Most RC courses are open to LS&A students and may be used to meet distribution requirements.
RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE WAIT LIST PROCEDURES
Residential College students are given priority in all Residential College courses during the Early Registration and registration periods, and from waitlists. RC courses which satisfy specific Residential College graduation requirement are reserved for RC students only (e.g., RC language courses).
Waitlists of Residential College courses are maintained in the Residential College Counseling Office, 134 Tyler, East Quad. When a course fills, students should contact the RC Counseling Office (647-4359) to be placed on a waitlist if one is being maintained.
RC sections of LS&A courses
These sections will be letter graded for all students
Chem 130, Sections 111 General Chemistry, Macroscopic Investigations
& Reaction Principles.
Students must elect lecture Section 100 in conjunction with this
course. See Chemistry 130.
Chem 210 Section 190 Structure & Reactivity.
Students must elect lecture section 211 in conjunction with this
course.See Chemistry 210.
Math 115 Section 110 Analytical Geometry & Calculus.
See Math 115.
Arts and Ideas |
Comparative Literature |
Creative Writing |
Drama |
Music |
Take me to the Fall Time Schedule
236/Film Video 236. The
Art of the Film. (4). (HU). Laboratory fee ($45)
required.
See Film-Video 236. (H.
Cohen)
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Times, Location, and Availability
290. The Experience of
Arts and Ideas in the Twentieth Century. (4). (HU).
In the twentieth century, many artists, writers, and film makers
have attempted to defamiliarize everyday reality – make it strange
or "uncanny." Often, their justification for this defamiliarization
practice was that it was a means to get their audiences to think
about the changeable nature of both their worlds and themselves.
After examining the concept of the uncanny in the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud and the formalist criticism of Victor
Shklovsky, this seminar will explore the development of an aesthetics
of the uncanny in the heterogeneous artworks, literature, and film of the Dada and Surrealist artists between 1916 and 1939.
In its second half, this seminar will explore the reception of
uncanny aesthetics in European and American culture since the
1980's. (Biro)
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Times, Location, and Availability
311. Intellectual Currents
of the Renaissance. Sophomore standing. (4). (HU).
Section 001 – Shakespeare and Rome. In this course we will
read a selection of Shakespeare's roman plays (Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, and Cymbeline)
in the light of their ancient sources, especially Ovid, Livy, Plutarch, and Caesar. We will ask what the figure of "Rome"
means in the context of each play, and how that historical reference
point is used to frame problems of contemporary import in Shakespeare's
own time. As comparison and contrast, we will also examine the
reclamation of Rome by artists of the Renaissance and the Counter-reformation, especially Mantegna, Titian, and Caravaggio, in order to make
arguments concerning antiquity and memory; martyrdom and authority;
and the status of the image. This course will focus on Shakespeare's
plays as texts to be read, studied, and interpreted. From time
to time, however, members of the Residential College Drama concentration
will visit the class to talk about the plays as genuine theater
productions on the stage. (Sowers)
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Times, Location, and Availability
313/Slavic Film 313.
Russian Cinema. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($50) required.
See Slavic Film 313. (Eagle)
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Times, Location, and Availability
333. Art and Culture.
(4). (Excl).
Section 001 – The Subject in the Aftermath of Revolution.
This course is intended to address a problem by now quite familiar
to individuals interested in critical theory, that of the subject.
The problem will be approached through sets or groupings of literature
and the visual arts, each set accompanied by a reading in theory
or philosophy. We will begin from a position at once topical and drastic, the notion of the radically constructed subject of 20th
century revolutionary utopia – the subject conceived as a work
of art. This subject is situated in a history believed to be inevitable, oriented towards an attainable future of social justice, requiring
only the overcoming of reactionary obstacles to be realized. The
"new man or woman" of this project operates both as the engine and the index of historical fulfillment. The course
will then backtrack to trace the paradoxical genealogies of the
revolutionary subject through the stages of essentialist romanticism; the willed, but "natural" subject of 18th and 19th century
progressive/enlightenment models; the ethical self of free choice; the arbitrary or semiotic subject of post-structuralism; and finally
a return to the ethical subject, face to face with the Other that
has emerged with special power at the end of this history of restless
revision and reconstruction. (Sowers)
Introduction: Totalitarian Aesthetics
Boris Groys, The Total Art of Stalin
The Gesture of Longing for Immortality
Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
Caspar David Friedrich paintings
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of
our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful
The Aftermath of Revolution
George Buchner, Danton's Death
G.W.F. Hegel, selections from the Phenomenology of Spirit
(the "beautiful soul;" the "master/slave relationship.")
