Undergraduate Courses

Fall 2019

ART HIS 22 – Renaissance and Baroque Art
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Wilson, B.
Course Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of Renaissance and baroque art. P/NP or letter grading.

ART HIS 124 – Northern Renaissance Art
Lecture: Lec 3
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Harwell, G.T.
Course Description: Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 22. Painting and sculpture in Northern Renaissance. P/NP or letter grading.

ART HIS C126 – Selected Topics in Early Modern Art: Ornament and Print
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Wilson, B.
Course Description: Lecture, three hours. Variable topics in early modern art that reflect interests of individual regular and/or visiting faculty members. May be repeated twice for credit. Concurrently scheduled with course C226. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: Ornament has conventionally been sidelined in European art history. This is particularly case for Renaissance and baroque art and architecture since those fields are yoked to categories of style; and their historiographies have focused on biography, artistic intentions, iconography, monuments, and form. In contrast, ornament has been defined as (merely) decoration: devoid of meaning, nonstructural or nonfunctional, supplemental, and liminal. Yet those characteristics of ornament open up insights about mobility and agency of images, processes of metamorphosis and transformation, and imagination. Study includes visits to print archive at Hammer Museum Grunewald Center, and discussion of art works and readings that engage with diverse media.

ART HIS 185 – Undergraduate Seminar: Pieter Bruegel’s Cosmos
Seminar: Sem 2
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Harwell, G.T.
Course Description: Seminar, three hours. Designed for juniors/seniors. Selected aspects of art history explored through readings, discussion, research papers, and oral presentations. May be repeated twice for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: Study looks at Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel’s paintings of microcosmi and macrocosmi as mirrors held up to time, reflecting orientation of humankind in universe.

CLUSTER 30A – Never-Ending Stories: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Myth
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 6
Instructor(s): Burdorff, S.F., Wendrich, W.Z., Tangherlini, T.R., Yokoyama, O.T., Goldberg, S.M.
Course Description: (Formerly numbered General Education Clusters 30A.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Course 30A is enforced requisite to 30B, which is enforced requisite to 30CW. Limited to first-year freshmen. Exploration in depth of particular mythological traditions, aspects of storytelling, role of myth in culture, society, and/or art, and contributions of various disciplines to study of myth. Letter grading.

ENGL 10A – Literatures in English to 1700
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Mceachern, C.
Course Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: English Composition 3 or 3H, English 4W or 4HW. Survey of major writers and genres, with emphasis on tools for literary analysis such as close reading, argumentation, historical and social context, and critical writing. Minimum of three papers (three to five pages each) or equivalent required. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 90 – Shakespeare
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Little, A.L.
Course Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing requirement. Not open for credit to English majors or students with credit for course 150A or 150B. Survey of Shakespeare’s plays, including comedies, tragedies, and histories, selected to represent Shakespeare’s breadth, artistic progress, and total dramatic achievement. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 140A – Chaucer: “Canterbury Tales”
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Gerber, A.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introductory study of Chaucer’s language, versification, and historical and literary background, including analysis and discussion of his long major poem, “Canterbury Tales.” P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 140B – Chaucer: “Troilus and Criseyde” and Selected Minor Works
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Fisher, M.N.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Intensive study of “Troilus and Criseyde” and selected minor works of Chaucer, such as “Book of the Duchess,” “House of Fame,” “Parliament of Fowls,” etc. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 141B – Introduction to Old English Language and Literature
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Weaver, E.M.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introductory study of Old English language and literature, including grammar and vocabulary, reading and translation of poetry and prose, and discussion of literatures and cultures of Anglo-Saxon England. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 144 – Medieval Romance and Literatures of Court: Courting Disaster: Medieval Romance and Its Discontents
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Gerber, A.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Investigation of medieval court culture, exploring concepts of nobility, governance, love, loyalty, and power in range of genres: romance, courtly epic, lyric, debate, and satire. Texts may include “Beowulf,” “Lais of Marie de France,” “Sir Gawain and Green Knight,” “Pearl,” and Malory’s “Morte Arthure.” May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: Middle Ages invented romance as narrative genre, one that made love and magic literary conventions; as opposed to closest classical relatives, which tended to emphasize building and destruction of empires. However, many medieval romances still imagined themselves to be extensions of classical tradition, disseminating Latin histories in common language of love. Romance, despite its new emphases, often carried with it many catastrophic and militaristic traits of its classical forebears. Examination of resulting language of love from perspectives of classical influences, medieval inventions, and modern reincarnations in romantic comedies. Students develop greater understanding of vexed romantic tradition that modernity inherited from Middle Ages, including prescribed protocols and gender roles, reliance on political and social bonds, and tendency to break all rules to flirt with disaster. As a result, discussion of relationship between medieval romance and following topics: gender and sexuality, religious and cultural conflicts, and translation.

