ISH Course Catalog:
Undergraduate Courses
HUMNTIES 100. Text in Context: Oedipus and His Vicissitudes: Tales of Modernity from Sophocles, Freud, Turgenev, Chekhov, and Virginia Woolf
Tales of Modernity from Sophocles, Freud, Chekhov, Babel, and Woolf. Introduction to cross-disciplinary approach in humanities through foundational texts in the modern tradition. The main focus is on Sigmund Freud's Totem and Taboo (1913), alongside his ancillary writings. Contemporary social thought and historical scholarship provide the context (Georg Simmel, Norbert Elias, Karl Schorske, John Murray Cuddihy) while works of imaginative literature (Sophocles, Anton Chekhov, Isaac Babel, and Virginia Woolf) illuminate the significance of the Oedipus myth for understanding the inter-generational conflict in antiquity and modernity.
Freidin, G.; Staveley, A. | WINTER W,F 2:15-4:05 | Units: 3
Freidin, G.; Staveley, A. | WINTER W,F 2:15-4:05 | Units: 3
HUMNTIES 161. Texts in History: Classics from Greece to Rome (CLASSGEN 163, DRAMA 161R)
Priority to students in the Humanities honors program. Ancient texts situated in their intellectual and cultural contexts. Readings include Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles' Antigone, Euripides' Medea, Thucydides' Peloponnesian War, Plato's Symposium, Aristotle's Poetics, Virgil's Aeneid, Seneca's Trojan Women and Agamemnon, and Augustine's On Christian Doctrine.
Rehm, M. | AUTUMN T,Th 3:15-5:05 | Units: 3-5
Rehm, M. | AUTUMN T,Th 3:15-5:05 | Units: 3-5
3-5 Units, Winter (Rush Rehm, Classics)
HUMNTIES 162. Texts in History: Medieval to Early Modern
(Same as ENGLISH 184C.) Priority to
students in the Humanities honors program. The impact of change from
the Middle Ages to the early modern world; how historical pressures
challenged conceptions of artistic form, self, divine, and the physical
universe. Interdisciplinary methods of interpretation. Texts include:
Aristotle, On the Soul; Attar,The Conference of the Birds; Dante,
nferno; Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; Christine de Pizan, The Book of the
City of Ladies; Letters of Columbus; Machiavelli, The Prince; Luther,
The Bondage of the Will; Montaigne, Essays; Marlowe, Doctor Faustus;
poems by John Donne and Lady Mary Wroth; Shakespeare, Othello; and
works of art. GER:DB-Hum
5 Units, Spring (Helen Brooks, English)
HUMNTIES 163. Texts in History: Enlightenment to the Modern
(Same as ENGLISH 184D.) Priority to students in the Humanities honors program and English majors. The relationship between intellectual, political, and cultural history, and imaginative literature in the modern period. Rousseau, Kant, Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, Marx, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Mill, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Beckett. GER:DB-Hum
5 Units, Autumn (Alice Staveley)
HUMNTIES 170. Media Studies Internship
Practical experience working with a film or media company for six to eight weeks. Students make arrangements with companies individually and receive the consent of the director of the Humanities honors program. Credit awarded for submitting a paper after completing the internship, focused on a topic relevant to the student's studies
HUMNTIES 175. Individual Work
Individual work for students actively involved in research and writing of their honors essay (consent of the tutor required).
HUMNTIES 181. Philosophy and Literature
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track: majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. Issues may include authorship, selfhood, truth and fiction, the importance of literary form to philosophical works, and the ethical significance of literary works. Texts include philosophical analyses of literature, works of imaginative literature, and works of both philosophical and literary significance. Authors may include Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Borges, Beckett, Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas, Pavel, and Pippin. GER:DB-Hum
Anderson, L.; Landy, J. | WINTER M,W 3:15-5:05 | Units: 4
Anderson, L.; Landy, J. | WINTER M,W 3:15-5:05 | Units: 4
4 Units, Winter (Lanier Anderson, Phil., and Joshua Landy, Fr.&It.)
HUMNTIES 185. Sex, Sacrifice, and Civilization: Baroque Opera and Tragedy (ENGLISH 185, MUSIC 190H)
The revival of ancient tragedy in the Baroque opera house. The central mysteries of tragedy: knowledge of suffering, necessity of sacrifice, pleasure of pathos. How tragic drama and opera used poetry, dance, and music to sway the passions and prompt reflection. Greek myths of Medea, Iphigenia, Alceste, Idomeneo. Plays by Euripides and Racine; operas by Mozart, Gluck, and Charpentier.
