Freshman Seminar
Polyglots, Vagabonds, and Interpreters in the European Renaissance
“I understand,” he said, “but what?”
-Rabelais
What language do they speak in Utopia? What does it sound like? How about on the moon, or in America? What is the best way to read invisible writing? In this seminar we will consider these and other pressing questions about the role of different languages in culture and politics. Our focus will be on the Renaissance, the cultural moment that sees the European encounter with America and China, the rise of the printing press, and the birth of the modern nation state, among other things. We will read several literary texts by major authors in which themes of linguistic diversity and inter-lingual communication are stressed. We will study these works, along with material from travelers’ accounts and explorers’ journals, as well as writings by modern scholars interested in the relationship between the rise of modern vernacular languages, national identity, and colonialism. All readings and discussion will be in English. No knowledge of any other language is required.
Books on order:
Rabelais, Pantagruel (trans. Brown, Hesperus Books)
Shakespeare, Henry V (Signet Classics)
More, Utopia (trans. Miller, Yale University Press)