History (HILD) 2A-B-C
U.S. History This year-long course examines the social, economic, and political transformation of America from the colonial era to the present. In addition to providing explanations about why and how these developments took place, History 2 attempts to introduce students to the different methodologies employed by historians in their quest to understand the past and the process by which historical studies provide a foundation for deciphering the events of the present day. Lectures, discussions, and readings trace the evolution of the American people from colonial dependency in the seventeenth century to the status of superpower in the 1990s.
HILD 2A: American History from c. 1607 to c. 1800
The Puritan establishment, the New England town, the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and the American Revolution are some of the topics in the first quarter of the course.
HILD 2B: American History in the Nineteenth Century
The emphasis is on the social changes and conflicts brought about by industrialization and the national unification of sections. Topics include the tensions between preindustrial and industrial cultures, emergence of the factory system, the rise of antebellum reform movements, slavery and the conflict of sections, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and popular radicalism during the Gilded Age.
HILD 2C: The United States in the Twentieth Century
The history of the United States from the times of Theodore Roosevelt to the present day. Special attention is given to the rise and fall of reform movements, the expansion and decline of the American empire abroad, the crisis in racial and social relations since c. 1960.
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History (HILD) 7A-B-C
Race and Ethnicity in the United States
HILD 7A: Race and Ethnicity in the United States
A lecture-discussion course on the comparative ethnic history of the United States. Of central concern will be slavery, race, oppression, mass migrations, ethnicity, city life in industrial America, and power and protest in modern America.
HILD 7B: Race and Ethnicity in the United States
A lecture-discussion course on the comparative ethnic history of the United States. Of central concern will be the Asian-American and white ethnic groups, race, oppression, mass migrations, ethnicity, city life in industrial America, and power and protest in modern America.
HILD 7C: Race and Ethnicity in the United States
A lecture-discussion course on the comparative ethnic history of the United States. Of central concern will be the Mexican-American, race, oppression, mass migrations, ethnicity, city life in industrial America, and power and protest in modern America.
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History (HILD) 10, 11, 12 - East Asia
HILD 10: East Asia: The Great Tradition
Examines the evolving characteristics of East Asian culture and civilization before 1600. Contrasts the rise of Imperial Confucian governance in China to the development of feudal society in Japan.
HILD 11: East Asia and the West
Compares Chinese and Japanese responses to Western imperialism after 1600, focusing on popular protest and dynastic decline in China and the rise of the modernizing nation state in Japan.
HILD 12: Twentieth-Century East Asia
Deals with the rise of East Asia in the Pacific Century. This course stresses the emergence of a regionally dominant Japan before and after World War II and examines the process of revolution and state-building in China during the Nationalist and Communist eras.
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Literature/English (LTEN) 21, 22, 23, 25, 26 (choose three)
The English and American Literary Imagination
LTEN 21 - Introduction to the Literature of the British Isles: Pre-1600
An introduction to literatures written in English in Britain before 1660, with a focus on the interaction of text and history.
LTEN 22 - Introduction to the Literature of the British Isles: 1660-1832
An introduction to literatures written English in Britain and Ireland between 1660 and 1832, with a focus on the interaction of text and history.
LTEN 23 - Introduction to the Literature of the British Isles: 1823-present
An introduction to literatures written in English in Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire (and the former British Empire) from 1832 to the present, with a focus on the interaction of text and history.
LTEN 25 - Introduction to the Literature of the United States: beginning to 1865
An introduction to literature written in English in the United States from the beginnings to 1865, with a focus on the interaction of text and history.
LTEN 26 - Introduction to the Literature of the United States: 1865-present
An introduction to the literatures written in English in the United States from 1865 to the present, with a focus on the interaction of text and history.
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Literature/English (LTEN) 27, 28, 29
LTEN 27: Introduction to Afro-American Literature
A lecture discussion course that examines a major topic or theme in Afro-American literature as it is developed over time and across the literary genres of fiction, poetry, and belle lettres. A particular emphasis of the course is how Afro-American writers have adhered to or departed from conventional definitions of genre.
LTEN 28: Introduction to Asian-American Literature
Same approach as 27.
LTEN 29: Introduction to Chicano Literature
Same approach as 27.
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Literature/World (LTWL) 4A-B-C-D-F-M (choose three)
Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century Societies
A study of modern culture and of the way it is understood and expressed in novels, stories, and films. The sequence airms at an undestanding of relationships between the narrative arts and society in the twentieth century, with the individual quarters treating fiction and film of the following language grtoups:
LTWL 4A: French
LTWL 4B: German
LTWL 4C: Asian
LTWL 4D: Italian
LTWL 4F: Spanish
LTWL 4M: Multiple national literatures and films
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Literature/World (LTWL) 19A-B-C
Introduction to Greeks and Romans
LTWL 19 A-B-C will expose students to the fundamental works of Western culture: Homer's Iliad, Greek Tragedy, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Vergil, and more. These works and authors are important because later authors have copied or imitated them right up until today and because they raise fundamental questions about human existence with which we must all struggle. If God is good, where does evil come from? Is the best human life based only on reason, or should our emotions also guide us? Are we really responsible for everything we do, or are there some things we do which are out of our control? These problems, and others, are all raised in nearly every work to be read in Literature/World 19.
In addition, there will be one "event" per quarter. One year the students viewed Public Television's In Search of the Trojan War, an absorbing quest for the historical reality behind the myth of the Trojan War. Another time, students planned a Euripides Festival, with several films by the modern Greek director Michael Cacoyiannis of plays by Euripides, and several speakers. A third example was the time students saw the movie A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which not only is a very funny movie, but also is taken entirely from ancient Latin comedies.
