101. First Year Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies. (3). (HU).
Section 001 – Laughter, Life, and Literature. Intellectuals from Aristotle
to Woody Allen have been haunted by laughter. Although we all share in the
experience it is hard to pin down just why it is we laugh and what makes
something funny. "Laughter, life, and literature" is intended
as an empirical approach to this problem through a selection of literature, drama, and film. We will read, view, discuss, and write about works from
Aristophanes' Lysistrata, to Mel Brooks' (film) The Producers.
Along the way we encounter Petronius, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Balzac, Gogol, Woody Allen, Raymond Carver and others (the bulk of which will be conveniently
available in the course pack). Our focus shall be the curious process whereby the most serious material – war, death, injustice, suffering – is transformed
into something we enjoy. With the help of Bergson, Freud, Bakhtin and other
philosophers of the issue we will explore the boundaries of the comic (at
which point is it NOT funny?), the social and political function of comedy
in different cultural contexts, and the varieties of humor: mad, cathartic, aggressive, destructive, defensive, celebratory, etc. We confront a host
of related issues such as the nature of tragic pleasure, the language and metaphors of humor, culture-specific humor, and what constitutes bad taste
in distinction from personal preference. No more preparation is assumed than an eagerness to explore new material and sharpen analytical skills.
Students will write two papers of moderate length and give an oral presentation
in the second half of the term. (Dobrov)
104. First Year Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies. (4). (Introductory
Composition).
Section 001 – The California Gold Rush. This First-Year Seminar introduces the study of U.S. history through a key nineteenth century event: the California
Gold Rush. It examines the local, national, and international forces that
brought North Americans, Latin Americans, Europeans, and East Asians into the Sierra Nevada foothills after 1848, and what happened when they invaded the gathering and hunting grounds of native Californians. It pays close
attention to race and ethnic relations in the mines, not only between newcomers
and natives but between groups of newcomers. It also attends to gender relations
- to how natives and newcomers handled their assumptions about proper behavior
for women and men in a situation characterized by skewed sex ratios and racial and ethnic diversity. It examines the emergence of distinct social
and economic classes as the gold boom gave way to a bust, and as mining
shifted from individualized to industrialized labor. It investigates these
topics not only through books and articles by historians, but through materials
produces at the time of the Gold Rush – diaries, newspapers, censuses, maps, guidebooks. It also examines how the Gold Rush has entered collective memory
- through films, songs, plays, stories, and tourism. Writing assignments
and in-class presentations take the place of exams in this seminar, and cooperative learning is stressed. (Johnson)
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