This second course on Flannery O'Connor will cover a combination of stories and essays, together with her novel, The Violent Bear It Away.
This course follows closely on our year-long study of Greek tragedy and comedy. We read closely the three plays by Aristophanes remaining to be discussed.
Machiavelli’s Prince famously concludes that it is better to be feared than loved. Yet just nine months after completing The Prince, Machiavelli writes a letter to a friend to say that he is himself...
This seminar will involve a close reading and intensive discussion of the main features and provisions of the Constitution of the United States, from its origins in 1787 through its interpretation in...
Its interior history will not only never be written, its practicality, minutia of deeds and passions, will never even be suggested . . . I say, will never be written—perhaps must not and should not...
What if we actually came into contact with beings from another planet? How would we communicate? Would the aliens be friendly? Would we? What does imagining such an encounter tell us about the...
Where are we headed? Will our long history of short-sighted choices decimate the planet and leave the few who survive in a wasteland? Or will developments in technology bring about a near-mastery of...
This quarter we will focus on movies centrally interested in new and strange ways of thinking about what a human being is. How are we to understand the status of the android or of artificial...
An immersion in the short stories, poetry, and essays of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) can lead to a profound change in our understanding of the world – the world as we think we know...
We will study Song of Solomon (1977) and Beloved (1987) – arguably the most representative novels of Morrison's dramatic, imaginative, and empathic literary style.