Theodore Gericault paintings
A Mirror of the Social Order
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
Edgar Degas portraits
Beautiful Souls
Milan Kundera, Immortality
The Ethical Self Face to Face with the Other
Magdalena Abakanowicz sculpture
Jacques Derrida, The Gift of Death
Section 002 – Frames of Identity: Self-Portraiture and Autobiography Since the Renaissance. Leonardo Da Vinci's
Aphorism "every painter paints himself" indicates a
common assumption we have about visual and literary art – that the self of the artist is somehow embodied in the work. Romanticism, Idealist philosophy, and Freudian psychology have provided modern
artists, viewers, and readers with modern justifications for locating the artist within the artwork or text. This course will investigate
self-representation and self-performance in Western art since the fifteenth century, in the genres of portraiture and life-writing, as well as in other forms that are not supposed to offer explicit
likenesses of the artist. We will attempt to understand the "self"
as a changing historical concept, and in most instances we will
treat self-portraiture as a deliberate statement about artistry.
At the same time, we will consider how different cultural ideas
of the artists – such as craftsman, gentleman, visionary, bohemian, or genius – figure in the creation of particular artists' personas, as embodied and performed in particular works of visual or verbal
art. Artists to be considered include Michelangelo, Albrecht Dürer, Titian, Bernini, Rubens, Poussin, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Caspar David Friedrich, Edgar Degas, Edvard
Munch, Anselm Kiefer, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Yasumasa Morimura.
Four short papers will be required, as well as a term paper. Readings
will include social and psychological theories of the self, art
history, literary criticism, autobiography, and poetry. (Willette)
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Times, Location, and Availability
275. The Western Mind
in Revolution: Six Interpretations of the Human Condition. (4).
(Excl).
This course will treat six major reinterpretations of the human
condition from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries generated
by intellectual revolutions in astronomy (Copernicus: the heliocentric theory), theology (Luther: the Reformation), biology (Darwin:
evolution of the species), sociology (Marx: Communism), psychology
(Freud: psychoanalysis), and physics (Einstein: the theory of
relativity).
All six reinterpretations initiated a profound revaluation of Western man's concept of the self as well as a reassessment of the nature and function of his/her political and social institutions. Since each of these revolutions arose in direct opposition to some of the most central and firmly accepted doctrines of their respective ages, we will study: (1) how each thinker perceived the particular "truth" he sought to communicate; (2) the problems entailed in expressing and communicating these truths; and (3) the traumatic nature of the psychological upheaval caused by these cataclysmic transitions from the past to the future - both on the personal and cultural level.
If the function of humanistic education is to enable the individual
to see where he/she stands in today's maelstrom of conflicting
intellectual and cultural currents, it is first necessary to see
where others have stood and what positions were abandoned. The
emphasis of this course will not be upon truths finally revealed
or upon problems forever abandoned, but rather upon certain quite
definite perspectives that, arising out of specific historical
contexts, at once solved a few often technical problems within
a specialized discipline while unexpectedly creating many new
ones for Western culture as a whole. Texts: Copernicus, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies (1543); Luther, Appeal
to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), Of the Liberty of a Christian Man (1520); Darwin, The Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859); Marx, Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844), Das Kapital
(1867, 1885, 1894); Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
(1900), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905);
and Einstein, Relativity, the Special and the General Theory:
A Popular Exposition (1921). (Peters)
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Times, Location, and Availability
317. The Writings of
Latinas. A course in women's studies or Latina/o
studies. (4). (HU).
This course brings to the forefront the abundant literary production
of Latinas in the United States. The core of the work will comprise
reading and discussion of works (essays, poems, narrative fiction)
of Chicana writers, as well as women writers from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Among the authors to be studied are Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Cristina Garcia, Judith Ortiz Coffer, Gloria Anzaldúa, Helena Maria Viramontes, Elena Castedo, and Alicia Partnoy. Films
and visual art by Latinas will supplement the literature in the
course.
The works selected are richly textured, filled with cultural content, and imbued with nostalgic evocation of what has been lost. Representing a broad range of Latina experience, they confront such issues as colonial domination and political and/or economic exile. All of the texts relate to the history of the Americas, and address the position of women within their own cultural/ethnic/racial group as well as within a dominant culture.