Students read original works in translation rather than as excerpts. Art is incorporated into appropriate lectures.
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Literature/Writing (LTWR) 8A-B-C
The Craft of Writing
A study of major literary genres from the standpoint of craft and formal structure. Students will learn basic techniques of literary composition (prosody, metrics, narration, personification, rhetoric, argument, dialogue) by studying traditional and modern examples of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. An important component will be application of this information through practical exercises, imitations, and parodies. These courses are prerequisite to any upper-division writing workshop in a given genre. The department plans to offer 8A all quarters, 8B winter quarter, and 8C spring quarter. (MCWP 40 and 50 are prerequisites).
LTWR 8A
The Craft of Writing: Fiction
LTWR 8B
The Craft of Writing: Poetry
LTWR 8C
The Craft of Writing: Non-Fictional Prose
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Philosophy (PHIL) 13, 14, 15
Ethics, Metaphysics, and Theory of Knowledge Introduction to Philosophy
A year-long introduction to philosophy organized according to perpetual topics and problems: ethics (fall), metaphysics (winter), theory of knowledge (spring). The specific content of the course varies from year to year among such emphases as the moral problems of sexism and health care (ethics), and theories of space and time: can a person survive her own death? (what survives?), is the universe caused? by what? (metaphysics), what is scientific knowledge? is it true? what does true mean (theory of knowledge)? Philosophic responses to such topics and questions are shown to be sufficiently various, but the topics and questions are shown to be perdurable from the early Greek philosophers to the present.
PHIL 13: Ethics
An inquiry into the nature of morality and its role in personal and social life.
PHIL 14: Metaphysics
This course offers a sample of a coherent group of metaphysical problems to acquaint the student with the method philosophers employ in dealing with them. The views considered range from the ancient philosophers to contemporary writers. Some topics selected in past years: mind and body; human freedom; space and time; essence and necessity.
PHIL 15: Theory of Knowledge
This is a course in the theory of knowledge. The aim of the course is to raise and to try to answer a series of questions about the nature of knowledge-what sort of knowledge we have of the world, what justifies our believing that such knowledge exists, how one can describe and meet skeptical challenges, etc. In particular, the issue of whether there is a kind of knowledge that is scientific will be raised.
This course will raise a number of issues which will contribute to the student's understanding of the character and methods of philosophy. Is there a special way of approaching the problems described above that is uniquely philosophical? What kinds of results do such approaches achieve? Is philosophy an activity rather than a theory-i.e., something resulting in specific propositions? Is the method one that is inherently non-objective?
There will be strong emphasis on argumentation. What counts as valid, cogent reasoning? Are such techniques universal and thus transfer to any intellectual discipline? Students who are successful in this course will learn how to analyze a question, how to distinguish sound from unsound reasoning, what counts as genuine evidence for a proposition, and so forth.
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Philosophy (PHIL) 31, 32, 33
History of Philosophy
This is a traditional year course in the history of philosophy and serves as a prerequisite for philosophy majors.
PHIL 31: Ancient Philosophy
It is both a truism and an astonishing fact that most of what we associate with Western culture, including its science, art, drama, political theory, and philosophy, had a historical beginning in the classical age of Greece. Within a few centuries a group of some of the most powerful and inventive artists, poets, and philosophers in history formulated the set of problems which we are still, to a great extent, struggling to resolve. Perhaps the most interesting (and mysterious) of these origins is the beginning of the philosophic tradition around the sixth century, B.C. Readings will be taken from the "Pre-Socratics" (the earliest philosophers), the greatest dialogue by Plato, The Republic, and some selections from the ethical writings of Plato's pupil, Aristotle. The course's goal will be not only to understand what these philosophers said, and why they said it, but also to try to see whether their claims can be defended in a contemporary context. The format of the course will be lecture/discussions.
PHIL 32: The Origins of Modern Philosophy
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are often known as the Age of the Scientific Revolution. This description is accurate, for this period sees the emergence of a recognizably modern scientific world-picture. In this course students see how the greatest philosophers of the age responded to the challenge of the new science and of other major developments. Students will study the writings of Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, and Leibniz.
PHIL 33: Philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment
This course will provide an introduction to the thought of the two greatest philosophers of the eighteenth century: David Hume and Immanuel Kant. A unique feature of the course will be the attention paid to their respective ethical theories. The aim will be not only to develop an understanding of the basic issues on which these two thinkers differ, but also to study the connections between the epistemological-metaphysical and moral theories of each.
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Third World Studies Literature (TWS) 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (choose three)
TWS 21: African Literature
This course will use the writing of African artists to view, through the eyes of residents, some of the problems, achievements, and continuing concerns of various areas of the continent. Novels, poetry, and drama will provide perspectives on the journey from colonization to independence and beyond. Because Africa is not well known to most students, readings and lectures on history and culture will augment the literary discussions. The goal of the course is first of all to dispel inaccurate information concerning the continent and its people, then to examine and evaluate the various artistic visions of African realities provided by these renowned authors.
TWS 22: Latin America
This course studies Latin American short stories and novels from a socio-historical perspective. Students will read a short story collection, a series of short stories by Cortazar, and two novels by Garcia Marquez.
TWS 23: Modern China
Chinese literature shall be studied in this course as a series of mechanisms employed throughout the centuries by writers to constitute a reality in which they could exercise different forms of control over forces which are otherwise indifferent, or even hostile to them.
TWS 24: Caribbean Literature
TWS 25: Middle Eastern Literature
TWS 26: Literatures of the Indian Subcontinent
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