Search Results
Your search for courses · during 24FA, 25WI, 25SP · meeting requirements for LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis · returned 111 results
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AMST 250 Asian American Reckonings 3 credits
As both targets of racism and beneficiaries of privilege, Asian Americans defy easy categorization. In a timely intervention, Cathy Park Hong, in her 2020 essay collection Minor Feelings, undertakes an “Asian American Reckoning.” Following Hong’s lead, this five-week course will reckon with Asian America in its most vexing aspects. Through an exploration of memoir, cultural criticism, poetry, fiction, and film/media, we will think hard about questions of privilege and discrimination, interracial politics, settler colonialism, and transnational ties. Grappling with the past and looking towards the future, this course asks: What does it mean to be Asian American?
Meets for the 1st 5 Weeks
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AMST 269 Woodstock Nation 6 credits
“If you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there.” We will test the truth of that popular adage by exploring the American youth counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the turbulent period of the late sixties. Using examples from literature, music, and film, we will examine the hope and idealism, the violence, confusion, wacky creativity, and social mores of this seminal decade in American culture. Topics explored will include the Beat Generation, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, LSD, and the rise of environmentalism, feminism, and Black Power.
Extra time
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ARBC 222 Music in the Middle East 6 credits
The Middle East is home to a great number of musical styles, genres, and traditions. Regional, ideological, and cultural diversity, national identity, and cross-cultural encounters–all express themselves in music. We will explore some of the many musical traditions in the Arab world, from early twentieth century to the present. Class discussions based on readings in English and guided listening. No prior music knowledge required, but interested students with or without musical background can participate in an optional, hands-on Arab music performance workshop, on Western or a few (provided) Middle Eastern instruments throughout the term.
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ARBC 310 Advanced Media Arabic 6 credits
Readings of excerpts from the Arabic press and listening to news editions, commentaries and other radio and TV programs from across the Arab world. Emphasis is on vocabulary expansion, text comprehension strategies, and further development of reading and listening comprehension. Class includes oral discussions and regular written assignments in Arabic.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): ARBC 206 – Arabic in Cultural Context or equivalent with a grade of C- or better.
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ARBC 371 Readings in Premodern Arabic Science 3 credits
It is difficult to overstate Arab scientists’ contribution to science. A translation movement from Greek, Persian and Sanskrit into Arabic initiated in the eighth century, led to centuries of innovative scientific investigation, during which Arab scientists reshaped science in a variety of disciplines: from mathematics to astronomy, physics, optics and medicine. Many of their works entered Latin and the European curriculum during the Renaissance. In this reading course we will explore some of the achievements and thought processes in premodern Arabic scientific literature by reading selections from several seminal works. We will examine these in the cultural contexts in which they emerged and to which they contributed, and reflect on modern Western perceptions of this intellectual project. Readings and class discussions will be in both Arabic and English.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): ARBC 206 – Arabic in Cultural Context or equivalent with a grade of C- or better.
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ARTH 101 Introduction to Art History I 6 credits
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from antiquity through the “Middle Ages.” The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, sacred spaces, images of the gods, imperial portraiture, and domestic decoration.
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ARTH 102 Introduction to Art History II 6 credits
An introduction to the art and architecture of various geographical areas around the world from the fifteenth century through the present. The course will provide foundational skills (tools of analysis and interpretation) as well as general, historical understanding. It will focus on a select number of major developments in a range of media and cultures, emphasizing the way that works of art function both as aesthetic and material objects and as cultural artifacts and forces. Issues include, for example, humanist and Reformation redefinitions of art in the Italian and Northern Renaissance, realism, modernity and tradition, the tension between self-expression and the art market, and the use of art for political purposes.
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ARTH 160 American Art to 1940 6 credits
Concentration on painting of the colonial period (especially portraiture) and nineteenth century (especially landscape and scenes of everyday life) with an introduction to the modernism of the early twentieth century. The course will include analysis of the ways art shapes and reflects cultural attitudes such as those concerning race and gender.
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ARTH 172 Modern Art: 1890-1945 6 credits
This course explores developments in the visual arts, architecture, and theory in Europe and America between 1890 and 1945. The major Modernist artists and movements that sought to revolutionize vision, culture, and experience, from Symbolism to Surrealism, will be considered. The impact of World War I, the Great Depression, and the rise of fascism will be examined as well for their devastation of the Modernist dream of social-cultural renewal. Lectures will be integrated with discussions of artists’ theoretical writings and group manifestoes, such as those of the Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists, Constructivists, and DeStijl, in addition to select secondary readings.
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ARTH 214 Queer Art 6 credits
Beyond surveying the rich history of arts by LGBTQA+ individuals, this course takes as its object of study the ways in which the arts have been used to question, undermine, and subvert the gendered and sexual norms of dominant cultures—in short, to queer them. In so doing, such visual and performative practices offer new, alternative models of living and acting in the world based on liberatory politics and aesthetics. This course will consider topics such as: censorship of queer artists; art of the AIDS crisis; activist performance; the sexual politics of public space; and queer intersections of race, class and gender in visual art among others.
Extra time
- Spring 2025
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.
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ARTH 215 Cross-Cultural Psychology in Prague: Czech Art and Architecture 4 credits
This course will examine key developments in Czech visual art and architecture from the early medieval to the contemporary periods. Slide-based lectures will be supplemented by visits to representative monuments, art collections, and museums in Prague.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in Cross-Cultural Studies in Prague Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): PSYC 110 – Principles of Psychology with a grade of C- or better.
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ARTH 225 The Naked and the Nude: A History 6 credits
Why did the naked human body become a central subject of Western art? What makes the representation of an unclad body "beautiful," and what makes it "erotic"? What types of bodies been portrayed in the history of art and what types of bodies have not? Who has been succesful in censoring the nude? Who been less succesful? These questions form the basis of this course which examines the history of the nude from antiquity to the present day.
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ARTH 240 Art Since 1945 6 credits
Art from abstract expressionism to the present, with particular focus on issues such as the modernist artist-hero; the emergence of alternative or non-traditional media; the influence of the women’s movement and the gay/lesbian liberation movement on contemporary art; and postmodern theory and practice.
- Fall 2024
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.
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ARTH 250 The Coded Gaze: AI and Art History 6 credits
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support or subvert human intelligence and it affects art and art history already today. This course will connect existing discourses in art history and the history of photography to recent AI questions and themes, demonstrating that many topics, which appear novel, have in fact a long and complex history. We will focus on questions of ethics that affect both AI and art history, including ownership of images, surveillance, and the representation of race and gender, while also exploring possible uses of AI in art history, e.g. the detection of forgeries, and the curation of AI artworks.
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ARTH 288 Curatorial Practicum 6 credits
This course explores the evolution of the museum from the Enlightenment to the present day. It questions the role of the curator and of audiences, strategies for building public collections, the repatriation of objects, and codes of display in museums of all types. Theoretical readings and discussion-based formats are complemented by practical experience. Students will help organize an exhibition about art and math which will be on view at the Perlman Teaching Museum in winter 2026. The course will coincide with a conference on art and math organized by the Museum and the Mathematics and Statistics department in October 2024.