ENGL 150A – Shakespeare: Poems and Early Plays
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Dickey, S.J.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Intensive study of selected poems and representative comedies, histories, and tragedies through Hamlet. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 150B – Shakespeare: Later Plays
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Watson, R.N.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Intensive study of representative problem plays, major tragedies, Roman plays, and romances. P/NP or letter grading.

ENGL 150C – Topics in Shakespeare: Shakespearean Tragicomedy
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Braunmuller, A.R.
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introduction to or advancement of student knowledge of Shakespeare’s works through broad or specific topics set by instructor. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: From start of his career, Shakespeare’s plays displayed blending of tone and mixture of emotions that make them very attractive, but also puzzling and difficult to categorize (and hence difficult to evaluate). Consideration of some of his most generically puzzling plays, from Comedy of Errors to Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, with stops at Measure for Measure, Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, and others. Some exploration of generic theory, but emphasis on plays as theater. One prospectus and one 12- to 15-page research paper, and significant classroom contributions, required. Previous experience with Shakespeare’s works, or those of his contemporaries, on page or stage strongly advised.

ENGL 159R – Topics in Literature, circa 1500 to 1700: Research Component: Sir Thomas More’s Utopia: Introduction to Research Methods
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): The Staff
Course Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Study of literatures from this time period and conventions of literary research. Substantial research component included. Consult Schedule of Classes for subject to be studied in specific term. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: Exploration of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, focusing on varieties of primary scholarship. Students look at More’s Classical sources (Plato’s Republic, Laws, and Philebus); and humanist and New World travel literature informing More’s vision of just society. Examination of legal and cultural contexts for More’s depiction of slavery, labor, religion, and marriage in Utopia. Attention given to work’s early editions and its reception, censorship, translation: that is, issues of book history. Students read some secondary scholarship (primarily works by legal and social historians), but class not attempt to cover mountain of criticism on Utopia. Some is read, but focus is on learning to do research rather than that done by others. Students lead discussions, give presentations on in-progress investigations, and write research paper. Designed for those interested in law, Classics, and intellectual history. May include library visits and computer tutorials.

ENGL 181C – Topics in Critical Theory: Feeling Better in Early Middle Ages
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Weaver, E.M.
Course Description: Seminar, three or four hours. Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B, 10C. Consult Schedule of Classes for author, period, genre, or subject to be studied in specific term. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description: What did it mean to feel down or to help someone feel better in Middle Ages? And how did medieval people conceive of and work through their emotions–or related concepts like individual mental health or interpersonal intimacy? Through exploration of these questions, introduction to affect theory and history of emotions–by means of one of most popular genres of period: consolation or book of comfort. Centuries before rise of self-help guides, these texts helped readers process their trauma, depression, anxiety, and grief. As one works to feel better in and with literature of past, students read consolations alongside letters between ex-spouses, medical remedies for troubled minds, mourning guides, confessional manuals, and notes on dangers of touch, as well as work by contemporary literary theorists.

ENGL 182B – Topics in Renaissance and Early Modern Literature: Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Dickey, S.J.
Course Description:
Seminar, three or four hours. Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B, 10C. Consult Schedule of Classes for author, period, genre, or subject to be studied in specific term. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
Detailed study of four works that make up Shakespeare’s second tetralogy of English history plays: Richard II, 1 and 2; Henry IV; and Henry V. Students acquire some familiarity with Shakespeare’s chronicle sources and dramatic precedents; competing early modern historiographical models and methods; genre theory; performance theory; political situation and social concerns of England in late 1590s when plays are written (i.e., not just early 1400s, when plays are set); and needs of harried property manager.

