Cultural Foundations I

This course introduces the concept of the self from antiquity through the Middle Ages, focusing on how individuals and social relations are portrayed in literature, in the visual and performing arts, and through music. Ideas and images of the self are examined within the context of their origins in the classical, Judaic, Christian, and Near Eastern traditions and their development through the multiple discourses and traditions that converge in the Middle Ages. Conceptions of the divine and heroic, power and disenfranchisement, and beauty and love are examined. Texts may concern Homeric epics, the Bible, the Egyptian necropolis, Greek and Roman drama, Socratic dialogues, classical and medieval sculpture and architecture, Byzantine icons and murals, illuminated manuscripts, Gregorian chants, troubadour love poetry and medieval romance, and the Gothic cathedral and the Islamic mosque.

Cultural Foundations II

This course continues the thematic and historical lines of development begun in Cultural Foundations I and follows them to the beginning of the modern era. Students continue the examination of the self as it is embodied in a variety of ideals, values, and practices. Particular emphasis is placed on three areas of tension: ancient and modern, self and other, and masculine and feminine. These key dichotomies are examined in successive periods of rebirth and revolution as societies and individuals struggle to redefine human culture and its possibilities. Texts may concern Shakespearean drama, Renaissance portraiture, Restoration comedy, baroque architecture, the opera, the novel, romantic lyric, autobiography, travelogues, slave narratives, and the bildungsroman.