet, Pasolini, Watkins, Jansco, Syberberg, Schroeter, Pontecorvo, Kluge, Resnais, Wajda, Szabo, Solanis and Gettino, Ray, Sanders-Brahms, Angeloupolos, and Rouan) that use materialist, documentarist, structuralist, annalistic, mythopoetic, and psychoanalytic models to think about historical events and experience. Readings are by Lévi-Strauss, Braudel, LeRoy Ladurie, Auerbach, Sartre, Fanon, Momigliano, Foucault, Ferro, Koselleck, as well as by everyday life, feminist, and subaltern historians. K. Trumpener. Spring.

215. The African Diaspora III: The Slave Trade as Experience, Construct, and Imaginary (=AfAfAm 203, Eng 250, Hist 200/300). This is an interdisciplinary course organized by the Committee on African and African-American Studies. We deal with the Atlantic slave trade through the study of literary works, films, ideological debates, and analysis of "hard" economic, linguistic, and social data. R. Austen, K. Warren. Spring.

219. Introduction to African Civilization III (=Anthro 306-3, SocSci 227). This quarter focuses on a single region, the Manden of West Africa, covering village social structure and political economy, precolonial trade and empire, Islam, European colonialism, and postcolonial society. R. Austen. Spring.

220/320. Contemporary African-American Literature and Culture (=Eng 273/476). We read African-American literature of the contemporary era, from the Black Arts and Black Aesthetic movements of the 1960s to the post-1970 publishing boom of black women's writing, to the critical and theoretical texts of the 1980s and 1990s. We also look at concurrent developments in African-American film and performance, emphasizing the literary and performative conjunctions of texts such as Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger, Wendell Harris's Chameleon Street, and Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied. E. Alexander. Autumn.

221. American Autobiography (=Eng 266). This course emphasizes the rhetoric of autobiographies and the adaptation of self-writing to ideological ends, mostly (1) classic American autobiographers (e.g., Mary Rowlandson, Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, Henry James, and Henry Adams), (2) African-Americans (e.g., Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Henry Louis Gates), and (3) Jewish Americans (e.g., Henry Roth, Alfred Kazin, and Philip Roth). M. Krupnick. Autumn. (C, G)

223. Sociolinguistic Perspectives on American English (=Anthro 271, Ling 268). This course explores the emergence of the American English linguistic community within the context of North American and more global English-centered speech communities. Topics include American culture and the American culture of language, as well as the dynamic intersections of institutional forces that have shaped, and are currently shaping, American English discursive practices and, thence, linguistic structure. M. Silverstein. Spring.

225. Creative Writing: Poetry (=Eng 134). PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of three to six shorter poems by December 6, 1996, to Gates-Blake 309. Enrollment limited. In this course we read and write poetry intensively. Class time is spent on short, focused writing exercises, discussion of seasoned and recently published poetry (expect to read one volume of poetry per week, as well as miscellaneous essays, interviews, and poems), and constructive discussion of each other's work. E. Alexander. Winter.

226. Henry James: The Wings of the Dove (=Fndmtl 287). Class limited to fifteen students. A close reading of the novel together with other materials by James (notebooks, letters, and prefaces) and possibly some writings of other members of his family. Some of the main themes of the novel are love, self-sacrifice, sickness, and death. M. Krupnick. Spring.

227. Children's Literature and the History of Childhood (=Eng 295). This course considers a series of famous eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century texts for and about children (from the writings of Isaac Watts, William Blake, Maria Edgeworth, and Mrs. Sherwood to Louisa Alcott's Little Women, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, A. A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner, and P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins) in relationship to the social history of childhood, questions of socialization, gender, and child psychology, and formal issues ranging from didacticism and "simplicity" of form to the relationship of text and illustration. K. Trumpener. Autumn.

228-229. Problems in Gender Studies (=Eng 102-103, Hist 180-181, Hum 228-229, SocSci 282-283; Eng 103=ArtH 171, Philos 217). PQ: Second- or third-year standing and completion of a Common Core social science or humanities course or the equivalent. This two-quarter interdisciplinary sequence is designed as an introduction to theories and critical practices in the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality. Both classic texts and recent reconceptualizations of these contested fields are examined. Problems and cases from a variety of cultures and historical periods are considered, and the course pursues their differing implications for local, national, and global politics. Topics might include the politics of reproduction; gender and postcolonialism; women, sexual scandal, and the law; race and sexual paranoia; and sexual subcultures. E. Alexander, L. Berlant, Staff, Autumn; P. Rogers, C. Vogler, Staff, Winter.