ENGL 184 – Capstone Seminar: English: Shakespeare, the Novel
Seminar: Sem 2
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Mceachern, C.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Requisites: courses 10A, 10B, and 10C, or 11 and 87, and completion of at least four upper-division courses required for major. Limited to senior English or American Literature and Culture majors. Students use knowledge from prior coursework to address current topics in discipline and work with faculty members on focused topic of research. Culminating paper or project and class presentation required. May be repeated once for credit with topic or instructor change. Letter grading.
Class Description:
Prose fiction has long been inspired by Shakespeare’s plays (e.g., Balzac, Pere Goriot); but recent times have seen surge of this genre: for instance, McEwan’s Nutshell, Smiley’s A Thousand Acres; Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius; and recent series commissioned by Hogarth press in which contemporary novelists (Atwood, Winterson, Jacobsen) take on play of their choice. Study of collection of these novels in conjunction with their sources. Examination of adaptation work, inspiration and re-vision that takes place, what difference genre makes, and what it means to engage intellectually and stylistically with iconic writer in English. Familiarity with Shakespeare’s works suggested, but not required.

FRNCH 114A – Survey of French Literature: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Carron, J.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 12. Masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance literature, including examples of epic (“La Chanson de Roland”), romance (Chrétien de Troyes’ “Yvain”), and Renaissance prose and poetry (including Marot, Du Bellay, Ronsard, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, and Montaigne). P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 1A – Introduction to Western Civilization: Ancient Civilizations, Prehistory to circa AD 843
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Phillips, D.D.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of diverse cultures that shaped foundation of Western civilization to onset of 9th century AD. Investigation of first civilizations in Near East and Egypt. Analysis of worlds of Greeks and Romans. Examination of ways in which western European societies created new syntheses through selective appropriation of Greek and Roman cultures and introduction of new cultural forms. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 3A – History of Science: Renaissance to 1800
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Alexander, A.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Survey of beginnings of physical sciences involving transformation from Aristotelian to Newtonian cosmology, mechanization of natural world, rise of experimental science, and origin of scientific societies. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Goldberg, J.L.
This is a multiple-listed class:
History (HIST) M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Religion, Study of (RELIGN) M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Course Description:
(Same as Religion M4.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Comparative study of eight major religious traditions, with emphasis on their beginnings and subsequent decisive changes in their respective historical developments and interactions. Equips students with intellectual tools necessary for thinking analytically, empathetically, and comparatively about fascinating human phenomena identified as religious, such as sacred acts, places, words, and persons in their varied historical contexts. Development of student skills in critical thinking, analyzing documents, and making persuasive arguments based on historical evidence. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 8A – Colonial Latin America
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s):Terraciano, K.B.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. General introduction to Latin American history from contact period to independence (1490s to 1820s), with emphasis on convergence of Native American, European, and African cultures in Latin America; issues of ethnicity and gender; development of colonial institutions and societies; and emergence of local and national identities. Readings focus on writings of Latin American men and women from the period studied. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 9D – Introduction to Asian Civilizations: History of Middle East
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Gelvin, J.L.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Introduction to history of Muslim world from advent of Islam to present day. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 96W – Introduction to Historical Practice: Inquisition: Power and Faith in Middle Ages
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Iafolla, R.J., Hudson, P.J.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Requisite: English Composition 3. Introduction to study of history, with emphasis on historical theory and research methods. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
Class Description:
In early 13th century, Pope Gregory IX ordered inquisition into “heretical depravity” to combat outbreak of religious dissent in southern France. At first, it simply meant using new procedures for conducting investigations and trials. But scope of inquisition quickly expanded until it became method for identifying, prosecuting, and punishing many forms of deviance. In particular, study covers origins and nature of inquisition; experiences of accused heretics on trial; expansion of inquisition to new targets like Jews, holy women, and saints; inquisitorial methods of control over individuals and communities; and Spanish Inquisition and its legacy. Students complete short writing assignments to develop writing and research skills, and final paper. Students develop historical questions, identify relevant sources, and deploy evidence in support of an argument.

