2026-2027 Catalog

FNDL 21800. Kafka's Castle: Rethinking Social Fiction. 100 Units.

We perform a close reading of Franz Kafka's novel unfinished Das Schloss (published posthumously in 1926, and known as The Castle in English). Besides considering some of the broad range of possible intrerpretations, from the theological to the satirical, we attend closely not only to Kafka's language and imagery, but to two basics of the realist novel that are curiously absent in much Kafka criticism: characterization and plot. Optional readings from other works by Kafka, and from his contemporaries will help us appreciate the significance of Kafka's last and greatest work.

Instructor(s): Andrei Pop     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn quarter Fundamentals Gateway course for AY27. Open only to Fundamentals students.

FNDL 20401. The Poetry of Wallace Stevens. 100 Units.

After one has abandoned a belief in God," Wallace Stevens famously writes, "poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption." This course will be devoted to reading Stevens closely. We will trace the development of his poetic vision focusing on his post-war collections. We will draw heavily upon his letters, lectures, and essays to make sense of the poetic works. We will also situate him alongside a wide array of English-language poets.

Instructor(s): Coyne, Ryan     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Winter 2027 Fundamentals Gateway. Instructor consent to enroll, with priority to FNDL students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27510

FNDL 29900. Reading Courses: Fundamentals. 100 Units.

Fundamentals Reading Courses are intended as opportunities for an individual or small group of students to work with a faculty member on a close study of a specific text not otherwise offered in the course catalog. Students may also choose to study a non-Anglophone text in a Reading Course to fulfill their foreign language requirement.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Note(s): Open only to Fundamentals students with consent of faculty supervisor and program chair.

FNDL 29901. Fundamentals Junior Paper Colloquium. 100 Units.

Fundamentals students are required to register for and attend the Junior Paper Colloquium in Winter of their third year. This seminar provides structure and feedback during the Junior Paper writing process. Graded on a pass/fail basis, but unfinished Junior Papers will result in an "incomplete" grade. Occasionally also offered in Spring if a significant number of students successfully petition to write the Junior Paper that quarter.

Terms Offered: Summer. Typically offered in Winter, occasionally offered in other quarters if multiple students are approved to write the JP late.
Prerequisite(s): Open only to third-year Fundamentals students.

FNDL 29902. Fundamentals Senior Examination. 100 Units.

Fundamentals students are required to register for this seminar in the quarter in which they will take their Senior Exam, typically in Spring. Exceptions to this can only be made with the consent of the program chair. This course does not have a set meeting time but is instead intended to create time in students' schedules to prepare for the exam. This course must be taken for a Pass/Fail grade.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter. Typically offered in Spring. Occasionally may be taken in Autumn or Winter for students taking their exams early.
Prerequisite(s): Open to fourth-year Fundamentals students.

FNDL 11040. Encountering the Qur'an: Scripture, History, and Reception. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, by exploring both the text itself and the theological and historical contexts in which it emerged. We will examine the Qur'an's major themes, literary features, and theological ideas, paying close attention to how its revelations address the concerns of their time. The course also considers shared biblical figures and foundational narratives, and surveys how Muslim scholars have interpreted certain passages of the Qur'an from its conception to the modern era.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This class is a Gateway course for the Religious Studies (RLST) program.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 11040, ISLM 30040, MDVL 11040, NEHC 30040, NEHC 11040

FNDL 17504. John Milton's Paradise Lost. 100 Units.

In this course, we will read Milton's Paradise Lost, paying close attention to questions of genre, style, and poetics as well as the theological, philosophical, anthropological, and political commitments that shape its verse. Although we will focus on the epic itself, we will also consider highlights from the history of criticism and scholarship dedicated to the poem. (Poetry, 1650-1830)

Instructor(s): Timothy Harrison     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 17504, RLST 26400

FNDL 20016. Rousseau Social and Political Thought. 100 Units.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, self-styled "Citizen of Geneva," was a musical composer, best-selling novelist, paranoic, herborizing botanist, professional solitary, chronic exhibitionist and likely the most intensively studied political philosopher of all time. He left his mark on the Enlightenment through discussions of, among other things: consumerism, inequality, education, aesthetics, democracy, the role of women, and geopolitics. He is blamed for the Terror in the French Revolution-the alleged result of the excesses of Enlightenment rationalism; but he was also, simultaneously, worshipped as an icon of anti-modernist, Romantic revolt. Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud found inspiration in his writing, while movements as diverse as free love, environmentalism, totalitarianism, and Montessori schooling are attributed to his influence. We will explore this fertile set of contradictions through reading and in-class discussion of several of his works.

Instructor(s): P. Cheney     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 22316

FNDL 20072. Frankenstein. 100 Units.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is arguably the most famous horror story ever written. Frankenstein is also a mythopoetic tour de force whose searching moral and ethical questions-at what cost should we pursue scientific advances, or seek to control nature? Where is the boundary between the drive to create and the desire for power? What are the effects of social marginalization and isolation?-are more relevant today than ever. In this seminar we will examine the novel both as it engaged earlier cultural works (including Plutarch's Lives, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman), and as it morphed over the course of two centuries into a full-blown modern myth. We will consider some of the many afterlives of Frankenstein (including James Whale's classic films, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, Ahmed Saadawi's absurdist war novel Frankenstein in Baghdad, Victor LaValle's comic book series, The Destroyer, and Rachel Ingalls's suburban fairy tale, Mrs. Caliban) as a test case for better understanding processes of literary adaptation, remediation, and intertextuality more generally. Students will have the option of producing their own creative adaptation as their culminating project for the course.

Instructor(s): Alexis Chema     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 20072, GNSE 20072

FNDL 20124. The Bible Throughout History: From the Dead Sea Scrolls to King James. 100 Units.

While the collection of ancient texts found in modern Bibles appears fixed and is read by many people as a source of edification or theological insight, it has not always been this way. Though absent from most Bibles, there is an entire body of literature commonly known as "rewritten bible": early translations, retellings, or entirely new stories with familiar names and faces that update, retcon, or subvert their "biblical" sources. How might we understand these ancient forms of fan fiction? The class will introduce this corpus (including some of the Dead Sea Scrolls) and its sources, production, and historical contexts. We will confront significant problems in understanding religious texts: how is it that some texts become authoritative while other very similar texts do not? Who gets to retell foundational religious narratives, and within what social or political constraints? What does it mean to relate to sacred texts as artistic prompts or imperfect points of departure? Can a biblical text be rewritten for an entirely different religious tradition? We will consider similar questions for contemporary religious practice, asking: how did rewriting the Bible get started, and has it stopped?

Instructor(s): Doren Snoek     Terms Offered: Winter. Not offered 2025–26
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 20124, MDVL 20124, HIST 29908, JWSC 20924

FNDL 20144. Jane Austen and Literary Style. 100 Units.

Jane Austen was a master stylist. This is one of many reasons why her novels have had such a lasting cultural impact. But what specifically are we talking about when we refer to Austen's "style"? This course attempts to answer this question by exploring the development of Austen's style across three of her major novels: the early Northanger Abbey (1803), the middle-period Sense and Sensibility (1811), and the late Persuasion (1818). Throughout, we will learn to describe, analyze, and interpret one of her trademark formal techniques, free indirect discourse. We will also address the question of literary style alongside a host of related topics: narration, characterization, focalization, and voice. Select secondary readings may include works by narratologists, philosophers, and literary critics. (Fiction, 1650-1830)

Instructor(s): Will Thompson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 10144, ENGL 10144

FNDL 20201. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment. 100 Units.

A murder mystery where the riddle is not "Who?" but "Why?"---Why did the expelled student murder a pawnbroker? Why were innocents punished and exploiters vindicated? Why is justice out of reach, compassion rare, and even communication difficult? And, given these disappointments, why have readers and writers around the world been obsessed with Crime and Punishment since its publication over 150 years ago? Dostoevsky's novels "claw their way into us" (Iser), "we are drawn in, whirled around, suffocated…" (Woolf). Although he was "a messenger" to James Baldwin, "more human, better than human" in Akira Kurosawa's estimation, and "the only psychologist" worth learning from according to Friedrich Nietzsche, the real-life Dostoevsky was a desperate gambler, cheater, and chauvinist, not unlike some of the worst characters in his novels. He was recently heralded as both an example of Russian humanism (by Pope Francis) and the "father of Russian fascism" (by a Russian intellectual). Reading Crime and Punishment, we will endeavor to make sense of Dostoevsky's--and the novel's--failures and triumphs. Topics we explore will include historical events and the reception of the novel; religion, race, class and gender; and questions of politics and ethics.

Instructor(s): Ania Aizman     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30205, ENGL 20306, REES 20205, ENGL 30306

FNDL 20211. Intro to Critical Theory: The Frankfurt School. 100 Units.

This course studies the contemporary significance and influence of the group of Marxist scholars who came together in the 1920s to found the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt School, as it came to be known, brought together social theory, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, and anthropology to analyze questions as disparate as popular culture, authoritarianism, philosophical reason, democracy, and modernist art. By pairing the thinkers' general audience texts with contemporary authors influenced by them, we will consider the school's complicated relationship to the social movements of the mid-century, while also exploring the example they set as "public intellectuals" and what light their approach, as thinkers and stylists, can shed on the political and cultural problems of the present.

Instructor(s): Michael Lipkin     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 26526, PUBT 20211

FNDL 20401. The Poetry of Wallace Stevens. 100 Units.

After one has abandoned a belief in God," Wallace Stevens famously writes, "poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption." This course will be devoted to reading Stevens closely. We will trace the development of his poetic vision focusing on his post-war collections. We will draw heavily upon his letters, lectures, and essays to make sense of the poetic works. We will also situate him alongside a wide array of English-language poets.

Instructor(s): Coyne, Ryan     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Winter 2027 Fundamentals Gateway. Instructor consent to enroll, with priority to FNDL students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 27510

FNDL 20606. Spinoza and German Thought. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to Spinoza's philosophy and his relation to German thought, both prior to and within German idealism. In addition to carefully reading Spinoza's own writings, we will consider rationalist alternatives to Spinoza's metaphysics, the Pantheism controversy, and the acosmism charge. Beyond Spinoza, authors to be read include Leibniz, Moses Mendelssohn, and Hegel.

Instructor(s): Andrea Ray     Terms Offered: Winter. Winter 2025. Not offered in AY 2025–26
Prerequisite(s): Undergrads Only
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 30606, GRMN 24606, PHIL 20606, SCTH 20606, JWSC 20606

FNDL 20615. Aesthetic Encounters. 100 Units.

