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21L.000J Writing About Literature
(formerly 21L.010)(Same subject as 21W.734 J) Prereq: – U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 HASS, CI-HW Intensive focus on the reading and writing skills used to analyze literary texts such as poems by Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare or Langston Hughes; short stories by Chekhov, Joyce, or Alice Walker; and a short novel by Melville or Toni Morrison. Designed not only to prepare students for further work in writing and literary and media study, but also to provide increased confidence and pleasure in their reading, writing, and analytical skills. Students write or revise essays weekly. Enrollment limited. Fall: W. Kelley 21L.001 Foundations of Western Culture: Homer to Dante
Prereq: –U (Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 2, CI-H Studies a broad range of texts essential to understanding the two great sources of Western conceptions of the world and humanity's place within it: the ancient world of Greece and Rome and the Judeo-Christian world that challenged and absorbed it. Readings vary but usually include works by Homer, Sophocles, Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, St. Augustine, and Dante. Enrollment limited. 21L.002 Foundations of Western Culture: The Making of the Modern World
Prereq: –U (Fall) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 2, CI-H Complementary to 21L.001. A broad survey of texts, literary, philosophical, and sociological, studied to trace the growth of secular humanism, the loss of a supernatural perspective upon human events, and changing conceptions of individual, social, and communal purpose. Stresses appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the common cultural possession of our time. Enrollment limited. 21L.003 Reading Fiction
Prereq: –U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Introduces prose narrative, both short stories and the novel. Examines the construction of narrative and the analysis of literary response. Enrollment limited. Fall: S. Alexandre, I.
Lipkowitz 21L.004 Reading Poetry
Prereq: –U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Emphasis on lyric poetry in England and the US. Syllabus usually includes sonnets by Shakespeare, selections from Milton's Paradise Lost, individual poems by Donne, Keats, Dickinson, Frost, Eliot, Langston Hughes, Lowell, and Plath. Enrollment limited. Fall: N. Colburn, S.
Tapscott 21L.005 Introduction to Drama
Prereq: –U (Fall) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 3, CI-H A study of the history of theater art and practice from its origins to the modern period, including its roles in non-Western cultures. Special attention to the relationship between the literary and performative dimensions of drama, and the relationship between drama and its cultural context. Enrollment limited. 21L.006 American Literature
Prereq: –U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Studies the national literature of the US since the early 19th century. Considers novels, essays, films, and poems, focusing on efforts to define and reform a sense of American identity amidst increasing awareness of cultural diversity. Readings usually include works by Hawthorne, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Dickinson, Frost, Faulkner, Maxine Kingston, and Amy Tan. Enrollment limited. Fall: J. Hildebidle 21L.007 World Literatures
Prereq: –U (Fall) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Introduces students to a coherent set of textual and visual materials drawn from different geographical regions, languages, artistic genres, and historical periods. The focus may vary but usually cuts across national boundaries. Includes non-English works read in translation and examines different kinds of writing, both fiction and nonfiction. Pays special attention to such issues as identity formation, cultural contact, exploration, and exile. Previously taught topics include contemporary writing from Africa and South Asia, the impact of the discovery of the New World, and Caribbean literature. 21L.009 Shakespeare
Prereq: –U (Fall, Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Close study of the major comedies, histories, and tragedies in the context of Renaissance thought, Elizabethan theatre, and the political and social setting of Shakespeare's age. Lectures and class discussions each week, supplemented by occasional reading of scenes and attendance at live or filmed performances. Enrollment limited. Fall: S. Raman 21L.011 The Film Experience
Prereq: –U (Fall, Spring) 3-3-6 HASS-D, Category 3, CI-H An introduction to narrative film, emphasizing the unique properties of the movie house and the motion picture camera, the historical evolution of the film medium, and the intrinsic artistic qualities of individual films. Syllabus changes from semester to semester, but usually includes such directors as Griffith, Chaplin, Renoir, Ford, Hitchcock, De Sica, and Fellini. Fall: D. Thorburn 21L.012 Forms of Western Narrative
Prereq: –U (Fall) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 1, CI-H Examines forms of storytelling that have developed in Western cultures from Homer to the present. Emphasis on literary and cultural issues; the emergence of different narrative genres and media; story forms as anthropological artifacts. Syllabus varies but usually includes folk tales, and authors such as Homer, Sophocles, Cervantes, Laclos or Tolstoy, Poe, and at least one film. 21L.015 Introduction to Media Studies
Prereq: –U (Fall) 3-3-6 HASS-D, Category 4, CI-H Offers an overview of the social, cultural, political, and economic impact of mediated communication on modern culture. Combines critical discussions with experiments working with different media. Media covered include radio, television, film, the printed word, and digital technologies. Topics include the nature and function of media, core media institutions, and media in transition. B. Coleman 21L.016 Learning from the Past: Drama, Science, Performance (New)
(Subject meets with 21M.616)Prereq: – U (Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 3, CI-H Explores the creation (and creativity) of the modern scientific and cultural world through study of western Europe in the 17th century, the age of Descartes and Newton, Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Molière. Compares period thinking to present-day debates about the scientific method, art, religion, and society. This team-taught, interdisciplinary subject draws on a wide range of literary, dramatic, historical, and scientific texts and images, and involves theatrical experimentation as well as reading, writing, researching and conversing. Meets most of the time with 21M.616, but differs from it in emphasizing cultural and literary analysis. 21L.017 The Art of the Probable (New)
Prereq: –U (Spring) 3-0-9 HASS-D, Category 2, CI-H Examines literary texts and films in relation to the history of the idea of probability. Traces the growing importance of probability both as a measure of the reliability of ideas or beliefs and also as a basic property of things and the world. Connects the development and use of probabilistic reasoning (e.g., in the lottery, the insurance industry, and the stock market) with literary and cultural concerns regarding the rationality of belief, risk and uncertainty, free will and determinism, chance and fate. Discussion of the work of scientific and philosophical pioneers of probabilistic thought (e.g., Pascal, Leibniz, Bernoulli, Laplace, and Einstein) in conjunction with a variety of literary texts and films, including works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, H. G. Wells, and classic Hollywood cinema. N. Jackson, A. Kibel, S. Raman 
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