Course Offerings by term

This course builds on the skills acquired in Intermediate Latin I. You read longer, more difficult texts and train basic methods of classical philology and literary criticism, e.g., metrical and stylistic analysis, textual criticism, use of scholarly commentaries and dictionaries, recognizing levels of style and characteristic generic features.

This course deals with one of the greatest novelists, and one of the major novels, of all time: Marcel Proust, and his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. We will read in detail the first two volumes of his novel, Swann’s Way, and In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower. In addition, we will read extracts from the remainder of the novel that pertain to our chief topics in the course. Proust’s views on time and memory, on love and impossibility, on expectation and disappointment, on knowledge and jealousy, on permanence and the intermittences of the human heart and personality, will all be discussed. Proust had a vast knowledge of visual art, and draws upon paintings to illustrate his aesthetic; he was also deeply knowledgeable about music which plays a key role in Swann’s Way through the composer Vinteuil. We shall consider the paintings that are important in the novel and listen to the music that influenced Proust. Study trips will form a part of this course: to Paris museums and buildings where Proust will himself have seen the art he presents; to the Musée Carnavalet where Proust’s bedroom is housed; and to more recent museums such as the Musée d’Orsay which houses much of the painting of Proust’s period (and the period about which he writes). If possible, a trip will be taken to Illiers (now renamed Illiers-Combray), which was the model for Combray where the first book of the novel is set.

Through writing poetry and analyzing examples, students become familiar with poetic forms and techniques. This workshop, led by a publishing writer, includes weekly peer critique of poems written for the course. Students explore what makes a poem moving, evocative, and imbued with a sense of music, no matter what the approach: lyric, narrative, surreal, or experimental.May be taken twice for credit.

Have you yearned to start a novel, a collection of related short stories or narrative essays, a memoir, or a series of poems? This cross-genre, seminar-style course is designed for students who want to pursue larger, more advanced creative writing projects. Students will submit project proposals for discussion and approval, and then present significant installments of writing at regular intervals during the semester. Revisions will be required along with student-professor individual conferences. Readings will be used as guiding examples, and required reaction papers will be tailored to individual projects. May be taken twice for credit.