Ever find yourself getting emotional over a painting or a song? Or staring at a piece of art and thinking, "What on earth am I looking at?" What does art do to us? Is there a "right" way to experience it? Why do we feel the need to talk about artworks we have seen? In college classes and beyond, we spend a great deal of time engaging with and responding to literary texts and artworks. This course offers a chance to step back and reflect on the nature of those encounters-how and why we respond the way we do, why those responses might matter, and how we go about sharing them with others. While we will occasionally turn to aesthetic philosophy, our main focus will be on developing our own concepts and categories for understanding these encounters-the very event of experiencing art, how those experiences linger, and how they shape our social interactions. Readings will include fiction where characters are profoundly transformed by their encounters with art, essays on paintings and museums, poems drawn from music, travelogues that chronicle sustained exposure to art, ekphrastic dialogues between visual arts and poetry, and creative literary translations. Authors may include Ben Lerner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alice Oswald, Anne Carson, Rachel Cusk, Ciaran Carson, Natasha Trethewey, and Mary Jo Salter.

Instructor(s): Levi, Melih     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 20615, ENGL 20615

FNDL 20700. Thomas Aquinas on God, Being, Human Nature, and Evil. 100 Units.

This course considers sections from Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica. Among the topics considered are God's existence; the relationship between God and Being; and human nature.

Instructor(s): S. Meredith     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 20700, RLST 23605, CLCV 23712

FNDL 20770. In the Beginning: Reading Genesis Now. 100 Units.

How does one begin something new? What accounts for our ability to do things that have not not been done before or to create something new? And how can we draw on this fundamental human capacity in moments of crisis? This seminar turns to the Hebrew Bible to think through these timely questions. We will read the book of Genesis in different English translations, think of its reception through the millennia that have passed since it was created, and reflect on its relevance to our current moment of crisis. Featuring museum visits and visiting artists and poets, this seminar will explore human creativity and invites students to mobilize their own capacity to make new beginnings.

Instructor(s): Rokem, Na'ama     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 20770, RLST 21270, CMLT 20770, CMLT 30770

FNDL 20808. Biography of the Prophet Muhammad. 100 Units.

This introductory course offers an overview of Prophet Muhammad's life as portrayed in the early and medieval Arabic narrative tradition and through the lens of modern scholarship. We will discuss a diverse range of topics, such as life in pre-Islamic Arabia, the Prophet's early life before prophethood, the first revelations, the Meccan period, his migration to Medina, his religio-political leadership and the military expeditions during the Medinan period, his reported miracles, etc. At the same time, students will gain an overview of the sira/maghazi literature, i.e., the texts devoted to the life of the Prophet Muhammad in the Muslim tradition. Modern methodological questions which concern the reliability of the narrative traditions in reconstructing the biography of the "historical Muhammad" and a wide range of approaches developed in Western academia to overcome problems related to the source material will also be addressed.

Instructor(s): Mehmetcan Akpinar     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): No background in Islamic studies or Arabic language required. This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20808, RLST 20808, NEHC 30808, ISLM 30808, MDVL 20808

FNDL 21103. Marsilio Ficino's "On Love" 100 Units.

This course is first of all a close reading of Marsilio Ficino's seminal book On Love (first Latin edition De amore 1484; Ficino's own Italian translation 1544). Ficino's philosophical masterpiece is the foundation of the Renaissance view of love from a Neo-Platonic perspective. It is impossible to overemphasize its influence on European culture. On Love is not just a radically new interpretation of Plato's Symposium. It is the book through which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe read the love experience. Our course will analyze its multiple classical sources and its spiritual connotations. During our close reading of Ficino's text, we will show how European writers and philosophers appropriated specific parts of this Renaissance masterpiece. In particular, we will read extensive excerpts from some important love treatises, such as Castiglione's The Courtier (Il cortigiano), Leone Ebreo's Dialogues on Love, Tullia d'Aragona's On the Infinity of Love, but also selections from a variety of European poets, such as Michelangelo's canzoniere, Maurice Scève's Délie, and Fray Luis de León's Poesía.

Instructor(s): Armando Maggi     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 26701, CMLT 36701, ITAL 33900, ITAL 23900

FNDL 21204. Philosophical Prose: Cicero, Tusculan Disputations. 100 Units.

Reading a classic from manuscript: Cicero's _Laelius de amicitia_ from the ninth-century Krakow (ex-Berlin) Codex. We shall read from a high-quality colour facsimile and consult in tandem the recent Cambridge edition (2024) by Volk/Zetzel.

Instructor(s): M. Allen     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2025
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 21200, LATN 31200

FNDL 21221. Cervantes: Don Quixote. 100 Units.

In this course we will read Cervantes's "Don Quixote" (1605, 1615), paying attention to narrative aesthetics, language, genre, the politics of the novel, and the history of interpretation, among other aspects. Our close reading of the text will be informed by thorough contextualization within the social, cultural, and intellectual history of early modern Spain, Europe, and the Mediterranean, as well as by major critical and theoretical approaches to the novel.

Instructor(s): Miguel Martínez     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): This course will be taught in English and has no prerequisites. Additional discussion sessions in Spanish will be available for interested students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 28101, SCTH 38250, CMLT 38101, SPAN 34202, SPAN 24202

FNDL 21300. James Joyce: Ulysses. 100 Units.

This course considers themes that include the problems of exile, homelessness, and nationality; the mysteries of paternity and maternity; the meaning of the Return; Joyce's epistemology and his use of dream, fantasy, and hallucinations; and Joyce's experimentation with and use of language.

Instructor(s): S. Meredith     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 21301

FNDL 21403. Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies. 100 Units.

This course explores of some of Shakespeare's hits from the first half of his professional career, when the genres in which he primarily worked were comedies and histories. Plays to be studied are likely to include The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Richard III, Richard II, Henry V, and Henry VI Part 1. Together, we will read Shakespeare's queerest and and quaintest comedies in conversation with darker, more troubling plays that revolve around sexual violence, racism, nationalism, and political theory, to see how he puts generic boundaries to the test. In the process, we will consider what it means to take comedy and history seriously.

Instructor(s): Ellen MacKay     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16500, TAPS 28405

FNDL 21408. Vico's New Science. 100 Units.

This course offers a close reading of Giambattista Vico's seminal work, "New Science" (1744), which aimed to challenge prevailing notions regarding the fundamental principles of humanity. Often dubbed the "last Renaissance man" or a representative of the "Counter-Enlightenment," Vico rejected the detached rationalism of his time as he set out to recover the attitude and emotions relevant to the humanities in contrast to the natural sciences. His inquiry revolves around the connection between the factum or what is "made" - anything resulting from human skills (literature, art, law, institutions, etc.) - and the verum or God-begotten truth. What kind of epistemology and interpretive methodologies arise when we turn to Vico, Descartes's scourge? In our own dissatisfaction with rational empiricism, Vico's alternative unfolds as an epic exploration through time, guiding us to witness primitive humans uttering their first word, partake in Noah's ark journey, and retrace the origins of writing and the foundation of civilizations.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 22501, ITAL 22900, ITAL 32900, CMLT 32501

FNDL 21555. The Apostolic Fathers. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the general body of works whose authors are collectively known as the Apostolic Fathers, a remarkable group of theologians who lived and wrote during the late first and second centuries AD, immediately after the New Testament. Among the works and writers whom we will consider are the Didache, Clement of Rome (1 Clement), Ignatius of Antioch, and, as time permits, Diognetus or 2 Clement. We will carefully read the Greek text, with careful attention to the style of the Greek, how it compares to that of the New Testament, and its relationship to other important materials such as the Septuagint and the Greco-Egyptian papyri. This was a period of amazing ferment and intellectual diversity. Since no rigid standard of orthodoxy had yet been set, a wide array of ideas were put forth and examined on the theological market place. We will focus on the exegetical methods of Biblical interpretation used by the Fathers, their reflections on the person and work of Jesus, and their ideas on the structure and mission of the emerging Church as the body of Christ.

Instructor(s): David Martinez     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Two years of Greek required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 25700, GREK 35700, RLST 21505, BIBL 47500

FNDL 21603. Machiavelli and Machiavellism. 100 Units.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to Machiavelli's The Prince in light of his vast and varied literary corpus and European reception. The course includes discussion of Machiavelli as playwright ("The Mandrake"), fiction writer ("Belfagor," "The Golden Ass"), and historian ("Discourses," "Florentine Histories"). We will also closely investigate the emergence of myths surrounding Machiavelli (Machiavellism and anti-Machiavellism) in Italy (Guicciardini, Botero, Boccalini), France (Bodin and Gentillet), Spain (Ribadeneyra), and Northern Europe (Hobbes, Grotius, Spinoza) during the Counter Reformation and beyond.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23000, ITAL 33001, CMLT 35801, CMLT 25801

FNDL 21650. Kafka's The Trial. 100 Units.

This very close reading of Kafka's arguably most well known unfinished novel means to move away from megalithic glosses of Kafka as a writer of allegory-of bureaucratic oppression, social alienation, and a world abandoned by God, etc.-instead to look deeply at Kafka's precision, and strategic imprecision, of language, language as trauma, wound, and axe. Knowledge of German is not necessary.

Instructor(s): M. Sternstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): open only to Fundamentals majors. all other majors need consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 22009, GNSE 21650

FNDL 21700. Le Roman de la Rose. 100 Units.

The "Roman de la Rose" (mid-13th century), a sprawling, encyclopedic summa composed by two separate authors, was arguably the single most influential vernacular text of the Middle Ages. Whether they hated or admired it, subsequent writers could not escape the long shadow cast by this magisterial œuvre. And, as Kate Soper's recent opera adaptation of the "Rose" demonstrates, this labyrinthine work remains a source of creative inspiration. In this course we will read the "Rose" together. Each student will choose a critical lens (e.g. gender and sexuality, animal and/or ecocritical studies, ethics and philosophy, reception studies, manuscript studies, text & image, etc.) to structure their engagement with the text, and together we will collaborate to chart a rich and diverse set of interpretive paths through this complex work.

Instructor(s): Daisy Delogu     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): For French majors/minors, FREN 20500, 20503 or a previous literature course taught in French.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 27300, FREN 21700, FREN 31700, GNSE 37300, MDVL 21700

FNDL 21714. Boccaccio's Decameron. 100 Units.

One of the most important and influential works of the middle ages-and a lot funnier than the "Divine Comedy." Written in the midst of the social disruption caused by the Black Death (1348), the "Decameron" may have held readers attention for centuries because of its bawdiness, but it is also a profound exploration into the basis of faith and the meaning of death, the status of language, the construction of social hierarchy and social order, and the nature of crisis and historical change. Framed by a storytelling contest between seven young ladies and three young men who have left the city to avoid the plague, the one hundred stories of Boccaccio's "Decameron" form a structural masterpiece that anticipates the Renaissance epics, Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and the modern short story. Students will be encouraged to further explore in individual projects the many topics raised by the text, including (and in addition to the themes mentioned above) magic, the visual arts, mercantile culture, travel and discovery, and new religious practices.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23502, ITAL 33502, MDVL 23502

FNDL 21772. Three Comedies of Sexual Revolution. 100 Units.

