Humanities (B.A.)

Seminars for First Years

Directed Studies is an interdisciplinary introduction to influential texts that have shaped Western civilization.

* HUMS 071a, Intellectual Circles  Charles Hill

Study of the creative interactions produced by informal associations of innovative minds in literature, philosophy, politics, science, psychology, the arts, war, and law. Courtiers, advisors, disciples, and disputers around Confucius, Socrates, Lincoln, Freud, Wittgenstein, and Niebuhr are among the circles considered. Groups include American Founders, quantum physicists, computer scientists, Gertrude Stein’s “Lost Generation” of Americans in Paris, “The Georgetown Set” of Cold War friends and rivals, and the Supreme Court. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  HU
MW 9am-10:15am

* HUMS 072b / ENGL 023b, Reading Recent North American Short Fiction  Joseph Gordon

The short story is generally considered to be North American in origin. As one of its goals, the course examines the ways in which the genre has developed in recent decades into a vehicle for storytelling from marginalized or subaltern voices such as those of people of color, women, LGBT people, immigrants and refugees, war veterans, students, and children. The course also explores how collections of stories gathered by a single author may resemble but yet be distinguishable from novels, and examines some very recent short stories that are influenced by nontraditional forms of writing, such as graphic fiction, self-help manuals, and social media. Authors are likely to include: Grace Paley, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Raymond Carver, Lucia Berlin, Sherman Alexie, Tao Lin, Lydia David, Jhumpa Lahiri, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Strout, Junot Diaz, Phil Klay, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Alison Bechdel, Nathan Englander, Kristen Rupenian, Jennifer Egan, and Teju Cole. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR, HU
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 075a, Mastering the Art of Watercolor  Adam Van Doren

An introductory course on the art of watercolor as a humanistic discipline within the liberal arts tradition. Readings, discussions, and studio work emphasize critical, creative thinking through a tactile, “learning by doing” study of the watercolor medium. Students analyze and imitate the classic techniques of J. M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Edward Hopper, among others. Studio components include painting en plein air to understand color, form, perspective, composition, and shade and shadow. Basic drawing skills recommended. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  HU  RP
HTBA

* HUMS 083b / ENGL 030b, Fantasy in Literature and Film  Alfred Guy

Study of how fantasy ideas about race and gender, good and evil, and religion and culture reflect and influence changing ideas about what it means to be human. Authors include Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia Butler, & Nalo Hopkinson. Major fantasy films include Prisoner of Azkeban and Get Out. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR, HU
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 094a, The Two Cultures: Science and the Humanities  Brianne Bilsky

The relationship between the sciences and the humanities has never been a comfortable one. Nearly sixty years ago, C. P. Snow, a British physical chemist and novelist, commented on this uneasiness in his now famous work, The Two Cultures. Snow argued that the rift between scientists and literary scholars prevented modern societies from solving many of their problems. But what happens when science and the humanities actually do come together? What might be gained by putting these seemingly disparate ways of understanding the world in conversation with each other? This first-year seminar considers such questions by looking at several intersections between science and the humanities throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These intersections include: astrophysics and religion; modern science and modernist literature; quantum mechanics and postmodernism; and medicine and ethics. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR, HU
MW 9am-10:15am

HUMS 128a / NELC 128a, From Gilgamesh to Persepolis: Introduction to Near Eastern Literatures  Kathryn Slanski

This lecture course is an introduction to Near Eastern civilization through its rich and diverse literary cultures. We read and discuss ancient works, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Genesis, and “The Song of Songs,” medieval works, such as A Thousand and One Nights, selections from the Qur’an, and Shah-nama: The Book of Kings, and modern works of Israeli, Turkish, and Iranian novelists and Palestianian poets. Students complement classroom studies with visits to the Yale Babylonian Collection and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, as well as with film screenings and guest speakers. Students also learn fundamentals of Near Eastern writing systems, and consider questions of tradition, transmission, and translation. All readings are in translation.  WR, HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 130a / LITR 130a, How to Read  Ayesha Ramachandran

Introduction to techniques, strategies, and practices of reading through study of lyric poems, narrative texts, plays and performances, films, new and old, from a range of times and places. Emphasis on practical strategies of discerning and making meaning, as well as theories of literature, and contextualizing particular readings. Topics include form and genre, literary voice and the book as a material object, evaluating translations, and how literary strategies can be extended to read film, mass media, and popular culture. Junior seminar; preference given to juniors and majors.  HU
HTBA

HUMS 134a / ENGL 154a / FREN 216a / LITR 194a, The Multicultural Middle Ages  Ardis Butterfield

