Once Upon Our Time: Contemporary Retellings of Myths and Tales Once Upon Our Time: Contemporary Retellings of Myths and Tales
In this course, we will consider recent fiction by British and American women writers that mine some of Western culture’s foundational myths and tales for insights into both historical and...
Operas that Changed the World Operas that Changed the World
Opera is an especially sensitive barometer of trends in Western culture. This seminar discusses the history of opera: its structure, vocal types, relationship between words and music and social...
Pirsig’s Progress: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a Modern Spiritual Journey Pirsig’s Progress: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a Modern Spiritual Journey
Since its publication in 1974, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (ZAMM) has been widely hailed as a modern classic as well as a work that defies conventional...
Plato: Gorgias and Phaedrus Plato: Gorgias and Phaedrus
The Gorgias and the Phaedrus are two of Plato’s greatest dialogues. They are most commonly grouped together because at the core of each of them is a philosophical discussion of rhetoric, and the two...
Poetic Realism: French Cinema of the 1930's and 1940's Poetic Realism: French Cinema of the 1930's and 1940's
Before Italian Realism and the Nouvelle Vague, French filmmakers of the 1930’s and early 1940’s created a new cinematic vocabulary for the narrative cinema, emphasizing a stylized naturalism devoted...
Poetry and Prose of Hart Crane Poetry and Prose of Hart Crane
The master of an impossible syntax and diction, the victim of a tormented and ecstatic passion, had he lived longer, according to Harold Bloom, Hart Crane might well have become our greatest poet, As...
Reading Aristotle, On the Soul (De Anima, Peri Psyches) Reading Aristotle, On the Soul (De Anima, Peri Psyches)
In this relatively short but important and foundational work, Aristotle explores the nature of the life force, psyche or soul. Soul, as Aristotle addresses it, is a philosophical and scientific...
Reading Chicago Politics: From Harold Washington to the Present Reading Chicago Politics: From Harold Washington to the Present
This course will feature the life and career of Professor Dick Simpson, Professor of Political Science from UIC and will participate in the course. We will examine the politics of Chicago from Harold...
Reintroduction to Joy Reintroduction to Joy
The course is designed to deepen your experience and understanding of joy. Texts are drawn from Asian and Western poetic and religious traditions. The course is divided into three parts touching upon...
Shakespearean Comedies: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure Shakespearean Comedies: As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure
In this course we’ll read three of Shakespeare’s comedies, all believed to have been written between 1599 and 1604. There are elements that unite these three plays – disguises, heartache, severe moral...