The Art and Ends of Reading: Tragedy
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Open Enrollment curriculum.
Tragedy, as a literary genre, is often regarded as the highest form of artistic expression in the West, not so much for its aesthetic qualities as for the way it poses the most fundamental of human questions: “What does it mean to be human?” and “Is humanity, so conceived, viable?” We explore these questions through a reading of some of the best and most representative tragedies (in the tutorial), together with foundational critical and philosophical reflections on the nature of tragedy in the seminar. On the theory of tragedy, we read Nietzsche, Hume, Emerson, Unamuno, and others; in the tutorial, Oedipus, Hippolytus, King Lear, along with various modern works including, Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, and Peter Shaffer’s Equus.
Notes
Online registration deadline: Dec. 22, 5 PM CT
Remote courses require you to login to Canvas to access the Zoom Classroom. You will receive an invitation to join Canvas about a week before your course begins. Please visit the Liberal Arts Student Resources page to find step by step instructions for Canvas and Zoom: Online Learning Resources