Winter Term 2012
Architecture 633 Seminar in Renaissance and Baroque Architecture / Lydia Soo
Asian Studies 502 Humanistic Studies of Historical and Contemporary China / David
Rolston
This course will examine the present state of research in selected areas of scholarly inquiry in Chinese
studies - language, literature, history, religion material culture, and art history - as we interrogate such
seemingly commonsense notions as “civilization,” “culture,” “tradition,” “modernity,” and above all,
“Chineseness.” Our goals are to develop good reading skills, stimulate critical thinking, and inspire
imaginative approaches to humanistic problems.
English 642.001 Montaigne, Donne, and Early Modern Habits of Self-Scrutiny / Douglas
Trevor
This course will begin with a sustained and thoughtful reading of the essays of Michel de Montaigne.
Among the questions we will pose are the following: what made Montaigne's work reverberate in
France in the sixteenth century? What kind of relation does Montaigne cultivate between himself and
his reader? What constitutes an interesting insight into the self, as opposed to a banal one? When we
shift to England, we will take up the question of how English authors appropriated Montaigne. We
will consider two Shakespearean examples ("Hamlet" and "King Lear") before turning to the writings
of John Donne. Donne's career evinces a sustained, and complicated, encounter with Montaigne's
example of self-scrutiny and the various intellectual practices often paired with this scrutiny,
including a fondness for philosophical skepticism. As he makes his way toward ordination, Donne
clearly struggles with Montaigne's attitude toward religious belief. We will examine this struggle, and
ask ourselves what it tells us about early modern Europe.
Histart 689 (MEMS PROSEM) Popular Visual Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Japan
and Europe / Kevin Carr and Megan Holmes
In this seminar, we will utilize a comparative perspective in considering the role of the visual arts
within popular religion in Europe and Japan during the Medieval and Early Modern periods. We will
interrogate categories of “art” and “popular religion” in relation to specific cultural and theoretical
discourses, both historical and modern. We will pay special attention to how period texts and images
associate popular religious practices with superstition, ignorance, misbehavior, rusticity, and the
transgression of orthodox belief. In studies of various cultures, “popular religion” is often
understood as a binary term with diverse and contradictory associations: extra-liturgical, traditional,
indigenous, subaltern, mass, etc. Art historians of both East Asia and Europe have tended to
conceive of popular religious art in terms of a “high-low” binary dependent on a quality criterion,
rather than on socioeconomic, cultural, and historical considerations. Popular religious art is thus
characterized as evincing little skill, a lack of expressive power, misinterpretation of orthodox beliefs,
cheap manufacture, and the utilization of mechanical reproduction. This criterion of quality often
leads to the designation as “popular” objects that were, in fact, historically situated within elite,
learned, and dominant cultural spheres. Our class will challenge these categories and consider more
fruitful and historically accurate ways to understand visual culture that often has been left out of the
purview of art history.
Hist 481.001 Rome After Empire / Paolo Squatriti
This course traces the evolution of the city of Rome from imperial capital to shabby village and then
to holy city, between 300 and 1400. It shows that Rome was at the same time both a physical place,
full of ruins and monuments, and a glorious idea of law, of imperial rule, of civilization. The
course explores how the urban community and its actual fabric interacted with the ideas about it
held by Romans and by medieval people living far from the city itself.
History 594 /Judaic 517 Ancient Judaism: Law, Religion, History / Rachel Neis
This course provides an introduction to Ancient Judaism from the first to the eighth centuries. We
will focus on the history, law and religion of ancient Jews of Palestine and the Diaspora, who lived in
Roman, Christian, Persian and Zoroastrian contexts. You will have the chance to read selections
from the Mishnah, the Talmud, the New Testament and the writings of the Early Church Fathers,
among other sources in translation. Information for graduate students: Graduate students will at
times have slightly different or additional reading assignments and presentations. Our graduate theme
this semester is "Ancient Jewish Law."
History 698 Political Theology / Hussein Fancy
This seminar will offer a thorough reading of texts that have either inspired or reflect a renewed
interest in Political Theology or to put it differently, the study of the theological origins of
modernity. In particular, we will examine how a particular periodization -- the division of the
premodern from the modern -- has authorized ideas about the sovereign state, autonomous
individual, religion, and violence that underpin contemporary cultural theory. Readings include: Carl
Schmitt, Ernst Kantorowicz, Hans Blumenberg, John Millbank, Philippe Buc, Andrew Cole,
Jonathan Sheehan, Giorgio Agamben, and Ernesto Laclau.
Italian 486/660 Petrarch / Karla Mallette
In this course, we will study Petrarch’s Canzoniere, the most influential poetic work in late medievalearly modern Europe. No knowledge of Italian necessary; the course will be taught in English,
though we will use a bilingual edition and will discuss the structure of the poetry in the original.