- Fall 2024
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One Art History (ARTH) course with a grade of C- better.
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ARTH 298 The History of Art History 6 credits
An intensive study of the nature of art history as an intellectual discipline and of the approaches scholars have taken to various art historical problems. Attention as well to principles of current art historical research and writing. Recommended for juniors who have declared art history as a major or a minor.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ARTH 341 Art and Democracy 6 credits
What does it mean to say that a work of art is “democratic?” For whom is art made? And who can lay claim to the title “artist?” These questions animate contemporary art production as artists grapple with the problems of broadening access to their works and making them more socially relevant. In this course we will consider the challenges involved in making art for a sometimes ill-defined “public.” Topics to be discussed include: activist performance art, feminism, public sculpture, the Culture Wars, queer visual culture, and the recent rise of social practice art.
Extra time
- Winter 2025
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any two courses in ARTH with grades of C- or better.
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CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies 6 credits
This course introduces students to the basic terms, concepts and methods used in cinema studies and helps build critical skills for analyzing films, technologies, industries, styles and genres, narrative strategies and ideologies. Students will develop skills in critical viewing and careful writing via assignments such as a short response essay, a plot segmentation, a shot breakdown, and various narrative and stylistic analysis papers. Classroom discussion focuses on applying critical concepts to a wide range of films. Requirements include two screenings per week.
Sophomore Priority. Extra Time required for screenings
- Winter 2025, Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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CAMS 186 Film Genres 6 credits
In this course we survey four or more Hollywood film genres, including but not limited to the Western, musical, horror film, comedy, and science-fiction film. What criteria are used to place a film in a particular genre? What role do audiences and studios play in the creation and definition of film genres? Where do genres come from? How do genres change over time? What roles do genres play in the viewing experience? What are hybrid genres and subgenres? What can genres teach us about society? Assignments aim to develop skills in critical analysis, research and writing.
Sophomore Priority Extra Time for Evening screenings
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CAMS 187 Cult Television and Fan Cultures 6 credits
This course focuses on the history, production, and consumption of cult television. The beginning of the seminar will be focused on critically examining a number of theoretical approaches to the study of genre and fandom. Building on these approaches, the remainder of the course will focus on cult television case studies from the last eight decades. We will draw on recent scholarship to explore how cult television functions textually, industrially, and culturally. Additionally, we will study fan communities on the Internet and consider how fansites, webisodes, and sites like YouTube and Netflix transform television genres.
Extra time for evening screenings
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CAMS 210 Film History I 6 credits
This course surveys the first half-century of cinema history, focusing on film structure and style as well as transformations in technology, industry and society. Topics include series photography, the nickelodeon boom, local movie-going, Italian super-spectacles, early African American cinema, women film pioneers, abstraction and surrealism, German Expressionism, Soviet silent cinema, Chaplin and Keaton, the advent of sound and color technologies, the Production Code, the American Studio System, Britain and early Hitchcock, Popular Front cinema in France, and early Japanese cinema. Assignments aim to develop skills in close analysis and working with primary sources in researching and writing film history.
Extra Time Evening Screenings
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CAMS 212 Contemporary Spanish Cinema 6 credits
This course serves as a historical and critical survey of Spanish cinema from the early 1970s to the present. Topics of study will include the redefinition of Spanish identity in the post-Franco era, the rewriting of national history through cinema, cinematic representations of gender and sexuality, emergent genres, regional cinemas and identities, stars and transnational film projects, and new Spanish auteurs from the 1980s to the present.
Extra Time required. Evening Screenings.
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CAMS 214 Film History III 6 credits
This course is designed to introduce students to recent film history, 1970-present, and the multiple permutations of cinema around the globe. The course charts the development of national cinemas since the 1970s while considering the effects of media consolidation and digital convergence. Moreover, the course examines how global cinemas have reacted to and dealt with the formal influence and economic domination of Hollywood on international audiences. Class lectures, screenings, and discussions will consider how cinema has changed from a primarily national phenomenon to a transnational form in the twenty-first century.
Extra Time required for evening Screenings.
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CAMS 229 CAMS Production in Los Angeles Program: Experimental Los Angeles 3 credits
Los Angeles is well known as the center of the film and television industry. This course will explore the lesser-know experimental and avant-garde cinematic histories and current practices in Los Angeles through readings and screenings. Site visits will include filmmaker and media artist studios, archives, and film festivals. Students will reflect on their experiences with course materials through short writings and creative projects.
Open only to participants in Carleton OCS CAMS Production in Los Angeles Program
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance into the Carleton OCS CAMS Production in Los Angeles program.
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CAMS 230 CAMS Production in Los Angeles Program: Iconic Los Angeles 3 credits
This course explores the second largest city in the United States through its relationship to cinema history. In its complexities and contradictions, romantic notions of “Tinsel Town” coexist with the realities of a multicultural metropolis. Readings, screenings, and field trips will contextualize Los Angeles as a place where the built environment and natural world collide, as well as the center of the American entertainment industry. Short writings will give students the necessary opportunity to reflect and synthesize their experiences.
Open only to participants in Carleton OCS CAMS Production in Los Angeles Program
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): CAMS 111 – Digital Foundations with a grade of C- or better AND acceptance into the Carleton OCS CAMS Production – Los Angeles Program.
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CAMS 236 Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema 6 credits
This course will introduce students to the global kaleidoscope that is Israeli society today. Since the 1980s the Israeli public has increasingly engaged with its multicultural character, particularly through films and documentaries that broaden national conversation. Our approach to exploring the emerging reflection of Israel's diversity in its cinema will be thematic. We will study films that foreground religious-secular, Israeli-Palestinian, gender, sexual orientation, and family dynamics, as well as Western-Middle Eastern Jewish relations, foreign workers or refugees in Israel, army and society, and Holocaust memory. With critical insights from the professor's interviews with several directors and Israeli film scholars. Conducted in English, all films subtitled. Evening film screenings.
In Translation. Extra Time required for Evening Screenings.
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CAMS 258 Feminist and Queer Film Theory 6 credits
The focus of this course is on spectatorship—feminist, lesbian, queer, transgender. The seminar interrogates arguments about representation and the viewer’s relationship to the moving image in terms of identification, desire, masquerade, fantasy, power, time, and embodied experience. The course first explores the founding essays of psychoanalytic feminist film theory, putting these ideas into dialogue with mainstream cinema. Second, we consider the aesthetic, narrative, and theoretical interventions posed by feminist filmmakers working in contradistinction to Hollywood. Third, “queering” contemporary media, we survey challenges and revisions to feminist film theory presented by considerations of race and ethnicity, transgender experience, and queerness.
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CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar 6 credits
The purpose of this seminar is guide students in developing and consolidating their conceptual understanding of theories central to the field of cinema studies. Emphasis is on close reading and discussion of classical and contemporary theories ranging from Eisenstein, Kracauer, Balazs, Bazin and Barthes to theories of authorship, genre and ideology and trends in contemporary theory influenced by psychoanalysis, phenomenology and cognitive studies.
