HONR 2100 SECTION 1: Jane Austen Adaptations – Angie Del Balzo
Jane Austen is probably behind only Shakespeare among writers in the size of her footprint on popular culture. This class will read three Austen novels alongside literary and film adaptations of her work that feature protagonists in different cultural contexts including the Bennets’ silent servants, Japanese American suburbanites, an Afro-Latina teen in gentrifying Brooklyn, two cousins in 20th-century England and Nigeria, and a privileged Los Angeles queen bee. Over the course of the semester, we will use these texts to think through important questions about art and culture. How do Austen’s plots and style influence later reimaginings? What can modern Austen adaptations tell us about the way we understand race, culture, class, imperialism, gender, etc.? Why are Austen’s novels so popular to adapt?
HONR 2100 SECTION 2 and 3: Dystopian Literature – Rob Carney
“Do you think, then, that we should attempt such a survey? For it is, I assure you, too big a task to undertake without thought.”
“‘We know what we are in for,’ returned Adeimantus, ‘go on.’” (58)
—Plato, The Republic
The questions raised by Plato are some that we will pursue all semester. They’re foundational. The States and possible futures built on that foundation are too many to list, so we’ll focus on a few renowned and lesser-known works in the dystopian genre and ask, “Futuristic fiction: paranoia or prophecy?” This is fun, of course, but not as easy as it sounds. There’s a lot of academic attention paid to these works, and many scholars liken dystopian authors to Old Testament prophets speaking out in the predominant form of our age. Another way to think of it is this: These fictive works are philosophy and social critique done as demonstration rather than discussion. We’ll be doing a little bit of both as we interpret novels, short-stories, philosophy, and film and do some discussing, group presenting, and writing.
HONR 2100 SECTION 4: NARRATOLOGY – Leslie Simon
Food for thought: Is storytelling a biological imperative for humans (it’s how we think—our brains are wired that way) or a rhetorical structure (it’s how we present—our cultures have conditioned us to process through stories)?
Narrative theorists write that the “past couple of decades have witnessed an explosion of interest in narrative,” as story has come to be seen by scholars in various branches of the humanities, social sciences, and sciences as “a basic human strategy for coming to terms
with time, process, and change.”[1] This uptick in interest in narrative—in academic disciplines as wide ranging as medicine, philosophy, business, law, cognitive and social psychology, sociology, and of course literature, linguistics, and the arts—has been called a “narrative turn” in scholarship. We will study (and participate in) this “narrative turn” this semester, examining narrative theory alongside examples of storytelling from across time and around the globe. We will trace the evolution of storytelling practices from the oral (ancient) to the written (modern) to the interactive (postmodern), exploring how narrative takes shape through increasingly varied and complex media forms: epic poems, novels, plays, films, and television series, yes, but also digital media, online games, graphic novels, data sets, medical and legal narratives, and even course syllabi (!).
[1] David Herman, Brian McHale, and James Phelan, eds., Teaching Narrative Theory (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2010): 1.
HONR 2100 SECTION X01: American Indian Experience - Tiffany Nez
In this class, we would like to understand and reimagine a discussion about the American Indian experience, both as history and as current topics. But our approach won’t focus on a pinned and preserved subject already on display; neither will it attempt to clear the ledgers or balance the books on historical debts and cultural trauma. We will consider the subject through a variety of disciplines: narrative, history, art, philosophy, religion, and science. I would like to encourage you as students to draw from your own backgrounds and fields of study to relate to the subjects in unique ways and facilitate discussions that explore the ongoing reality of this cultural exchange. We will read Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, Alexie Sherman, N. Scott Momaday, David Grann.
HONR 2100G – 001, Music and Dis/Ability - Chris Ramos; MW 2:30 - 3:45 PM
"Music and Dis/Ability" examines the relationships among music, disability, identity, culture, and access. Through listening, discussion, critical reading, and engagement with a range of musical practices and media, students will explore how disability shapes musical composition, performance, participation, representation, and institutions in addition to how these aspects of musicking also shape our perception of disability. The course introduces foundational concepts from disability studies and considers how music can represent, reinforce, and/or challenge cultural assumptions about bodies, minds, senses, and artistic value. No previous musical training or ability to read music is required.
HONR 2100G – 002 and 004, Nature and Modernity: Ideas of Nature from the Renaissance to the Present - Michaela Giesenkirchen Sawyer; MW 1 - 2:15 and 4 - 5:15 PM
Nature seems self-evident. We speak of natural disasters, natural rights, natural resources, and the natural world. Yet the meaning of nature has changed dramatically over the last five hundred years. Since the Renaissance, new developments in science, philosophy, politics, religion, literature, and the arts have repeatedly transformed how people understand nature and humanity's place within it.
This Honors seminar examines major modern conceptions of nature, from the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment through Romanticism, Darwinian evolution, ecology, environmentalism, and contemporary debates about climate change and the Anthropocene. Through texts drawn from multiple disciplines, students will explore how changing ideas of nature have shaped modern understandings of knowledge, politics, technology, freedom, and responsibility.
The course emphasizes discussion, critical reading, and interdisciplinary connections among the sciences, humanities, and social sciences.
HONR 2100G – 005, The History of the Body - Elyse Vaccaro; TR 11:30 - 12:45 PM
In The History of the Body we examine the understanding and representation of the human body from the Renaissance to current times.
We will learn about:
This enables us to explore how these perspectives shape our current understanding of the human body and what is considered “normal.”
Ultimately, we disentangle tricky subjects like:
HONR 2100G – X01, An American Indian Experience - Tiffany Nez; Online
In this class, we would like to understand and reimagine a discussion about the American Indian experience, both as history and as current topics. But our approach won’t focus on a pinned and preserved subject already on display; neither will it attempt to clear the ledgers or balance the books on historical debts and cultural trauma. We will consider the subject through a variety of disciplines: narrative, history, art, philosophy, religion, and science. I would like to encourage you as students to draw from your own backgrounds and fields of study to relate to the subjects in unique ways and facilitate discussions that explore the ongoing reality of this cultural exchange. We will read Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, Alexie Sherman, N. Scott Momaday, David Grann.
