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Email |
mals@wfu.edu |
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(336)
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758-4669 |
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MALS,
PO 6103
Wake
Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC 27109 |
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Spring 2005 Courses
MLS 712 Literary Classics of World Religions
This course examines great works of literature from the world’s religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. While the basic teachings of selected religions are introduced to students with no requirement of a background in the subject, the focus of this class remains on scriptural and literary texts that offer classic theological perspectives on the human condition. These are beautiful and profound writings, ranging from the tragic to the sublime, that challenge readers with perennial questions of religious significance. Our subjects and readings encompass philosophical discourses, prophetic oracles, lyric and mystical poetry, lamentation and tragic narrative, erotic imagery, and apocalyptic visions of cosmic destruction. Readings may include the Gilgamesh Epic, Biblical texts (e.g., Job, Genesis, Song of Solomon, Jonah, Isaiah, Revelation), the Qur’an, Sufi poetry, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada, and Zen sutras.
MLS 734 Classical Music in the Twentieth Century
Why did Western music, intended for the concert hall, change so rapidly at the beginning of the 20th century? This course will start with an exploration of how composers such as Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner, and Mahler planted seeds that were bound to create a new style of music. We will then survey the rich panoply of styles that burst on the scene in the first decades of this century: impressionism, expressionism, serialism, neoclassicism, electronic music, and new sound materials. During the second half of the 20th century we will see how these various musical styles combine with each other and with Minimalism to create the exuberant diversity of today’s music.
MLS 735 Theatre as Political, Religious and Cultural Protest
A dramatic work is a chronicle that offers entertainment as well as insight into the cultural, political, and religious influences that surround the play’s creation. Our study of plays will range in time from the Late Middle Ages to the present, and in geography from South Africa to Russia to Mexico. How is a play different than a novel or a poem? What is the difference between drama and theatre? Through a study that crosses geographical and chronological distinctions, we can distinguish how people change, and how they do not.
MLS 774 The History and Culture of Venice (Travel Course)
Venice is a miraculous city, where palaces filled with priceless artistic treasures rise in the most improbable way from the ocean, where streets are water and boats replace cars, and where for centuries some of the world’s greatest works of art and music were created. This course is an in-depth introduction to Venetian culture and history, ranging from its unlikely origins in the lagoon in the Seventh Century to the present day. Musical and visual masterpieces will be viewed in cultural and historical context. Emphasis will be placed on the period of 1450 to 1800, including works by Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Canova, and compositions by Garieli, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Marcello and others.
MLS 783 American Paths to Freedom
Freedom defines America, and the need to protect American freedom is what should guide public policy. Americans differ sharply, however, about what constitutes freedom, and these disagreements frequently engender political conflicts. For some people, a government-guaranteed pension is liberating; for others, it entails an unacceptable loss of freedom to invest one’s own income as one pleases. For some people, freedom will not be safe until the terrorists are defeated; for others, freedom is a state of mind that only exists among those who refuse to be afraid. In this course we will examine fourteen conceptions of freedom which have commanded the attention of some of our country’s most thoughtful citizens. We will read a variety of texts from American literature, economics, theology, and political philosophy, as well as examine the visual arts and popular culture.
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