- Fall 2024
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): CAMS 110 – Intro to Cinema and Media Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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CCST 245 Analytical Approaches in Humanities 6 credits
How can it be that a single text means different things to different people at different times, and who or what controls those meanings? What is allowed to count as a “text” in the first place, and why? How might one understand texts differently, and can different forms of reading serve as resistance or activism within the social world? Together we will respond to these questions by developing skills in close reading and discussing diverse essays and ideas. We will also focus on advanced academic writing skills designed to prepare students for comps in their own humanities department.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 200 or 300 Level course with a LA – Literary/Artistic Analysis course tag with a grade of C- or better.
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CHIN 240 Chinese Cinema in Translation 6 credits
This course introduces to students the drastic transformation of Chinese society, culture, and politics over the past three decades through the camera lens. We will examine representative films from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Particular attention will be paid to the entangled relationship between art, commerce, and politics, as well as the role digital technologies and international communities play in reshaping the contemporary cultural landscape in China. This class requires no prior knowledge of Chinese language, literature, or culture.
Extra time for film screenings
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CHIN 251 Heroes, Heroines, Exceptional Lives in Chinese Biographical Histories 6 credits
Through generic and historical analysis of the two-millennia long biographical tradition in Chinese historical writing, this project explores lives of heroes and heroines, including, but not limited to: dynastic founders, ministers, generals, poets, assassins, and exceptional women. In this introduction to premodern Chinese culture and literature, students will experience, in English translation, some of the most beautiful works of ancient Chinese literature from the second century BCE through the eighteenth century CE. No prior Chinese language study required.
In translation
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CHIN 348 Advanced Chinese: The Mass Media 6 credits
This course introduces to students major milestones in the development of Chinese cinema since 1980, with additional materials including popular television shows and online materials. Emphasis will be on culturally appropriate language use, and on discussion of the social issues that are implicitly and explicitly addressed on the Chinese-language media. The course aims to increase students’ fluency in all four aspects of Chinese language learning (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and to deepen students’ understanding of China as a transitional society.
- Fall 2024
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis No Exploration
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): CHIN 206 – Chinese in Cultural Context with a grade of C- or better or satisfied the Chinese language requirement with a Carleton placement exam score of 300.
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CHIN 358 Advanced Chinese: Everyday Life in Ancient China 6 credits
Were chopsticks originally eating utensils? Did ancient Chinese sleep on beds and sit on chairs? What did they wear? In this course, students will find answers to questions like those in a series of expository writings concerning various aspects of daily life in ancient Chinese society, while enhancing their proficiency in comprehending authentic materials and producing extended discourse on related topics through a variety of oral and written coursework. This course also provides a fair amount of exposure to common sources for historical studies of China, and thus expands students’ vocabulary and knowledge about Chinese history and archaeology.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): CHIN 206 – Chinese in Cultural Context with a grade of C- or better or satisfied the Chinese language requirement with a Carleton placement exam score of 300.
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CLAS 116 Greek Drama in Performance 6 credits
What is drama? When and where were the first systematic theatrical performances put on? What can Athenian tragedies and comedies teach us about the classical world and today’s societies? This course will explore the always-relevant world of Ancient Greek theater, its history and development, through the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. We will decode the structure and content of Greek tragedies and comedies, ponder their place in the Athenian society and the modern world, and investigate the role of both ancient and contemporary productions in addressing critical questions on the construction and performance of individual and communal identities.
- Fall 2024
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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CLAS 134 “Nothing stays the same”: Embracing Change in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 6 credits
We are immersed in such a fast-paced, constantly changing world, that we have no choice but to keep up with it and be as adaptable as possible. This makes us the perfect audience for Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The Latin poet guides his readers through endless stories of gods, heroes and heroines, whose transformations have inspired artists for centuries. This course will investigate how characters cope with the changeable nature of human and divine relationships. By looking closely at their mythical sagas and fleeting romances, we will explore how each character is, like us, suspended between old and new.
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CLAS 135 Ancient World in Popular Culture 6 credits
From fantasy novels, like Percy Jackson, to superhero films (Wonder Woman) to viral hashtags on social-media, the ancient world has a constant presence in our modern world. Greco-Roman history, myths, stories, and literature are still actively used, but also misused, within the framework of “western” and global culture. In this course, we will discuss how Classical antiquity has been received, interpreted, or appropriated in the twenty-first century through different popular media, such as movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, and social-media, in order to gain a better understanding of what the ancient world can tell us about the modern.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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CLAS 142 “No, Luke, I am your father!”: Being an Heir in the Ancient Family 6 credits
The bond between fathers and sons is prominent in cinematic sagas, from Star Wars to The Lion King. But is it only a modern concern? What can Greek literature teach us about this relationship in today’s societies? This course explores the literary representations of ancient heroic families and traces their portrayals through the works of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. We will discuss the context and aims of Greek epic, tragedies and comedies, and investigate the representation of familial legacy, examining how sons can shape their own identity and emerge from their parents’ shadows, both then and now.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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DANC 211 Cultures of Dance 6 credits
In this class we will look at dance from a global viewpoint, investigating forms, styles and contexts through various lenses (feminist, ethnographic, Africanist). We will examine and broaden the definition of dance and situate it within the discourse of “performance,” recognizing the larger meaning of “performance” to include all bodily movements, acts and gestures, whether onstage or off. We will ask questions about the performance of culture and ethnography, race and gender in the various dance cultures presented. Reading, writing, moving, discussing, and viewing live performance will shape class inquiry. No prior dance experience needed.
Extra time for two live performances
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Not open to students that have completed DANC 115 – Cultures of Dance with a grade of C- or better.
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DGAH 120 Interactive Digital Narratives: Theory and Practice 6 credits
Contemporary forms of interactive digital narrative, ranging from electronic literature to games, demonstrate the affordances of the computer as a site of storytelling. Working from the prehistory of Oulipian constrained writing through to early hypertext experiments of authors such as Shelley Jackson to contemporary games such as Kentucky Route Zero, we will develop an understanding of both the history and current trends in born-digital literary experimentation and practice. Through the lens of these digital texts, we will explore the potential for reimagining the "book" through new interfaces, interactions, and technologies. No knowledge of code is necessary.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ENGL 115 The Art of Storytelling 6 credits
Jorge Luis Borges is quoted as saying that “unlike the novel, a short story may be, for all purposes, essential.” This course focuses attention primarily on the short story as an enduring form. We will read short stories drawn from different literary traditions and from various parts of the world. Stories to be read include those by Aksenov, Atwood, Beckett, Borges, Camus, Cheever, Cisneros, Farah, Fuentes, Gordimer, Ishiguro, Kundera, Mahfouz, Marquez, Moravia, Nabokov, Narayan, Pritchett, Rushdie, Trevor, Welty, and Xue.
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ENGL 118 Introduction to Poetry 6 credits
“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde. In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning.