Students will be expected to keep a journal of their reactions
to the works read or viewed and to write three substantial papers
which reflect their ability in critical reading of the texts.
They will also prepare and deliver seminar presentations on selected
poetry in the course. Tentative readings: Alvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies (Chapel Hill: Algonguin Books
of Chapel Hill, 1994); Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/LaFrontera
(San Francisco: Aunt Lute Book Company, 1987); Castedo, Elena, Paradise*; Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street
(New York: Vintage Books, 1989); Coffer, Judith Ortiz, Silent
Dancing (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1990); Garcia, Cristina, Dreaming in Cuban* (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992);
Partnoy, Alicia, The Little School (Pittsburgh: Cleis
Press, 1986). (Moya-Raggio)
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Times, Location, and Availability
410. Upperclass Literature
Seminar. (4). (HU). May be repeated for credit.
Section 001 – Father & Sons. Be it the relationship between
Odysseus and his son Telemachus in The Odyssey or Creon
and his son Haemon in Antigone or Noah and his sons in The Old Testament, from the beginning of literature relationships
between fathers and sons have often involved complex and passionate
emotions the source and meaning of which elude the pair's understanding.
Fathers may have narcissistic expectations for their sons, and certainly expect – indeed need – fathers to be models of behavior, attitudes, beliefs. It is satisfying, even inspiring, when a father
fulfills these expectations – and in our study we shall encounter
a number who do – but not all fathers can or do fulfill them and this often results in torturous confrontations and long standing
conflicts. We will examine a variety of narratives that tell of
both harmonious and troubled relationships: novels such as Chain
Potok's The chosen, Saul Bellow's Seize the Day,
Richard Russo's The Risk Pool, short stories such as
Ernest Hemingway's "Indian Camp," "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife," "comic" books such as Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale, I and II, plays such as Arthur
Miller's The Death of a Salesman or Eugene O'Neills A
Long Days Journey into Night or Athol Fugard's Master
Harold...and the boys, poems such as Ken Mikolowski's "michael/alternatives,"
autobiographies such as Philip Roth's Patrimony, and films such as Pat Conroy's The Great Santini or Elia
Kazan's East of Eden. For purposes of comparison, we
will read one work that deals with a mother-daughter relationship.
Students will write at least two papers plus a midterm and final
exam. Films will be viewed at night. (H. Cohen)
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Times, Location, and Availability
451/Russian 451. Survey
of Russian Literature. A knowledge of Russian is
not required. (3). (HU).
See Russian 451. (Schönle)
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Times, Location, and Availability
476/Chinese 476/Asian
Studies 476. Writer and Society in Modern China. No
knowledge of Chinese is required. (4). (HU).
See Chinese 476. (Feuerwerker)
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Times, Location, and Availability
220. Narration. Permission
of instructor. (4). (CE).
Suggested assignment: 1250 words of prose fiction every two weeks.
Rewriting is emphasized. The class meets as a group up to two
hours per week. Collections of short fiction by established writers
are read. Every student meets privately with the instructor each
week. (Hecht)
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Times, Location, and Availability
221. The Writing of Poetry.
Permission of instructor. (4). (CE).
The amount of poetry each student is required to submit is determined
by the instructor. The class meets three hours per week as a group.
In addition, each student receives private criticism from the
instructor every week. Contemporary poetry is read and discussed
in class for style. Students are organized into small groups that
meet weekly. (Mikolowski)
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Times, Location, and Availability
222. Writing for Children
and Young Adults. (4). (CE).
Individualized instruction, group discussion and readings aim
at the development of original story ideas and the perfection
of narrative techniques relevant to the authorship of children's
books. Preliminary assignments – picture book, folklore-narrative, and media – prepare each student for a self-directed final project.
No prerequisites; however, a thorough reading background in children's
books – or the willingness to compensate for its lack – is presumed.
Please do not take this course expecting "lectures"
about children's books or child development. This is a writing
course emphasizing story-writing skills and aesthetics. (Balducci)
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Times, Location, and Availability
320. Advanced Narration.
Hums. 220 and permission of instructor. (4). (CE).
This course is designed for writers of longer fiction who can
benefit from instruction and peer feedback. Three 15-20 page short
stories or three 20-25 page segments of longer works are due at
evenly spaced intervals during the term. Everyone in the class
reads everything submitted. The class meets three times a term, as a workshop, to discuss everyone's work. Each student meets
with the instructor each week for private discussion of work both
completed and in progress. Enrollment is limited to a maximum
of six students, usually students who have completed Narration
and/or Tutorials. Permission of instructor is required. (Hecht)
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Times, Location, and Availability
Hums 325,326,425,426 Creative Writing Tutorials. (4).