Hadlock, H.; Hoxby, B | AUTUMN M,W 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
Hadlock, H.; Hoxby, B | AUTUMN M,W 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
4-5 Units, Autumn (Heather Hadlock, Music, and Blair Hoxby, English &)
HUMNTIES 191S. Capital and Empire (HISTORY 239D, HISTORY 339D)
Can empire be justified with balance sheets of imperial crimes and boons, a calculus of racism versus
railroads? The political economy of empire through its intellectual history from Adam Smith to the present; the history of imperial corporations from the East India Company to Walmart; the role of consumerism; the formation of the global economy; and the relationship between empire and the theory and practice of development.
Satia, P. | SPRING M 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
railroads? The political economy of empire through its intellectual history from Adam Smith to the present; the history of imperial corporations from the East India Company to Walmart; the role of consumerism; the formation of the global economy; and the relationship between empire and the theory and practice of development.
Satia, P. | SPRING M 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
4-5 Units, Spring (Priya Satia, Hist.)
HUMNTIES 192T. Wagnerian Echos: A Cultural History from Modernism to Popular Culture (GERGEN 161, MUSIC 150G)
The afterlives of mythological themes from the operas and music dramas of Richard Wagner (The Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Ring cycle, Parsifal) in literature, modernist aesthetics, fascist politics, film, philosophy, and contemporary media.
Grey, T.; Daub, M. | SPRING M,W 2:15-3:45 | Units: 3-5
Grey, T.; Daub, M. | SPRING M,W 2:15-3:45 | Units: 3-5
3-5 Units, Spring (Thomas Grey, Mus., and Adrian Daub, Ger.)
HUMNTIES 194M. Globalization and Contemporary Fiction (English 261D)
The globalization of the contemporary Anglophone novel. How the English language novel relates to recent models of archiving world literature. How novels from Nigeria, India, Guyana and Australia foreground the socio-political implications of colonialism and decolonization, the amorphous relationship of the public and private spheres, the contended fates of human rights and territorial sovereignty. Texts by Sinha, Kempadoo, Shangvi, Greenville, Moretti, Casanova, Slaughter and others.
Majumdar, S. | SPRING T,Th 3:15-5:05 | Units: 5
Majumdar, S. | SPRING T,Th 3:15-5:05 | Units: 5
5 Units, Spring (Siakat Majumdar, Eng.)
HUMNTIES 199A. Honors Essay Writing Workshop
Two quarter sequence. Students discuss progress on research and writing the senior honors essay. Required for seniors in the Humanities honors program.
Batuman, E. | AUTUMN, WINTER | Units: 1-2
Batuman, E. | AUTUMN, WINTER | Units: 1-2
HUMNTIES 200A. Research Proposal
Preliminary planning and study. Student drafts a proposal in Winter Quarter of the junior year to submit to the committee in charge for suggestions regarding focus and bibliography. After revisions, the student resubmits a fully developed proposal to the committee for additional comment and/or final approval. 60 hours over two quarters are expected of students developing their essay proposals for 2 units, usually 1 unit each in Winter and Spring of the junior year. Students usually make revisions of some kind in either scope or formulation of the topic. Students overseas submit proposals and receive feedback by fax or email. [WIM]
HUMNTIES 200B. Senior Research
Regular meetings with tutor (thesis adviser). Prerequisite: 200A. WIM
HUMNTIES 200C. Senior Research
Regular meetings with tutor; submission of complete first draft at least two weeks before final deadline. Prerequisite: 200B
HUMNTIES 201. Digital Humanities Practicum
For Humanities majors concentrating in digital humanities. Work related to the honors thesis under the supervision of a Stanford faculty or staff member usually affiliated with the Stanford Humanities Lab. Must be approved by the Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
HUMNTIS 18. Sex, Sacrifice, and Civilization: Baroque Opera and Tragedy (ENGLISH 185, MUSIC 190H)
HUMNTIES 185: Sex, Sacrifice, and Civilization: Baroque Opera and Tragedy (ENGLISH 185, MUSIC 190H)
The revival of ancient tragedy in the Baroque opera house. The central mysteries of tragedy: knowledge of suffering, necessity of sacrifice, pleasure of pathos. How tragic drama and opera used poetry, dance, and music to sway the passions and prompt reflection. Greek myths of Medea, Iphigenia, Alceste, Idomeneo. Plays by Euripides and Racine; operas by Mozart, Gluck, and Charpentier.
Hadlock, H.; Hoxby, B | AUTUMN M,W 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
The revival of ancient tragedy in the Baroque opera house. The central mysteries of tragedy: knowledge of suffering, necessity of sacrifice, pleasure of pathos. How tragic drama and opera used poetry, dance, and music to sway the passions and prompt reflection. Greek myths of Medea, Iphigenia, Alceste, Idomeneo. Plays by Euripides and Racine; operas by Mozart, Gluck, and Charpentier.
Hadlock, H.; Hoxby, B | AUTUMN M,W 2:15-4:05 | Units: 4-5
4-5 Units, Autumn (Hadlock, H.; Hoxby, B)