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ENGL 131 Speculative Fiction 6 credits
This course uses "speculative fiction" as umbrella term for categories and (sub)genres that include science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. Deviation from the norm is our norm. You will have to teach your eyes to hear, and your ears to see. Above all, your multisensory engagement should allow for a reality check: does speculative fiction replicate or repudiate known stereotypes of women and blacks, in particular? What do you find (un)appealing about speculative fiction? We will read a variety of short fiction from the DARK MATTER anthology as well as longer narratives by Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson.
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ENGL 135 Imperial Adventures 6 credits
Indiana Jones has a pedigree. In this class we will encounter some of his ancestors in stories, novels and comic books from the early decades of the twentieth century. The wilds of Afghanistan, the African forest, a prehistoric world in Patagonia, the opium dens of mysterious exotic London–these will be but some of our stops as we examine the structure and ideology and lasting legacy of the imperial adventure tale. Authors we will read include Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Rudyard Kipling and H. Rider Haggard.
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ENGL 144 Shakespeare I 6 credits
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Declared or prospective English majors should register for ENGL 244.
Declared or prospective English majors should register for English 244.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ENGL 202 The Bible as Literature 6 credits
We will approach the Bible not as an archaeological relic, nor as the Word of God, but “as a work of great literary force and authority [that has] shaped the minds and lives of intelligent men and women for two millennia and more.” As one place to investigate such shaping, we will sample how the Bible (especially in the “Authorized” or King James version) has drawn British and American poets and prose writers to borrow and deploy its language and respond creatively to its narratives, images, and visions.
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ENGL 203 Other Worlds of Medieval English Literature 6 credits
When medieval writers imagined worlds beyond their own, what did they see? This course will examine depictions of the afterlife, the East, and magical realms of the imagination. We will read romances, saints' lives, and a masterpiece of pseudo-travel literature that influenced both Shakespeare and Columbus, alongside contemporary theories of post-colonialism, gender and race. We will visit the lands of the dead and the undead, and compare gruesome punishments and heavenly rewards. We will encounter dog-headed men, Amazons, cannibals, armies devoured by hippopotami, and roasted geese that fly onto waiting dinner tables. Be prepared. Readings in Middle English and in modern translations.
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ENGL 211 Haunting the Margins of American Literature 6 credits
Nineteenth-century Americans were hardly strangers to ghosts and the world beyond. In fact, many actively sought communion with the dead by attending table-rapping séances and sitting for spirit photographs. This class will analyze a variety of literary hauntings from the long nineteenth century to explore the cultural anxieties and desires they might represent. Paying particular attention to questions of race, gender, and sexuality, we will consider how figures ghosted from history become present in ways that demand attention and, at times, redress. Authors will include Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rose Terry Cooke, Alice Brown, and Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins.
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ENGL 213 Being Queer in Nineteenth-Century America 6 credits
What forms of community, gender identification, and desire were imagined as possible in the literature and life writing of nineteenth-century Americans? How did race and class shift the terms of what could be imagined, and how did these possibilities change with the sexual taxonomies developed by scientists? This course will explore these questions by reading American literary texts from 1799 to 1899 alongside shorter works of history and theory. We will consider not only the discourse around wealthy, white “romantic friendships,” but also the ways that poor and non-white bodies were deemed queer in conduct manuals and scientific texts.
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ENGL 215 Modern American Literature 6 credits
A survey of some of the central movements and texts in American literature, from World War I to the present. Topics covered will include modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat generation and postmodernism.
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ENGL 222 The Art of Jane Austen 6 credits
All of Jane Austen's fiction will be read; the works she did not complete or choose to publish during her lifetime will be studied in an attempt to understand the art of her mature comic masterpieces, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion.
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ENGL 224 Cruel Summer, 1816 6 credits
A circle of poets and writers, friends and lovers, spend the summer in Geneva sightseeing, arguing, telling ghost stories, reading and writing passionately together—and changing the course of literary history. We’ll explore the personal and artistic relations between Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, reading the works they wrote in conversation with each other including Frankenstein, “Prometheus,” and Prometheus Unbound, as well as studying diaries, manuscripts, biographical accounts, and films. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
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ENGL 227 Imagining the Borderlands 6 credits
This course engages the borderlands as space (the geographic area that straddles nations) and idea (liminal spaces, identities, communities). We examine texts from writers like Anzaldúa, Butler, Cervantes, Dick, Eugenides, Haraway, and Muñoz first to understand how borders act to constrain our imagi(nation) and then to explore how and to what degree the borderlands offer hybrid identities, queer affects, and speculative world-building. We will engage the excess of the borderlands through a broad chronological and generic range of U.S. literary and visual texts. Come prepared to question what is “American”, what is race, what is human.
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ENGL 228 Banned. Censored. Reviled. 6 credits
What makes a work of art dangerous? While present-day attacks on books, libraries, and schools feel unprecedented, writers and artists have always had to fight efforts to suppress their work, often at great personal and societal cost. We will study literature, films, graphic novels, images, music, and other materials that have been challenged and attacked as offensive, taboo, or transgressive, and also explore strategies of resistance to censorship.
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ENGL 230 Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present 6 credits
We will explore developments in African American literature since the 1950s with a focus on literary expression in the Civil Rights Era; on the Black Arts Movement; on the new wave of feminist/womanist writing; and on the experimental and futuristic fictions of the twenty-first century. Authors to be read include Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Malcolm X, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, August Wilson, Charles Johnson, Ntozake Shange, Gloria Naylor, Suzan-Lori Parks, Kevin Young, and Tracy Smith.
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ENGL 242 Queer Literature: The Pre-Stonewall Origins 6 credits
The LGBTQ+ movement turned on the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Prior to that, queer life was largely illegal and underground in the United States and most places globally. Queer content in literature was censored and banned. This course explores the strategies queer writers used to circumvent censorship and get published. Writers whose work we will read, discuss and analyze are: Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Radclyffe Hall, Patricia Highsmith and James Baldwin.
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ENGL 244 Shakespeare I 6 credits
A chronological survey of the whole of Shakespeare's career, covering all genres and periods, this course explores the nature of Shakespeare's genius and the scope of his art. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between literature and stagecraft ("page to stage"). By tackling the complexities of prosody, of textual transmission, and of Shakespeare's highly figurative and metaphorical language, the course will help you further develop your ability to think critically about literature. Non English majors should register for English 144.
Non English majors should register for English 144.
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ENGL 245 Bollywood Nation 6 credits
This course will serve as an introduction to Bollywood or popular Hindi cinema from India. We will trace the history of this cinema and analyze its formal components. We will watch and discuss some of the most celebrated and popular films of the last 60 years with particular emphasis on urban thrillers and social dramas.
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ENGL 254 Fictional Worlds 3 credits
What makes the imaginary world created by a novel feel “real”? What aspects of narrative contribute to our sense of being immersed in a coherent and convincing universe? From the Victorians who addressed letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street, to fans of a Middle Earth that now encompasses multiple books and films, readers have always been drawn to narratives that create a place that seems capacious and vivid enough to enter. In this course, we will look at world-building from the eighteenth century through the present, comparing novels to other contemporary media in order to develop an understanding of the way in which the impulse towards “realism” has shaped narrative in a variety of different forms. Works to be studied include books and stories by Daniel Defoe, A. Conan Doyle, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Octavia Butler, as well as Villeneuve’s film of Dune.
