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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
One of the oldest forms of literature, drama is unique in requiring physical enactment before an audience. The intimacy and intensity of performance make special demands on the playwright but also offer rich rewards. Examines the various forms western drama has taken over the ages, its blending of realistic and symbolic elements, and its use as a vehicle for the examination of social issues. Plays are typically drawn from ancient Greek comedies and tragedies, medieval and Renaissance English plays, classical French drama, modern dramas (by Ibsen, Chekhov, O'Neill), theater of the absurd, and contemporary plays. Often includes "proto-productions" in which student groups create and present their interpretations in approximate theatrical form.
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3.00 Credits
The first novels were romances, tales of wanderers, allegories, and satires. Works by Cervantes and John Bunyan exemplify the early novel. The novel as a genre soon developed an enthusiastic audience and a variety of forms, from realistic to fantastic. Presents novels from different times and places to sample some of this variety and to see how authors have made use of the enormous potential of the novel.
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3.00 Credits
The modern short story is characterized by its movement toward a moment of realization or insight. How can we decipher and benefit from this insight Studies the different forms a short story can take and the different ends to which individual writers subject the form. Includes writers who have contributed to the development of the modern short story (such as Anton Chekhov, Edgar Allan Poe, and Katherine Mansfield) and more recent innovators (such as Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver).Incorporates the stories of visiting writers who come to Bentley to share their work. C I
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3.00 Credits
Examines the most protean of literary forms, the essay, and explores its development into a flexible medium capable of reflecting on personal matters as well as sports, business, politics, food, and science exploration. Authors vary from Michel de Montaigne and Samuel Johnson to such contemporary American writers as Annie Dillard and Stephen Jay Gould. The theme varies from year to year.
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3.00 Credits
Stories about real people have been called the most useful form of literature: they provide real-life models to emulate, real-life mistakes to beware of, and real-life experiences that help us understand ourselves and the forces that shape us. But it is important to remember that no matter how hard they try to be honest and accurate, biographers and autobiographers can provide only versions of someone's life (even their own), of which other versions are always possible. Gives special attention to factors that control how a particular version of a life is constructed (e.g., the author's motives in writing, the audience the author has in mind, the values of the period in which the author lives, and - especially in the case of autobiographers - the fallibility and malleability of memory). May include both biographies and autobiographies or may focus exclusively on one or the other.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores women s autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories; the focus will be on the lives of ordinary (rather than famous) women who have made extraordinary contributions to society, public life, and women's history. We will explore the politics of identity and self-representation; that is, we will study how gender, race, sexuality, class, age, education, and other factors shape the stories women tell, and just as importantly, the stories they do not tell about their lives. We will also attend to such issues as women's voice, authority, autonomy, agency, and relationships to others and the world at large. In addition to reading and writing about many fascinating women's lives, students will have the opportunity to conduct interviews and write an oral history. The selection of autobiographies and oral histories will vary from semester to semester, but each version of this course will pay special attention to women's life stories
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3.00 Credits
Tragedy, from its inception in ancient Greece, has expressed and dramatized some of the most fundamental dilemmas that human beings face. Although in modern usage the word has come to stand for almost any story that is especially sad, the most powerful tragic stories ¡ª ancient and modern ¡ª go beyond sadness to offer insight into the human struggles they portray. They shed light on human destiny, allowing us to understand our lives in valuable new ways. The works included in the course will vary from year to year but are likely to include examples of Greek Tragedy, plays by Shakespeare, and modern tragedies, as well as examples of tragedy in non-dramatic works such as novels or poems.
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3.00 Credits
Comedy has always been the broadest of literary forms. In all its versions, comedy shows the astonishing and apparently universal ability of the human mind to discover both the ridiculous and the eternally hopeful amid the difficulties of human life. Explores the many ways in which writers in different times and places have succeeded in finding reasons to smile, to laugh, and to hope. Ranges from the romantic comedy of Shakespeare to the ferocious satire of Jonathan Swift to the comedy of manners of Jane Austen to the genial optimism of Bill Cosby to the zany farce of the Marx Brothers. The particular works to be considered will vary from year to year.
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3.00 Credits
How do some texts come to be seen as foundations of cultures And when they do come to be seen in this way, what do they tell us about what different civilizations regard as essential to their evolving cultural identities Explores the connections between literary texts, generally of the ancient and medieval world such as Homer, the Bible and the Tao Te Ching, and the circumstances in which they were composed. Asks whether there are indeed universal human values, or whether the attitudes, beliefs, and societies we as readers live by or take almost for granted can be usefully contrasted with those revealed in the older texts we study. Queries what cultural assumptions we bring to the act of reading these texts, and how our outlook helps to shape our understanding and is challenged by them.
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3.00 Credits
If there are significant differences in cultures even over the last 500 years, literary texts are an important record of what different cultures see as defining them. These relatively modern texts may also provide answers to the question of what modern civilization may agree upon -what might bring people together across national or cultural borders and geographical spaces. In studying texts written during the last 500 years, we will raise questions such as what people in very different times, spaces, and contexts might agree are important elements of civic life. Examines the reasons why certain practices, beliefs, and social arrangements are valued over others and attempt to derive lessons about global civilization entering the new millennium.
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