ENGL 180J - 01
Reading Before Print
Professor Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe

This course asks the question "What was it like to read before print?" Because print is the dominant vehicle for written communication in our time, the ways in which print determines our approaches to reading and interpreting texts are hidden from us in plain view. To ask what it was like to read before this powerful technology is to investigate the ways manuscript culture affected how texts were produced, consumed, and understood. We will be reading a number of early texts from different European traditions drawing on epic, saga, romance including Njal's Saga, Beowulf, Song of Roland, the Romance of Tristan and Iseult, and other works. The reading and writing of this course will be directed toward understanding the texts in terms of the cultures that produced them. While meeting their heroes, heroines, monsters, and villains, we will see what made them laugh, cry, get angry, or feel love. We will also investigate the ways in which the people in these cultures read books or had them read to them. Our work will include exploring the rich resources of Notre Dame-art, facsimiles, manuscripts, web-based materials-to broaden the ways in which we both understand reading as an act of interpretation and use other, earlier cultures to think about our own.

ENGL 180J - 02
Latino Literature and the American
Professor Javier Rodríguez

AmeRícan, defining the new america, humane america, admired america, loved america, harmonious america, the world in peace, our energies collectively invested to find other civilizations, to touch God, further and further, to dwell in the spirit of divinity! From "AmeRícan" Tato Laviera

Latinos and Latinas in the United States bring together the histories of Native America, Africa and Europe and locate the varying combinations of these cultural matrices in an energetic dialogue with American ideals. The elements of ethnicity, the legacies of immigration-both voluntary and forced-the struggles against racism, and the enduring desire to fulfill the dream of America are articulated in Latino literatures with passion and urgency. This course examines the field of Latino literature in the United States and asks a set of related questions: How do Latino and Latina fiction and poetry counter dominant United States history? How have Latina and Latino writers adopted, criticized, and inflected the ideals of America? To what degree are the projects of cultural preservation and assimilation influenced by different Latino histories? Finally, how do form and technique express the complex relationships between writers and their national and regional cultures? Our readings will seek to contextualize Latino literature in broad historical terms extending into the nineteenth century and to frame American Latino writing within the larger American hemisphere. Although the course focuses on literature, it will include discussions of film, music, and secondary texts.

ENGL 180J - 03
Trojan War Tragedies
Professor Thomas P. Flint

In this seminar, we will read and discuss a number of Classical plays that focus on events connected with the legendary Trojan War. Written by the three great Athenian tragedians, these plays raise numerous questions concerning issues that are as urgent for us as they were for the ancient Greeks -- issues concerning war and peace, love and hate, justice and revenge, fate and free will, passion and reason, God and evil. Tragedies read will include the Oresteia (by Aeschylus); Electra, Ajax and Philoctetes (by Sophocles); and Iphigenia in Aulis, The Trojan Women, Hecuba, Helen (by Euripides). In addition, to lighten the semester (and to preclude giving the impression that the Athenians were inordinately dour!), we will also look at two comedies by Aristophanes -- the lusty Lysistrata and the croakingly-fun Frogs. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussion and to write roughly seven short (two-to-three-page) papers and a longer final essay. Papers which exhibit an inordinate number of mechanical mistakes (i.e., errors concerning grammar, punctuation, spelling, and the like) will be returned to the student for revision and re-submission. There will be no final exam.

Nothing will always be created in the West Indies for quite a long time, because whatever will come out of there is like nothing one has ever seen before.
--Derek Walcott

What does Walcott mean by this cryptic statement? In this introduction to the literature of the Anglophone Caribbean, we will explore the import of this observation in the literary voices of various West Indian novelists, essayists and poets. In examining this view, we will discuss such issues as silence, voice and language in cultural representation, the relation of these to cultural identity, and the shaping of such identity within a complicated history. We will try, through close analysis of various Caribbean voices, to articulate the cultural and literary import of Walcott=s perspective, and perhaps come to some understanding of its larger implications in Caribbean literature.

Course Texts: Merle Hodge, Crick, Crack, Monkey; George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin; Samuel Selvon, Brighter Sun; Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John; C. L. R. James, Minty Alley; V. S. Naipaul, The Mimic Men; Michelle Cliff, Abeng; Paule Marshall, Brown Girl, Brownstones; Wayne C. Booth, Gregory B. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research

Course Requirements: three short essays, group presentation, final project to be discussed in class.

ENGL 180J - 05
The Lost Generation
Professor Jacqueline V. Brogan

In addition to their own importance in their own time (i.e., the period following the Great War or World War I), the members of what would come to be called "the Lost Generation" and their works have remained important and often proved critical at several points during the twentieth century and now again at the beginning of this new one.

Although war and its destruction is the most obvious pressure point for members of this generation, other critical issues -- including religious faith, philosophical world views, the struggle for women's rights, the on-going inequities of race and ethnicity, even a new sense of time itself are all very much at the heart of this astonishing period of time which witnessed an abrupt birthing of the "modern" world, the legacy of which we continue to feel today.