This seminar will discuss three comedies of sexual revolution from three different times and places. Aristophanes's Assemblywomen recounts how under the leadership of the able Praxagora the women of Athens take over the Assembly and legislate a new regime in which private property is replaced by communism and sexual equity is achieved in favor of the old and unattractive at the expense of the young and attractive. Machiavelli's Mandragola dramatizes the tricks by which young Callimaco manages with the aid of the trickster parasite Ligurio to have sex with Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of the elderly lawyer Nicomaco, with the consent of both her and her husband, ushering in a new regime in which all are satisfied. In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure Angelo the interim duke of Vienna institutes a repressive sexual regime in which the brothels are closed and extramarital sex is a capital crime. What might we learn about sexual relations from these diverse plays? Why are they comedies?

Instructor(s): Nathan Tarcov & Glenn Most      Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2024
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates need the Instructor's permission to register.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 35997, PLSC 35997, CMLT 25823, CLCV 27623, CMLT 35997, GNSE 35997, GNSE 25997, CLAS 37623, PLSC 25997, SCTH 25823

FNDL 21800. Kafka's Castle: Rethinking Social Fiction. 100 Units.

We perform a close reading of Franz Kafka's novel unfinished Das Schloss (published posthumously in 1926, and known as The Castle in English). Besides considering some of the broad range of possible intrerpretations, from the theological to the satirical, we attend closely not only to Kafka's language and imagery, but to two basics of the realist novel that are curiously absent in much Kafka criticism: characterization and plot. Optional readings from other works by Kafka, and from his contemporaries will help us appreciate the significance of Kafka's last and greatest work.

Instructor(s): Andrei Pop     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn quarter Fundamentals Gateway course for AY27. Open only to Fundamentals students.

FNDL 21804. Dante's Divine Comedy III: Paradiso. 100 Units.

An in-depth study of the third cantica of Dante's masterpiece, considered the most difficult but in many ways also the most innovative. Read alongside his scientific treatise the "Convivio" and his political manifesto the "Monarchia."

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Completion of the previous courses in the sequence not required, but students should familiarize themselves with the "Inferno" and the "Purgatorio" before the first day of class.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 32101, ITAL 22101, MDVL 22101

FNDL 21805. Introduction to Marx. 100 Units.

This introduction to Marx's thought will divide into three parts: in the first, we will consider Marx's theory of history; in the second, his account of capitalism; and in third, his conception of the state. (A)

Instructor(s): Anton Ford     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21423

FNDL 21810. Italo Calvino. 100 Units.

Italo Calvino is one of the most important authors of the twentieth century. We will read some of his most famous books in Italian. Among others, we will study Le Cita, Invisibili, Gli Amori Difficili, Il Barone Rampante, Se Una Notte D'Inverno Un Viaggiatore. Reading Calvino is an essential experience for all students of Italian culture. We will place his books and his poetics in the context of modern Italian culture and Western European post-modernism.

Instructor(s): Armando Maggi     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 21800

FNDL 21815. Karl Marx: Capital, Volume I. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we study Marx's mature critique of political economy through a close reading of Capital, vol. 1. Our primary concern is to clarify the aims, method, and basic concepts of the text. Enrollment is limited to undergraduates who have completed their SOSC requirement.

Instructor(s): Sarah Johnson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Social Sciences Core
Note(s): Enrollment is limited to undergraduates who have completed their SOSC requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 28038, LLSO 28038

FNDL 21882. Virginia Woolf: Love, Life, Writing. 100 Units.

How to write a life? Virginia Woolf grappled with this question, and so will we in this course. How, indeed, does one write, not only one's own life, but the life of others, particularly when strong feelings are involved? We will study Woolf's reflections on how to capture a life along with her attempts to do so, delving into her essays, novels, and life-writing (letters, diaries, and auto/biographical works). With the different literary genres, along with Woolf's various engagements with other arts, we will see different approaches to re/creating personalities and inter-personal relationships emerge. To help us understand Woolf, we will examine her Victorian background, her Bloomsbury circle, and the Modernism with which she is associated. We will also engage with relevant theories of selfhood, sexuality, and auto/biography. At stake in our investigations is the role and critical potential of the personal in literary production. We will discuss this while taking up subjects such as familial relationships, the meaning of friendship, and the complexities of love. Throughout, we will consider Woolf's relevance for today, and we will conclude with how Woolf's own life has been taken up by others. (Fiction, 20th/21st)

Instructor(s): Christine Fouirnaies     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 21882, ENGL 21882

FNDL 21968. Religious and Social Thought of Martin Luther King Jr. 100 Units.

This seminar is an intensive study of the religious life and social/religious thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. We will be reading a wide range of King's writings and speeches from his Crozer seminary years to his major speeches up to his assassination in 1968. We will also explore some of the classic and more recent scholarship that examines the influences on and sources of King's thought. Prominent themes in the course will include but will not be limited to King's ethical and social critique of American society, especially its racism, his social and moral evaluation of economic inequality, his commitment to nonviolence, his conception of the beloved community, and his evolving roles as preacher, social activist, and public intellectual.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 31968, AMER 31968, AMER 21968, RDIN 31968, RLST 21968, RDIN 21968, RAME 31968

FNDL 22011. Nabokov: Three Novels. 100 Units.

In this course, three novels by Vladimir Nabokov-Invitation to a Beheading (1935-6), The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941), and Pnin (1957)-are studied in depth with an eye toward their use of language, metanarrative, and the relationship between the author and reader relationship. The first novel is Nabokov's penultimate Russophone work, the second his first Anglophone work, and the third a work written at a time when Nabokov's concern with translation, from language to language, past to present, and cruelty to compassion are at their height.

Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 22011, ENGL 32012, ENGL 22011, REES 32011

FNDL 22035. The Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Pastoral Epistles. 100 Units.

In the early second century there were bitter battles over the legacy of Paul and his preserved letters in terms of gender, sexuality, family life, asceticism, church administration, and theological vision. We can see these well by reading the narrative text The Acts of Paul and Thecla alongside the "Pastoral Epistles" (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus), the former championing a female, cross-dressing ascetic Christ-missionary and the latter, in pseudepigraphical epistolary texts written in the dead Paul's name, insisting on patriarchal family life and women's adherence to traditional roles. In this course we shall read both sets of texts carefully in Greek, noting points of similarity and contestation, and test various models of how these sources-each of which seeks to "fix" the Pauline legacy in its own way-are related to one another. Time allowing, we shall also look at the later reception of the cult of Saint Thecla and late antique interpretations of "the apostle," Paul, on these issues of sexuality and gender roles, and their perduring influence in contemporary debates.

Instructor(s): Margaret Mitchell     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one year of Greek, or equivalent.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 42035, BIBL 42035, GNSE 22035, HCHR 42035, GREK 37423, RLST 22035, GREK 27423

FNDL 22060. 1 Corinthians. 100 Units.

An exegesis course on what was likely Paul's second letter to Corinth (the first, mentioned in 1 Cor 5:9, is lost), that will focus upon the literary composition and purpose of this lengthy epistolary text, and the range of issues over which the Corinthians were divided (sex and marriage, gender roles, legal battles, food, hair, forms of worship, the resurrection of the dead) and the ways Paul seeks to address them and call them to unity. We shall also explore some of what can be known of the social history of the "house churches" in Roman Corinth to whom Paul was writing, as well as the history of Paul's relationship with them and the degree to which when he writes this letter Paul can assume a position of authority ("become imitators of me, as I am of Christ" [11:1]) or must face significant doubt about his legitimacy as a self-proclaimed "apostle."

Instructor(s): Margaret M. Mitchell     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Greek skills are not required for this course, but ample opportunity will be provided for their exercise.
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HCHR 42060, BIBL 42060, RLST 22060, CLAS 32060, CLCV 22060

FNDL 22204. Italian Renaissance: Petrarch, Machiavelli, and the Wars of Popes and Kings. 100 Units.

Florence, Rome, and the Italian city-states in the age of plagues and cathedrals, Petrarch and Machiavelli, Medici and Borgia (1250-1600), with a focus on literature, philosophy, primary sources, the revival of antiquity, and the papacy's entanglement with pan-European politics. We will examine humanism, patronage, politics, corruption, assassination, feuds, art, music, magic, censorship, education, science, heresy, and the roots of the Reformation. Writing assignments focus on higher level writing skills, with a creative writing component linked to our in-class role-played reenactment of a Renaissance papal election (LARP). First-year students and non-History majors welcome.

Instructor(s): A. Palmer     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Graduate students by consent only.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 32202, HIST 12203, RLST 22203, CLCV 22216, RENS 12203, SIGN 26034, HIST 32202, MDVL 12203, ITAL 16000, KNOW 12203

FNDL 22212. Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis. 100 Units.

This seminar will introduce some of the central concepts of psychoanalysis: Mourning and Melancholia, Repetition and Remembering, Transference, Neurosis, the Unconscious, Identification, Psychodynamic, Eros, Envy, Gratitude, Splitting, Death. The central theme will be how these concepts shed light on human flourishing and the characteristic ways we fail to flourish. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Freud, Loewald, Lacan, Melanie Klein, Betty Joseph, Hanna Segal and others.

Instructor(s): Jonathan Lear; Dr. Alfred Margulies     Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2025
Prerequisite(s): Instructor's consent is required for all students.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 55512, PHIL 22212, PHIL 51413

FNDL 22418. The Scopes Trial in Historical Perspective. 100 Units.

This course will explore in depth and in detail the 1925 Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, especially in light of its centennial. We will examine the transcript of the trial, newspaper editorials, cartoons, scholarly analyses, and various contemporary observations on the meaning and significance of the trial. Among the topics covered are the fundamentalist/modernist controversy of the 1920s and its consequences, interpretations of the origins and tenacity of the anti-evolution campaign, and broader debates about science and religion and the contested authority of experts in American society. Though much of the historical analysis will focus on the 1920s, some attention will be paid to the implications of this highly publicized trial and what it came to signify about larger cultural, political, and religious divisions in the United States.

Instructor(s): Curtis Evans     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS or SCSR Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 22418, AMER 32418, HIST 27609, RAME 32418, RLST 22418, HCHR 32418, HIST 37609

FNDL 23104. Immanuel Kant's Critique of Practical Reason. 100 Units.

Contemporary ideas about Human Rights, the relation of moral norms and the good life, the character of human freedom, conceptions of human evil, the very definition of morality and ethics, and the relation of ethics and religion have been decisively shaped by the work of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). This course is the examination of one of Immanuel Kant's magisterial works in moral philosophy, The Critique of Practical Reason. The course is a careful reading of Kant's text in order to grasp the argument and to assess its significance for current work in ethics. The course ends with one of Kant's famous political essays, "On Perpetual Peace." Engaging Kant's work will enable student to engage a wide range of thinkers from the 19th to the 21st centuries who accept, modify, and reject his work. In this way, the course is crucial for further work in philosophical and religious ethics.

