Common Core Sequences

110-111-112. Readings in World Literature. This course examines the relationship of the individual and society in literary texts from across the globe. Texts studied range from a picaresque novel (Lazarillo de Tormes) to Toni Morrison, from Montesquieu to James Baldwin, from Kafka to the Chilean Maria Luisa Bombal, from Flaubert to Philip Dick. In the autumn quarter, the class surveys prose works from the Renaissance to the 1980s, in which individuals learn (or struggle) to situate themselves in a society that is often unaccepting of individuality. The theme for this quarter is alienation. In the winter quarter, students consider the problem of evil through an analysis of authors as diverse as Shakespeare, Conrad, Dostoevsky, O'Connor, and Su Tong. In the spring quarter, students have the choice between ten to twelve courses in World Literature. Although more specific in their conception ("Theater and Literature," "Myth and Reason," "Poetry," "Gender and Literature," "Children's Literature," and so on), these courses do not represent an introduction to a specific concentration. Writing is an important component of the sequence; students work closely with a writing tutor and participate in weekly writing workshops. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

115-116-117. Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities. This sequence studies philosophy both as an ongoing series of arguments, mainly but not exclusively concerning ethics and knowledge, and as a discipline interacting with and responding to developments in the natural sciences, history, and literature. Papers are assigned throughout the course to help students develop their writing and reasoning skills. Readings may vary slightly from section to section, although the year is organized around several common themes. The autumn quarter focuses on Greek conceptions of ethics and epistemology, primarily through analysis of Platonic dialogues, but readings may also come from Aristotle and the Greek dramatists. The winter quarter focuses on questions and challenges raised by the intellectual revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with readings from Montaigne, Bacon, Descartes, Pascal, Galileo, and Shakespeare. The spring quarter focuses on modern moral philosophy, and on the relation of philosophy to literature, with readings from Hume, Kant, Diderot, among others. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

120-121-122. Greek Thought and Literature. This sequence approaches its subject matter in two ways: generically and historically. First, it offers an introduction to the methods of humanistic inquiry in three broadly defined areas: history, philosophy, and imaginative literature. The works of Herodotus and Thucydides are studied as examples of historiography; the dialogues of Plato exemplify philosophy; imaginative literature is exemplified by Homer's epic poetry, the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comedies of Aristophanes. Second, the sequence is concerned with ancient Greek culture as a system of related activities and attitudes. By following the creative phases of Greek culture in roughly chronological order, beginning with Homer and ending with Plato, we aim at understanding what ancient works meant to their original authors and audiences and how each work reflects the specific conditions of its composition. We study exemplary texts and cultural development in ancient Greece because of the Greeks' unique influence upon the history of civilization in the Western hemisphere. Importantly, this is also a class in how to write an effective essay. We place considerable stress on how to construct an argument, how to reason cogently with a philosophical or literary text. Because the course is cross-disciplinary, we consider how to ask literary questions of a historical text, philosophical questions of a literary text, and the like. The course is not conceived of at all as a prerequisite for a prospective classics major, though it does introduce students to great classical texts; it is meant to be a course in humanities, sharing with other courses in the core sequence an interest in exploring the spirit of human greatness. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

123-124-125. Human Being and Citizen. "Who is a knower of such excellence, of a human being and of a citizen?" As both human beings and citizens, we are concerned to discover what it means to be an excellent human being and an excellent citizen, and to learn what a just community is. This course seeks to explore these questions and related matters, and to examine critically our opinions about them. To this end, we read closely and discuss critically seminal works of the Western tradition, selected partly because they richly reveal the central questions and partly because, read together, they force us to consider different and competing ways of asking and answering questions about human and civic excellence. The diverse and even competing excellencies of which we are capable, to which we are drawn, and among which we may have to choose make it impossible for us to approach these great writings as detached or indifferent spectators, especially as these books are both the originators and the most exacting critics of our common opinions: opinions by which we explicitly or implicitly guide our lives. Thus we seek not only an understanding of certain enduring questions, but also a deeper appreciation of who we are, here and now, all in the service of a more thoughtful consideration of our lives as human beings and citizens. This course also aims to cultivate the liberating skills of careful reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Reading list (1997-1998): Plato, Apology of Socrates; Homer, Iliad; Genesis; Plato, Meno; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics; Augustine, Confessions; Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; American documents; Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals; Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

