Comedy, Fall 2001

(Complete Item Description)

Abstract:: Surveys a range of comic texts from different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors and directors studied may include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, MoliSre, Austen, and Chaplin. This is a second variation of the course. It includes a survey of a range of comic texts from different media, the cultures that produced them, and various theories of comedy. Authors studied include Twain, Wilde, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Like other communications-intensive courses in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, it allows the student to produce a long writing assignment, in addition to several shorter pieces; it also offers substantial opportunities for oral expression, through student-led discussion, class reports, and class participation.

Subject:: Humanities, Social Sciences
Grade Level:: Post-secondary
Collection:: MIT OpenCourseWare

Forms of Western Narrative, Spring 2004

(Complete Item Description)

Abstract:: Major narrative texts from diverse Western cultures, beginning with Homer and concluding with at least one film. Emphasis on literary and cultural issues: on the artistic significance of the chosen texts and on their identity as anthropological artifacts whose conventions and assumptions are rooted in particular times, places, and technologies. Syllabus varies, but always includes a sampling of popular culture (folk tales, ballads) as well as some landmark narratives such as the Iliad or the Odyssey, Don Quixote, Anna Karenina, Ulysses, and a classic film. This class will investigate the ways in which the formal aspects of Western storytelling in various media have shaped both fantasies and perceptions, making certain understandings of experience possible through the selection, arrangement, and processing of narrative material. Surveying the field chronologically across the major narrative genres and sub-genres from Homeric epic through the novel and across media to include live performance, film, and video games, we will be examining the ways in which new ideologies and psychological insights become available through the development of various narrative techniques and new technologies. Emphasis will be placed on the generic conventions of story-telling as well as on literary and cultural issues, the role of media and modes of transmission, the artistic significance of the chosen texts and their identity as anthropological artifacts whose conventions and assumptions are rooted in particular times, places, and technologies. Authors will include: Homer, Sophocles, Herodotus, Christian evangelists, Marie de France, Cervantes, La Clos, Poe, Lang, Cocteau, Disney-Pixar, and Maxis-Electronic Arts, with theoretical readings in Propp, Bakhtin, Girard, Freud, and Marx.

Subject:: Humanities, Social Sciences
Grade Level:: Post-secondary
Collection:: MIT OpenCourseWare

Major European Novels, Fall 2008

(Complete Item Description)

Abstract:: This subject traces the history of the European novel by studying texts that have been influential in connection with two interrelated ideas. 1) When serious fiction deals with matters of great consequence, it should not deal with the actions of persons of consequence--kings, princes, high elected officials and the like--but rather with the lives of apparently ordinary people and the everyday details of their social ambitions and desires. To use a phrase of Balzac's, serious fiction deals with "what happens everywhere". 2) This idea sometimes goes with another: that the most significant representations of the human condition are those dealing with persons who try to compel society to accept them as its destined agent, despite their absence of high birth or inheritance.

Subject:: Humanities, Social Sciences
Grade Level:: Post-secondary
Collection:: MIT OpenCourseWare

Studies in Film, Fall 2005

(Complete Item Description)

Abstract:: Intensive study of films of a particular period or genre, or films by a single director. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic: Technologies of Seeing: Pre-cinema to Early Cinema. This course investigates relationships between two media, film and literature, studying works linked across the two media by genre, topic, and style. It aims to sharpen appreciation of major works of cinema and of literary narrative. The course explores how artworks challenge and cross cultural, political and aesthetic boundaries. It includes some attention to theory of narrative. Films to be studied include works by Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Francis Ford Coppolla, Clint Eastwood, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Federico Fellini, among others. Literary works include texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Honoré de Balzac, Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Subject:: Humanities, Social Sciences
Grade Level:: Post-secondary
Collection:: MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse: Keyword: Cervantes

You searched for:

Refine Your Search

Comedy, Fall 2001

Forms of Western Narrative, Spring 2004

Major European Novels, Fall 2008

Studies in Film, Fall 2005

Add new alignment tag:

Top Keywords

Conditions of Use

Browse: Keyword: Cervantes

You searched for:

Refine Your Search

Comedy, Fall 2001

Forms of Western Narrative, Spring 2004

Major European Novels, Fall 2008

Studies in Film, Fall 2005

Send link to this page

Add new alignment tag:

Top Keywords

Conditions of Use