Explorations in the Humanities: The Quest

Catalog description

The theme of this course, Explorations in the Humanities: The Quest, is a highly flexible one used to investigate a variety of historically significant works in the arts and humanities from different perspectives-moral, social, historical, literary, artistic, and philosophical. The quest is conceived as a theme involving active human inquiry and historical breakthroughs that enlarged understanding of the world in new ways. The major fields within the arts and humanities that are covered in the course include art and art history, history, literature, philosophy, mythology, and the performing arts (theater, film, music). The selected works within the disciplines exemplify the broad theme of the course. This thematic course emphasizes the development of students' interpretative and close reading skills as applied to historically significant works in the fields of the arts and humanities. The course promotes the improvement of students' writing and critical thinking. It is designed so that students investigate, analyze, and interpret topics within the arts and humanities as they develop principles of critical practice and interpretation. The course promotes critical conversation among students, for example, by providing lectures that introduce and frame topics for discussion (this pedagogical practice is suggested as one possible approach, not as a requirement). The course also stresses the improvement of students' writing and critical thinking skills through such means as essay exams, group work, oral reports, and/or term papers, as deemed appropriate by the instructor. The course also emphasizes interdisciplinary connections between these arts and humanities fields, through broadly synthetic interpretations of important works within their cultural settings. Each iteration of the course is designed by the instructor teaching it, within the framework set out here. The specific works from the arts and humanities covered in the course are selected by the instructor, and represent major works within the disciplines specified above, and as reflected in the theme of The Quest.