HIST 96W – Introduction to Historical Practice: Outsiders and Otherness in Late Medieval Europe
Seminar: Sem 6
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Comuzzi, E.A., Hudson, P.J.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Requisite: English Composition 3. Introduction to study of history, with emphasis on historical theory and research methods. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
Class Description:
Contrary to many popular depictions, medieval European society was far from homogenous: later medieval period in Europe and Mediterranean was time of extraordinarily high cross-cultural contact and encounter. It was period in which various groups, defined as being outside of dominant Catholic Christian society of Western Europe, became victims of prejudice, exclusion, and in many cases, persecution. Exploration of outsider position in medieval society. Students read range of primary sources from later medieval period including law codes, economic documents, religious and inquisitorial records, historical chronicles, and works of literature. Consideration, through diverse perspectives of these sources, of who was defined as being other and on what grounds; how various types of outsiders were viewed by those considered to be insiders; how outsiders viewed dominant culture and their position within it; and what broader conclusions can be drawn about difference; diversity and otherness in late medieval world.

HIST 105A – Survey of Middle East, 500 to Present: 500 to 1300
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Morony, M.G.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Background and circumstances of rise of Islam, creation of Islamic Empire, and its development. Rise of Dynastic Successor States and Modern Nation States. Social, intellectual, political, and economic development. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 111B – Topics in Middle Eastern History: Early Modern
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): The Staff
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Examination of Istanbul in Ottoman period (1453 to 1923); relationship between history and literary imagination and view of history as dialogue between past and present; scholarly debate on urban history of early-modern Middle East; introduction to corpus of theories (world economy paradigm) through discussion of Ottoman port cities. May be repeated for maximum of 16 units with topic and/or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 122A – Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Europe, 15th Century
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Stacey, P.J.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Climates of taste and climates of opinion. Educational, moral, and religious attitudes; art, thought, and manners of time in historical context. Renaissance cultural and intellectual history of Europe. Central themes include comparative history of ideas, theory and practice of art and architecture, civic and religious humanism, religious experience, and new cultural genres of history and philological scholarship. P/NP or letter grading.

HIST 180A – Topics in History of Science: History of Life Sciences, Renaissance to 1800
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Terrall, M.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Topics may include science and colonialism, science and religion, environmental history, science in Enlightenment, development of theory of evolution, science and public policy, public nature of science. May be repeated for maximum of 16 units with topic and/or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
Life sciences were not unified under label of biology until 19th century. Exploration of changing approaches to study of life in western Europe, before there was science of biology. Topics include what defining features of living bodies were, and how they could be studied; how living things propagate themselves; how traits are transmitted from one generation to next; what role of divine providence or design is in organic world; and whether organic forms change over time. These and other questions were addressed by anatomists, doctors, philosophers, priests, apothecaries, collectors, gardeners, and naturalists. Examination of history of concepts, practices, technologies, and institutions as students look at how these questions were answered from Renaissance through Enlightenment.

HIST 187B – Variable Topics Historiography Proseminar: Medieval: Holy Wars, Medieval and Modern
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Goldberg, J.L.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Proseminar on historiography involving close reading and critical discussion of secondary scholarship and primary sources on selected topics. Reading, discussion, and analytical writing culminating in one or several historiographical essays. May be repeated once for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
In 1099, people claiming to be Christian pilgrims massacred crowds of men, women, and children taking refuge at Temple Mount as last step in conquest of Jerusalem, and celebrated that they had waded in blood up to their knees. More than 900 years later, people claimed Muslim martyrdom in flying airplanes into skyscrapers and killing crowds of men and women going about their daily business. Are these events related? Do they express essence of religion those actors say they represent, or strange and abhorrent aberration? Focus on problem of crusade and jihad in Christianity and Islam, forms of holy war that cast longest shadow into modern world. Students look at history of medieval crusade and jihad, and roots of ideas of holy war in scriptures of these two traditions. Examination of how history and scripture have been understood and disputed, and objects and texts that uncover meaning of crusade and jihad for people in 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

HIST 191C – Capstone Seminar: History–Europe: Saint Making in Early Modern Europe
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Tutino, S.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Designed for seniors. Limited to 15 students meeting with faculty member. Organized on topics basis with reading, discussion, and development of culminating project. May be repeated once for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
As recent scholarship has demonstrated, topic of hagiography is excellent venue to investigate history of early modern Europe. Exploration of some political, cultural, intellectual, and theological issues at stake in process of verifying, authenticating, managing, and promoting (or censoring) cases of prospective saints. Students have opportunity to be directly involved in process of conducting historical research, formulating historical arguments, and writing pieces of historical scholarship.

