HUM 202-05, Search for Values in the Light...., Spring 2005

Abstract

This course examines a selection of major works of the modern West. We begin at the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of the Romantic period, and we continue through the modern and postmodern period, looking at, among other things, various cultural responses to industrialization and the rise of consumer capitalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. While our focus will be on literary texts, we will also consider some of the major philosophical and political writings that influenced, and were influenced by, literary works. We will consider the historical context in which these works were produced, the literary and intellectual traditions which they have come to define, and the ways in which the texts speak to each other.