First Year Seminar: Scandalous Arts

Catalog description

What's the relationship between politics and laughter? What do ancient Greek comedians and Roman satirists have in common with today's stand-up comics and other ranters and ravers? Many things, in fact, but perhaps most fundamental is the ways they shock audiences and test social norms. This course will examine the various arts (including textual, video, and musical media) that transgress the boundaries of taste and convention in the cultures of Greece and Rome and our own era. We will consider, among other topics, why communities feel compelled to repudiate some forms of scandalous art, while turning others - especially those that have come down to us from remote historical periods - into so-called classics.