Art History
English Language and Literature
History
Humanities
Modern Languages
Science

For descriptions of all classes, including those not offered this semester, see the Course Descriptions page for Liberal Arts in the admissions section.

ART HISTORY
Early Twentieth-Century Art
This course will focus on the art of the early twentieth century, when abstraction emerged as the dynamic element in the visual arts. We will begin by looking at late nineteenth-century artists — Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Gauguin — to explore the ways in which these artists broke with longstanding traditions in European painting. We will then examine the art of the early twentieth century: Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism. We will read artists’ letters and statements, as well as critics’ reactions to this new art. Field trips to the Philadelphia Museum of Art are part of the course.

With prior approval from the instructor, this course can fulfill one semester of the English Literature requirement.

Seventeenth-Century European Art
The seventeenth century is one of the most dynamic in Western art. From Peter Paul Rubens’s exuberant depictions of kings and queens to the silence of Vermeer’s interior spaces, the variety in art in this century in Europe is extraordinary. As we study works of art, we will consider the ways in which historical and social contexts affect the making of art. Trips to the Philadelphia Museum of Art will allow us to study specific works, ranging from contemplative still lifes to dramatic “history” paintings. We will also visit the museum’s special exhibition on Jacob van Ruisdael, the most important seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painter. There will be two or three papers and exams.

With prior approval from the instructor, this course can fulfill one semester of the English Literature requirement.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
ESL: Intermediate to Advanced
This three-hour noncredit English as a Second Language course is designed to improve reading, writing, and conversational skills, as well as to increase vocabulary through reviewing how the English language is put together. The grammatical structures will be taught using not only

Language and Literature
In the first semester, we will study masterpieces of literature that have inspired later generations of writers to revise and retell the original tale. Inevitably the texts demonstrate the importance of point of view, how the telling of a story shapes our narrative allegiance. Indeed, as the heroes switch places with their adversaries, readers may find themselves cheering the villains. In the second semester, we will read novels, poems, and plays that illuminate the work of artists in the midst of selfcreation. Can life be a work of art? Students will be required to write formal essays, response papers, and essay exams.

Texts:
Beowulf (Seamus Heaney translation); John Gardner, Grendel; William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet; Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Anton Chekov, Lady with a Pet Dog; Joyce Carol Oates, Lady with a Pet Dog; James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; Isak Dinesan, Babette’s Feast; Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway; Deirdre O’Connor, Before the Blue Hour;and August Wilson, The Piano Lesson

Shakespeare’s Comedies
“If music be the food of love, play on” (Twelfth Night, I:i)

In this course we will read William Shakespeare’s great comedies and trace two textual issues: the presence of tragedy within comedy and Shakespeare’s use of Ovid’s Metamorphoses—in which Shakespeare discovered an “image of spiritual and bodily transformation, which … could inform the spirit of comedy,” according to the biographer Park Honan (1999). Evaluation will consist of quizzes, an oral report, two essays, and a final exam.

Fin de Siècle: Vienna and Beyond
The course will explore the literary and cultural life in Vienna around 1900 as well as the developments in the German-speaking literature in other urban centers in Central Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century, such as Prague, Berlin, and Munich. We will look at the Viennese “golden age” through the eyes of its great writers and thinkers and critically discuss some key ideas that drove their writing and thinking: decadence, the concept of genius, the cult of youth, and the emergence of the subconscious. In an age that was in many ways characterized by the aspiration for the radical break with traditions in the modes of literary modes of representation (Expressionism and Dadaism), it is also necessary to ask what tradition means and how far it can be broken.

The readings will include dramas, librettos, stories, poems, and essays by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, Stephan George, Georg Kaiser, Franz Kafka, and others.

Irish Literature
A small island in the Atlantic has produced some of the most influential writers in the English language. In this course we’ll study the literary contributions (dubious, delightful and dramatic) of Irish writers. We’ll focus on the so-called canonical figures and find our way into the explosive contemporary scene. Students will be asked to complete two presentations, various in-class essays, and two formal essays.

Texts: W.B.Yeats, Poems; James Joyce, “The Dead”; Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot; J.M. Synge, Playboy of the Western World; Eileen Ni Dhomnail, Poems, Eavan Boland, Essays; Sean O’Faolain, Stories; Seamus Heaney, Collected Poems

American Moderns: Hard-boiled Fiction and Film Noir
From Hammett to Himes, The Big Sleep to The Big Lebowski, hard-boiled and noir have become a staple of popular culture, winning the collective imagination with fast-paced narratives, colorful language, shifty characters, and an unflinching look at life (and death) in urban America. In this course we will begin by considering the techniques and concerns that characterize the early writers of this genre, with an aim to understanding the emergence of new attitudes in the first half of the twentieth century toward knowledge, power, identity, and desire, as well as new technologies and regulations that influenced the production of print media and film. We will then proceed to investigate changes in hard-boiled fiction and film noir after World War II that would result in a broader range of styles, strategies, questions, and concerns.

Readings include works by Dashiell Hammett, W. R. Burnett, Raymond Carver, Chester Himes, Dorothy Hughes, Patricia Highsmith, Walter Mosley and Paco Ignacio Taibo. Screenings may include such films as Detour, The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Brick, and The Big Lebowski. There will also be short assigned texts on film and literary theory.

