CWL 581

Fall 2011 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar Lit Themes

Credit: 4 hours.

Study of a theme or type (the Faust myth, the romantic hero, etc.) to discover its essential components in all the literatures studied and the significance of national variations. The subject of the seminar varies each term.

May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours if topics vary.

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CWL 581 class schedule data for fall 2011
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	51331	Lecture	NB	3:00PM -4:50PM	M	G30 Foreign Languages Building	Blake, N	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/22/11-12/07/11 Credit: 4 hours Section Title: Analyze Vis Arts, Poetry, Film Section Info: Topic: Psychoanalytic Reading of Visual Arts, Poetry and Film. Sacrifice - Among various origin myths, one stands out for its depiction of the unspeakable transgression of all human values. Yet this story comes to us from ancient Greece and innumerable scholars have identified the presence of early Greek culture in our Western tradition, strongly influencing our political values and our private dreams. In this story, a god, Dionysos , assumes the form of a child, is murdered and devoured by the Titans, who act unanimously. The child is dismembered and the flesh is cooked and consumed down to the heart when Zeus with his the lightning bolts, arriving too late to stop the crime, contents himself with punishing it by reducing the Titans to dust and ashes. From these ashes, the human race is created. The murder of Dionysos, according to the myth, would be the model of the first sacrifice. What is at stack, for human society and for individual equilibrium, in this model? How have philosophers, anthropologists and psychoanalysts seen sacrifice and what does contemporary neuroscience contribute to our understanding of this practice? In what ways could the notion of sacrifice define what it means to be human?