CLSC 315 - Erotic Literature Ancient to Modern

Institution:

Case Western Reserve University

Subject:

Description:

The erotic drive is a fundamental impulse in human beings, indeed in the animal world in general. Primordially, the erotic find expression in sexual desire and in associated behaviors, which in antiquity -- as in other myth-oriented cultures -- amounts to a production of poetry to aid in seduction, to praise an object of desire, or simply reflect the nature of love and/or sexual desire in general. Highly sexualized language appears in both ancient and modern texts that take into account a variety of foundational texts in Western culture. From Plato, who wrote a whole dialogue (Symposium) describing different kinds of love, to Christian interpreters of sacred texts, eroticism was a term that defined both pagan and religious experiences. This course will explore fictional as well as theoretical inquiries into the nature and purpose of erotic desire and its evaluation as aesthetic phenomenon. It will focus on texts such as Longus's Daphnis and Chloe, Abelard's Letters, Aucassin and Nicolette, mystical voices, Freudian theory and modern contribution such as Roland Barthes and Georges Bataille. Modern theoreticians as those mentioned here illustrate how the libidinal (whether understood as subjective drive or in Freudian terms) is inseparable from the aesthetic. Offered as: CLSC 315 and WLIT 317. Prereq: WLIT 211 and WLIT 212.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.case.edu

Phone Number:

(216) 368-2000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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