240-241/340-341. Criticism: Its Philosophic Bases and Practice I, II. These courses may be taken in sequence or individually. This course sequence focuses on the problems of judging works of art. Recognizing that there are different fundamental conceptions of the nature and function of art, the sequence explores the ways these philosophical commitments affect the interpretations and evaluation of particular works. Two major philosophic positions are examined each quarter along with a number of literary works that serve to exemplify and test the critical theories. H. Sinaiko. Autumn, Winter.

240/340. Criticism I: The Nature of the Work of Art. Aristotle's Poetics and Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy are discussed in detail along with several tragedies. The nature of an individual work of art, the nature of tragedy, and the critical status of a poetic genre are central critical themes.

241/341. Criticism II: Art in Its Relations. We consider Plato's Phaedrus and Heidegger's The Origin of the Work of Art, along with several short prose works. Our major themes are the personal relation of the artist to the work and the relation of the work to the experience of the audience.

242-342/243-343. History and Theory of Drama I, II (=ComLit 305-306, Eng 138-139/310-311). This course covers Aeschylus to Ayckbourne and Sophocles to Sade. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Autumn, Winter.

247/347. Revolutions in the Theater: Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Grotowski (=SoSlav 284/384). The theoretical thought and theater practice of Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Grotowski are examined and placed within the context of the most important theater reforms in the twentieth century--naturalism and symbolism, the idea of the absolute autonomy of the theater, and attempts to retheatricalize the theater or to create a ritualistic, mythic, holy theater. The course focuses on the unique contributions of these four directors to theater aesthetics, discussing their views on the major elements of theater performance and on the relationships of these elements. Finally, revolutions in the theater are placed within the context of other revolutions in the twentieth century: historical, cultural, and social. T. Trojanowska. Autumn.

248. Brecht and Beyond (=CMS 285, Eng 244, German 244). Brecht is indisputably the most influential playwright in the twentieth century. In this course, we explore the range and variety of Brecht's own theater, from the anarchic plays of the 1920s to the agitprop Lehrstücke to the classical parable plays, as well as the works of his heirs in Germany (Heiner Müller, Franz Xaver Kroetz, and Peter Weiss), Britain (John Arden, Edward Bond, and Caryl Churchill), and sub-Saharan Africa (Soyinka, Ngugi, and various South African theater practitioners). We also consider the impact of Brechtian theory on film, from Brecht's own Kuhle Wampe to Jean-Luc Godard. L. Kruger. Winter.

251. Acting Fundamentals. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater or acting training not required. This course introduces students to fundamental concepts of the theatrical art form. The class emphasizes the development of creative faculties and techniques of observation, as well as vocal and physical interpretation. Participants study Michael Chekhov's techniques of psychological gesture. Concepts are introduced through directed reading, improvisation, and scene study. C. Columbus. Winter.

252. Acting the Greeks. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience not required. This course creates an acting vocabulary for classical Greek plays, using texts such as Euripides' Medea, Sophocles' Electra and Antigone, and Aeschylus's Oresteia. Through vocal and physical exercises, we actively work to train the actor's primal impulse in order to fill the stature and emotional fullness that the plays demand. Students are expected to perform choral and scene work in class. Staff. Autumn.

253. Chekhov in Contemporary Context. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience or acting training helpful but not required. This course is intended to uncover the universal themes and settings in Anton Chekhov's work, bringing to light the humor and contemporary impact of this classic author. At the same time, focus is placed on expanding the participants' individual creative expression and understanding. The course explores Chekhov's four major plays as a means to enhancing individual performance skills and to understanding the process by which actors and directors bring these dramatic works to life. C. Columbus. Spring.

254. Tennessee Williams: Performing an American Classic. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience helpful but not required. This course addresses the performance aesthetics of Williams's Southern Gothic drama, including the music, poetry, and visual aspects of the playwright's most well-known plays: The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and others. The stylistic challenges of performing Williams's work as an actor, the similarities to American improvised musical forms, such as blues and jazz, and the painterly nature of the Southern Gothic atmosphere of the plays are explored through discussion, reading, and performative tasks. C. Columbus. Not offered 1996-97; will be offered 1997-98.

255. Performing Women's Voices in Theater. PQ: Consent of instructor. How does one listen for women's voices in literature, music, theater, and poetry? Dramatic and nondramatic texts are examined through performance to better hear the articulation of women's experiences. The course examines the thematic expressions of gender in primary texts and links those to dramatic expression through the workshop development of performance pieces generated collectively by the participants. L. Holland, J. Thebus. Not offered 1996-97; will be offered 1997-98.