140-141-142. Reading Cultures: Collecting, Traveling, and Capitalist Cultures. Introducing students to methods of literary, visual, and social analysis, this course addresses the formation and transformation of cultures across a broad chronological and geographic field. Our objects of study range from the Renaissance epic to contemporary film, the fairy tale to the museum. Hardly presuming that we know definitively what "culture" means, we examine paradigms of reading within which the very idea of culture emerged and changed. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

140. Reading Cultures: Collecting. This quarter focuses on the way both objects and stories are selected and rearranged to produce cultural identities. We examine exhibition practices of the past and present, including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the University's own Oriental Institute. We read Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Arabian Nights, and collections of African-American folk tales. We conclude by considering modernist modes of fragmentation and reconstellation in Cubism, T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and Orson Welles's Citizen Kane.

141. Reading Cultures: Traveling. Focusing on the literary conventions of cross-cultural encounter, this quarter concentrates on how individual subjects are formed and transformed through narrative. We investigate both the longing to travel and the trails of displacement. We read several forms of travel literature, from the Renaissance to the present, including Columbus's Diario, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African, Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North, and contemporary tourist literature.

142. Reading Cultures: Capitalist Cultures. This quarter works toward understanding the relation (in the modern and post-modern periods) between economic development and processes of cultural transform-ation. We examine literary and visual texts that celebrate and criticize modernization and urbanization. Beginning with Baudelaire's response to Paris in his prose poems, we then concentrate on novels that address economic, social, and cultural change in the 1930s, including Abdelrahman Munif's Cities of Salt, and Richard Wright's Native Son. As the quarter concludes, students develop projects that investigate the urban fabric of Chicago itself.

150-151-152. Perspectives on Language in the Humanities. This course considers fundamentals of language and the relationship of language to other aspects of humanistic studies. The autumn quarter concentrates on language and philosophy; winter quarter on language and history, and language and literature; and spring quarter on language and society. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

150. Language and Symbolic Systems. It is sometimes claimed that language is the essential property that sets human beings apart from other animals. In this quarter we explore some of the fundamental properties of human language in readings from philosophy and linguistics, as well as treatments of language issues in literary texts. Readings under consiteration include works by Plato, Saussure, Hume, Descartes, and Chomsky.

151. Language and History: Text and Context. In this quarter we turn to "objects" created with language: texts. The primary readings are texts that combine historical, literary, and mythical elements. Topics for discussion include the esthetic use of language that makes a text "literary" and, more generally, the classification of texts into genres; prose versus poetry; oral versus written literary traditions; history versus myth; and problems of translation. Readings include the Iliad, a Norse saga and eddic poetry, selections from Vico's Philosophy, and several works on American Indians.

152. Language and the Construction of Identity. The final quarter examines the social meaning of language use: how we identify ourselves to others by choosing one form of language or another. The choice available to a speaker may be among one or another dialect of a given language (which identifies the speaker as belonging to a particular social class, region, ethnicity, and so on); within a single conversation, the choice may be between distancing, formal language and informal, intimate language; or (in a bilingual or multilingual society) the speakers may have two or more separate languages to choose from. Such issues of identity are explored in literary and autobiographical readings. Texts under consideration include Pygmalion, The Taming of the Shrew, A Clockwork Orange.

Collegiate Courses

200/310. Judaic Civilization I: The Bible and Its Early Interpreters (=Hum 200/310, JewStd 200/310). This course provides an overall introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), with specific attention to its literary, religious, and ideological contents. The diversity of thought and theology in ancient Israel is explored, along with its notions of text, teaching, and tradition. Revision and reinterpretation is found within the Bible itself. Portions of the earliest postbiblical interpretation (in Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and selected Pseudepigrapha) are also considered. T. Frymer-Kensky. Autumn.