HIST 191C – Capstone Seminar: History–Europe: Work and Play in Early Modern Europe: Inquiry, Interpretation, and Exhibit
Seminar: Sem 2
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Mcclendon, M.C.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Designed for seniors. Limited to 15 students meeting with faculty member. Organized on topics basis with reading, discussion, and development of culminating project. May be repeated once for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
What kinds of occupations did people engage in centuries ago? Did concept of play or leisure even exist? Investigation of these questions through readings and research in Library Special Collections and William Andrews Clark Library. Students collaborate in creation of digital museum exhibit to present their findings

ITALIAN 114B – Middle Ages: Medieval Humor, Moralism, and Society
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): The Staff
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours. Novelty of Boccaccio’s witty and comic masterpiece, Decameron, analyzed within context of moral and social codes of culture of time. P/NP or letter grading.

RELIGN M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Goldberg, J.L.
This is a multiple-listed class:
History (HIST) M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Religion, Study of (RELIGN) M4 – Introduction to History of Religions
Course Description:
(Same as History M4.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Comparative study of eight major religious traditions, with emphasis on their beginnings and subsequent decisive changes in their respective historical developments and interactions. Equips students with intellectual tools necessary for thinking analytically, empathetically, and comparatively about fascinating human phenomena identified as religious, such as sacred acts, places, words, and persons in their varied historical contexts. Development of student skills in critical thinking, analyzing documents, and making persuasive arguments based on historical evidence. P/NP or letter grading.

SCAND 40 – Heroic Journey in Northern Myth, Legend, and Epic
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Ball, K.A.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 40W. All readings in English. Comparison of journeys of heroes. Readings in mythology, legend, folktale, and epic, including Nibelungenlied, Völsunga Saga, Eddas, and Beowulf. Cultural and historic backgrounds to texts. P/NP or letter grading.

SCAND 40W – Heroic Journey in Northern Myth, Legend, and Epic
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 5
Instructor(s): Ball, K.A.
Course Description:
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 40. All readings in English. Comparison of journeys of heroes. Readings in mythology, legend, folktale, and epic, including Nibelungenlied, Völsunga Saga, Eddas, and Beowulf. Cultural and historic backgrounds to texts. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.

SCAND 134 – Scandinavian Mythology
Seminar: Sem 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Ball, K.A.
Course Description:
Seminar, three hours. Overview of major gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, narratives and adventures that make up lore collectively referred to as Scandinavian, or Norse, myth. Reading and examination of this lore that is chiefly preserved in two collections traditionally called “Poetic (or Elder) Edda” and “Prose (or Younger) Edda.” P/NP or letter grading.

SPAN 130 – Topics in Medieval Studies: Two Medieval Spanish Masterpieces
Lecture: Lec 1
Units: 4
Instructor(s): Dagenais, J.C.
Course Description:
Lecture, four hours. Requisites: courses 25 or 27, and 119. Exploration of medieval Iberian literatures: lyric poetry, prose, and history of peninsula, with emphasis on its literary and linguistic diversity. Possible topics include Convivencia (peaceful coexistence), Europe and Orient, beginnings of Inquisition, oral versus written traditions, origins of Hispano-Christian expansion beyond peninsula, and flowering of Al-Andalus. May be repeated for credit with topic change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description:
Reading and understanding of two undisputed masterworks of medieval Spanish literature: Don Juan Manuel’s El Conde Lucanor (1335), collection of folk tales and fables from European and Oriental sources; and Fernando de Rojas’ La Celestina (1499), dark drama of lust, sorcery, and murder set against new urban backdrop of Inquisition and Spain’s nascent empire. Former read in modern Spanish translation; latter read in original. Designed for students who have completed one or two upper-division literature courses. This study in medieval literature may be difficult for some because it involves older forms of Spanish language.