COL 373
Fall 2024
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01
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Is love a special kind of madness? Do love and madness lead to kindred encounters with the limits of experience? What are the subjects of unreason that inform our conceptions of the world and the "real"? How might the novel (as a literary genre) help us to reason philosophically about irrational experience?
This course explores love and madness through depictions of reason and unreason in two major prose works by the author of "the first modern novel," Miguel de Cervantes through a close reading of Don Quixote and The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda. From the adventures of a country gentleman turned knight-errant to the trials and tribulations of two sojourning lovers repeatedly separated and reunited on the road, we will explore the lived and the ideal, the rational and the irrational, the presence and the absence, the mortal and the immortal in the erotic encounter at the outset of the modern literary imagination.
Both texts will be read in contemporary English translation. No foreign language knowledge is required. Recommendations for appropriate critical editions in Spanish will be provided for any student who wishes to read in the original language.
This is a discussion-based close reading seminar. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (COL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 75% - 89% |
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