Proseminar (411-0-1)

Instructors

Gary S Morson
1880 Campus Dr. (Kresge) Office 3369
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:15-4:15 pm

Meeting Info

Kresge 3364 Slavic Seminar Rm: Wed 3:00PM - 5:50PM

Overview of class

This course explores varieties of philosophical fiction - parables, religious tales, philosophical detective stories, dialogues of the dead, realist and fantastic stories - that pose ultimate questions about life's meaning. Readings from the Bible, Greek tragedy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Voltaire, Lewis Carroll, and more. Themes include the nature of happiness, the human capacity for evil and crime, nonsense and the absurd, the significance of death, and the role of ideas in life.

Registration Requirements

undergraduates should have taken one of my courses, art other literature courses, or philosophy courses.

Learning Objectives

1) to appreciate how ideas work in fiction, and how fiction illuminates philosophical ideas, 2) to construct an argument and write clearly.

Class Materials (Required)

Course pack provided. Garnett translations of Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, The Posssessed (we will read extracts of these), and Fathers and Sons. Abridged Edition of Dostoevsly's A Writer's Diary. Lewis Carroll, "he Hunting of the Snark." Burgin/O'Connor translation of The Master and Margarita. Garnett translations of Chekhov stories: "The Student," "Happiness," "Lights," "On the Road," "In Exile," "Gooseberries," "Uprooted," "Easter Eve," "The Pipe." Solzhenitsyn's novel, In the First Circle (extracts). Tolstoy, "The Death of Ivan Ilych" and "What Men Live By" (Maude translations).