Instructor(s): William Schweiker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23104, GRMN 23104

FNDL 23411. Reading and Practice of the Short Story. 100 Units.

What are the specific features of the short story? How does this literary form organize different visions of time and space? Informed by these fundamental theoretical questions, this course explores the logic of the short story and investigates its position among literary genres. We will read together a selection of Contemporary Italian short stories (privileging the production of Italo Calvino, Beppe Fenoglio, and Elsa Morante, but also including less visible authors, such as Goffredo Parise, Dino Buzzati, and Silvio D'Arzo). The moments of close reading and theoretical reflection will be alternated with creative writing activities, in which students will have the opportunity to enter in a deeper resonance with the encountered texts.

Instructor(s): Maria Anna Mariani     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23410

FNDL 23590. Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. 100 Units.

A close reading, in translation, of Nietzsche's famous 1886 work, Beyond Good and Evil. We will consider its major themes and arguments, paying close attention to the transition which this book marks in Nietzsche's corpus as a whole. Themes to be discussed: the doctrine of the Will to Power, the Revaluation of Values, the doctrine of the Eternal Return, the critique of religion.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: not being offered 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23590, GRMN 23590

FNDL 23595. Nietzsche: The Will to Truth. 100 Units.

The will to truth - Nietzsche first uses the phrase in a notebook entry written in late 1882: "Will to truth!" Let us stop speaking so simplistically and bombastically!" From then on, the critique of this will would preoccupy him for the rest of his career. In this seminar we will study this critique as it develops in Nietzsche's middle and later writings. We will read closely his published works as well as recently translated notebook entries. What exactly is the will to truth? Why critique it? Can philosophy and/or thinking resist it or somehow do without it? What is the status of the discourse that contests it? In asking these questions, we will examine a still underappreciated aspect of Nietzsche's post-Zarathustra writings: the gap separating his polemic against metaphysics qua Platonism from his polemic against the so-called Judeo-Christian, i.e. the inheritance of the Biblical tradition.

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23595, GRMN 33595, DVPR 33595, GRMN 23595, THEO 33595

FNDL 23810. Memory and Identity in French Literature: Proust to the Present. 100 Units.

This introductory-level course takes as its point of departure Marcel Proust's conceptualization of memory as the foundation both for the self and for literature. For Proust, literary style conveys the singularity of an individual vision while rescuing experience from the contingencies of time. Literature, identity, and memory are inseparable. Later writers will follow Proust's lead in defining literature as an art of memory; but they develop this art in different ways, whether by inventing new forms of life-writing or attempting to revive, via fiction, a lived connection to history. How does memory serve as the foundation of individual or collective identities? How does fiction imagine and give form to memory, and how does literature serve as a medium for cultural memory? How do literary works register the intermittence of memory, its failings and distortions, its fragility as well as its attachment to bodies and places? We will tackle these questions through close analysis of a range of texts. In addition to Proust, authors studied may include Yourcenar, Perec, Modiano, Roubaud, and Ernaux.

Instructor(s): Alison James     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 23810, SIGN 26047

FNDL 23830. Simone Weil: Spirituality, Metaphysics, and Politics. 100 Units.

Simone Weil, one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, developed her thought as an extension of her spirituality and her political commitments. In this course, then, we will read her principal works together in order to see how these three themes hang together: spirituality, metaphysics, and politics.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23830, DVPR 43830

FNDL 23908. Bergson and China: Buddhist and Confucian Reboots. 100 Units.

This course will explore Henri Bergson's philosophy as set forth in Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution, and its reception in late Imperial and early Republican China (late 19th and early 20th centuries). Of special interest will be the role played by Bergsonian ideas in the Yogacara revival and the formation of New Confucianism during this period, with particular focus on figures like Zhang Taiyan, Xiong Shili and Liang Shumin. This will require us to deeply engage Bergson's idea of "duration" (durée) and its interpretation, particularly in relation to a reconsideration of the Yogacara Buddhist notion of ālaya-consciousness (storehouse consciousness) and the Confucian idea of ceaseless generation and regeneration (shengsheng bu xi) as derived from interpretive traditions centered on the Book of Changes (Yijing).

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All readings will be available in English. Chinese reading proficiency is recommended but not required. This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23908, HREL 33908, DVPR 33908, EALC 33908, EALC 23908

FNDL 24217. Lucretius: On the Nature of Things. 100 Units.

On the Nature of Things is the most celebrated philosophical epic of Greco-Roman antiquity. Its poeticization of the atheistic materialism of the philosopher Epicurus influenced the thought of Rousseau, Marx, and Deleuze, and played the role of midwife in the emergence of early modern science. But there is more to the poem than its atoms: it offers an evolutionary perspective on organismic adaptation, a speculative reconstruction of human prehistory, and a robust account of sexual attraction, to point to a few of the items in Lucretius's inventory of how things are, and how they got to be that way. We will read On the Nature of Things in its entirety, and consider what is at stake in taking this ancient poet as a precursor of our own intellectual commitments.

Instructor(s): Payne, Mark     Terms Offered: Autumn

FNDL 24276. Tiantai Buddhism and Neo-Tiantai Thinking: Recontextualizations of Recontextualizationism. 100 Units.

This course will explore the philosophical doctrines of classical Tiantai Buddhism and their extensions and reconfigurations as developed in the ideas of later thinkers, both Tiantai and non-Tiantai, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. Readings will be drawn from the classical Tiantai thinkers Zhiyi, Zhanran and Zhili, followed by writings of early Chinese Chan Buddhism, Japanese Tendai "Original Enlightenment" thought, Kamakura Buddhist reformers including Dōgen, Nichiren and Shinran, the 20th century Confucian Mou Zongsan, and contemporary Anglophone "Neo-Tiantai" thinking.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 44276, EALC 24276, DVPR 44276, MDVL 24276, RLST 24276, EALC 34276

FNDL 24921. Robert Musil: Altered States. 100 Units.

This course is an introduction to the work of Robert Musil, one of the major novelists of the twentieth century. We will focus on Musil's idea of the "Other Condition" [der andere Zustand], which he once described-in contrast to our normal way of life-as a "secret rising and ebbing of our being with that of things and other people." What is this "Other Condition": what are its ethics and aesthetics, and how can it be expressed in literature? We will begin with readings from Musil's critical writings and early narrative prose, then devote the majority of the quarter to his unfinished magnum opus, The Man without Qualities. Particular attention will be paid to Musil's experimentations with narrative form and his development of the genre of "essayism. Readings and discussion in English.

Instructor(s): Sophie Salvo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34921, GRMN 24921

FNDL 22500. On Plato's Republic. 100 Units.

This class is devoted to a close reading of Plato's Republic (Politeia), a brilliant and difficult text that offers a challenge to prevailing conceptions of justice and politics, law and ruling; a diagnosis of the soul and a moral psychology; an epistemology and a theory of education; a metaphysics; and a sustained consideration of the power of poetry and myth. We will endeavor to meet the challenge on offer in the text, namely, to consider these matters as the subject of a single investigation about how to conceive of the most fundamental political question, namely, "what is justice?".

Instructor(s): Valiquette Moreau, Nina     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 32500

FNDL 22512. Virgil, The Aeneid. 100 Units.

Virgil's Aeneid is arguably the most revered work of European literature. For centuries it was the emblem in Europe of what it meant to have a civilization. The poem tells the story of the mythical foundation of Rome, and asks questions about the nature of civilization with an insight and clarity rarely equaled in literary fiction: How much suffering can be perpetuated before the project of civilization turns inside out? How much fiction is legitimate in a story of national origins? Why do we need stories of national origins in the first place? The majority of the quarter will be devoted to The Aeneid. We will conclude by reading the opening movement of Hermann Broch's The Death of Virgil, written during the Nazi years and published in 1944, in which his fictional Virgil reflects on his achievement in The Aeneid and asks for his poem to be destroyed.

Instructor(s): Payne, Mark     Terms Offered: Winter

FNDL 22601. The Making and Unmaking of Petrarch's Canzoniere. 100 Units.

This course is an intensive reading of Petrarch's influential and groundbreaking self-anthology. Petrarch's collecting and ordering of his own work is in many ways without precedent. We examine in particular the historical redactions of the Canzoniere, its status as a work-in-progress, what Petrarch excluded from its various forms (especially the Rime disperse), early drafts, and authorial variants. The emergence of a new role for the vernacular author and the shifting space of handwriting and the book are central concerns in our discussions, and we make frequent use of facsimiles and diplomatic editions.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 22600, ITAL 32600

FNDL 22671. Orhan Pamuk. 100 Units.

What happens when postmodern fiction refuses to stay post? What if the most radical act of postmodernism is embracing history? Pamuk's novels reimagine the past in ways that refuse to settle for the fragmented, chaotic world we are told to expect. This course explores a selection of key works by Nobel Prize-winning author Pamuk, including his modernist novel The New Life and his postmodern masterpieces such as The White Castle, My Name is Red, and A Strangeness in My Mind. How does Pamuk use Istanbul in his work? Does it function merely as a setting, or does it take on the role of a character, with its history, contradictions, and politics reshaping the narrative? We will also engage with selections from Pamuk's essays on literary craft and his memoir Istanbul to better understand his layered relationship with this complex city. Pamuk's works offer a nuanced exploration of East and West, confronting the legacy of Orientalism while subverting postmodern conventions. How does he reframe techniques like metafiction, unreliable narrators, or nonlinear time to explore memory, identity, and the restless nature of modernity? We will also trace the evolution of Pamuk's style and examine how his growing global audience influences his self-presentation as a writer.

Instructor(s): Levi, Melih     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 22671, NEHC 22671, ENGL 22671

FNDL 22906. Book of Ezekiel. 100 Units.

This course introduces the historical world around the Book of Ezekiel, the literary world portrayed within Ezekiel, the book's literary characteristics, and its meaning. The course is geared both to readers of the Bible in English and to readers of the Bible in Hebrew.

Instructor(s): Simeon Chavel     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the HS or LMCS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 32906, BIBL 32906, HIJD 32906, JWSC 22906, NEHC 22906, RLST 22906

FNDL 23003. Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of Changes (Yijing) 100 Units.

This course will consist of close readings, in Classical Chinese, of commentarial expansions on the Yijing (Zhouyi) developing its ontological, metaphysical, cosmological, epistemological and ethical implications. Readings will include some or all of the following: the "Ten Wings" (including the "Xicizhuan"), the works of Wang Bi, Han Kangbo, Wei Boyang, Dongshan Liangjie, Shao Yong, Zhang Boduan, Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Zhu Xi, Wang Fuzhi, Ouyi Zhixu, and Liu Yiming.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Proficiency in Classical Chinese required.
Note(s): This course meets the HS or CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity student.
Equivalent Course(s): HREL 53003, EALC 23003, RLST 23003, DVPR 53003, EALC 33003

FNDL 23902. The Arts of Language in the Middle Ages: The Trivium. 100 Units.