256. Shakespeare in Performance. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience helpful but not required. This course explores the dramatic texts of Shakespeare through scene-study and the mechanics of performance. Students begin by working to develop awareness of and freedom with the verse in the Sonnets. Moving toward more extensive dialogue and scene-work from the plays, students explore the building blocks of performing Shakespeare--from the text itself to the actor's voice and body. The class teaches specific approaches to both verse and prose, developing a methodology of analysis, preparation, and performance. Each participant directs and performs scenes for class. G. Witt. Spring.

257. Advanced Study in Shakespeare: Scene Work. PQ: Consent of instructor. How do you translate the politics, poetics, and cultural issues of Shakespeare's texts into actual staging? Moving beyond simple understanding and delivery of verse drama, this class explores in-depth the visual, physical, and thematic resonances of Shakespeare's plays. We focus at length on individual scenes, discovering them from a range of approaches to unlock their inherently theatrical elements. G. Witt. Not offered 1996-97; will be offered 1997-98.

258. Improvisation for Actors. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience or acting training not required. Structured around the idea that acting is doing, this class explores the foundations of the actor's problem-solving process. Emphasis is placed on developing the participants' ability for strong communication on stage, through exercises, games, and performance experiences designed to address sensory awareness, physicalization, focus, and concentration. Staff. Autumn.

260. The Art of Directing. PQ: Consent of instructor. GS Hum 251 or equivalent acting experience helpful. This course introduces students to the basic skills of directing plays, from first contact with the script through work with actors and designers to final performance. After a preliminary examination of directing theory, the class explores the director's role as communicator and image-maker and offers practical experience in script analysis, blocking, and the rehearsal process. J. Cooke. Winter.

263. Introduction to Theatrical Design. PQ: Consent of instructor. A basic introduction to scenic, lighting, costume, and sound design for the theater, this course develops an understanding of the design process with a historical perspective and a vocabulary specific to these four design disciplines, as well as an understanding of aesthetic visual elements of the theater. After the basic introduction, students have the opportunity to pursue their own interests in a major project. M. Lohman. Not offered 1996-97; will be offered 1997-98.

264. Lighting Design for Stage and Film. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater or film experience not required. This is a basic exploration of the theory and practice of lighting design for both theater and motion pictures. Students develop theatrical lighting vocabulary, knowledge of basic electrical theory, color theory, theory of light, design tools, and the actual instruments used to light the stage through lectures and projects. M. Lohman. Winter.

265. Scenic Design. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience not required. This course considers the process of stage design from both aesthetic and practical points of view. It surveys the historical development of scenography in relation to technology and theatrical style. The influence of tradition on modern stage design is investigated through a comparison of period designs and contemporary solutions established by scenographers. L. Buchanan. Autumn.

266. Playwriting. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience not required. This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of playwriting through creative exercises, discussion, and the viewing of contemporary theater. Structural components of plot, character, and setting are covered as students develop their dramatic voices through exercises in observation, memory, emotion, imagination, and improvisation. C. Allen. Not offered 1996-97; will be offered 1997-98.

268. Performance Art. PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience or acting training not required. This course offers students a chance to explore some of the aesthetic strategies used by artists/performers working in the genre of performance art. As scholars, we work toward an understanding of how changing notions of what constitutes the "avant-garde" influences the conceptualization, creation, and dissemination of art and performance. As performance artists, we employ various "avant-garde" techniques as we create original performances based on a theme, such as "memory." S. Totland. Spring.

270. Reading Course: Theater Practicum. PQ: Consent of instructor. H. Sinaiko. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

271/371. Introduction to Psychoanalytic Experience (=MAPH 310). Psychoanalysis is a two-person treatment system in which a patient with certain kinds of psychological problems, characterized by conflicts or deficits, embarks with a therapist on a long and intense encounter to relive and understand the past and unconscious determinants of those problems. The psychoanalyst brings his knowledge and understanding of the unconscious mind, his experience of his own analysis, and his skill in communicating (empathy) to the process. The patient, because of pain or dysfunction, utilizing free association, regresses to different psychological states, with transference to the analyst of desires, feelings, and ideas from the past; as well as resistance against them. The goal is to undo the causes of the pain and dysfunction. How theory, from hypnotism (rapport and suggestion), to Freud (dynamic unconscious), to object-relation theorists, to narcissism and self-psychology, and to linguistics has informed and changed the psychoanalytic experience is also discussed. B. Rubin. Winter.