First 5 weeks
- Fall 2024
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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ENGL 255 The Poetics of Disability 6 credits
Scholar Michael Davidson has suggested that “perhaps the closest link between poetry and disability lies in a conundrum within the genre itself: poetry makes language visible by making language strange.” In this class we will read a wide range of poets who tackle ideas of normalcy and “ability” by centering disability consciousness and culture. We will engage with poetry’s capacity as a genre to destabilize our assumptions and generate new imaginaries. Alongside contemporary U.S. poetry, we will study contemporary theory in the field of disability studies in order to better understand the critical conversations around the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability.
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ENGL 281.07 Reading Multicultural London 6 credits
A wide range of British writers have depicted London as a site of displacement, diaspora, community, and belonging. From the “Windrush Generation” in the 1950s to the present context of Brexit, this course will examine the depiction of multicultural London in fiction, film, and essay. Selected texts will reveal how diverse writers have been shaped by London and in turn shaped its narratives. Readings may include Samuel Selvon, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Andrea Levy, Kamala Shamsie, and Xiaolu Guo; and we will incorporate relevant museum exhibits and cultural events.
Requires participation in Carleton OCS London Program. For 2025 Winter Term offering, course completes IS not IDS.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
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ENGL 282 Living London Program: London Theater 6 credits
Students will attend productions (at least two per week) of classic and contemporary plays in a range of London venues both on and off the West End, and will do related reading. We will also travel to Stratford-upon-Avon for a three-day theater trip. Class discussions will focus on dramatic genres and themes, dramaturgy, acting styles, and design. Guest speakers may include actors, critics, and directors. Students will keep a theater journal and write several full reviews of plays.
Open only to participants in OCS Program: Living London
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
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ENGL 295 Critical Methods 6 credits
Required of students majoring in English, this course explores practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism.
Not open to first year students.
- Fall 2024, Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
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ENGL 324 Cruel Summer, 1816 6 credits
A circle of poets and writers, friends and lovers, spend the summer in Geneva sightseeing, arguing, telling ghost stories, reading and writing passionately together—and changing the course of literary history. We’ll explore the personal and artistic relations between Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, reading the works they wrote in conversation with each other including Frankenstein, “Prometheus,” and Prometheus Unbound, as well as studying diaries, manuscripts, biographical accounts, and films. Offered at both the 200 and 300 levels; coursework will be adjusted accordingly.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
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ENGL 338 Dickinson, Moore, Bishop 6 credits
An intensive study of lyric invention and innovation in the work of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and Elizabeth Bishop. Starting with formalist readings and historicizing the poetic subjects they pursued in common (self and society, loss and knowledge, nature, gender, the senses, the body), we will explore their practice, reception, and influence in relation to changing Modernist poetics, 1860 to 1970, and to specifics of place: Amherst, Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, Key West, and Brazil.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
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ENGL 359 Contemporary World Literature 6 credits
Our focus is on contemporary writers. Specifically, we will privilege genre-bending fiction published within the last two decades in which we encounter a continuum, not a line of demarcation, between us and them, insider and outsider, here and there, then and now, femaleness and maleness, North and South, the local and the global. Authors to be read include Zinzi Clemmons, Teju Cole, Esi Edugyan, Mohsin Hamid, Tommy Orange, Zadie Smith, and Colson Whitehead.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One English Foundations including (100) course with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 5 on the English Literature and Composition AP exam or received a grade of 6 or better on the English Language A: Literature IB exam AND 6 credits from English courses (100-399) not including Independent Studies and Comps with a grade of C- or better.
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ENGL 381.07 Reading Multicultural London 6 credits
A wide range of British writers have depicted London as a site of displacement, diaspora, community, and belonging. From the “Windrush Generation” in the 1950s to the present context of Brexit, this course will examine the depiction of multicultural London in fiction, film, and essay. Selected texts will reveal how diverse writers have been shaped by London and in turn shaped its narratives. Readings may include Samuel Selvon, Hanif Kureishi, Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Andrea Levy, Kamala Shamsie, and Xiaolu Guo; and we will incorporate relevant museum exhibits and cultural events.
Open only to students participating in OCS London Program
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Living London Program.
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ENGL 395.00 Frankenstein’s Progeny 6 credits
Written in 1816 when she was only eighteen years old, Mary Shelley’s brilliant and controversial Frankenstein has not only lived on but has sparked two centuries’ worth of adaptations, interpretations, and creative re-imaginings, including recent fiction by Saadawi, McGill, and Tsai, an essay on transgender rage by Stryker, episodes of Black Mirror, and the novel and film Poor Things. We’ll study how several such radical revisions of the novel explore and extend its prescient themes of gender, sexuality, monstrosity, race, the ethics of science, women’s rights, and social justice.- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student must have completed any of the following course(s): ENGL 295 – Critical Methods and one 300 level ENGL course with grade of C- or better.
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ENGL 395.01 Postcolonial Novel: Forms and Contexts 6 credits
Authors from the colonies and ex-colonies of England have complicated our understandings of the locations, forms and indeed the language of the contemporary English novel. This course will examine these questions and the theoretical and interpretive frames in which these writers have often been placed, and probe their place in the global marketplace (and awards stage). We will read a number of major novelists of the postcolonial era from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and the diaspora as well as some of the central works of postcolonial literary criticism.
Not open to students who took ENGL 350 Postcolonial Novel
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student must have completed any of the following course(s): ENGL 295 – Critical Methods and one 300 level ENGL course with grade of C- or better.
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FREN 206 Contemporary French and Francophone Culture 6 credits
Through texts, images and films coming from different continents, this class will present Francophone cultures and discuss the connections and tensions that have emerged between France and other French speaking countries. Focused on oral and written expression this class aims to strengthen students’ linguistic skills while introducing them to the academic discipline of French and Francophone studies. The theme will be school and education in the Francophone world.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or equivalent.
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FREN 236 Francophone Cinema and the African Experience 6 credits
Born as a response to the colonial gaze (ethnographic films, in particular) and ideological discourse, African cinema has been a determined effort to capture and affirm an African personality and consciousness. Focusing on film production from Francophone Africa and its diaspora over the past few decades, this course will address themes such as slavery, colonialism, and national identity, as well as the immigrant experience in France and in Quebec. It will provide an introduction to African symbolisms, world-views, and narrative techniques.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or equivalent.
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FREN 245 Francophone Literature of Africa and the Caribbean 6 credits
Reading and discussion of literary works, with analysis of social, historical and political issues, with an emphasis on cultural and literary movements such as Négritude (El Negrismo, in Cuba) and their role in shaping ideas of self-determination, Nationalism and Independence in the French colonies of the Caribbean and Black Africa. We will read works by Aimé Césaire (Martinique), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Léon Gontran Damas (French Guiana), Jacques Roumain (Haîti), Laye Camara (Guinea), Mongo Béti (Cameroun), Simone Schwartz-Bart (Guadeloupe) and Alain Mabanckou (Congo). Conducted in French.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or equivalent.