Throughout the Middle Ages, formal education began with the study of language: grammar, including the study of literature as well as the practical mastery of the mechanics of language (here, Latin); logic or dialectic, whether narrowly defined as the art of constructing arguments or, more generally, as metaphysics, including the philosophy of mind; and rhetoric, or the art of speaking well, whether to praise or to persuade. In this course, we will be following this medieval curriculum insofar as we are able through some of its primary texts, many only recently translated, so as to come to a better appreciation of the way in which the study of these arts affected the development of medieval European intellectual and artistic culture.

Instructor(s): R. Fulton Brown     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 33510, MDVL 23510, HIST 23510

FNDL 23907. Gandhi and His Critics. 100 Units.

The moral and political writings of M.K. Gandhi constitute one of the most influential archives of ethics in the twentieth century. For a man so devoted to periodic vows of silence and withdrawal, he nevertheless left over ninety volumes of public speeches, personal correspondence, and published essays. A modernist arrayed against the brutalities of modernity, Gandhi's thought encompassed concepts of sovereignty, the state, self and society, religion, civilization, and force. His insistence on cultivating technologies of the self as a response to both colonial and intimate violence was inspired by an eclectic range of source material. Generations of critical thinkers from around the world, including Black, feminist, Communist, and Dalit political activists, engaged with his ideas. This course explores several themes in Gandhi's ethical thought and the responses they have generated.

Instructor(s): Anand Venkatkrishnan     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the HS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 23907, RDIN 33907, RLST 23907, RDIN 23907, RETH 33907, HREL 33907

FNDL 24109. Claude Lanzmann's Shoah Project. 100 Units.

Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985) is a 9 ½ hour film comprised of Holocaust testimonies - by survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders. It represents the streamlining of 150 hours of film footage collected over the course of nearly a decade all over the world. In this class, we will explore the film and the discourses that have grown up around it, such as the nature of Holocaust representation, the ontology of Holocaust testimonies, and the limits of translation in understanding the history of the Holocaust. We will work with the outtakes from the film at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to better understand the narrative Lanzmann constructed not only through what he chose to include in the final cut, but also what he chose to exclude. As we analyze Lanzmann's magnum opus, we will also explore associated films - by Lanzmann and by others - that grew out of Shoah and that shed further light on it. A final "Outtakes" project will give students the opportunity to suggest their own version of the film, with materials from the archive.

Instructor(s): Sheila Jelen     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLVC 34109, JTAC 34109, JWSC 24109, GRMN 24109, RLST 24109, CMST 24119

FNDL 24202. Hildegard of Bingen. 100 Units.

Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) is difficult to categorize. Abbess, visionary, poet, playwright, preacher, physician, theologian, scriptual exegete, composer, Hildegard is best-known for her idiosyncratic use of imagery for the exploration of Christian doctrine, but only rarely are modern scholars equipped with the technical training to appreciate the various media in which she worked, nor are they typically versed in the cosmological and mathematical studies on which Hildegard's multi-media imagery depended. This course combines study of Hildegard's visionary writings with in-depth attention to the artistic, scientific, liturgical, and institutional context in which she worked. Particular attention will be given to her training in the verbal and mathematical arts, especially music, and to the role of the virtues in her calls for psychological and ecclesiastical reform. Course requirements will include exercises in various arts and a final research paper on select aspects of Hildegard's oeuvre.

Instructor(s): R. Fulton Brown
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 42402

FNDL 24325. Mengzi and Epictetus. 100 Units.

How to cultivate excellence in human life and leadership, justice in human communities, and benevolent kindness in human relationships? These always timely questions were concerns shared by two ancient teachers of inherited wisdom in established philosophical schools: the Confucian Mengzi (Mencius), in third-century BCE China, and the Stoic Epictetus, in the second-century CE Greco-Roman Mediterranean. While working in very different cultural contexts and conceptual models, the two thinkers shared a deep optimism about human goodness and potential, together with a rigorous insistence on the highest ethical commitment. While their theories are richly and fascinatingly complex, the teaching style of both Mengzi and Epictetus (as recorded by their students) is conversational, vividly colorful, and often hilariously satirical. This course is a literary and philosophical comparative study of Mengzi's writings alongside the Handbook and Discourses of Epictetus. Readings will be in English translation, but optional additional meetings will be available for students wishing to read some Mengzi in classical Chinese or some Epictetus in classical Greek.

Instructor(s): David Wray     Terms Offered: Winter. 25-26
Prerequisite(s): No knowledge of classical Chinese or classical Greece or ethical philosophy needed
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 34525, CLAS 34525, CMLT 24525, CLCV 24525

FNDL 24440. The Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 100 Units.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) is widely admired for his part in the movement to resist Hitler and National Socialism. This course will investigate the biographical and especially the theological underpinnings of his resistance. In addition to key texts such as Discipleship, Ethics, and Letters and Papers from Prison, therefore, we will also consider Bonhoeffer's connection to larger movements as well as the importance of his time in Harlem.

Instructor(s): Kevin Hector     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 24400, GRMN 24400

FNDL 24601. Martin and Malcolm: Life and Thought. 100 Units.

This course examines the religious, social, cultural, political, and personal factors that went into the making of the two most prominent public leaders and public intellectuals emerging from the black American community in the 1950s and 1960s: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. We will review their autobiographies, domestic and international forces operating during their times. Their life stories provide the sharp differences and surprising commonalities in their political thought and religious beliefs. At the end of their lives, were they still radical contrasts, sharing the same views, or had their beliefs sifted - did Malcolm become Martin and Martin become Malcolm?

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 24601, HIST 27209, AMER 24601, RLST 24601

FNDL 24621. Do You Read Me? Curating Postwar Artists's Books. 100 Units.

This course is a combined research seminar and curatorial practicum with students co-curating an exhibition of artists' books. Following World War II, visual artists took up the book as an artistic medium, experimenting with and expanding the essential components of a medium that had remained unchanged for centuries. The results defied all expectations about traditional understandings of what constitutes a book, including the primacy of text and the use of paper, pages, and binding. This class will consider how books became visual and material objects to be viewed rather than read; made from modern materials such as plastics, concrete, or newspaper and in sizes as small as a square inch or as large as an over-life-sized wood construction; featuring unusual objects such as a sack of flour, a display shelf, or a comic book with stenciled holes; or prompting readers to actions with urban performance instructions or do-it-yourself watercolor kits. Drawing on (U)Chicago collections and a recently gifted private collection, students will work on a fall 2027 exhibition in the Regenstein Library's gallery, including researching artists, visiting local collections, selecting artists' books, assessing conservation needs, writing object and section labels, and designing layout.

Instructor(s): Christine Mehring     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Students should email instructor explaining relevant background and interest. This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: European and American post-1800
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34621, ARTV 30642, ARTH 24621, ARTH 34621, ARTV 20642, GRMN 24621

FNDL 24709. Morality and Psychology in the Films of Ingmar Bergman. 100 Units.

The films of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman are among the most powerful, complicated, and philosophically sophisticated portrayals of moral and religious and failed moral and religious life in the twentieth century. Bergman is especially concerned with crisis experiences and with related emotional states like anguish, alienation, guilt, despair, loneliness, shame, abandonment, conversion, and the mystery of death. We will watch and discuss eight of his most important films in this course with such issues in mind: Wild Strawberries (1957), The Virgin Spring (1960), Winter Light (1963), Persona (1966), Shame (1968), Cries and Whispers (1973), Autumn Sonata (1978), Fanny and Alexander (1982). (A)

Instructor(s): Robert Pippin     Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2025
Prerequisite(s): Instructor's permission is required for all students.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 38005, PHIL 34709, PHIL 24709, SCTH 38005, GRMN 34709, GRMN 24709

FNDL 24819. Maniacs, Specters, Automata: The Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann. 100 Units.

In this seminar, we will read stories by one of the most prominent representatives of Romanticism, the German writer, composer, and painter E.T.A. Hoffmann who wrote "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" on which Tchaikovsky would later base his ballet. His stories of bizarre yet psychologically compelling characters will introduce us to the "dark side" of Romanticism as well as to its fantastical aspects. Students will read Hoffmann's extraordinary stories, develop skills of literary analysis, and engage in historical inquiry by tracing the way in which Hoffmann's texts engage with the context of their time, in particular with the history of medicine (mesmerism, early psychiatry), alchemy, and law (Hoffmann worked as a legal official). Readings and discussions in English. (Original texts will be made available for those who read German).

Instructor(s): Margareta Ingrid Christian     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 34819, MAPH 34819, GRMN 24819

FNDL 24920. Primo Levi. 100 Units.

Witness, novelist, essayist, translator, linguist, chemist, and even entomologist. Primo Levi is a polyhedral author, and this course revisits his work in all its facets. We will privilege the most hybrid of his texts: The Search for Roots, an anthology that collects the author's favorite readings--a book assembled through the books of the others, but which represents Levi's most authentic portrait. By using this work as an entry point into Levi's universe, we will later explore his other texts, addressing issues such as the unsettling relationship between survival and testimony, the "sinful" choice of fiction, the oblique path towards autobiography, and the paradoxes of witnessing by proxy.

Instructor(s): Maria Anna Mariani     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Open to advanced undergrads with consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 24920, JWSC 24920, ITAL 34920

FNDL 24999. Public Thinkers in Profile: Susan Sontag. 100 Units.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century. She was and remains known for her extensive, stylistically dazzling essays on art, politics, and culture. This course examines Sontag's major essays, as well as her personal writing, her fiction, and her public appearances. We will also examine Sontag as a model of the "serious" thinker, who refuses to have their public contributions disciplined by the needs of any larger political or social group. While working out Sontag's particular stances and contributions to literature, art, and cultural criticism, we will use her as a lens to consider the changing role of the public intellectual during her lifetime.

Instructor(s): Michael Lipkin     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PUBT 25000, ENGL 25505

FNDL 25001. Molière: Comedy, Power and Subversion. 100 Units.

Molière crafted a new form of satirical comedy that revolutionized European theater, though it encountered strong opposition from powerful institutions. We will read the plays in the context of the literary, dramatic, and theatrical/performance traditions which he reworked (farce, commedia dell'arte, Latin comedy, Spanish Golden Age theater, satiric poetry, the novel), while considering the relationship of laughter to social norms, with particular emphasis on sexuality, gender roles, and cultural identities.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500 or FREN 20503.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 25000, TAPS 38470, TAPS 28470, FREN 35000

FNDL 25121. Nietzsche: Culture, Critique, Self-Transcendence. 100 Units.