(Excl).
Tutorials provide an opportunity for students who want to write, no matter how sophisticated their work, to have their efforts
recognized with constructive criticism and academic credit. Reading
may or may not be assigned, depending upon the background needs
of the individual student. Tutorial students meet privately with the instructor each week. Permission of instructor is required.
(Hecht/Mikolowski/Balducci/Taylor)
280/English 245/Theatre
211. Introduction to Drama and Theatre. No credit
granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in RC Hums.
281. (4). (HU).
The course aims to introduce students to the power and variety
of theatre, and to help them understand the processes which go
toward making a production. Five plays will be subjects of special
study, chosen to cover a wide range of style and content, but
interest will not be confined to these. Each student will attend
two lectures weekly, plays a two-hour meeting in section each
week; the latter will be used for questions, discussions, exploration
of texts, and other exercises. Students will be required to attend three or more theatre performances, chosen from those available
in Ann Arbor. (Cardullo)
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Times, Location, and Availability
380. Greek Theatre. (4).
(Excl).
Section 001 – Greek Theatre and Modern Adaptations. This
hands-on experience with ancient texts will incorporate acting, movement and voice as we explore the timeless masterpieces of
Greek drama. Our process will examine the time and place of the
drama as well as it's universal themes and relationships. Classwork
will focus on intensive scene study from a half-dozen plays by
Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. At the end of term, we will
bring their work into the present through the rehearsal and performance
of several important modern adaptations. Students should have
had previous acting experience. Those with a background in movement
or music are also encouraged, as are prospective directors. Admission
is by interview/audition and permission of instructor. (Mendeloff)
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Times, Location, and Availability
381. Shakespeare on the
Stage. Hums. 280. (4). (HU).
This course involves intensive study of Shakespeare's plays as
performed events. Students will read, discuss, analyze, and explore through performance outstanding scenes from nine major plays, representing all genres Shakespeare practiced, in order to discover
how Shakespeare's drama communicates it meaning to an audience
in a theatre. Attention to the conventions and conditions of the
Elizabethan stage, the shape of Shakespeare's career as a whole, and modern interpretations of the plays will supplement this activity.
Requirements: two fully prepared scenes and one monologue; four
short "precept papers," or quizzes; required play-viewing
(which may be accomplished by an optional field-trip to the Stratford
Festival); and an end-of-term presentation cum final.
The principal plays covered will be: Comedies: Midsummer Night's
Dream, Twelfth Night; Histories: Henry IV, Parts 1 &
2; Tragedies: Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear;
"Problem Plays" (Tragicomedies): Much Ado About
Nothing; Romances: The Tempest. No prerequisites.
Although some previous experience as theatre-goer/actor/student
of Shakespeare is advisable. First-Year students may consider this an entry level course for the RC Drama Concentration and the equivalent of Introduction to Theatre and Drama. For more
advanced Theater students there will be ample opportunities for
directing scenes and developing Shakespearean/Elizabethan audition
pieces as part of one's requirements. (Walsh)
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Times, Location, and Availability
484. Seminar in Drama
Topics. Upperclass standing, Hums. 280, and three
300- or 400-level drama courses. (4). (Excl). May be repeated
for credit.
Section 001 – Stratford Festival Field Trip. In depth study
of the current criticism and trends in production of the plays
to be viewed, prior to an October field trip to the Stratford
Festival. Requirements: an in-class presentation on one of the
designated plays and, after extended group discussions, short
critiques (or final exam) on the productions seen. Most Likely
Weekend: October 23-24, with the possible productions: Much
Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Two Gentleman of Verona,
Molière's The Mser. (Walsh)
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Times, Location, and Availability
250. Chamber Music. (1).
(CE). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.
No audition required. All students who are interested in participating
in instrumental ensembles may enroll for one or two hours of credit.
The second hour of credit is at the discretion of the instructor.
Every student must elect Section 001 for one hour; those students
who will fulfill the requirements for two hours of credit MUST
also elect Section 002 (with an override from the instructor)
for the additional hour of credit.
For one hour of credit students must participate in two ensembles;
for two credit hours, students must participate in the large ensemble
and two smaller ones. Responsibilities include three to four hours
of rehearsal time per week per credit hour (i.e., 6-8
hours of practice and rehearsal for 2 credits) and participation
in one or more concerts per term, if appropriate. Course may be
used to fulfill the Residential College's Arts Practicum Requirement.