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FREN 253 The French Revolution, Then and Now 6 credits
From an ad campaign showing Kylie Jenner dressed as Marie Antoinette to the mascot for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, the French Revolution is alive today. What does this say about its legacy? This course first investigates the systemic inequalities that contributed to the storming of the Bastille. Through texts, films, and music, we will analyze the denunciation of these inequities and the consequent transatlantic engagement with Haiti and the U.S. We will finish by discussing whose rights were affirmed during the French Revolution, whose were denied, and how this continues to inform contemporary culture and society.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the French Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the French: Language B IB exam or equivalent.
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FREN 254 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: French Art in Context 6 credits
Home of some of the finest and best known museums in the world, Paris has long been recognized as a center for artistic activity. Students will have the opportunity to study art from various periods on site, including Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism. In-class lectures and discussions will be complemented by guided visits to the unparalleled collections of the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Centre Pompidou, local art galleries, and other appropriate destinations. Special attention will be paid to the program theme.
Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French or higher level course with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 255 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Islam in France: Historical Approaches and Current Debates 6 credits
In this course, students will explore the historical, cultural, social, and religious traces of Islam as they have been woven over time into the modern fabric of French society. Through images drawn from film, photography, television, and museum displays, they will discover the important role this cultural contact zone has played in the French experience. The course will take advantage of the resources of the city of Paris and will include excursions to museums as well as cultural and religious centers.
Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French or higher level course with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 259 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris 6 credits
Through literature, cultural texts, and experiential learning in the city, this course will explore the development of both the “Frenchness” and the hybridity that constitute contemporary Paris. Immigrant cultures, notably North African, will also be highlighted. Plays, music, and visits to cultural sites will complement the readings.
Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French or higher level course with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 310 The Art of Scandal 6 credits
What is scandal? Is it a product of the time and place where it occurs, or can it transcend national and temporal boundaries? This course seeks answers to these questions by examining the texts, films, and artistic productions that caused, exposed, or critiqued a scandal. We will explore topics such as passion, lies, revenge, rumor, and murder. From the Affair of the Poisons during the reign of Louis XIV to controversy over France’s literary prize (the Goncourt), we will analyze the evolution of social norms and public opinions in global French culture from the seventeenth century to the present day.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 200 or 300 level FREN course excluding FREN 204 and Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 350 Middle East and French Connection 6 credits
Persepolis, Syngue Sabour, Le rocher de Tanios—three prize-winning texts written in French by authors whose native tongue was not French but Arabic or Farsi. In this class we will direct our attention to the close—albeit problematic—relations between France and the Middle East (broadly considered) through an analysis of cultural and literary objects. What has this “French connection” meant for the Middle-Eastern and for French culture?
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 200 or 300 level FREN course excluding FREN 204 and Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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FREN 359 French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program: Hybrid Paris 6 credits
Through literature, cultural texts, and experiential learning in the city, this course will explore the development of both the “Frenchness” and the hybridity that constitute contemporary Paris. Immigrant cultures, notably North African, will also be highlighted. Plays, music, and visits to cultural sites will complement the readings.
Requires participation in OCS Program: French and Francophone Studies in Paris
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS French and Francophone Studies in Paris Program and student has completed any of the following course(s): FREN 204 – Intermediate French or higher level course with a grade of C- or better.
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GERM 153 Nations and Nationalism: A New, Old Idea 6 credits
“Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist” (Ernest Gellner, 1964). What are nations if nationalism invents them? When does nationalism ally itself with progressive ideologies, and when does it appear alongside reactionary ones? Is the German case typical or particular? How can works of art create or disrupt national identity? In this course, we will discuss nationalism’s complex legacy by centering on a core of German literary and theoretical texts, visual media, and select non-German sources from the late eighteenth century to the present. Taught in English.
In Translation
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GERM 217 Queer Culture and Movements in Germany from the 19th Century to Present 6 credits
In the nineteenth century, Germany was at the forefront of activism for queer people – until it wasn’t. In this course, we will explore the development and evolution of queer culture and social movements in Germany from the late nineteenth century through to the present. We will analyze a variety of primary texts and visual media, including the first magazines written for a queer audience and first-person accounts by queer people persecuted under the Nazis. We will explore how this history has shaped contemporary queer culture in Germany and how it compares to the Anglophone world. Taught in German.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): GERM 204 – Intermediate German with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the German Language and Culture AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the German: Language B IB exam or equivalent.
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GRK 226 Heroes and Monsters in Ancient Greek Thought 6 credits
Greek literature abounds in stories of hostile encounters between heroes and monsters. Perseus vs. Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur, Bellerophon vs. the Chimera are only a few of these stories that feature larger-than-life individuals who confront otherworldly creatures. But why is there such a fascination in the Greek mind? In this course, we will examine such stories in the original Greek, looking at authors such as Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, and Lucian, and we will discuss what the socio-cultural constructions of the hero and the monster show us about what it means to be human both in antiquity and in modern times.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): GRK 204 – Intermediate Greek Prose and Poetry with a grade of C- or better or equivalent.
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JAPN 250 Gothic Literature in Twentieth Century Japan—Empire, Colonies, and Subjects 6 credits
This course looks at Gothic both as a genre born in the colonial and imperial context and also as a post-colonial discursive practice that criticizes the colonial condition. The course focuses on the engagement with the Gothic genre in modern Japanese literature of the twentieth century. We will examine the Gothic elements, such as the haunted mansions, female ghosts, supernatural phenomena, and the fantastic animals and beasts within Japanese literature as they relate to issues, such as gender, race, and identity, in the colonial history of the Empire of Japan. All materials are in English.
In translation
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JAPN 251 The Tale of Genji—A Thousand Years of Words and Images 6 credits
Considered by many as the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, written around 1000 CE, depicts the lives and struggles of the Heian aristocrats. This class will introduce students to the celebrated classic, theories on the work, and one-thousand-years of visual history. Unlike today’s solitary reading activities, the tale in premodernity was experienced as the combination of texts, images, and sounds. This course observes and discusses an intertwined history of words and images from premodernity to modernity, examining the dynamics between texts and images through the screen art, incense, manga, theater, and movies. All materials are in English.
In Translation
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JAPN 343 Advanced Japanese: Nature in Popular Media 6 credits
This course examines Japanese popular media through an environmental lens, spanning from the thireteenth century to the present. It explores how novels, films, and animation depict the evolving human relationship with the non-human world amidst political, cultural, and philosophical shifts. Topics include modernization, internal colonization, gender dynamics, and industrial disasters, with a focus on canonical authors and global issues. Students develop skills in cultural comprehension through discussions and written assignments.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): JAPN 206 – Japanese in Cultural Context with grade of C- or better.