This course is conceived as a pathway to the Humanities and an introduction to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). A range of Nietzsche's work will be considered, but the focus will be on three themes to which Nietzsche recurred throughout his writing career: Culture: Nietzsche's thought on the anthropological roots and the expressive forms of human meaning-making: Apollo/Dionysus; Gesture; Music; Metaphor Critique: the vacuous character of modern culture; romanticism, decadence, nihilism. Self-Transcendence: individual self-realization and freedom. The selection of these themes is motivated by the fact that they may be considered as fundamental dimensions of humanistic inquiry. Students will develop a sound understanding of a writer whose intellectual influence continues to grow, but at the same time they will become acquainted with such core concepts of humanistic/interpretive inquiry as form, expression, ideology, genealogy, discourse, self-fashioning, individuality, and value.

Instructor(s): David Wellbery     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 25120, SIGN 26013

FNDL 25126. Homer, with a Thousand Faces. A Cultural History of the Homeric Epics between Italy and Germany. 100 Units.

This course takes you on a journey through the many ways Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" have been read over time. We begin in classical Greece: Plato criticizes Homer's fantasies and excludes poets from his ideal city, while Aristotle, in his "Poetics," praises Homer's skills but also adds that he is a master at telling lies. In the Middle Ages, Homer largely disappears from the Western cultural landscape, only to re-emerge in the 18th century with the rise of the Homeric Question. Thinkers like Vico and Foscolo reopen the debate, reflecting on Homer's role in the formation of cultural identity and the origins of poetry. In the 19th century, Hegel, in his "Aesthetics," devotes significant attention to Homer, seeing his epics as foundational texts for Greek culture. Around the same time, Leopardi, in his "Zibaldone," offers sharp and original insights into Homer's enduring relevance. Nietzsche, in "The Birth of Tragedy" (1876), interprets Homer's role in Greek culture through an artistic metaphor, linking him to the dreamlike quality captured in Raphael's "Transfiguration." In the 20th century, we explore Milman Perry's groundbreaking work on oral poetry, Havelock's analysis of Homeric justice, and Carlo Diano's philosophical reading in "Form and Event" (1952). At each stage, Homer is rediscovered, reinterpreted, and reimagined - revealing the lasting power of his poetry across time.

Instructor(s): Francesco Valagussa     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 35126, CLCV 25126, ITAL 25126, ITAL 35126

FNDL 25155. Aristotle's Ethics. 100 Units.

In this course, we will engage with one of the fundamental texts of practical philosophy, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. In addition to reading the text closely, we will critically discuss secondary literature, as well as contemporary attempts to revive and enlist Aristotle, with the aim of familiarizing ourselves with the work's themes, understanding major fault lines in its interpretation, and appreciating its enduring significance. Topics to be considered include happiness and the good life, virtue, and practical reasoning. (A)

Instructor(s): Arnold Brooks Agnes Callard     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 25105, PHIL 25105

FNDL 25218. Suhrawardi and His Interpreters. 100 Units.

Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī (d. 1191), the founder of the ishrāqī philosophical tradition, is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and influential philosophers in the history of Islamic thought. In this seminar, we will examine major themes in the writings of Suhrawardī along with excerpts from Arabic commentaries by Muslim and Jewish authors such as Ibn Kammūnah (d. 1284), Shahrazūrī (d. 1288), Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī (d. 1311), Dawānī (d.1502), Dashtakī (d. 1542), Qarabāghī (d. 1625) and Harawī (d. 1689). Topics include, Suhrawardī's understanding of the history of philosophy, light and the order of existence, virtues and human happiness, self-knowledge and self-awareness, conceptual and non-conceptual knowledge, and theory of ritual actions.

Instructor(s): Nariman Aavani     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): 2 years of Arabic.
Note(s): This course meets the CS Committee distribution requirement for Divinity students.
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25218, MDVL 25218, NEHC 35218, NEHC 25218, ISLM 35218

FNDL 25306. Deconstruction and Religion. 100 Units.

In this course we will carefully consider selected works by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. We will address the emergence of religious themes in his early work and reconsider the relation between deconstruction and theology as potentially divergent modes of discourse. We will then examine the roles of messianism, belief, and confession in his later work. We will also discuss the so-called closure of metaphysics: How does Derrida articulate this closure in his early work, and how does this inform his efforts to distinguish deconstruction from theology or so-called negative theology? Does the Derridean notion of closure change over time? If so, how? And what role do the writings on religion and the gift play in interrogating the meaning of closure?

Instructor(s): Ryan Coyne     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 50112, THEO 50112, RLST 23112

FNDL 25308. Black Theology: Hopkins Versus Cone. 100 Units.

Black Theology of Liberation, an indigenous USA discipline and movement, began on July 31, 1966 and spread nationally and internationally when James H. Cone published his first book in March 1969. Since that time, a second generation has emerged. In this course, we will create a debate between the second generation (represented by Dwight N. Hopkins) and the first generation (represented by James H. Cone). We will look at the political, economic, cultural, gender, and sexual orientation parts of this debate.

Instructor(s): Dwight Hopkins     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): AMER 23111, GLST 23111, RLST 23111

FNDL 25424. Spiritual Exercises: Giving Form to Thought and Life from Plato to Descartes. 100 Units.

This course will examine the tradition of spiritual exercises from antiquity to the early modern period. Spiritual exercises were at the core of classical paideia, the regimen of self-formation designed and promoted by ancient philosophers, orators, and other pedagogues. As Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault have demonstrated, ancient philosophy first and foremost has to be understood as a "way of life," as a set of techniques and practices for shaping the self according to wisdom. It was not until philosophy's critical turn with Kant that it shed its practical dimension and became a "theoretical" discipline. Early Christianity, stylizing itself as the "true philosophy," eagerly adopted the ancient spiritual exercises and retooled them for its salvational ends. Throughout the middle ages and early modern period spiritual exercises and meditative techniques informed a host of religious, cultural, and artistic practices and media such as prayer and devotional reading, religious art and poetry, but also theatrical performances and musical works. We will focus on individual exercises like the meditation, the examination of conscience, the discernment of spirits, the application of senses, prosoche (attention), consolation, contemplation, etc., and discuss authors such as Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, John Cassian, Augustine, Bonaventure, Ignatius, Descartes, and others.

Instructor(s): Christopher Wild     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 35423, GRMN 25424, COGS 22017, CMLT 35424, CMLT 25424, CLCV 25423, RLST 25424, RLVC 35424, GRMN 35424

FNDL 25600. William Blake. 100 Units.

We will read a representative selection of Blake's poetic works: Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and substantial portions of the prophetic books. We will consider how image and text operate as distinct yet entangled semiotic systems in the presentation of Blake's poetry, how he fashioned an eclectic mythology from his engagements with Milton, Greco-Roman antiquity, and the Bible, and how his visionary poetics challenge Enlightenment rationality. We will reflect on the meaning of idiosyncrasy in Blake's work and how we understand the difference between individual and outsider in creative practice.

Instructor(s): Payne, Mark     Terms Offered: Autumn

FNDL 25688. The Arts of Number in the Middle Ages: The Quadrivium. 100 Units.

Alongside the arts of language (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), medieval students would encounter the arts of number: arithmetic, the study of pure number; geometry, number in space; music, number in time; and astronomy, number in space and time (in Stratford Caldecott's formulation). In this course, we will be following this medieval curriculum insofar as we are able through some of its primary texts, many only recently translated, so as to come to a better appreciation of the way in which the study of these arts affected the development of the medieval European intellectual, scientific, and artistic tradition. This is a companion course to "The Arts of Language in the Middle Ages: The Trivium," but the two courses may be taken in either order.

Instructor(s): R. Fulton Brown     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CHSS 33519, HIST 33519, HIST 23519, HIPS 23519, MDVL 23519

FNDL 25715. Aristotle: Action, Embodied Agents and Value in Acting. 100 Units.

The aim of the course is to understand and assess central aspects of Aristotle's account of actions and agency. We will locate his views within the context of his discussion of (a) the relation between psychological and physical states, processes, and activities and (b) the value of acting well. The course is aimed at graduates and advanced undergraduates (seniors and juniors) in Philosophy or Classics.

Instructor(s): David Charles     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2024
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Greek is not required. The course is aimed at graduates and advanced undergraduates (seniors and juniors) in Philosophy or Classics.
Note(s): Only senior Undergraduates with the instructor's consent can register. No consent is required for Graduate Students. Auditors are allowed subject to enrollment and with the instructor's permission. Auditors will be expected to attend all classes, complete all reading assignments, and participate in class discussions, but not to complete writing assignments.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 25715, CLAS 35924, PHIL 35715, PHIL 25715, SCTH 35715, CLCV 25924

FNDL 25727. Sextus Empiricus and Zhuangzi. 100 Units.

Embracing the condition of not knowing as a pathway to freedom is at the core of two ancient philosophical schools now commonly known as Skepticism and Daoism. This course is a literary and philosophical comparison of two highly sophisticated texts in these traditions: the Greek Outlines of Pyrrhonism of Sextus Empiricus, which records the teachings of Pyrrho, founder of the Hellenistic Skeptic school; and the Chinese text known as the Zhuangzi, which records that teacher's anticonventionalist and paradoxical counsels for achieving a life of "free and easy roaming." Course readings are all in English, and no knowledge of the classical Chinese and Greek languages or their philosophies is needed, but separate meetings can be scheduled for students interested in reading either of these texts in the original.

Instructor(s): D. Wray     Terms Offered: Winter. Winter 2027
Equivalent Course(s): CLCV 25727, CMLT 25727

FNDL 25750. Heidegger and the Gods (I): Philosophy and Theology. 100 Units.

This seminar marks the beginning of a triad - (II) Philosophy and Poetry, (III) Philosophy and Politics - which confronts Heidegger's thinking with particular attention to the question of what significance it attaches to the gods and to the divine after the "death of God" - from the early encounter with Christian theology; to the expectation of the "last God as beginning"; to the conception of the "fourfold" of heaven and earth, mortals and divinities; to the saying "Only a God can save us." At the center will be Heidegger's appeal to Hölderlin's poetry; the consequences for philosophy and politics will form the vanishing point.

Instructor(s): Heinrich Meier     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 35733, PHIL 25733, GRMN 35750, SCTH 35750, DVPR 35750

FNDL 25802. Philosophical Petrarchism. 100 Units.

This course is a close reading of Petrarch's Latin corpus. Readings include the Coronation Oration, The Secret, and selections from Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul, On Illustrious Men, On Religious Leisure, and The Life of Solitude. Special attention is devoted to Petrarch's letter collections (Letters on Familiar Matters, Letters of Old Age, Book without a Name, etc.) and his invectives. The aim of the course is to familiarize the student with the new and complete Petrarch that emerged in 2004 on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his birth. Discussion will focus on Petrarch's self-consciousness as the "father of humanism," his relationship to Dante, autobiographism, dialogical inquiry, anti-scholasticism, patriotism, and Petrarch's "civic" reception in the Quattrocento as well as on a comparative evaluation of the nineteenth-century Petrarchs of Alfred Mézières, Georg Voigt, and Francesco De Sanctis.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 36002, ITAL 26002, MDVL 26002

FNDL 25910. Racine. 100 Units.