Ensembles have included: mixed ensembles of strings and winds;
brass quintet; intermediate recorders; string quartet; woodwind
quintet; and some other duos and trios, including piano and harpsichord.
(Barna)
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Times, Location, and Availability
251. Topics in Music.
(4). (HU).
Section 001 – Across Borders: The Imagery of the East in the Music
of the West. The aim of this course is to place the European
musical tradition within the context of the different musical
cultures. The course will combine the ethnomusicological and musicological
approaches by discussing European music not as an isolated phenomenon, but as a constant exchange between Eastern and Western cultures.
The idea of "West" and "East" proposed in the title of this section will be deconstructed by exploring the
question of Diaspora – the spread and intermixture of various
cultures, particularly Mediterranean.
This course is a chronological excursion though different historical periods, with discussions of musical types, genres, composers and pieces. At the beginning of the course, we will explore chronologically both influences and representations of the East. For instance, we will study how, in later centuries, the reorganization of Christian church and the formulation of Gregorian chant coincided with the emergence of Islam and the tradition of Qur'anic recitation. We will also discuss how the art of the European troubadours parallels the tradition of the Jewish hasan, Turkish ashiks and Arabic poets.
We will observe that the separation of East and West surprisingly increased in the age of the geographic "discovery" when the cultural connections began to appear on a different level. For example, during the European renaissance, baroque, and especially classical periods, musicians repeatedly rediscovered the imagery of the East. In the romantic era, the panorama of European music expanded, including eastern regions such as Hungary and Russia. The latter had its own "East," represented in Russian classical music.
We will find out that at the end of the nineteenth century, like Gauguin in art, many musicians and composers sought their
identities in historical or territorial distance. The interest
to the distant cultural idioms became a signature of the musical
modernism. Finally, we will enter the twentieth century which
began with a new musical Diaspora, including Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and many others. (Later even the popular attempted to connect
West and East.) It is hoped that this course will provide students
with knowledge of European musical history in the context of world
musical diversity. This course will give students a sense of their
place in an historical/geographical/cultural continuum. (Naroditskaya)
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Times, Location, and Availability
253. Choral Ensemble.
(1). (CE). Offered mandatory credit/no credit.
Section 001 – Women's Choral Ensemble. Group rehearses twice
weekly and prepares a thematic concert of music from the vast
Women's Chorus Repertoire. Vocal skills, sight singing, and basic
musicianship are stressed. No prerequisites, but a commitment
to the group and a dedication to musical growth within the term
are required. No audition necessary.
Section 002 – Mixed Choral Ensemble. Four-part works
from a variety of musical styles are rehearsed and prepared for
performance in concert. Meets twice weekly. Vocal skills, sight
singing, musicianship, and ensemble singing are stressed. No prerequisites, but a commitment to the group and musical growth within the term, are required. No audition necessary.
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Times, Location, and Availability
254. The Human Voice
as An Acoustical Instrument. (4). (CE).
Section 001 – Basic Technique for Singers and Actors, Including the Alexander Technique. This course is open to students
who want to develop their voices for speaking and singing, to
sing more comfortably, and to maintain vocal health. The course
is directed towards singers (with or without previous vocal training), speech, and acting students, and those who want to find out if they can sing. Most voices are undeveloped (or under-developed), and we can learn how to develop our vocal equipment for whatever
our own purpose. Because our voices are housed within us, we must
consider the whole voice-body-mind as the subject of our study.
Ms. Heirich is a STAT and NASTAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, and this body of work will inform all that we do in the course. The class meets together on Mondays and Fridays from 1-3 P.M. Your schedules should TEMPORARILY remain flexible between 12-5 on Wednesdays for scheduling of small group sessions. This scheduling will be completed by the end of the first class meeting - Friday, September 11.
There will be one required text, some optional readings, daily
preparation, and an individual or team project required. LS&A
guidelines for 4-credit courses expect 3 hours of work per credit
hour, hence, you should be prepared accordingly. With more than
4 hours in "class" (a weekly average of 6.25 hours, which includes the small group and individual lessons), there
will be proportionally less expected of you outside of class.
The required reading will be Miracles Usually Can't Be Learned,
a basic vocal text by Jane Heirich, available as a course pack.
(J. Heirich)
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Times, Location, and Availability
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