201/311. Judaic Civilization II: Rabbinic Judaism from the Mishnah to Maimonides (=Hum 201/311, JewStd 201/311). Study of the primary texts in the development of classical and medieval rabbinic Judaism from roughly 70 C.E. to the twelfth century. The course centers around selections (in translation) from the Mishnah and tannaitic midrash, the Babylonian Talmud, Geonic and Karaite writing, the Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew literature of Andalusia, and Maimonides' legal and philosophical compositions. Topics include different conceptions of the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation; the origins and development of the Oral Law; relations between Judaism and both Christianity and Islam; sectarianism; rationalist and antirationalist trends in rabbinic thought; and the emergence of secular pursuits in the rabbinic tradition. J. Stern. Winter.

202/312. Judaic Civilization III: Varieties of Modern Jewish Experience (=Hum 202/312, JewStd 202/312). This course traces the history of the Yiddish-speaking communities of Eastern Europe from the first migrations to Poland to the beginnings of the modern period (the Haskalah). Special emphasis is placed on the history of Polish Jewry, the development of the Yiddish language, traditional education, the rise of Hasidism, and the effects of modernity on traditional Jewish life. Among the readings are works from the great Yiddish writers Mendele Mokher Sforim, Sholem-Aleykhem, Y-L Perets, and S. Ansky. H. Aronson. Spring.

204. German and Norwegian Literature: Reconnecting Two Germanic Literatures (=GS Hum 209, German 235, Hum 204, Norweg 235). This course explores the intrinsic, yet neglected, relationship between modern German and modern Norwegian literature. Examining the period from approximately 1870 to 1933, we expose not only the undeniable connections between the two modern traditions, but also, in particular, the substantial impact of Norwegian literature's so-called "modern breakthrough" on German literature of the period. Classes conducted in English; texts in English and the original. K. Kenny. Autumn.

211. Francis Bacon: Legal and Practical Reasoning (=Hum 211, Id/Met 344, LL/Soc 244, SocSci 254). This course examines Francis Bacon's methods of legal and scientific reasoning in order to understand his attempt to make science and law simultaneously more rational and universal, on the one hand; and more useful and adequate to particular judgments and circumstances, on the other hand. We address such issues as whether law can attain to the rigor of science, how rhetoric affects judgment of legal and practical matters, and whether different forms of law can be accommodated to one another by the development of legal maxims. We also read Edward Levi's Introduction to Legal Reasoning, along with some of the cases it mentions, in order to contrast Bacon's understanding of legal reasoning in the context of English law with a formulation concerning the operation of legal reasoning in our own context. W. Olmsted. Winter.

212. Myths and Symbols of Evil (=Fndmtl 223, Hum 212). This course examines in depth Martin Buber's Good and Evil and Paul Ricoeur's Symbolism of Evil. There are a few brief lectures, but emphasis is on seminar discussion and student participation. A. Carr. Winter.

214. Rhetorical Theories of Legal and Political Reasoning (=Hum 214, Id/Met 324, LL/Soc 224, SocSci 224). This course uses Plato's Gorgias to raise the question of whether practical thinking is possible and considers responses to this question by such writers as Aristotle, Cicero, and Machiavelli. We study the methods and concepts that each writer uses to defend the cogency of legal, deliberative, or more generally political prudence against explicit or implicit charges that practical thinking is merely a knack or form of cleverness. W. Olmsted. Autumn.

217. Translation: Mediating Texts (=GS Hum 226, Hum 217). Translated texts make up a good portion of the reading lists for courses in the College, yet very little attention is given to the fact that the text at hand is a translation. This course aims to bring the translator out into the open to examine the factors that influence a translator and, in turn, shape the translation. We explore in depth how these different constraints structure particular texts via specific examples from multiple English translations of Homer's Iliad and of Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, as well as different film versions of Nabokov's novel Lolita. C. Scheiner. Spring.