Introduction to medieval English literature and culture in its European and Mediterranean context, before it became monolingual, canonical, or author-bound. Genres include travel writing, epic, dream visions, mysticism, the lyric, and autobiography, from the Crusades to the Hundred Years War, from the troubadours to Dante, from the Chanson de Roland to Chaucer.  HU
MW 9:25am-10:15am

HUMS 143b / CLCV 205b / HIST 205b, Introduction to Ancient Greek History  Jessica Lamont

An introductory course in Greek history tracing the development of Greek civilization as manifested in political, intellectual, and creative achievements from the Bronze Age to the end of the classical period. Students read original sources in translation as well as the works of modern scholars.  HU
TTh 9am-10:15am

HUMS 144a / CLCV 206a / HIST 217a, The Roman Republic  Andrew Johnston

The origins, development, and expansion of Rome from the earliest times to the deaths of Caesar and Cicero. Cultural identity and interaction; slavery, class, and the family; politics, rhetoric, and propaganda; religion; imperialism; monumentality and memory; and the perception and writing of history. Application of literary and archaeological evidence.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 149a / ENGL 219a / ITAL 309a / LITR 179a / WGSS 179a, Gender and Genre in Renaissance Love Poetry  Ayesha Ramachandran

Introduction to the poetic genres of lyric, epic, and pastoral in the European Renaissance. Focus on questions of desire, love, and gendered subjectivity. The historical contexts and political uses of discourses of eroticism and pleasure in Italy, Spain, France, and England. Written exercises include poetic imitations of Renaissance texts.  HU
HTBA

* HUMS 150a, Shakespeare and the Canon: Histories, Comedies, and Poems  Harold Bloom

A reading of Shakespeare's histories, comedies, and poems, with an emphasis on their originality in regard to tradition and their influence on Western representation since the seventeenth century. Secondary readings included.  HU
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 151b, Shakespeare and the Canon: Tragedies and Romances  Harold Bloom

A reading of Shakespeare's tragedies and romances, with an emphasis on their originality in regard to tradition: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest.  HU
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 152a, Poetic Influence from Shakespeare to Keats  Harold Bloom

The complexities of poetic influence in the traditions of the English language, from Shakespeare to Keats.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 153b, Poetic Influence from Shakespeare to Hart Crane  Harold Bloom

The complexities of poetic influence in the tradition of the English language. Works by Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Yeats, followed by an American sequence of Whitman, Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, and Hart Crane.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 162b / FREN 388b, Feminine Voices in French Literature  R. Howard Bloch

An exploration of women's voices in French literature from the Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century. The specificity of the feminine voice, the plurality of feminine voices, love and sexuality, and social and professional identity. Authors include Marie de France, Marguerite de Navarre, George Sand, Maryse Condé, and Marguerite Duras. Readings and discussion in English.  WR, HU
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

HUMS 176a / HSAR 176a, The Politics of Representation  Marisa Bass

This global introductory course surveys how works of art and architecture have responded to political ideals, shaped political life, and galvanized political debate from antiquity to the present. We consider the relation between visual representation and political representation, addressing how artists and architects have responded to the demands of democracy, empire, war, and revolution, and how individuals and communities have reacted with and against the works that they produced. Topics span from propaganda to public monuments, icons to iconoclasm, civic buildings to border walls, and from the politics of display to political censorship. Ranging from painting, sculpture, prints, and photography to architecture, landscape design, and military fortification, this course aims to de-center ‘western’ notions of artistic achievement in its multi-media and transnational scope. Lectures and assignments emphasize close looking and close reading, skills which are essential to making us better viewers and citizens. Open to all, including those with no prior background in art history. Sections will include visits to collections and sites across Yale campus.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:25pm

HUMS 180a / ITAL 310a / LITR 183a, Dante in Translation  Christiana Purdy Moudarres

A critical reading of Dante's Divine Comedy and selections from the minor works, with an attempt to place Dante's work in the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages by relating literature to philosophical, theological, and political concerns. No knowledge of Italian required. Course conducted in English.  HU
MW 1pm-2:15pm

* HUMS 192a / HIST 299Ja, Intellectuals and Power in Europe  Terence Renaud

The role of intellectuals in politics, with a focus on social, cultural, and political upheavals in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Whether intellectuals betray a higher spiritual calling when they enter politics or merely strive to put their own theories into practice. Modern answers to the question of why ideas and intellectuals matter.  HU
T 9:25am-11:15am

HUMS 201b / FREN 240b / LITR 214b, The Modern French Novel  Maurice Samuels and Alice Kaplan