272-372/273-373. Proseminar in Psychoanalysis I, II (=Hum Dev 339-340, MAPH 304-305). PQ: Both courses must be taken in sequence. Selecting reading both from Freud's writings on psychoanalysis, together with contemporary psychoanalytic understandings of wish and sentiment within lives over time, this seminar focuses on issues central to the human condition. Among the issues to be explored in this two-quarter seminar are the concept of wish and awareness, the expression of wish within the life-history and humanistic productions including literature and art, psychoanalytic understandings of personal development, sexuality, foundation of personal distress and intervention, and the contribution of psychoanalysis in understanding culture and history. These issues are approached from a number of possibly contrasting perspectives including Freud's psychology of conflict, and such recent perspectives as ego-psychology, object relations theory, and self-psychology. B. Cohler, S. Fisher, H. Sinaiko. Autumn, Winter.

275/375. Self Psychology Literature and Film (=MAPH 311). PQ: Some exposure to psychoanalytic theory highly recommended but not required. This course provides an introduction to the theory and technique of self psychology. We read the major writings of Heinz Kohut and if time permits, significant contributions of his successors. In addition to psychoanalytic case histories we consider self psychological theory in relation to such works of literature and film as Shakespeare's King Lear; Kafka's The Metamorphosis; The Wizard of Oz; Desperately Seeking Susan; and The Crying Game. J. Stern. Autumn.

277. Life History and Case History: The Study of Biograph and Society (=Fndmtl 274, Psych 289). Reading Freud's case of the "Rat-Man" and Erik Erikson's psychoanalytic biography of Martin Luther, together with some recent discussion of the life-history in the social sciences and humanities, this course considers the study of lives over time. Readings pose such questions as how a life story is constructed, questions of "normal" and "abnormal," the balance of vulnerability and coping with adversity in the study of lives, and the interplay of biography and both social and historical forces. Students may wish to do a life-history based on interviews and psychological tests to study a historical figure for the course paper. Papers relating issues discussed in this course to study of biography (or autobiography) in the humanities or social sciences are also particularly relevant to the topics of the course. B. Cohler. Spring.

278/378. On Friendship. This seminar examines a number of classic accounts of friendship, both ancient and modern. We attempt to articulate a wide range of problematic aspects of friendship, including its conditions, its ends or purposes, its relation to factors of age, social condition, sexuality, and historical setting. After the first introductory sessions, the seminar is devoted to presentations and discussions of student research and reflection. The seminar should be of interest to students whose primary disciplinary focus may be historical, philosophical, psychological, or literary. D. Koehn, H. Sinaiko. Spring.

279/379. Poetry of the Jews, Germans, and Other "Others" (=German 275/375, Hum 254, JewStd 275). PQ: Reading knowledge of German helpful but not required. The course consists of a series of close readings in several subgenres of verse, mostly (but not exclusively) from the modern period. Its aim is to explore how problematic identities such as those of Germans, of Jews, and of other "Others" creatively reinvent and reinscribe themselves within that most personal and intimate of canonical genres, lyric poetry. Poets read include Heine, Lazarus, Bialik, Lasker-Schüler, Celan, Reznikoff, Shapiro, McElroy, Amichai, Pagis, and Percy. Suggestions for poems are welcome. Texts in English and the original. S. Jaffe. Winter.

280. Preparation of the B.A. Paper. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

282/382. Berlin Modernism (=German 283/383). PQ: Reading knowledge of German. This is a course on the art and literature of Berlin from 1900 to 1933. The focus is on connections among the arts and on social context. R. von Hallberg. Spring.

285/385. Nietzsche's Rhetoric (=German 291/391). This course is designed to serve as an introduction both to Nietzsche's thought and to the modernization and postmodernization of ancient arts of rhetoric in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The main text is The Rhetoric of the Greeks and Romans, a lecture course Nietzsche offered during the winter semester of 1872-73 in his capacity as professor of classical philology at the University of Basle. Central issues include the text's relation to rhetorical tradition, to Nietzsche's philology, to his early stand for a rehumanization of philology, to his philosophy, to his antireligious religiosity, and to his (re)constructive as well as deconstructive culturology. Texts in English and the original. S. Jaffe. Spring.

