ENGL W3965 - Secrecy

Institution:

Columbia University in the City of New York

Subject:

Description:

This course will reflect on the theme and use of secrecy in a wide variety of texts (mostly prose) from the Middle Ages up to the present. Important to this course is an examination of how secrets are structured rhetorically, technologically, and epistemologically within literary texts and within discourses in general (science, psychoanalysis, religion) as a means for organizing knowledge and meaning. Literary texts include (but are not limited to): Le Roman de Silence, Tanizaki's The Key, Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, the pseudo-Aristotle Secretum Secretorum, troubadour poetry, and short stories by Henry James (tbd). We will also be reading works by Freud: "Screen Memories" and "Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through," and looking at Coppola's film The Conversation. Other works will be added to our syllabus. Requirements: one in-class presentation and two longer papers. : E-mail Professor Dailey (pd2132@columbia.edu) and Professor Strand (ms3091@columbia.edu) by noon on Wednesday, April 11th, with the subject heading, "Secrecy seminar." In your message, include basic information: your name, school, major, year of study, and relevant courses taken, along with a brief statement about why you are interested in taking the course.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.columbia.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 854-1754

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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