PERIODS OF EUROPEAN CULTURE 70 - Special Topics:Literature and Other Disciplines

Institution:

Dartmouth College

Subject:

Description:

09S: M 3-6 09F, 10S: 2A In 09S, Cultural Studies: Resisting Theory This course introduces students to debates on culture and its different theorizations and addresses the institutionalization of Cultural Studies as a field of inquiry. By exploring the concepts of "culture" and "theory" and their linkage to the contestation of institutions of power, this course examines how Cultural Studies is both a practice and a theorization of what to "do" with high, and popular culture. What kinds of rethinking happens when disciplines lose their "text" to Cultural Studies Why has Cultural Studies become the theoretical forerunner in the age of globalization Texts will be architectural, filmic, musical, literary, and theoretical. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Martín, In 09F, European Jewish Intellectuals (Identical to Jewish Studies 60). The course will examine the role of the Jewish intellectual in twentieth central Europe. We shall focus on several paradigmatic figures (Arendt, Benjamin, Adorno, Levinas, Derrida) who confront the redefinition of politics and civil society in modern times. Some attempt to deal with these changes through a critical reflection on the concepts of democracy and ethics and on how justice can be practiced either within or outside of the geographical and spiritual boundaries of the modern nation state. We shall examine how Jewish self-consciousness and a deep attachment to biblical tradition enables these intellectuals to reconcile ethical imperative with political realities. Particular attention will be paid to topics such as the challenges of Eurocentric Christian humanism and universalism to Jewish assimilation; the promises of totalitarianism, Marxism and messianism; the politics of biblical exegesis; history and Jewish mysticism; Zionism, antiZionism and the ArabIsraeli conflict. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Kritzman. In 10S, Midrash: How the Rabbis Interpreted the Bible (Identical to Hebrew 62 and Jewish Studies 24.3). Midrash is the ancient Jewish term for Biblical interpre-tation. We examine how the Bible was interpreted by the Rabbis 1500 to 2000 years ago, at the crucial juncture in history when the Bible was being canonized in the form it now has. We focus on powerful motifs such as the Creation, the Flood, Jacob and Esau, the Sacrifice of Isaac, and the Exodus, and view them through two prisms: through a wide range of ancient Midrashic texts themselves; and through one influential modern Jewish literary reading of the Midrashic themes of Genesis. No Hebrew required. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Glinert. Refer also to Philosophy 20.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

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Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.dartmouth.edu

Phone Number:

(603) 646-1110

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Quarter

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