Reading & Composition

In this course, we will read stories of people seduced away from a well-balanced life by the allures of beauty, art, revenge, sex, sentiment—or even by rational thought pushed to extremes. Although we could label these characters as mentally ill, many of the texts we will read portray their deviance as an ambiguous sort of exaltation. Accordingly, we will analyze how each text presents the terrible costs of losing grip, as well as how the characters, from the point of view of their extreme principles, offer a twisted justification for the unbalanced life.

These texts will offer stimulating material for the primary aim of the course, which is to teach you how to write convincing essays filled with intelligent analysis and argument. A considerable amount of class time will thus be devoted explicitly to writing instruction, so that you can exit the course with some well-honed and very useful practical skills. As in all R & C courses, 32 pages of writing are required, including first drafts and rewrites.

Texts:

Euripides, Medea

E.T.A. Hoffman, The Golden Pot

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

Selections from Huysmans, Against the Grain

Poetry by Rimbaud, Eliot, Plath