Racine's tragedies are often considered the culminating achievement of French classicism. Most famous for his powerful re-imaginings of Greek myth (Phèdre, Andromaque), his tragic universe nevertheless ranged considerably wider, from ancient Jewish queens to a contemporary Ottoman harem. We will consider the roots (from Euripides to Corneille) of his theatrical practice as well as its immense influence on future writers (from Voltaire to Proust, Beckett, and Genet).

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): At least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 35910, TAPS 28476, TAPS 35910, FREN 25910

FNDL 25911. bell hooks and Cornel West: Education for Resistance. 100 Units.

Cornel West and bell hooks are two of the most influential philosophers and cultural critics of the past half-century. Their writings-including their co-authored book-address pressing questions about politics, religion, race, education, film, and gender. In different ways, they each find resources for hope, love, and liberation in an unjust social order. In this course, we will read selections from their writings over the last forty years alongside the authors who influenced their thinking (including Du Bois, Freire, Morrison, King, and Baldwin). We will pay special attention to how hooks and West communicate to popular audiences, how they engage religious traditions (their own and others'), and the role of dialogue in their thought and practice. The goal of the course is not just to think about hooks and West, but to think with them about ethics, writing, American culture, and the aims of education. No prior familiarity with either author is required.

Instructor(s): Russell Johnson     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 25910, RLST 25910

FNDL 25974. Henri Bergson in a (Particular) Theological Context. 100 Units.

In this course, we will consider two works of Henri Bergson - in their own right and, in each case, as they relate to an important idea from a major Christian theologian. First, we will examine Bergson's Creative Evolution. In addition to evaluating this work in the light of modern evolutionary biology, we will examine its view of life and of time in the context of Augustine's concepts of creation and time in Book XI of Confessions. Second, we will examine Bergson's Matter and Memory. In addition to evaluating this work in the light of modern neuroscience, we will examine its view of the incorporeality of the intellect in relation to a similar concept in Thomas Aquinas (the first part of his Treatise on Human Nature in Summa Theologica Part I, Questions 75-89).

Instructor(s): Stephen C. Meredith     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 23974

FNDL 25988. James Baldwin. 100 Units.

In our contemporary moment of rising inequality, James Baldwin has gained much purchase as a kind of prophet. But in his own time, Baldwin consistently called himself a witness, holding to his belief that an "artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian" who must "make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are." All in all, his artistic mission was to express "what it is like to be alive." Reading across both his fiction and nonfiction, we will consider Baldwin's concept of the artist, exploring the affective life of inequality through what we might call his moral imagination. (Fiction, 20th/21st)

Instructor(s): Korey Williams     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 25988, ENGL 25988, RDIN 25988

FNDL 26043. Versailles: Art, Power, Resistance and the Sun King's Palace. 100 Units.

Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles helped shape European culture and history from the Baroque era through the French Revolution, and it continues to animate contemporary international culture. How does this astounding assemblage of architecture, visual arts, landscaping, performance spaces and political arenas reveal transformations in cultural tastes and power arrangements over the centuries? How do literature and art alternately support and subvert absolutist power and state propaganda? To respond we will range across media, from the bitingly satiric comedies and provocative tragedies of the seventeenth century (Molière, Racine), through royal edicts regulating colonial slavery and first-hand accounts of the 1789 Women's March on Versailles that upended the monarchy, and finally to cinematic depictions (from Jean Renoir to Sophia Coppola) and experimental palace installations by the world's leading contemporary artists (Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, etc.). While this course will broadly introduce major themes of French and European culture and history of the early-modern and modern periods, students are also encouraged to pursue in-depth projects in their own areas of interest, from history and political philosophy to the visual arts, theater and performance, and literature.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Students who register under FREN 26043 must have completed FREN 20300 or equivalent, and will read French texts in the original.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 26043, SIGN 26043

FNDL 26401. Torquato Tasso. 100 Units.

This course investigates the entire corpus of Torquato Tasso, the major Italian poet of the second half of the sixteenth century. We read in detail the "Gerusalemme Liberata" and "Aminta," his two most famous works, in the context of their specific literary genre. We then spend some time examining the intricacies of his vast collection of lyric poetry, including passages from his poem "Il mondo creato." We also consider some of his dialogues in prose that address essential issues of Renaissance culture, such as the theories of love, emblematic expression, and the meaning of friendship.

Instructor(s): Armando Maggi     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 26401, ITAL 36401

FNDL 26523. Dante's Vita Nuova: a Revolutionary Love. 100 Units.

The course consists of a close, discussion-based reading of Dante's "Vita nuova," examined within its biographical, literary and cultural context. The aim is to understand why the "Vita nuova," an autobiographical narration in vernacular about Dante's love for Beatrice, represents a revolutionary book in the panorama of Medieval literature. The course will proceed with the reading and analysis of the most important chapters and poems, which will be contextualized within the author's self-representation strategy. In this way, we will retrace the fundamental stages of the inner renewal that lead Dante to discover a new conception of love and poetry. Furthermore, some episodes will be read in relation to the cantos of "Purgatory" in which Dante returns to confront his past as a love poet. Finally, special attention will be paid to the relationship with Guido Cavalcanti, celebrated by Dante as "first friend" and dedicatee, but ultimately surpassed by Dante's new representation of love. Upon completion of the course, students should have improved their ability to think critically, and to understand and analyze a literary text on different levels of meaning. Furthermore, they should have developed an in-depth knowledge of Dante's works and the methodologies of Dante studies.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor required for undergraduates.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 26523, ITAL 36523, MDVL 26523

FNDL 27004. Politics and Philosophy: Leo Strauss' s "The City and Man" 100 Units.

The City and Man is a philosophical discussion of the complex relation between politics and philosophy. In chapter 1 (on Aristotle) politics is considered from the perspective of the citizen or statesman; in chapter 2 (on Plato's Republic) it is reflected on from the point of view of the philosopher; and in chapter 3 (on Thucydides' History) it is seen within the horizon of the prephilosophic political community. The center of the book is Strauss's dialogue with Plato's Republic. Strauss interprets "the broadest and deepest analysis of political idealism ever made" as a work of education. This education has a moderating effect on political ambition and leads its best readers to the philosophic life. The longest and perhaps most intriguing chapter, Strauss's discussion of Thucydides, focuses on the political life and leads up to the question "what is a god?"

Instructor(s): Heinrich Meier     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open to undergraduates with the instructor's consent.
Note(s): Monday / Wed, 9:30 am – 12:20 p.m.*, during the first five weeks of the term (March 20 – April 19, 2023)
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 37422, SCTH 37325, PHIL 27325, CLCV 27422, PHIL 37325

FNDL 27006. The Iliad as a Whole. 100 Units.

After a review of the textual history of the Iliad and a consideration of the probable conditions of its composition, a close reading of the text will explore the interrelations of the story on a collective level-military and political-with the personal stories of the leading characters. Some acquaintance with the text in the original

Instructor(s): Jamie Redfield     Terms Offered: Autumn. Autumn 2023
Prerequisite(s): Instructor's consent is required for Undergrads.
Note(s): This course will be more valuable to students with some knowledge of the text in the original.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 21934, SCTH 31934, CLCV 23923, CLAS 31923

FNDL 27007. Leo Strauss' Philosophical "Autobiography" 100 Units.

Leo Strauss did not write an autobiography. However, he did mark out his path of thought through autobiographical reflections on the decisive challenges to which his oeuvre responded. The philosophically most demanding confrontation that Strauss presented on the question of how he became what he was is the so-called Autobiographical Preface of 1965, which he included in the American translation of his first book, "Spinoza's Critique of Religion" (originally published in 1930). Two decades earlier, in the lecture The Living Issues of German Postwar Philosophy (1940), he made a first autobiographical attempt to publicly ascertain himself and determine his position. And in 1970 he published the concise retrospective A Giving of Accounts. The seminar will make these writings - which illuminate the significance of Nietzsche and Heidegger for Strauss and address his early engagement with revealed religion and politics, in a constellation ranging from Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig to Karl Barth and Carl Schmitt - the subject of a close reading. Selected letters to Karl Löwith, Gershom Scholem and others will be used as supplementary texts.

Instructor(s): Heinrich Meier     Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2024
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates Need the Instructor's Permission to Register.
Note(s): Monday/Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. – 1:20 p.m.*, during the first five weeks of the term (March 18 – April 17, 2024). * The time may be changed after the first session to 10:00 a.m. – 1:10 p.m.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 37326, PHIL 27326, PHIL 37326, SCTH 37326, CLCV 27423, SCTH 27326, CLAS 37423

FNDL 27328. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Gay Science. 100 Units.

The Gay Science is the only work that Nietzsche wrote and published before and after the Zarathustra experiment of 1883-1885. It first appeared in 1882, ending with the last aphorism of Book IV and anticipating verbatim the opening of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 1887 Nietzsche republished The Gay Science and added a substantial new part: Book V looks back to "the greatest recent event" announced by The Gay Science of 1882, "that 'God is dead'." I shall concentrate my interpretation on books IV and V, the only books of The Gay Science for which Nietzsche provided titles: "Sanctus Januarius" and "We Fearless Ones." And I shall pay special attention to the impact of the Zarathustra endeavor, which separates and connects these dense and carefully written books.

Instructor(s): Heinrich Meier     Terms Offered: Spring. Spring 2025
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates Need Instructor's Permission to Register.
Note(s): The seminar will take place in Foster 505 on Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – 1:20 p.m.*, during the first five weeks of the term (March 24 – April 23, 2025).
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 37327, SCTH 37327, PHIL 27328, PHIL 37328

FNDL 27500. From Romanticism to Weird Fiction. 100 Units.

Weird fiction is a form of (mostly) short fiction that emerged as a distinctive kind of writing in the late nineteenth century: strange landscapes, uncanny presences, historical beings encountered where they ought not to be. We will read representative works by some of the major figures: Algernon Blackwood, Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Harriet Spofford. To frame our guiding question - what is so weird about weird fiction? - we will also read short fiction by significant precursors in European and American Romanticism: Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Instructor(s): Mark Payne     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 27500, CMLT 37500

FNDL 27512. Dream of the Red Chamber: Forgetting About the Author. 100 Units.

The great Chinese-Manchu novel _Honglou meng_ (ca. 1750) has been assigned one major author, Cao Xueqin, whose life has been the subject of much investigation. But before 1922 little was known about Cao, and interpreters of the novel were forced to make headway solely on the basis of textual clues. The so-called "Three Commentators" edition (_Sanjia ping Shitou ji_) shows these readers at their creative, polemical, and far-fetched best. We will be reading the first 80 chapters of the novel and discussing its reception in the first 130 years of its published existence (1792-1922), with special attention to hermeneutical strategies and claims of authorial purpose. Familiarity with classical Chinese required.