222. Constitution of Community (=Fndmtl 237, Hum 222, Id/Met 311, LL/Soc 217). Attention is once again being directed to how "we," a community, establishes itself. This interest often assumes that discussion will play a, if not the, major role, and often coincides with the notion that the organization of the community should be through government by discussion. This course is concerned with one major example of the constitution of a community, the United States. Texts of the Articles of Confederation, the "debates" in Philadelphia in 1787 (especially Madison's Notes), the ratification conventions (especially the Federalist), and the actions in the newly formed Congress (especially the House) are discussed with special consideration to how these people do enable fruitful conversation and, thus, is itself an example of community and the means of establishing and maintaining it. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

228-229. Problems in Gender Studies (=Eng 102-103, GendSt 101/201, GS Hum 228-229, Hist 180-181, Hum 228-229, SocSci 282-283). 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. D. Nelson, Staff, Autumn; E. Povinelli, Staff, Winter.

230-231-232. Medieval Jewish History I, II, III (=Hum 230-231-232, JewStd 230-231-232/381-382-383, MdvJSt 280-281-282). PQ: Consent of instructor. This three-quarter sequence deals with the history of the Jews over a wide geographical and historical range. First-quarter work is concerned with the rise of early rabbinic Judaism and development of the Jewish community in Palestine and the eastern and western diasporas during the first several centuries C.E. Topics include the legal status of the Jews in the Roman world, the rise of rabbinic Judaism, the rabbinic literature of Palestine in that context, the spread of rabbinic Judaism, the rise and decline of competing centers of Jewish hegemony, the introduction of Hebrew language and culture beyond the confines of their original home, and the impact of the birth of Islam on the political and cultural status of the Jews. An attempt is made to evaluate the main characteristics of Jewish belief and social concepts in the formative periods of Judaism as it developed beyond its original geographical boundaries. Second-quarter work is concerned with the Jews under Islam, both in Eastern and Western Caliphates. Third-quarter work is concerned with the Jews of Western Europe until 1306. N. Golb. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

234. The World of the Biblical Prophets. This course offers an in-depth analysis of the biblical prophets. Each prophet is set in historical time and within a particular societal context, and against this background a profile of the man is drawn. What was he like as a social reformer and religious thinker? What did he say no to in society and organized worship? And to what did he say yes? How was his message received, and what influence did it have in its day? Finally, are the prophets merely historical figures, curiosities of antiquity, or do they speak to us in our own age? H. Moltz. Autumn.

235. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes (=Fndmtl 246, Hum 235, JewStd 235). Both Job and Ecclesiastes dispute a central doctrine of the Hebrew Bible, namely, the doctrine of retributive justice. Each book argues that a person's fate is not a consequence of his or her religio-moral acts and thus the piety, whatever else it is, must be disinterested. In brief, the authors of Job and Ecclesiastes, each in his own way, not only "de-mythologizes," but "de-moralizes" the world. Theological and philosophical implications are discussed. Texts in English. H. Moltz. Spring.

240. Introduction to Russian Literature II: 1850 to 1900 (=Hum 240, Russ 256/356). This is a survey covering the second half of the nineteenth century. Major figures studied are Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, and Chekhov. Representative works are read for their literary value and against their historical, cultural, and intellectual background. Texts in English. Class discussion is encouraged. M. Ehre. Winter.

245. Kant: Ethics, Politics, History, and Religion (=Fndmtl 272, Hum 245, Id/Met 370). Kant's writings on the practical are often called formalist and deontic. This reading is usually based solely on the Grundlegung (the English title of which is normally either Fundamental Principles or Groundwork), an early "critical" work written for a very specific purpose. The assumption in this course is that Kant is much more interesting than this reading indicates and than attention to the Grundlegung alone allows. Some of the course readings consequently are his Metaphysics of Morals, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, and various essays on "history." These in combination provide subtle and consciously interrelated reflections on the problems of practice. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

246. East European Yiddish Language and Culture (=Hum 246, JewStd 217, LngLin 217). An introduction to Yiddish language and to the culture of East European Jews through the reading of a collection of short literary texts in the original Yiddish: the Khumesh lider of Itsik Manger. Students completing the course should be able to read Yiddish texts with the aid of a dictionary. H. Aronson. Winter.