In order to understand this change and the literature that reflects it, we will consider certain philosophical and social texts, a few historical essays, the work of several visual artists of the period (especially cubist painters), and of course a wide range of literary works from the major figures of "the Lost Generation." Among these will be works by Ernest Hemingway (who popularized the term), Gertrude Stein (who coined the term), T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Edith Wharton, Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Jean Rhys, Wallace Stevens, William Faulkner, Zelda Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, and James Joyce. (I will choose four authors and we will collectively choose three more). At the end of the course, students should have a keen understanding of the individual writers as well as the larger historical dilemmas motivating their work and still pointedly relevant to our own time.

ENGL 180J - 06
Nineteenth-Century American Literature
Professor Ivy Wilson

This course focuses on historical contexts as well as social and material conditions of the production of narrative as cultural myth in nineteenth-century American literature. Issues of gender, race, and class will be emphasized in conjunction, or against, ideas of opacity, representation, and (re)cognition. Writers may include Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Douglass, Frances Harper, Twain, Chesnutt, and Chopin.

Engl 180J - 07
100 Years of the American Short Story, 1902-2002
Professor Valerie Sayers

We'll do close readings of all the works, from traditional to experimental, and we'll examine the contexts in which they were written and published. Along the way, we'll question how the times shaped the stories and how the stories shaped the times, and we'll question the future of the short story in the electronic age. Writers include Toomer, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Porter, Faulkner, Hurston, Hughes, Wright, Bowles, O'Connor, Baldwin, Ellison, Welty, Carver, Ozick, Oates, Wideman, Silko, Mukherjee, Erdrich, Cisneros.

GE 180J - 01
Modern German Literature in Translation
Professor Robert Norton

In this course we read some of the greatest works written in German during the twentieth century. Literature does not exist in a vacuum, and the novels and stories we study will reflect the dramatic times in which they were written. Beginning with the Imperial reign of Wilhelm II and spanning the horrors of two world wars, interrupted by the turbulent Weimar Republic, the rebuilding of a physically and morally shattered country, through the forced division into an East and West in the Cold War up to the unification of the two Germanies in 1989, the authors we consider chronicle modern German experience from their individual perspectives. Readings may include works by Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Bertold Brecht, Günter Grass, Heinrich Böll, Uwe Johnson, Christa Wolf, Jurek Becker, and Robert Schneider.

LLEA 180J - 01
Professor Lili Seldin
Life, Death, and Art in Japanese Film

This course examines how some of Japan's most prominent film directors have explored the relationship between life, death, and art. Films to be analyzed include _Double Suicide_ (Shinoda,1969), _Hanabi_ (Kitano, 1997), _Rashomon_ (Kurosawa, 1950), _Tampopo_ (Itami, 1987), and _After Life_ (Kore-eda, 1998).

We will address such questions as, how does each film portray life--as profound or absurd, inspiring or oppressive? And how do Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian attitudes toward death seem to affect the characters? What particular philosophies about the social and political roles of art do the films' directors seem to advocate? Can we identify any particularly "Japanese" features that the films hold in common? What does it mean for one director to be considered "quintessentially Japanese", while another might be labeled "western" in his approach?

No prior knowledge of Japanese language, history, or culture is required. All films are subtitled and have been chosen for their compelling stories.

LLEA 180J - 02
Love in Traditional Chinese Literature
Professor Liangyan Ge

This course introduces students to the traditional Chinese concept of love as determined by the context of social and familial relationships, and discusses the literary expressions of love from different periods of the nation's history. Love will be considered as both a perennial theme in Chinese literature and a major reflector of traditional Chinese culture. Readings are all in English translation, and no prior knowledge of Chinese language or culture is required for taking the course. Students are expected to read the assigned texts carefully before each session, participate actively in the class discussions, and fulfill a number of writing projects.

LLRO 180J - 01 & 03
On Interpretation: The Art of Caressing Art
Professor L. MacKenzie

Working with material ranging from opera to the songs of Bob Dylan, from film to poetry and a few other forms in between, we will look to identify and develop reliable techniques of close reading and analysis which are always more satisfying and persuasive than mere opinion. Student essays will be critiqued publicly by the members of the seminar.

LLRO 180J - 02
A Reading of Dante's Inferno
Professor Christian Moevs

"Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them; there is no third" (T.S. Eliot). "Dante is the highest spiritual nature that has found expression in rhythmical form" (James Russel Lowell). "The pre-eminent act of shaping intelligence in the Western tradition, [is] Dante's" (George Steiner). --- Many have considered Dante's Comedy to be the greatest poetic achievement in Western literature. It is also an extraordinary synthesis of the entire Western cultural tradition up to its time, and a profound exploration of Christian spirituality, of what even today remains the foundation of the Catholic understanding of human nature, the world, and God. But perhaps above all, to quote Lowell again, "Whatever subsidiary interpretations the poem is capable of, its great and primary value is as the autobiography of a human soul, of yours and mine it may be, as well as Dante's. In that lie its profound meaning and its permanent force." We will read the Inferno together at a comfortable pace (about one canto per class) in Robert Hollander's new translation and commentary, and write in response as we read.

PLS 180J - 01
Greek Literature
Professor Gretchen Reydams-Schils

This course is based on the principles of a Great Books Seminar in the Program of Liberal Studies. We will read through a selection of texts from Greek Antiquity (for the full list of Seminar I, see the PLS website: http://www.nd.edu/~pls).
As we encounter the fascinating world and culture of the Greeks, from the eighth to the fourth century B.C., we will work on writing, discussion and oral expression skills. The requirements for this course include written assignments, class participation in discussion, and an oral final exam.

PLS 180J - 02
Greek Literatures
Professor Nicholas Ayo

This university seminar is an adaptation of the initial Great Books Seminar in the Program of Liberal Studies at Notre Dame. In Great Books education we begin with the ancient Greeks and the reading of Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. After the epics we read the Greek playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Euripides, and we conclude with several of Plato's dialogues that center upon the life and death of Socrates. Student participation in seminar-style education is expected and its various ways will be taught.

History University Seminars:

AMST 180H - 01
Homefronts during War
Professor Heidi Ardizzone

This course provides a social and cultural history of American domestic responses to war and threats of war throughout the twentieth century and into the first. Scheduled readings will include historical scholarship, primary documents, media and popular culture, personal narratives and fiction. Our discussions and writings will focus on five periods: WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. Issues covered include meanings of patriotism, pacifist movements and challenges to American military activities; perceptions of soldiers; images of the enemy and their impact on Americans identified with national enemies; the role of media in influencing public perception of war, and war memorials. Throughout, we will examine not the battles and factors that determined the military outcomes, but the domestic struggles that have defined our national experience.

CLAS 180H - 01
The First Century of the Roman Empire
Professor Joseph Stanfiel

University Seminars are designed to foster intense interaction between first-year students and faculty in small settings where class discussion is the dominant mode of instruction in introducing the paradigms of a given academic discipline. These are to be writing intensive courses in which students will write and read simultaneously and continuously throughout the semester.

In this particular course you will use piracy as the means to engage in the work of historians. Each unit will be built around particular textual problems that historians face in their endeavors to recount the past. You will experience how historians reconstruct fragmented texts, how they use various kinds of primary sources to corroborate one another, and how they establish and disagree about the authorship of given texts. You will also see how historians and creative writers differ in their portrayal of piracy and what it means to their understanding of life around them. Since there will be no examinations in this course, the goal will be not to memorize dates and facts, but instead to marshal textual evidence in support of the arguments you will make in the course of your written reflection papers and essays.

History 180H - 04
Foreign Perceptions of Ireland in the Middle Ages
Professor Aideen OLeary

This course offers students a broad knowledge of how Ireland was perceived by outsiders, from the time of St. Patrick (himself a Briton) until the seventeenth century. Students will be introduced to many of the major issues in Irish history through the eyes of the Venerable Bede, Viking invaders, and Anglo-French and English colonizers. Through class discussion and debate as well as a short essay each week, students will form their own judgments on the relationship between medieval Ireland and the outside world. Participation in class debate will be central to students' successful completion of the course. Midterm and final papers will also be required.

Philosophy University Seminars:

The concept of laws of nature in modern science not only shapes our thinking about nature, but also structures important inquiries in ethics and metaphysics. This seminar will investigate what issues are at stake in a commitment to the existence of laws of nature. These issues concern the scientific study of nature, ethical inquiry regarding moral responsibility, and metaphysical disagreements about the compatibility of human freedom and causal determinism. The seminar will also discuss how the concept of moral laws in modern philosophy has been defined in contrast to scientific laws of nature. Requirements: The five papers assigned in this course meet the writing requirements of a University Seminar.

Theology University Seminars:

THEO 180G - 02
Foundations of Theology
Professor James C. VanderKam

Theology 180 - 03
Foundations of Theology
Professor Lawrence S. Cunningham

This seminar, which fulfills the first course requirement in theology, will focus on materials from the Old and New Testament and some writings from the period of early Christianity. The precise aim of the seminar is to teach the student how to read biblical and early Christian texts critically as theological texts. Due attention will be paid to genre, theme, and the reception of texts in the subsequent tradition. The core text will be the bible and some primary texts from early Christian history.

The seminar will involve close reading of texts and discussion of them. Students will be expected to write (and rewrite) six to eight short (3 to 5 pages) papers during the course of the semester.

Theo 180G - 04
Biblical Foundations of Theology
Professor Jennifer A. Herdt

The primary aim of this course is to understand Christian faith in light of the development of the traditions of the people of Israel, the followers of Jesus, and the early Church. In order to do this, we will learn what scholars of the Bible have determined about the composition and editing of these texts. On the one hand, we will grapple with the historical and cultural distance that separates us from the past; on the other hand, we will explore how historical Biblical criticism can enrich the theological enterprise of drawing on Scripture as a living guide for Christian life.
We will be particularly interested in the Biblical basis for Christian social ethics. How do Biblical texts (i.e. the story of the Exodus, the words of the prophets, Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God) guide the stance of the church in the world? Moving into the early centuries of Christianity, we will discuss the ongoing development of the tradition, exploring how orthodox doctrine and modes of Scriptural interpretation were established through conflict with multiple heresies.