Instructor(s): Haun Saussy     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with classical Chinese required.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 27512, EALC 37512, CMLT 27512, CMLT 37512, SCTH 37512

FNDL 27523. Reading Kierkegaard. 100 Units.

This will be a discussion-centered seminar that facilitates close readings two texts: Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Each of these texts is officially by the pseudonymous author Johannes Climacus. But the author of that author is Soren Kierkegaard. Topics to be considered will include: What is subjectivity? What is objectivity? What is irony? What is humor? What is the difference between the ethical and the religious? What is it to become and be a human being? We shall also consider Kierkegaard's form of writing and manner of persuasion. In particular, why does he think he needs a pseudonymous author? (IV)

Instructor(s): Jonathan Lear     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course is intended for undergraduate majors in Philosophy and Fundamentals and graduate students in Social Thought and Philosophy. Permission of instructor required.
Equivalent Course(s): SCTH 37523, PHIL 27523, SCTH 27523, PHIL 37523

FNDL 27951. Nathaniel Hawthorne. 100 Units.

An enigma to contemporaries, Nathaniel Hawthorne remains an uncanny, untimely literary mind. In this course we will read the full range of his writings - short stories, journals, political commentary, and the antirealist long fictions he called "romances" - in search of the writer Jorge Luis Borges considered the first great dreamer of modern literature. With Borges in mind, we will also consider Hawthorne's influence on the development of Anglo-American weird fiction.

Instructor(s): Payne, Mark     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): n/a
Note(s): Open to Fundamentals majors; non-majors with instructor consent only.

FNDL 27200. Dante's Divine Comedy 1: Inferno. 100 Units.

This is the first part of a sequence focusing on Dante's masterpiece. We examine Dante's Inferno in its cultural (i.e., historical, artistic, philosophical, sociopolitical) context. In particular, we study Dante's poem alongside other crucial Latin and vernacular texts of his age. They include selections from the Bible, Virgil's Aeneid, Augustine's Confessions, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the stilnovist and Siculo-Tuscan poets. Political turmoil, economic transformation, changing philosophical and theological paradigms, and social and religious conflict all converge in the making of the Inferno.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 21900, ITAL 21900, ITAL 31900

FNDL 27202. Dante's Divine Comedy II: Purgatorio. 100 Units.

This course is an intense study of the middle cantica of the "Divine Comedy" and its relationship with Dante's early masterpiece, the "Vita Nuova." The very middleness of the Purgatorio provides Dante the opportunity to explore a variety of problems dealing with our life here, now, on earth: contemporary politics, the relationship between body and soul, poetry and the literary canon, art and imagination, the nature of dreams, and, of course, love and desire. The Purgatorio is also Dante's most original contribution to the imagination of the underworld, equally influenced by new conceptualizations of "merchant time" and by contemporary travel writing and fantastic voyages.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 32000, ITAL 22000, MDVL 22003

FNDL 27326. Politics and the Novel. 100 Units.

As a form, the novel seems ill-suited to political messaging. The very act of reading a novel stagnates political action insofar as it demands isolation and a retreat from collective life. Then there are the pitfalls of misinterpretation. Conventionally, novels include a variety of characters with differing perspectives: how to ensure that the reader understands which is the right one? Finally, how can a novel, after it has enabled its readers to withdraw into a fictional world, successfully motivate them to get up and intervene in society? Yet despite these challenges, the novel has also been the chosen genre for many writers, both reactionary and revolutionary, who aim to convince the public of their cause. In this course, we will read political novels and their theories from the twentieth century to today, paying special attention to how writers adapt narrative forms to try to control the inherent ambiguity of literary discourse. Readings will include theoretical texts by Benjamin, Lukács, Sartre, Adorno, Jameson, and Rancière; novels by Seghers, Grass, and Houellebecq, among others.

Instructor(s): Sophie Salvo     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 27326, ENGL 24326, GRMN 37326, ENGL 37326

FNDL 28145. Greetings from Tralfamadore: Scientific and Religious Satire in the Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut. 100 Units.

This course will consist of the reading and discussion of the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, with special attention to the role of the unconstrained imaginary powers of science fiction in the rethinking the nature of science and of religion, or more broadly of knowledge and meaning, and of the possible relations between them. Works to be read will include some or all of the following: The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Slapstick, Galapagos, Timequake.

Instructor(s): Brook Ziporyn     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28145, ENGL 28145

FNDL 28290. Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. 100 Units.

This course will examine the very long and possibly-very probably-the greatest novel in the English language. We'll consider the effect of Richardson's decision to conduct his novel as a series of letters, and we'll pay particular attention to his extraordinary effectiveness in creating complexity in a fairly simple plot and in tracking an ever-expanding cast of characters. The Penguin edition we'll be using comes to 1499 pages, and they are over-sized pages. This is a course for committed readers! (1650-1830 ; 18th/19th)

Instructor(s): Frances Ferguson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 38290, ENGL 28290

FNDL 28401. Pasolini. 100 Units.

This course examines each aspect of Pasolini's artistic production according to the most recent literary and cultural theories, including Gender Studies. We shall analyze his poetry (in particular "Le Ceneri di Gramsci" and "Poesie informa di rosa"), some of his novels ("Ragazzi di vita," "Una vita violenta," "Teorema," "Petrolio"), and his numerous essays on the relationship between standard Italian and dialects, semiotics and cinema, and the role of intellectuals in contemporary Western culture. We shall also discuss the following films: "Accattone," "La ricotta," "Edipo Re," "Teorema," and "Salo".

Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year.
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 38600, ITAL 28400, ITAL 38400, CMST 23500, CMST 33500, GNSE 28600

FNDL 28500. Petrarch and the Birth of Western Modernity. 100 Units.

This course offers a close reading of the theoretical works of Petrarch (known as the "father of humanism" or "first modern man") with the aim of pinpointing the literary and rhetorical skills, as well as the self-conscious agenda, that went into the proclamation of a new era in Western history: the "Renaissance." How do we at once pay homage to and overcome a time-honored past without severing our ties to history altogether? Is Petrarch's model still viable today in efforts to forge a new beginning? We will pay special attention to Petrarch's fraught relationship with religious and secular models such as Saint Augustine and Cicero, to Petrarch's legacy in notable Renaissance humanists (Pico, Poliziano, Erasmus, Montaigne, etc.), and to the correlation of Petrarchan inquiry with modern concerns and methodologies in textual and social analysis, including German hermeneutics (Gadamer) and critical theory (Gramsci).

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 38500, ITAL 28500

FNDL 28626. Literature as Therapy: The Poetry of Rilke. 100 Units.

Lady Gaga has a Rilke quote tattooed on her arm; Jimin of the band BTS showed off a temporary tattoo of a Rilke poem in 2023; Gwyneth Paltrow cited Rilke when asked what gave her "spiritual sustenance"; Oprah Winfrey's website features the volume Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties on her website. This list could go on and on. Rilke's writing is famous for its lyrical intensity. The pathos of his poetic language appears to "move" and "touch" readers in an unparalleled way. Soldiers going to fight in WWII carried volumes of Rilke's poetry in their knapsacks and letters of fallen soldiers contained quotes from his verse ("Who talks of victory? To endure is all.") Editions of his writings, such as Rilke for the Stressed, Words of Consolation, Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation attest to Rilke being viewed as someone who can provide The Poet's Guide to Life. This course introduces students to Rilke's poetry and correspondence as well as excerpts from his writings on art to critically examine his language's ability to express our innermost feelings and to offer solace. Along the way, we will also situate his work in the context of "modernism," and we will consider it in the framework of bibliotherapy (reading therapy, poetry therapy). Readings and discussions in English. All students welcome!

Instructor(s): Ingrid Christian     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 38626, MAPH 38626, GRMN 28626

FNDL 29205. The Simultaneity of Time: Reading Jorge Luis Borges in the 21st Century. 100 Units.

Through complex and evolving perspectives of time, reading, language, and writing, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) developed both an "ethics" and a "technics" of the "intellectual" vis-à-vis literature, history, and philosophy. Over the 20th century, the political and cultural consideration of his ethics and technics varied depending on the moment, but the debates only increased Borges´ influence as a language crafter and as a thinker, beyond the language he chose to write (Spanish, he could have been an English writer, but he opted for Spanish). The course will seek to serve as a collective close reading of the prose works (fiction and non-fiction) by Jorge Luis Borges, relying on excellent editions and translations: J. L. Borges, Collected Fictions (Viking, Pinguin 1998), translated by Andrew Hurley, and Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions (Pinguin 2000), edited and translate by Eliot Weinberger, Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine. Each session will consist of a short contextualization and introduction by the instructor, a general discussion, and a short dialogue especially addressing the concerns of those students who decide to read Borges´ works in the original Spanish.

Instructor(s): Mauricio Tenorio     Terms Offered: Winter. Course not offered in 2025–26
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26307, LACS 29205

FNDL 29305. Machiavelli: Politics and Theater. 100 Units.

Arguably the most debated political theorist of all time due to The Prince, Machiavelli genuinely aspired to be remembered for his creative prowess. He explored various literary genres, such as short stories, dialogues, satirical poetry, letter writing, and, notably, theater, where he demonstrated mastery with The Mandrake, an exemplary Renaissance comedy. This course aims to reintegrate these two aspects of Machiavelli: the serious politician and the facetious performer, a Janus-faced figure who serves as a precursor of both Hobbes and Montaigne. We will revive the image of this "Renaissance man," and, through him, shed light on his era and fellow humanists by restoring their intellectual unity of prescription and laughter. Indeed, we will discover that Machiavelli encourages us not to take things, including him and ourselves, too seriously! Taught in English.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28481, ITAL 35550, CMLT 25550, TAPS 38481, CMLT 35550, ITAL 25550

FNDL 29405. La Princesse de Clèves and the Genesis of the Modern Novel. 100 Units.

Madame de La Fayette's 1678 novel represents a turning point in the international development of the psychological novel and historical fiction. Set in a Renaissance past of courtly international intrigue, the novel plumbs its characters' interiorized struggles with erotic desire, marriage, and adultery, forging a path for later novelists such as Flaubert, George Eliot, and Tolstoy. We will examine debates about its literary form and moral impact, as well as around gender and women's writing, placing the novel in a transnational context (Spanish, Italian, and English romances, drama, and moral philosophy) and its later reception, including film adaptations and its role in heated contemporary controversies around the place of the humanities in society. Students are encouraged to undertake individual comparative research projects in relation to the novel. Course taught in English but reading ability in French required.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman      Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor required for undergrads; those seeking FREN credit must have completed at least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 28900, FREN 38900, CMLT 38990, CMLT 28990