Course Catalog

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PROUST & THE ARTS (CL3082)

This course deals with one of the greatest novelists, and one of the major novels, of all time: Marcel Proust, and his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. We will read in detail the first two volumes of his novel, Swann’s Way, and In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. In addition, we will read extracts from the remainder of the novel that pertain to our chief topics in the course. Proust’s views on time and memory, on love and impossibility, on expectation and disappointment, on knowledge and jealousy, on permanence and the intermittences of the human heart and personality, will all be discussed. Proust had a vast knowledge of visual art, and draws upon paintings to illustrate his aesthetic; he was also deeply knowledgeable about music which plays a key role in Swann’s Way through the composer Vinteuil. We shall consider the paintings that are important in the novel and listen to the music that influenced Proust. Study trips will form a part of this course: to Paris museums and buildings where Proust will himself have seen the art he presents; to the Musée Carnavalet where Proust’s bedroom is housed; and to more recent museums such as the Musée d’Orsay which houses much of the painting of Proust’s period (and the period about which he writes). If possible, a trip will be taken to Illiers (now renamed Illiers-Combray), which was the model for Combray where the first book of the novel is set.

THE BIBLE (CL3089)

This course intends to help students better understand the Bible's influence on literature and cultural history through a primary and secondary approach: reading the Bible (preferably The King James Version); reading the history of the biblical period (introductions and annotations of the New Oxford Annotated Bible). Readings shall cover the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament. No prerequisites.

TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (CL3091)

Courses on different topics in the discipline, enriching the present course offerings. These classes are taught by permanent or visiting faculty.

INTERNSHIP (CL3098)

Internships may be taken for 1 or 4 credits. Students may do more than one internship, but internship credit cannot cumulatively total more than 4 credits.

THE POETIC EXPERIENCE: A WRITING WORKSHOP (CL3100)

Through writing poetry and analyzing examples, students become familiar with poetic forms and techniques. This workshop, led by a publishing writer, includes weekly peer critique of poems written for the course. Students explore what makes a poem moving, evocative, and imbued with a sense of music, no matter what the approach: lyric, narrative, surreal, or experimental.May be taken twice for credit.

IMPERIAL ROME: PHILOSOPHY, LITERATURE, SOCIETY (CL3114)

Studies the Greek and Latin literature of the Roman Empire. Readings will include: Seneca, star prose writer and poet of tragedies that impressed Shakespeare; Lucanus’ anti-Aeneid; Petronius’ Satyrica, the first Latin novel; Tacitus, the dark historian; witty epigrams and biting satire; a speech On Magic; the Stoics Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, one an ex-slave, the other an emperor; and Plutarch’s account of Antony's love for Cleopatra.

KEY TEXTS: SOCRATES, SOPHISTS, AND THE STAGE (CL3116)

A grand tour of 5th cent. BCE Athens, a fascinating time of intellectual unrest and innovation. Readings include the founding fathers of drama (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides), Old Comedy (Aristophanes), fragments of the Greek sophists, the historiographers Herodotus and Thucydides, Xenophon’s Recollections of Socrates and early Platonic dialogues, such as the Apology and the Phaedo.

EMPIRE AND INDIVIDUAL: FROM ALEXANDER TO CAESAR (CL3117)

A tour through 300 years of Greek and Roman history and shifting multiethnic empires, from the death of Alexander to the death of Cleopatra (30 BCE). We read a lot: overviews of the Hellenistic Age and the Roman Republic as well as original works by Menander, Epicurus, Cleanthes, Callimachus, Theocritus, Aratus, Apollonius Rhodius, Polybius, Plautus, Terence, Ennius, Sallustius, Cicero, Caesar, Lucretius, Catullus, and others.

FICTION WRITING WORKSHOP (CL3200)

Whether a story is an imaginative transformation of life experience or an invention, the writing must be well crafted and convincing, driven not only by plot and theme but also through characterization, conflict, point of view, and sensitivity to language. Students produce and critique short stories and novel chapters while studying fiction techniques and style through examples.

CREATIVE NONFICTION: CRAFTING PERSONAL NARRATIVES (CL3300)

This workshop gives students the opportunity to explore through reading, research and writing assignments an array of creative nonfiction forms, including memoir, travel writing, food and nature writing, and social essays. Assignments help students strengthen their ability to create the self as character, a first-person narrator who leads the reader into the world of personal experiences and research. The course explores narrative structure, description, characterization, dialogue, and tension, all key elements in making writing spirited and appealing. The workshop also includes guest speakers and field exercises in Paris. May be taken twice for credit.