247. Hegel's Philosophy of Right (=Fndmtl 230, Hum 247, Id/Met 369). The course first focuses on "translating" (becoming more familiar with) what is to many the peculiar language of Hegel, a language which has set and still sets the most important boundaries and questions for many thinkers, not merely about politics but also about economics, sociology, and jurisprudence. More importantly, a concern with particular arguments and the general strategies of his argument understood broadly is also be stressed and pushed as far as time and student interest permit. In particular, once some comfort with the language is attained, a somewhat critical stance is adopted, if for no other reason than to guard against the possible bewitchment by what will probably be for many a somewhat new language of thought. D. Smigelskis. Spring.

272. Tolstoy's War and Peace (=Fndmtl 228, Hum 272). War and Peace is arguably the world's greatest novel. E. M. Forster said that great chords begin to sound when you take up the novel. It has everything: superb craft; characters (some six hundred) so vividly rendered that once read, are never forgotten, no matter how minor; and philosophical moments of the greatest profundity. It is, as the English have said so often, more than a novel and rather "a world" with its own laws and vision. It is furthermore a "happy" novel, concerned not only with the collision of empires, but also the intimacies of friendship, parenthood, love, and family relationships. We live and move in this world for ten weeks. E. Wasiolek. Autumn.

274. Language, Power, and Identity in Southeastern Europe (=Anthro 274/374, GnSlav 230/330, Hum 274, Ling 272/372). Language is a key issue in the articulation of ethnicity and the struggle for power in Southeastern Europe. This course familiarizes students with the linguistic histories and structures that have served as bases for the formation of modern Balkan ethnic identities and that are being manipulated to shape current and future events. The course is informed by the instructor's twenty-five years of linguistic research in the Balkans, as well as his experience as an adviser for the United Nations Protection Forces in the Former Yugoslavia and as a consultant to the South Balkan Project of the Council on Foreign Relations. V. Friedman. Autumn.

275. Representing the Holocaust (=German 284, Hum 275, JewStd 284). This course examines historiographical, literary, and philosophical efforts to grasp the background, meaning, and consequences of the attempt by Nazi Germany at a so-called "final solution" of the Jewish Question in Europe. Attendance at a campus conference on the Holocaust from November 14 through 16 required. E. Santner. Autumn.

276. Tolstoy (=Hum 276, Russ 276/376). This course is a close reading of selected works by Tolstoy as seen as artistic wholes and in the development of his ideological and moral views. The central text this year is War and Peace. Texts in English. N. Ingham. Spring.

277. Aristotle's Ethics (=Fndmtl 277, Hum 277, Id/Met 377, LL/Soc 277). Special attention is given to the problems Aristotle thought important to consider and why they continue to be problems that are worthy of attention. A further focus is the manner in which the Ethics is an principled deliberative inquiry meant to eventuate in more sophisticated choices by the readers. D. Smigelskis. Autumn.

279. Freud and Nietzsche (=Fndmtl 296, GS Hum 383, German 394, Hum 279, JewStd 294/394). This course pursues a comparative analysis of the genesis, structure, and implications of Freudian and Nietzschean thought. Special attention is paid to issues of individual and cultural identity (sexual, disciplinary, professional, religious, and political) as they emerge from the close reading of two texts: Freud's Moses and Monotheism and Nietzsche's On the Advantages and Disadvantages of History for Life. Texts in English and the original. S. Jaffe. Autumn.

283. Arts of Love and Books of Marriage from Sappho and Solomon to Freud and Lou (=GS Hum 384, German 399, Hum 283, JewStd 296/396). This course seeks to resuscitate a classic gender issue (love and marriage) within the textual, cultural, and historical contexts of two "theoretical" genres that have both reflected and helped to shape it: the ars amandi and the Ehebuch. Texts in English and the original. S. Jaffe. Winter.

297. Reading Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and senior adviser. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.