UNIV 104IWhat Makes a Villain?

Catalog

WHAT MAKES A VILLIAN? - - - The UNIV 101 & UNIV 104 courses offer a blended course format which includes two primary components, one focusing on the academic topic, taught by a faculty member with the second component devoted to new student transition topics, taught by a professional staff partner instructor. This freshmen seminar course will explore an intriguing intellectual topic, help freshmen hone critical thinking and writing skills, and assist students in making a successful transition to university life. - - - Who is the villain - and who gets to decide? This seminar analyzes villains in cinema and society to explore one of storytelling's most enduring and morally complex figures. We will move through a carefully selected range of films and texts, asking not just what villains do, but what they reveal - about power, about fear, about the societies that produce them and the stories that sustain them. From Hitler to Hannibal Lecter, from the monster we pity to the hero we shouldn't trust, we will develop the critical tools needed to read villainy with nuance and skepticism. Along the way, we will ask harder questions: What is evil? Can a villain be right? Who in our own world gets cast as the villain, and why? NOTE: All UNIV 101 and UNIV 104 courses are restricted to students in their FIRST SEMESTER at the University. Students MAY NOT register for more than one UNIV 101 or UNIV 104 course.