Spring 2008 Course Offerings

ECS 209/HUM 209/POL 211 Cultural Interpretations
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the foundations of political rhetoric and to study the rhetorical structure of classical works in political theory and political speeches.
Professor Maurizio Viroli
TTh 12:30 – 1:20

ECS 320/WOM327/HIS 424 Cultural Systems:  Sex, Lies, and the Renaissance
"The past is a foreign land," or so historians often observe. Yet powerful human emotions (lust, grief, rage,) often seem timeless, however much their meanings and objects change from one era to the next. This course explores the passions of the Italian Renaissance (c.1400-1630). We will meet men and women from a variety of backgrounds: the very learned, the uneducated, and even the certifiably insane. How did it feel to live in an era still considered by many to be "the cradle of modernity"? Seeking to answer this question, we will compare the desires of different social groups and their strategies for getting what they wanted.
Professor Sarah Ross
Wednesday 1:30 – 4:20

ECS 371/ENG 371/COM 385 Contemporary Literary Theory
Survey of central debates in cultural and literary studies focusing on texts in contemporary theory that formulate an understanding of the self.  Course follows shifts between structuralism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, and Marxism.  As we begin to disentangle the meanings of what we mean when we say “I”, we will inevitably analyze the relationships between subject and subjection, ideology and power, language and authorship, theory and politics.  We will ground our analyses within particular literary, visual, and theoretical works, learning how to read cultural production as theory, rather than “applying” theory to selected texts.
Professor Zahid Chaudhary
TTH 1:30 – 2:20

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Program in European Cultural Studies
Princeton University
Humanities Programs Building, Room 207, Princeton, NJ 08544
Director: Eileen Reeves (ereeves@princeton.edu)
Program Manager: Peggy Reilly (mjreilly@princeton.edu)
609-258-4713 -- fax 609-258-6866