2012-2013 Academic Year Calendar - Marianopolis

Researching Crime WritingThis course on researchingeighteenth-century crime writingwill explore the thematic treatment ofcrime in the development of variouspopular literary forms, includingballads, broadsides, engravings andcriminal biographies. All of theseforms are woven together into thefabric of the early eighteenth-centurynovel. Authors, artists and dramatistsfrom the period took their inspirationsfrom the streets. The course will alsoinvolve students doing research withhistorical documents (courttranscriptions, criminal confessionsand pamphlets) from the period.Living Sculpture Beau Brummell toLady GagaThis course seeks to understand thequintessential figure of nineteenthcenturyAestheticism: The Dandy.We will trace the genealogy of thishistorical figure from its birth in theRegency period in short essays byCaptain Jesse, Carlyle, Hazlitt, andBaudelaire; its Decadent transformationin the late nineteenth centuryin the literary and critical works ofBeerbohm, Barbey d’Aurevilly,Wilde, and Huysmans; to its current,postmodern incarnation in conceptualart and pop culture in the visualpractices of contemporary artistssuch as Yinka Shonibare, Gilbert &George, Andy Warhol, and LadyGaga.Shakespeare over TimeShakespeare’s plays have beeninterpreted around the globe in amultitude of ways in the latetwentieth- and early twenty-firstcenturies. Students in this course willconsider what happens to themeaning-making potential ofShakespeare’s drama once it isdisplaced from the culturalpreoccupations of its originalhistorical moment and then resituatedwithin a variety of recent critical andperformative contexts. Beforeexploring the challenges ofinterpreting Shakespeare’s fourhundred year old language accordingto the concerns of today’s world,students will first acquire a generalunderstanding of his drama’ssignificance in its own time.Power of RepresentationThis course focuses on literature thatdemonstrates a keen awareness of thepower stories have to shape publicperception and – by extension –public opinion, attitudes and beliefs.The primary texts studied in thecourse – both comics and prose –demonstrate this awareness not onlyin their own exploration and representationof social, political and culturalissues, but also in the ways theyparody, refer and allude to narrativesfrom literature, popular culture andhistory that have participated indefining these issues in the past.Legal IssuesStudents are introduced to differentareas of law: criminal, constitutional,contracts, negligence, family law andemployment law. Students learn toidentify and analyze legal issues anduse effective techniques of persuasionto argue different sides in hypotheticallegal cases. After careful study of oneof the above legal issues under theguidance of the instructor, studentscan choose other issues from thereading list and prepare a group oralpresentation in which they present therelevant sides of a hypothetical legalcase based on the legal issue. Studentsdevelop and practice skills of oral andwritten persuasion in their assignmentsand in each class.General Education: EnglishSocial IssuesThis course designed in its goals andstandards for second-year, universityboundstudents reinforces criticalreading, writing, and communicationskills. Students are expected to bemore autonomous in generating ideasfor discussion and contribute toclassroom learning by organizing andparticipating in seminars usingliterature as the focus. Since thefictions deal with social issues, animportant outcome should be anawareness of social problems. Thereading will be diverse spanning timeto show that the concerns in societyare mirrored in literature in literarythemes and plots.Literature and TheoryThe objective of this course is toenable students to develop greatercritical ability in approachingliterature from various perspectives.Students will study a range of criticalapproaches and learn to apply them toselected literary works. Approachesdiscussed may include New Criticism,Reader Response Theory, PsychoanalyticCriticism, Eco-Criticism,Post-colonial Criticism, GenderStudies, Feminism, Queer Theory,Marxism, and New Historicism.Students will refine their criticalthinking and oral skills in the designand management of their seminars.They will learn to lead discussion, toframe questions and express informedopinions.Critical Approaches to MythologyIn this course, we will draw upon theconventions of several critical andtheoretical lenses in order to sharpenour critical reading of major imagesand themes in world mythology. Wewill begin, through both reading anddiscussion, by exploring the traditional33