Courses

Spring 2010 - Course Descriptions

Modern Languages

Modern Languages 92-01 — Romance Linguistics: An introduction to the history and development of French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese & Romanian (*in English)

Block G+ - John Julian

Our modern Romance languages are spoken by nearly 700 million people worldwide, and so they constitute (after Mandarin Chinese) the most successful and widespread family of languages on earth. Because of their shared descent from ancient Latin, these languages have a lot in common, especially in their grammars and vocabularies, even though they may differ a lot in pronunciation. Our aim will be to study these similarities and differences, so that interested language students will not only learn more about their chosen Romance language but also develop the linguistic skills they need to more easily acquire a second or even third language in the Romance family. In addition, we will consider how the Romance languages fit into the greater Indo-European group, and we will examine the social, geographical, political, and cultural factors which hastened the fragmentation of Vulgar Latin and the development of its modern descendants.  Special emphasis will also be placed on the ways in which Romance languages become part of a speaker's cultural identity and on the many advantages and disadvantages that this mosaic of languages poses for the newly enlarged European Union.  Conducted in English.  Prerequisite: Knowledge of at least one Romance language (2 semesters) or Latin or consent.

Texts: Victoria Fromkin, An Introduction to Language (8 ed., 2007); Frederick Wheelock, Wheelock's Latin, (6ed., 2006).

World Languages

World Literature 150 — Literature of Chaos (*in English)

Block H+ - Juan Alonso

The voyage through the spiritual and political chaos of the 19th and 20th centuries has produced a literature which speaks of an irrational man in an irrational world.  This course will examine the theme of chaos as it is expressed in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and in works by Dostoyevsky, Thomas Mann, Camus, Nathaniel West, Unamuno, and Borges.  No prerequisites.

Texts: Carroll, The Annotated Alice (Forum Books); Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground (Dell); West, Miss Lonelyhearts (Avon); Camus, Caligula and Three Other Plays (Silbert & Stuart); Mann, Death in Venice,  Trans. D. Luke (Penguin); Unamuno, Abel Sanchez and Other Stories, Trans. A. Kerrigan; St. Emmanuel the Good (Resnery); Alonso, Killing the Mandarin (Authors Guild Back in Print – iuniverse.com); Borges, Ficciones (in English) (Random House)

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