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JAPN 346 Advanced Japanese: Consumerist Culture in Contemporary Japan 6 credits
This course focuses on the consumerist culture in Japan. It will look at the contemporary Japanese short stories, movies, new media, and critical theories that focus on the overt consumption of material and immaterial commodities, such as food, fashion,and brands, in contemporary Japan. This course will help students develop reading andlistening skills, situated in the contemporary Japanese cultural context. Students will practice and integrate their Japanese through in-class discussion and written assignments.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): JAPN 206 – Japanese in Cultural Context with grade of C- or better.
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LATN 237 Amor, Furor, Ira: The Epics of Vergil and Ovid 6 credits
Two superlative Latin poets; two radically different epic poems. In this course we will read selections from the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses, focusing in particular on each poet's depiction of powerful emotions and their consequences.
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): LATN 204 – Intermediate Latin Prose and Poetry with a grade of C- or better or equivalent.
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LATN 240 The Tortured Poets: Love Poetry from Catullus to Taylor Swift 6 credits
Poetry has always offered people a way to express their feelings and connect to their emotions, especially those related to love. From the thrill of new romance to the pain of heartbreak, poets find a haven in their art to declare their conflicting feelings and explore the ecstasy of mutual love or the torture of unrequited love. In this course, we will focus on Roman love/elegiac poetry (poems by Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid) in their original language and cultural context, while exploring themes and tropes that define the genre and still inspire modern love poetry and songs.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): LATN 204 – Intermediate Latin Prose and Poetry with a grade of C- or better or equivalent.
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MUSC 110 Theory I: The Principles of Harmony 6 credits
An introduction to the materials of western tonal music, with an emphasis on harmonic structure and syntax. It covers basic harmonic syntax (through secondary dominants), melodic phrase structure and cadences, and small musical forms, along with related theoretical concepts and vocabulary. Student work involves readings, analysis and composition exercises, and short essay assignments. Recommended Preparation: MUSC 101 or permission of instructor as assessed by a diagnostic exam administered at the start of the term.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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MUSC 127 Music and Censorship 6 credits
This course examines the causes, methods and logic behind attempts to censor music by governments, commercial corporations and religious authorities through guided listening, reading, and writing assignments. Lectures focus first on the “entartete musik” of Nazi Germany. Contemporary cases of music censorship are then selected from a wide range of countries, including the United States, South Africa, and Russia. The music studied includes that by Pussy Riot, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, and Richard Wagner.
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MUSC 140 Ethnomusicology and the World’s Music 6 credits
This course introduces the discipline of ethnomusicology and its history, theory, methods, and contemporary critiques. Centering the social and cultural analysis of music, the course explores case studies of global popular, vernacular, and classical musics. We will expand our skills as listeners while also considering key issues, such as the “world music” market; ethnographic methods; gesture, dance, and embodiment; copyright and repatriation; the role of media forms and AI technologies; and the politics of representation. No musical experience necessary.
Sophomore Priority
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MUSC 204 Theory II: Musical Structures 6 credits
An investigation into the nature of musical sounds and the way they are combined to form rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and form. Topics include the nature of musical pitch, the structure of musical scales and their influence on melody, what gives rise to a sense of tonality, the complexity of rhythmic patterns, and the architecture of musical form. Student work includes building a musical instrument, programming a drum machine, writing computer code to create harmonies and timbres, and an extended music analysis project using empirical methods. Prerequisite: MUSC 101 or permission of instructor as assessed by a diagnostic exam administered at the start of the term.
Prerequisite: Music 101, or permission of the instructor as assessed by a diagnostic exam administered at the start of the term
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MUSC 215 Western Music and its Social Ecosystems, 1830-Present 6 credits
How does music shape society? What does it feel like to participate in musical life—as a creator, performer, listener, leader, fan, or critic? These questions will guide us as we study the history of Western music with an emphasis on social experience. We’ll explore music from the Romantic era to our contemporary moment, with our ears and eyes trained toward the repertoire’s civic and interpersonal meanings. Along the way, you’ll respond to current concert programming and curate playlists that speak to your communities on campus and beyond. Front of mind will be expansive themes of belonging and identity.
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MUSC 217 Opera: Stage, Screen, Recording 6 credits
Opera has something for everyone: drama, desire, politics, stagecraft, design. The medium sets life to music and reveals the music within people’s lives. In the spirit of exchange between art and reality, this course looks at the history of opera through a contemporary lens. Centering on a diverse collection of operas—and voices—from past to present, we’ll ask how modern sensibilities animate the music’s production and performance. We’ll bring concepts of relevance, risk, representation, and justice to bear on opera, with attention to media and technology. We’ll listen to recent operatic interpretations and discover how creatives are making opera new.
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MUSC 232 Golden Age of R & B 6 credits
A survey of rhythm and blues from 1945 to 1975, focusing on performers, composers and the music industry.
Not open to students who have taken MUSC 132
- Fall 2024
- IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Not open to students that have taken MUSC 132 – Golden Age of R & B
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MUSC 304 Party Politics: Popular Music in the Middle East 6 credits
In this research-based course, students will develop listening and analytical skills specific to music in Turkey, Iran, and Arab-majority societies. We will listen to indie rock, hip-hop, mahraganat, Arab pop, techno-dabke, and other popular styles. Topics include the role of radio technology in the Egyptian music industry; the relationship between music and nationalism; how class and gender inform musical performance; and the pleasures and politics of partying. Students will develop individual research topics related to the course (e.g., focusing on a song or artist), with the course culminating in a final research paper. No previous musical experience required.
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MUSC 313 Video Game Music: History, Interpretation, Practice 6 credits
Over the decades, video game music has evolved from simple beeps and boops into a genre that has garnered millions of fans worldwide. This course traces the history of video game music aesthetics and technology. We will consider how it relates to a variety of musical traditions and engages with broader social issues. We will learn to listen for loops, styles, structures, and function in games via direct engagement with primary sources: the games themselves. The course culminates in the practical application of knowledge via a creative project.
Expected preparation: The ability to read music and a previous music course or instructor permission.
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis WR2 Writing Requirement 2
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One 100, 200, or 300 level MUSC course NOT including lesson or ensemble courses with a grade of C- or better.
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RUSS 228 Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity 6 credits
In this course we will study how contemporary Kazakhstani post-colonial identity is expressed and negotiated in the works of Russophone prose and poetry, as well as in film, theater, contemporary art, and urban space. Other topics will include the changing role of the Russian language in Central Asia, linguistic, gender and cultural hybridity, trauma and (post)memory, cultural, ecological and gender activism. Taught in English.
Requires Participation in OCS program in Kazakhstan
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Carleton OCS Russophone Studies in Central Asia program.
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RUSS 228F Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity in Russian 2 credits
This course will offer readings and discussions of Russian-language materials and short speaking and writing assignments. Students taking RUSS 207, 209, 307, and 309 are required to enroll in this supplement to RUSS 228. Taught in Russian.
Open only to student participating in Carleton OCS Program: Russophone Studies in Central Asia
- Spring 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Russophone Studies in Central Asia program and student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 205 – Russian in Cultural Context with a grade of C- or better.
