Category Archives: Texts and Ideas

Elective Courses in Tisch’s Liberal Arts & Sciences Core

Spring 2023

Foundations: What is Philosophy? (PHIL-SHU 101)

This course is an introduction to the problems and methods of contemporary philosophy. Topics may include: 1. What is the relationship between mind and body? 2. Can belief in the existence of the external world be justified? 3. Are there any good arguments for the existence of God? 4. Can we act freely if everything that we do is determined by laws of nature? 5. Is there a theory of how we ought to live? Prerequisite: None. Fulfillment: Humanities Foundational/Introductory Courses (18-19: Critical Concepts).

Philosophy (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

PHIL-SHU 101-000 (20186)01/30/2023 – 05/12/2023 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at ShanghaiInstructed by Yuan, Yuan

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Fall 2022

The Bible as Literature (HBRJD-UA 23)

Over the past few decades, many readers have come to a fuller appreciation of the emotional and imaginative power of the Bible?s narratives, which still speak with remarkable clarity to our own sensibilities, leading one critic to characterize the Bible as a ?full-fledged kindred spirit? of modernism. The course pursues this ?kindred spirit,? using a broadly literary approach as its guide. While the focus is on narrative?the Pentateuch (Genesis?Deuteronomy) and the Former Prophets (Joshua?Kings), as well as shorter narrative books (Ruth, Jonah, and Esther)?it also studies Ecclesiastes and Job as ancient precursors to modern skepticism. Finally, it studies one modernist engagement with the Bible: Kafka?s Amerika.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

HBRJD-UA 23-000 (21860)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Feldman, Liane

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Fall 2022

The Novel in Antiquity (CLASS-UA 203)

Survey of Greek and Roman narrative fiction in antiquity, its origins and development as a literary genre, and its influence on the tradition of the novel in Western literature. Readings include Chariton?s Chaereas and Callirrhoe, Longus?s Daphnis and Chloe, Heliodorus?s Ethiopian Tale, Lucian?s True History, Petronius?s Satyricon, and Apuleius?s Golden Ass. Concludes with the Gesta Romanorum and the influence of this tradition on later prose, such as Elizabethan prose romance.

Classics (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Fall 2022)

CLASS-UA 203-000 (19322)09/01/2022 – 12/14/2022 Tue,Thu12:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Early afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Barchiesi, Alessandro

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Advanced Seminar: (SOC-UA 9942)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:

This interdisciplinary course examines the works of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three German speaking writers who pioneered radically different and influential interpretations of modern life, which continue to shape our contemporary understanding of society and individuality. The seminar not only delves into the origins of these prominent traditions of modern Western thought, but also underscores their relevance in modern social theories and poetics. Hence, the course will also include references to the writings of their contemporaries, as well as explications of the direct and indirect influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud on other writers.

Sociology (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Seminar/Studies) Spring 2026 Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2023

Literatures in English I: Medieval and Early Modern Literatures (ENGL-UA 111)

Survey of English literature from its origins in the Anglo-Saxon epic through Milton. Close reading of representative works, with attention to the historical, intellectual, and social contexts of the period.

English (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2023)

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8756)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8757)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8758)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8759)at Washington SquareInstructed by

ENGL-UA 111-000 (8760)at Washington SquareInstructed by

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2023 Spring 2024

Aesthetics (PHIL-UA 60)

Introduces problems raised by the nature of art, artworks, and aesthetic judgment. Considers the expressive and representational properties of artworks, aesthetic attention, and appreciation, as well as the creation, interpretation, and criticism of artworks. Readings from classical and contemporary sources.