286/386. Le Surréalisme (=French 299/399). PQ: French 203 or consent of instructor. An advanced introduction to the movement known as Surréalisme and to its broader cultural repercussions in France. The course explores canonical texts by authors such as Aragon, Breton, Eluard, Dali, and Tzara, as well as avant-garde journals in the 1920s and 1930s. We also consider the movement's fate in the postwar period, such as its revival by the Situationiste group of May 1968. Topics for research and discussion include Surrealism and the visual arts/film, politics, gender. All work in French. C. Frank. Spring.

287/387. Nationalism and National Identity in East and Central European Literatures and Cultures (=Slavic 279/379). This course examines nationalism and national identity in East and Central European literatures and cultures, including Russian, Polish, Czech, Yiddish, Bulgarian, and South Slavic. It introduces political, sociological, and historical understanding of nationalism and national identity, and discusses the best literary works that deal with these issues. The focus is on such important concerns as the national search for self-definition, the politics of identity and history, perceptions of identity and nationhood, and ethnicity and ethnic identity. The course combines seminars with guest lectures. Expect to read the best Central and Eastern European writers. T. Trojanowska. Spring.

290. Reading Course. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

292. Introduction to Ethics (=HiPSS 210, Philos 210). The major portion of this course consists of an examination of the most influential types of ethical theory. After studying these theories, we turn to their practical applications. C. Vogler. Spring.

297/397. Ancient Greek Religion (=ClCiv 287/387). This course surveys the history of Greek religion from Homer to the early Hellenistic period and includes inquiries into religious practices (such as animal sacrifice, divination, purifications, and burial rites) and beliefs about fundamental issues such as the proper relationship between the human and the divine, the creation of the cosmos, and the nature of human existence after death. Sources include literary texts and inscriptions (all in translation) as well as archaeological materials, especially Greek vase painting. C. Faraone, B. Lincoln. Winter.

298. Computer Programming as a Liberal Art I: Programming Arts (HyperCard) (=ComSci 110). PQ: Math 102, or 106, or placement into 131 or equivalent; or consent of instructors. ComSci 110-111 fulfills the Common Core requirement in the mathematical sciences. This course aims to keep pace with how computing technology is penetrating into the humanistic disciplines. Students learn to program on an Apple Macintosh in the HyperTalk language, within the multimedia application HyperCard, and to apply the skills of programming more generally as a liberal art. As an introduction to programming, the course presents techniques of problem solving, program coding, algorithm construction, and debugging using the object-like programming environment of HyperCard. D. Crabb, W. Sterner. Winter.

299. Computer Programming as a Liberal Art II: Programs as Arguments (HyperCard) (=ComSci 111). PQ: ComSci 110 or consent of instructors. ComSci 110-111 fulfills the Common Core requirement in the mathematical sciences. This is a continuation of ComSci 110, enlarging upon programming arts by identifying characteristic forms of computer programs such as machines, models, simulations, and games as genres of argumentation. Students study such forms as recurrent scientific strategies that are making important contributions to new patterns of thinking in the humanities and in the social, biological, and physical sciences. More complete programming experience in HyperCard's object-like techniques is fostered through case studies in the different programming genres. Topics include Turing Machines as general computing models and an interpretation of hypertextual discourse as a "computer game." D. Crabb, W. Sterner. Spring.

305. Aesthetics and Theory of Criticism (=Philos 313). This course is an introduction to problems in the philosophy of art with both traditional and contemporary texts. Topics include the definition of art, representation, expression, metaphor, and taste. T. Cohen. Autumn.

306. Readings in the History of Aesthetics (=Philos 317). Selective readings in the history of the philosophy of art, including some of these authors: Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Santayana, Collingwood, Croce, and Dewey. T. Cohen. Winter.

308. Moral Theory (=Philos 311). In this course we read, write, and think about the three main contemporary approaches to moral theory: consequentialist utilitarianism, Kantianism, and contractarianism. We begin by confronting moral relativism to think about what kind of challenge it might pose to moral theory. We use argument to defeat the versions of relativism which would pose a major threat to making a theory about morals. Then we take up specific approaches to moral theory, by way of historical and contemporary examples of each of the three major approaches. Finally, we think about the place of moral theory in ethics more generally. C. Vogler. Spring.

361. Language in Culture 1 (=Anthro 372, Ling 311, Psych 470). PQ: Consent of instructor. This course presents the major issues in linguistics of anthropological interest, including the formal structure of semiotic systems, the ethnographically crucial incorporation of linguistic forms into cultural systems, and the methods for empirical investigation of "functional" semiotic structure and history. M. Silverstein. Autumn.

Go to top of document