Topics will include Petrarch’s treatment of time; the elusive beloved and the omnipresent poet-lover;
prosodic forms – sonnet, canzone, sestina, etc. – and the ways in which the aural texture of the poem
contributes to (or undermines) its meaning; musical performance of Petrarch’s poetry in early
modern Europe; Petrarch’s autograph manuscript of the Canzoniere – how he himself saw his
poetry; Petrarch’s treatment of ancient myths, in particular the figures of Orpheus and Ulysses;
Petrarchism through the ages, from early modernity to the lyrics of contemporary pop music. For
graduate credit, students will be required to write a research paper and lead a class session on a topic
of their choice.
Italian 533 / meets with Italian / MEMS 333 Dante’s Divine Comedy / Alison Cornish
This course is dedicated to a guided reading of the Divine Comedy in its entirety. The text will be read
in facing-page translation for the benefit of those who know some Italian and those who do
not. Lectures and discussion are in English. Students will learn about the historical, philosophical,
literary context of the poem as well as how to make sense of it in modern terms. In addition to
participation in lectures, graduate students will be expected to prepare secondary readings for each
class in addition to cantos assigned. An outside meeting for discussion of these materials will be
arranged. Graduate students can substitute writing projects for exams.
Musicology 643 Early Modern Singers, Arias, Productions: Collaboration c. 1700/ Louise
Stein
This seminar is devoted to exploring the intersections between the history of singing and the history
of musical theater, with particular attention to the ways in which singers shaped the production and
composition of opera around 1700. We will learn about singers’ lives and how they sang, study the
operatic market place, the development of the "star" system, the da capo aria, the travels of opera,
and how singers collaborated with composers and others in the production process. The seminar
will include work with primary sources as well as modern editions and readings from books and
articles on reserve or on C-Tools. Students will be introduced to various kinds of primary sources--archival documents, printed libretti, manuscript musical scores, and so on. The repertory will include
operas and arias by Alessandro Scarlatti and other late seventeenth-century composers, as well as
operas and oratorios by G. F. Handel.
Philosophy 460 Medieval Philosophy / Tad Schmaltz
This course focuses on three leading figures of this period: Augustine (354–450), who attempted to
reconcile a broadly Platonic outlook with an emerging Christian orthodoxy; Thomas Aquinas (1225–
1274), who attempted to reconcile an entrenched Christian theology with an Aristotelian philosophy
that was just becoming available in the West; and William of Ockham (1287–1347), who was a
prominent defender of a nominalist/conceptualist outlook that deviated from more traditional
Platonic and Aristotelian views. Topics for discussion include the compatibility of pagan philosophy
with religious revelation; the problem of universals; the nature of time and eternity; the possibility of
knowledge of the nature and existence of God; problems involving evil, human freedom, and divine
foreknowledge; and the nature and destiny of human beings.
Spanish 459 Don Quijote y la formación de la novela moderna / Enrique Garcia SantoTomas
Estudiaremos la obra maestra cervantina desde una perspectiva contemporánea, centrándonos en su
contexto socio-político, histórico y literario, e incorporando acercamientos críticos que se adapten a
nuestra sensibilidad moderna. Prestaremos particular atención a la imbricación de géneros en el texto,
analizando igualmente sus reverberaciones míticas y simbólicas. Nos enfocaremos en la construcción
de los personajes más significativos, haciendo parada en temas como el de la ley y la violencia, la vida
marginal, los espacios urbanos y rurales, la sexualidad latente o abierta, y los usos y significados de la
violencia y el cuerpo. La clase será en español.
Spanish 488 Las Novelas ejemplares de Miguel de Cervantes / Enrique Garcia Santo-Tomas
El presente curso explorará la colección completa de novelas cortas cervantinas en su contexto
histórico, social y literario, indagando, en última instancia, en la relevancia estética de estas pequeñas
obras maestras. Brujas, lunáticos, perros, putas y gitanos serán los mejores amigos del estudiante en
su recorrido por la España que conoció Cervantes y de la que escribió “liberalmente” para
entretenernos en el siglo XXI.
*Por cada clase ausentada el estudiante perderá un punto de la nota final. Sólo se permiten ausencias
por festividades religiosas o enfermedad (con nota médica como justificante).
MEMS 898 Dissertation (Etc!) Colloquium / George Hoffmann
This workshop provides advanced students in Medieval and Early Modern periods with the
opportunity to present work in a interdisciplinary context bringing together participants from all the
disciplines that engage with pre-modern materials. The colloquium supports students in
commitments that they have already undertaken, with the small, but pleasurable responsibility of
responding to colleagues’ work. It addresses three needs: 1) to help you to frame and to convey the
larger significance of your research with the help of a supportive group from a wider range of
methodological points of view than would normally appear on a dissertation committee; 2) to
provide you with practice in articulating your ideas in an oral format; and 3) to explore how
interdisciplinary dialogue can enrich our research. The MEMS colloquium is an integral part of the
Graduate Certificate Program in MEMS, but students do not need to be admitted to the Certificate
Program to take the course. The course will meet regularly on a schedule to be determined by the
needs of the group; you may register for 1-3 credit by permission of the instructor (graded S/U).