Philosophy (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2024)

PHIL-UA 60-000 (10283)01/22/2024 – 05/06/2024 Tue,Thu3:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by Hopkins, Robert

Graduate IMA Electives IMA Electives (Legacy Structure - Art & Design) Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2019 Spring 2022

Shakespeare (MEDI-UA 410)

Medieval & Renaissance Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sections (Spring 2019)

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10578)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Tue,Thu11:00 AM – 12:00 AM (Morning)at Washington SquareInstructed by

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10579)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Thu4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Late afternoon)at Washington SquareInstructed by

MEDI-UA 410-000 (10580)01/28/2019 – 05/13/2019 Thu6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Evening)at Washington SquareInstructed by

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2022

Studies in Shakespeare: (THEA-UT 700)

Focussed each time by genre (comedies, tragedies, romances, histories), or by theme or topic (theatricality, gender, race, politics, religion, etc.), this course explores the works of Shakespeare as text and performance – on stage or on film. Various critical methodologies, including biographical and cultural analysis, are used to reveal the continuing vitality of these plays and their relevance to the theatre of our time. (THEATRE STUDIES C)

Drama (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Fall 2021

First-Year Interdisciplinary Seminar: Science and Literature (FIRST-UG 85)

In a 1959 lecture titled “The Two Cultures,” C. P. Snow famously declared, “the intellectual life of the whole of western society is increasingly being split into two polar groups,” with “literary intellectuals at one pole—at the other scientists.” Snow asserted that the two are separated by “a gulf of mutual incomprehension,” even “hostility and dislike.” Snow’s view of a fundamental antagonism between science and literature has its roots in the nineteenth-century; his concept of “two cultures” remains influential today. But was he right? This course addresses that question, seeking to deepen our understanding of the relationship between science and literature. Our readings will pair literary and scientific texts: we may consider Ted Chiang’s short fiction and the laws of thermodynamics; Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen and quantum physics; Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Calcutta Chromosome and sociological theories of scientific knowledge; and the poetry of ecologist Madhur Anand; and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s interdisciplinary meditations on the environment in Braiding Sweetgrass. The class is a discussion-based seminar; assignments will include short response papers, brief contributions to a class blog, and formal essays.

First Year program (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

The German Intellectual Tradition (GERM-UA 9244)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates:

Topics vary by semester. Please see course notes for description.

German (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

English Novel in The 19th Century (ENGL-UA 9530)

Credits: 4
Duration: 14 Weeks
Dates: Wed

The nineteenth century was the great age of the English novel. This course charts the evolution of the form during this period, exploring texts by major authors including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. Close attention to narrative, questions of mimesis and publishing practices will combine with the exploration of a range of significant contemporary discourses relating to shifting conceptions of gender, sexuality, religion, science, class, and race. These varied contexts will help us to consider formal, stylistic and thematic continuities as well as discontinuities and innovations. Taking advantage of our local surroundings, we will also explore changing representations of London and trace the enduring legacy of this period in the twenty-first-century city.

English (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Fall 2025 Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Spring 2026 Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Fall 2021 Fall 2024

The Literature of Children & Adolescents (CAMS-UA 191)

Considers children’s and adolescents’ literature as a rich, untapped source of insight into child development for students of psychology, child development, and related disciplines. Over the last century, a vibrant, many-faceted literature for young people has grown in tandem with our understanding of child and adolescent psychology to pre-sent young readers with an increasingly finely calibrated perspective on such basic developmental issues as the formation of trust, the emergence of a sense of autonomy, and the complexities of family and peer relationships. Students explore these and other topics as they read and discuss a wide range of picture books, longer fiction, and relevant professional literature.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2022

Major Texts in Critical Theory (ENGL-UA 712)

Major texts in critical theory from Plato to Derrida, considered in relation to literary practice. The first half of the course focuses on four major types of critical theory: mimetic, ethical, expressive, and formalist. The second half turns to 20th-century critical schools, such as Russian and American formalism, archetypal criticism, structuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, feminism, reader theory, deconstruction, and historicism.

English (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Liberal Arts & Sciences - Electives Texts and Ideas Undergraduate

Spring 2022

Creating a Good Society: Christian and Jewish Perspectives (HBRJD-UA 428)

This course explores Greek, Christian and Jewish responses to the problem: How does one create a good society? Central questions to be explored include: What is the best form of government? What economic system is ideal? Should the government actively promote a vision of the good life or leave it to individual to decide the good for themselves? Should the government prioritize the freedom, equality, or happiness of its inhabitants? What role should religion and nationhood play in society? What models of education should the government promote? How does gender inform these considerations? The course will focus on careful analysis of primary texts. Thinkers to be studied include: Plato, Maimonides, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mendelssohn, Marx, Hess. Having first taken the course: Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives is highly desirable.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks