2000-01 Bulletin Entry for:

Objectives

This program offers students an opportunity to explore the humanities from multiple perspectives, traditionally Western as well as global, and to make connections among a variety of disciplines.

How to Become a Program Member

Students may enroll in the program by visiting Professor Karen Klein (Rabb 264) or Professor Luis Yglesias (Shiffman 116), where they will be assigned a HIP advisor who will work with them throughout their program. Students are strongly advised to enroll before their senior year. Once enrolled, students are invited to participate in all program events, including lectures by visiting scholars and artists, field trips, and the salon.

Committee

(English and American Literature)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

(Fine Arts)

(American Studies)

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

(Music)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Sociology)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Classical Studies)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

(English and American Literature)

(Classical Studies)

(Physics)

(Romance and Comparative Literature)

(Classical Studies)

(Anthropology)

(Fine Arts)

(African and Afro-American Studies/English and American Literature)

(English and American Literature)

(Sociology)

(Philosophy)

(Classical Studies)

(Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

(Philosophy)

Requirements for the Program

A. HIP 20a or 20b or the equivalent with the permission of the advisor. This requirement provides students with a sense of the humanities through its connection to the classics and the contributions of fundamental texts.

B. HIP 10b, HIP 11b, or one semester course from category 1 below. This requirement involves students in comparative studies of specific arts and letters, exposing them to literary and philosophical texts on art, music, or theater from more than one era, culture, or discipline.

C. HIP 21a (formerly AMST 172b), or one semester course from category 2 below. Courses in category 2 explore myth, ritual, religion, folklore, and philosophy. This requirement enables students to understand how different cultures have made sense of human existence in relation to the spiritual: the realm of the divine, the realm of animal spirits, the supernatural.

D. HIP 30b, or one semester course from category 3 below. These courses examine responses or alternatives to the Western tradition. This requirement thus provides most students with an in-depth exploration of a culture other than their own or with a critique of a culture from within.

E. The final course in the humanities sequence is an independent study that will focus on themes and methodologies central to the study of the humanities. This course is available only after other course requirements are completed.

F. No single course can satisfy more than one requirement.

Courses of Instruction

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

[ cl⁵ hum ]

Comparative study of the genres of lyric poetry and drawing with special attention to their shared formal concerns and their ability to achieve maximum expressiveness with an economy of means. Examples will be taken from different historical periods. Usually offered in even years.

Ms. Klein

[ cl⁵ hum ]

Studies the meaning and function of the grid in different disciplines. Focusing first on 20th-century visual art, including the Rose Art Museum collection, we will explore examples from music, mathematics, architecture, and dance, with guest lecturers.

Ms. Dash

[ cl⁸ nw hum ]

Human history can be understood as a struggle between competing myths, each claiming to be the source of true knowledge. Does our present understanding of earth's history, however, point instead to a narrative that finds common ground in all cultures? This course examines the possibility. Usually offered every year.

Messrs. Stein and Yglesias

[ nw hum ]

This course raises the same issues as HIP 20a, but uses a different set of texts. Both courses draw upon foundational texts from eastern and western civilizations. Usually offered every year.

Messrs. Stein and Yglesias

[ cl⁴ cl⁴⁵ cl⁴⁸ hum ss ]

A study of three exemplary American religious activists: Abraham Heschel, a Jewish theologian and activist; Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk; and Howard Thurman, a black minister. Focuses upon the relationship between their inwardness and social and political commitments. Usually offered in even years.

Mr. Kaplan

[ cl⁴¹ nw hum ]

This course will study traditions of fiction, poetry, and drama over the span of Japan's cultural history from about the ninth century to the present. Featured will be Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji, great women poets, and the dramatic genres of Noh, Kabuki, and Bunraku. Usually offered in even years.

Mr. Levitan

Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest under the direction of a faculty advisor. Usually offered every year.

Staff

See HIP 98a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.

Staff

Electives

The following courses are not all given in any one year; therefore, the Course Schedule for each semester should be consulted.

History as Theater

Topics in Greek and Roman History

The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece

The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Rome

CLAS 171a

Greek Epic and Athenian Drama

Sex and Sensibility in Pre-Revolutionary European Novels

Dada and Surrealism

The Woman of Letters, 1600-1800

The Body as Text: Castiglione to Locke

Lives of the Artists

Modern Art and Modern Culture

Nineteenth-Century European Painting and Sculpture

Contemporary Painting and Sculpture

FECS 157a

Topics in French Film

French Literature and Painting

Dante's Divine Comedy

Music and Culture: From Romanticism to the Modern Era

Aesthetics: Painting, Photography, and Film

World Religions

Symbol, Myth, and Ritual

Classical Mythology

Topics in Myth, Literature, and Folklore

Foundational Course in Judaic Studies

Biblical Ritual and Cult

The Jewish Liturgy

The New Testament: A Historical Introduction

Judaism and the Religious Quest

Ancient Near Eastern Religion and Mythology

Idea of God

Afro-American Literature of the Twentieth Century

Comparative Race and Ethnic Relations

The Literature of the Caribbean

Non-Western Musical Traditions

Topics in New World Studies: The Empire Writes Back

Topics in Myth, Literature, and Folklore

Feminism and Film

Feminist Theory in Literary and Cultural Studies

Domains of Seventeenth-Century Performance

Inventing Tradition: Women as Artists, Women as Art

Topics in Francophone Literatures

Chinese Philosophy

Women's Biography and Society

Sociology of Birth and Death