New Humanities Courses

Topics in the Humanities: 'Reading comics'
HUMN 3093-100
Days and Time: Summer A Term 2009
Room Location: TBD

Course Description:
What are 'comics', and what does it mean to 'read' them? Those seemingly simple questions lead to complex and fascinating issues, including formal definitions of the comic medium, its essential combination of image and text, its material histories and relationships to other media, and its place(s) in contemporary culture(s), whether consumer, 'popular', academic, international, and/or other. Comics - or 'comix', 'comic strips', 'comic books', 'graphic novels', 'graphic literature' and more, not to mention other forms like Japanese manga and Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées - thus comprise a remarkably rich artform for study.

In this course we seek to study comics as a kind of 'literature' and, thus, to explore some ways of doing 'literary studies'. Our goals are: (1) to examine how stories are told in the comics medium, both conventionally or traditionally and more experimentally, including similarities to and differences from other media like painting, film and strictly textual literature(how do comics narrate?); (2) to sample from the artform's 'literary history', focusing on authors, artists, works, and genres considered important, 'canonical', or 'classic', as well as asking how such classifications are made (how do comics metanarrate, or tell stories about comics?); and (3) to explore some ways of doing literary studies, including close reading, narratology, semiotics, and attention to intertextuality and illusion ( how are we to tell our own critical stories about comics?).

Modern Media and the Parisian Avant-Garde, 1848-1914
HUMN 3093-003
Days and Time: MWF, 1:00 - 1:50 pm.
Room Location: Ktch 235

Course Description:
From 1848 to 1914, France experienced intense socio-political tension and transformation. Against a backdrop of imperial and republican struggles for power, its cities grew into sprawling urban centers populated by a working class inspired by the ideals of socialism, and by a growing bourgeoisie with expendable income and leisure time. At the frontline of society was the avant-garde: the painters, musicians, and authors whose self-imposed task it was to translate this new state of modernity into their chosen media. This class will study the Parisian avant-garde - its artistic personalities and movements - to investigate the notion of the artist as cultural commentator and to inquire how it built the foundations for twentieth century modernism. Though we will focus on the visual arts, works of literature and music will also be used to enrich our understanding of this era. Restricted to sophomores/juniors/seniors.