A survey of major French novels, considering style and story, literary and intellectual movements, and historical contexts. Writers include Balzac, Flaubert, Proust, Camus, and Sartre. Readings in translation. One section conducted in French.  HU  Tr
TTh 1:30pm-2:20pm

* HUMS 204a / ENGL 210a, The Drama of Justice and Mercy  Lawrence Manley

An examination of justice, mercy, and the law in drama, film, and writings from disciplines at the intersection of literature, law, ethics, and religion. Reconsidering the usual binaries of convict and victim, self and other, judgment and forgiveness from antiquity to the present, the seminar gives voice to enduring questions about the brokenness of freedom, human rights, and the status of religious belief. Plays by Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Soyinka, and Peter Brook; films by Sidney Lumet, Gavin Hood, and Martin Scorsese; selected readings in philosophy and religion from Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, Montaigne, Hannah Arendt, Martha Nussbaum, and Howard Lesnick; and recent publications on the mass incarceration crisis in the U.S. (Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy; John Pfaff’s Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration; Danielle Allen’s Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.). The seminar modesl a gracious and inclusive learning community, seeking to move past the paralysis that often occurs in well-meaning conversations on politics and controversial social issues. To this end, we welcome students of all backgrounds and majors: theater/performance majors, English majors, non-majors, those with long-standing opinions and insights, and/or those with fresh eyes and genuine interest.  WR, HU  Tr
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* HUMS 205a, Boundaries of the Body in Law and Literature  Camille Lizarríbar

The representation of the human body in law and literature. Bodies as physical structures that inhabit multiple realms, including material, cultural, historical, and symbolic. Ways in which humans think about and give meaning to their bodies in relationship to themselves and to others. Additional sources include film, television, and journalism.  WR, HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 218a / FILM 235a, Storytelling and Contemporary TV  Staff

If Shakespeare were alive today, he would be writing for TV. So would Jane Austen. With the advent of cable, DVDs, the internet, and live streaming, TV—once considered a “vast wasteland”—has become the most dynamic and creative medium for storytelling, attracting talented writers, directors, and actors. This course explores the innovative narrative strategies that have transformed that wasteland into fertile terrain and ushered in a new Golden Age of TV. Careful visual and textual analysis of episodes is complemented by critical readings and comparisons to literature and cinema. We also consider technical and business pressures on the creative process behind today's "complex TV." The first part of the term focuses on the AMC series Breaking Bad. The second part considers episodes from a range of shows in order to highlight the significance of title sequences, pilots, dialogue, subjective narration, jumbled chronology, and problematic endings. The third part examines the HBO series The Young Pope, which brings narrative and visual effects from cinema to the small screen.  HU
HTBA

* HUMS 220b / HIST 289Jb / HSAR 399b / HSHM 407b, Collecting Nature and Art in the Preindustrial World  Paola Bertucci

A history of museums before the emergence of the modern museum. Focus on: cabinets of curiosities and Wunderkammern, anatomical theaters and apothecaries' shops, alchemical workshops and theaters of machines, collections of monsters, rarities, and exotic specimens.  WR, HU  Tr
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 247b / SOCY 352b, Material Culture and Iconic Consciousness  Jeffrey Alexander

How and why contemporary societies continue to symbolize sacred and profane meanings, investing these meanings with materiality and shaping them aesthetically. Exploration of "iconic consciousness" in theoretical terms (philosophy, sociology, semiotics) and further exploration of compelling empirical studies about food and bodies, nature, fashion, celebrities, popular culture, art, architecture, branding, and politics.  HU, SO
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

* HUMS 252b / AMST 346b / ENGL 235b, Poetry and Objects  Karin Roffman

This course on 20th and 21st century poetry studies the non-symbolic use of familiar objects in poems. We meet alternating weeks in the Beinecke library archives and the Yale Art Gallery objects study classroom to discover literary, material, and biographical histories of poems and objects. Additionally, there are scheduled readings and discussions with contemporary poets. Assignments include both analytical essays and the creation of online exhibitions.  WR, HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* HUMS 253a / ENGL 346a / RLST 233a, Poetry and Faith  Christian Wiman

Issues of faith examined through poetry, with a focus on modern Christian poems from 1850 to the present. Some attention to poems from other faith traditions, as well as to secular and antireligious poetry.  HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

HUMS 255b / RSEE 312b / RUSS 312b, Tolstoy's War and Peace  Edyta Bojanowska

the spring term, by May 1, 2019, for yearlong or fall-term essays. A rough draft of the essay is due at noon on...