- RUSS 228
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RUSS 242 Russian Short Story 6 credits
In their short prose masterpieces, just as in their famous novels, Russian writers showed formal excellence and bold insights into the big questions of life and death: What kind of life is worth living? What is true compassion and love? What is to be done about evil? We will read short stories by some of the greatest Russian writers, including Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov, Bunin, Nabokov, and Petrushevskaya, in the context of Russian culture and history. In English translation. No knowledge of Russian language or history is required.
In translation
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RUSS 266 The Brothers Karamazov 3 credits
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is many things: a riveting murder mystery, a probing philosophical treatise, one of the best known novels in world literature, and a complex book worth reading and discussing with serious readers of diverse backgrounds. We will familiarize ourselves with the historical and philosophical context in which it was written, while grappling with the fundamental questions it raises: What does it mean to act morally? Why do humans so often act against their own best interest? How do we reconcile a world of chaos and suffering with the notion of a benevolent god? Conducted entirely in English.
1st 5 weeks, in translation
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RUSS 267 War and Peace 3 credits
Against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Lev Tolstoy challenges readers to confront some of the most confounding questions of human existence: How can we reconcile the notion of free will with the seemingly ineluctable forces of history? Is individual moral action possible in war? How can we live a meaningful life in the face of inevitable death? And what might lie after death? In this course we read War and Peace in its cultural and historical context, while also considering how it continues to be relevant to our lives today. Conducted in English. No knowledge of Russian literature or history required.
2nd 5 weeks, in translation
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RUSS 331 The Wonderful World of Russian Animation 6 credits
Beginning in the 1910’s, Russian and then the Soviet Union was home to some of the most creative and innovative animated films in the world. In this course we will examine selected animated shorts in the context of Russian history and culture. Topics to be considered include the roots of animated film in the folk tale, the role of cartoons in educating the model Soviet child, the language of Soviet colonial discourse, and the ways in which post-Soviet animated films perpetuated or subverted past traditions.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): RUSS 205 – Russian in Cultural Contexts with a grade of C- or better or equivalent.
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SPAN 205 Conversation and Composition 6 credits
A course designed to develop the student’s oral and written mastery of Spanish. Advanced study of grammar. Compositions and conversations based on cultural and literary topics. There is also an audio-video component focused on current affairs.
- Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis LP Language Requirement
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 – Intermediate Spanish with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Literature AP exam or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Language AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Spanish IB exam or equivalent.
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SPAN 208 Coffee and News 2 credits
An excellent opportunity to brush up your Spanish while learning about current issues in Spain and Latin America. The class meets only once a week for an hour. Class requirements include reading specific sections of Spain’s leading newspaper, El País, everyday on the internet (El País), and then meeting once a week to exchange ideas over coffee with a small group of students like yourself.
- Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 – Intermediate Spanish with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Literature AP exam or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Language AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Spanish IB exam or equivalent.
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SPAN 220 Racism, Immigration, and Gender in Contemporary Latin American Narrative 6 credits
This course focuses on contemporary short stories and short novels. We will read some of the most relevant living authors from Latin America including Carlos Gamerro, Pilar Quintana, Kike Ferrari, Yeniter Poleo, Antonio José Ponte, among others. This will expose students to the most pressing issues in today’s Latin America, ranging from gender, violence, racism, and immigration. We will interview at least one of the authors read during the term and discuss the social implications of their literature in today’s world.
In Trans
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 – Intermediate Spanish with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Literature AP exam or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Language AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Spanish IB exam or equivalent.
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SPAN 242 Introduction to Latin American Literature 6 credits
An introductory course to reading major texts in Spanish provides an historical survey of the literary movements within Latin American literature from the pre-Hispanic to the contemporary period. Recommended as a foundation course for further study. Not open to seniors.
Not open to seniors
- Winter 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 – Intermediate Spanish with a grade of C- or better or equivalent AND does not have Senior Priority.
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SPAN 247 Madrid Program: Muslim Spain 6 credits
This course examines the Islamic influence in the Iberian Peninsula between the 8th and the 16th centuries. The theoretical sessions will cover different periods (emirate, caliphate, taifa kingdoms, Almoravid, Almohad, and Nasrid) focusing on material culture, including the Mosque of Cordoba, Medina Azahara, Toledo, and the Alhambra. The course also aims to offer a more current vision of how Spaniards have integrated (or rejected) this Islamic past into their own national identity. These topics will address debates that have emerged within Spanish historiography over the past years: Was it an invasion or a conquest? Coexistence, tolerance, or confrontation?
Acceptance in Carleton Madrid OCS Program
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Acceptance in the Spanish Studies in Madrid Program and student has completed the following course(s): SPAN 205 – Conversation and Composition or a higher course with a grade of C- or better.
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SPAN 263 History of Human Rights 6 credits
This course proposes a genealogical study of the concept of Human Rights. The course will begin with the debates in sixteenth century Spain about the theological, political and juridical rights of “Indians.” The course will cover four centuries and the following topics will be discussed: the debates about poverty in sixteenth century Spain; the birth of the concept of tolerance in the eighteenth century; the creation of the modern political constitution in the United States, France and Spain; the debates about women’s rights, abortion and euthanasia, etc.
- Spring 2025
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): SPAN 204 – Intermediate Spanish with a grade of C- or better or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Literature AP exam or received a score of 4 or better on the Spanish Language AP exam or received a score of 6 or better on the Spanish IB exam or equivalent.
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SPAN 330 The Invention of the Modern Novel: Cervantes’ Don Quijote 6 credits
Among other things, Don Quijote is a "remake," an adaptation of several literary models popular at the time the picaresque novel, the chivalry novel, the sentimental novel, the Byzantine novel, the Italian novella, etc. This course will examine the ways in which Cervantes transformed these models to create what is considered by many the first "modern" novel in European history.
- Fall 2024
- IS, International Studies LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One SPAN course numbered 205 or higher excluding Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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SPAN 385 Riots, Rebellions & Revolutions in Latin America 6 credits
Latin American cultural history is one of agitation and turmoil. Since colonial times, Riots, Rebellions, and Revolutions are not only at the center of Latin America’s politics, but also its art, literature, and culture. Through a survey of a representative selection of canonical and non-canonical Latin American texts (including literary pieces, films, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, among others), this course will examine the intersections between literature, politics of unrest, and intellectuals in Latin America. Students will gain an understanding of fundamental topics of Latin American cultural and political history, including colonialism, modernity, racism, and political resistance.
- Winter 2025
- LA, Literary/Artistic Analysis
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Student has completed any of the following course(s): One SPAN course numbered 205 or higher excluding Independent Studies with a grade of C- or better.
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THEA 225 Theater History and Theory 6 credits
Throughout history, theatrical performance has been both a reflection of cultural values and a platform for envisioning social change. In this course, students will examine the theatre of the people: popular theatre, theatre that directly engages with the community in which it lives, and theatre that is woven into the rituals of the culture. This includes ancient Greek tragedy, medieval cycle plays, Yoruban Egungun Masquerade, commedia dell’arte, Japanese Kabuki, Elizabethan theatre, and American popular and grassroots performance. Class sessions will combine lecture, discussion, and performances of historical texts.