Fiction Workshop
In the fiction-writing workshop,  students write numerous stories and read great works of short fiction. We will attend to the traditional elements of storytelling (plot, setting, characterization, and dialogue) while analyzing the work of Joyce, Porter, Hemingway, Munro, Chekhov, and O’Connor, among others. In the process we will discover the importance of technique and voice, and we will work to master the craft of writing a fine story while discovering and shaping our individual voices. E. B. White said that, when he wrote, he occasionally had “the exquisite thrill of putting a finger on a little capsule of truth” (The Bedford Reader, 461). Participants in the fiction workshop may find themselves doing the same. Each student will be required to write short stories, read and evaluate short fiction, and produce a final portfolio of work.

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HISTORY
Western Civilization I
This course will deal with the history of Western Civilization from remote antiquity to the late Middle Ages. As a prelude to the cultures of ancient times, the evolution of the earth and man will be studied. Thereafter the various civilizations of the ancient Near East will be surveyed before moving on to the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. Following this the successor civilizations of Medieval Europe, Islam, and Byzantium will be covered in some detail.

The format will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. Reading will be modest but it is assumed that what is assigned will be read. Evaluation procedures for the course will include essay exams as well as quizzes.

Western Civilization II
This course will treat with Western Civilization from the late medieval and Renaissance periods through all of early modern Europe and into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among major topics covered will be the rediscovery of classical culture in medieval Italy, the rise of Spain and its demise, the ascendancy of France in the seventeenth century, the growth of parliamentary government in Tudor, Stuart and Hanoverian England, the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, the growth of nationalism in the nineteenth century, and the demise of Europe in the twentieth century due to the world wars and other factors. The format of the course will be identical to that of Western Civilization I.

America and the World Since 1945
This year-long course will deal with world history since 1945. Although the course will emphasize the history of the United States during this period, other regions of the world during the modern era will be dealt with, as well. Topics will include the Cold War, the results of the end of Western colonialism, the advent of nuclear-armed nations, the continuing Middle East crisis, the attempt to create a more unified Europe, and the rise of new threats to world stability. For each semester of the course there will be two essay exams and two quizzes. A book review of a supplementary text can be substituted for one of the two quizzes. Discussion is encouraged, but the primary format of the course will be the lecture approach.
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HUMANITIES
Introduction to Psychology
This course is a survey of major concepts and applications of psychology in the world of science, human behavior, medicine, counseling, the arts, and everyday life. Students in this course will learn how to read and critically evaluate the many sources of information available about psychology and gain a greater understanding of traditional and contemporary research, theory, and practice. Special attention will be given to the application of psychology to the performing artist and the creative process. The format of the course will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. Reading materials will be a textbook and supplemental materials. Course evaluation will include short journal essays, one paper, and two exams. Please note that the course will count as a one-semester course in terms of credit, but it will meet for ninety minutes per week throughout both semesters.

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MODERN LANGUAGES
French 101/102
French 101/102 is a first-year introductory college course for students who have had little or no previous instruction in French. The course will develop skills in hearing, speaking, reading and writing French, and using French in Action, a video program developed at Yale University by Pierre Capretz. French in Action emphasizes modern, colloquial French and how it is used in everyday life in France. Students are encouraged to use their own creativity and originality in French.

French 201/202
French 201/202 is a second-year intermediate/advanced college course for students who have taken French 101/102 or who have had the equivalent experience in French (generally two or more years of high school French). The four languages skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—will be emphasized, with a particular emphasis on everyday, conversational French. French in Action, a video program developed at Yale University by Pierre Capretz, will be used for grammar review and to facilitate conversation in class. Supplementary readings in French, as well as French films, may be introduced in the class, as well.

Italian 101/102
Italian 101/102 is a two-semester introductory course in Italian intended for students with no previous or minimal knowledge of the Italian. The four basic language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing will be covered in this course. Special emphasis, however, will be placed on developing proficiency in oral/aural communication. Italian 101 will cover grammatical structures and the vocabulary used in every day contexts. Supplementary consideration will be given to Italian opera and musical terminology. Contemporary art, film, and cultural and political contexts will be explored, as well.

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SCIENCE
Computer Applications for Musicians
This one-semester course provides thorough preparation in the use of Finale for the creation of scores and parts, an introduction to the use of Sibelius, and instruction in the preparation of PowerPoint presentations. Keyboarding and word-processing skills are reviewed and reinforced.

Sound Technology for Musicians
Major topics covered in this course include microphones, sound systems, recording systems, history of sound recording, speakers, digital audio editing, sound modification, the physics of sound, the recording industry, legal aspects of recording, and sampling sounds. Each student will have an audio project for the term. By the end of the course, students will know the evolution of sound recording from before Edison to present, understand the impact of microphone selection on sound recording, understand the role of room acoustics on sound recording, and will have an appropriate digital-audio related project.

Musical Acoustics 
An introduction to the physics of sound: auditory perception, acoustical properties of musical instruments, architectural design, tuning and temperaments, and sound production. The emphasis is on students understanding the acoustics of their own instruments.

Web Design and Visual Culture
This course aims to strengthen practical working skills and computer literacy (Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator) while providing a theoretical understanding and brief history of visual culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addition to the creation of personal web spaces in both MySpace and Facebook, the course will include a semester-long project in which each student will create a personal Web page (for self-promotion or blogging), with graphic and animated elements, logo, and copy. The course will also include readings by Marshall McLuhan, Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes.

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