Arts College Courses Fall 2008

To join the Arts College, select up to three of the following courses as your top foundation seminar preference (in order of preference).

ENGL 090 01 CRN: 13966
Wordly Art: Writing Past Self
Prof. Paula Closson Buck
Fulfills the following requirements:
Humanities; Engineering Humanities; First-year course; Writing Level 1

Many modern and postmodern writers have found inspiration in socio-political events and contexts, which they approach in personal ways. Novelist Don Delillo’s White Noise takes on modern society's fear of death and its obsession with chemical cures. Poet Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination addresses racial stereotyping in the Susan Smith murder case. Nicaraguan Gioconda Belli chronicles her experience as a Sandinista revolutionary in her memoir The Country Under My Skin. Poet Chase Twichell looks at threats to the natural environment in “The Ghost of Eden.” Essayist Michael Pollan considers subjects like America’s “national eating disorder” and the politics of lawn mowing. In this seminar we will visit socio-political hot spots in modern and contemporary life, both national and global, by reading some of the finest and most acclaimed writers of our time who have lived in them and/or been inspired by them. (We may also make some forays into the realm of visual art.) We will step up our own global and political awareness by paying attention to the news regularly and by researching areas of interest. Coming at both literature and the world from the angle of our own artistic impulses, we will experiment with writing poetry, fiction, and essays that utilize the personal but are informed by our explorations of political, social, and even historical events and contexts.

ENGL 090 07 CRN: 13972
Modern World Theatre
Prof. Meenakshi Ponnuswami
Fulfills the Following Requirements:
Humanities; Engineering Humanities; First-year course; Writing Level 1

We will first survey different concepts of theatre, examining communal performance (such as rituals, parades, or protests), private or interpersonal role-playing, and theatre "proper" (and improper). After examining the history of some ancient theatres, including Greek, Indian, and Japanese forms, we will study one of the most popular and influential texts of world literature, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The remainder of the course will focus on modern plays, particularly those that have had a global influence or perspective.

FOUN 099 40 CRN: 11431
You Call that Art?
Prof. Roger Rothman
Fulfills the following requirements:
Engineering Humanities; First-year course; Writing Level 1

This course examines the sometimes bizarre but always fascinating world of "anti-art." Focused around the life and work of Marcel Duchamp--born in 1887 and considered the granddaddy of anti-art--this course will introduce you to a wide variety of artistic inventions of the last century. Throughout the semester we will explore works of modern and contemporary art across a variety of disciplines, including: painting, sculpture, cinema, music, dance, theater, and poetry. In addition, as part of Bucknell's "Common Learning Agenda" (CLA), this course will introduce you to many of the fundamental skills, habits, and resources that will help you become a successful student here at Bucknell--regardless of your subsequent academic interests and fields of study. The first two months of the course will be devoted to lectures, class discussions, and visits to various resources on campus; the third month of the course will be devoted to writing and presenting individual research papers based on material from the first two months of the course.

FOUN 099 53 CRN: 13792
Masks and Meaning
Prof. Elaine Williams
Fulfills the following requirements:
Writing Level 1; Perspectives on Human Diversity

The great paradox of a performer using a mask in a play or a religious ritual is that the self is hidden by the mask yet the inner spirit is revealed. In this class, you will make masks to give meaning and expression to essential realities about yourself and the society in which we live. You will find the expressive potential of different mask-making techniques and materials and learn to use color, shape, line, and texture for their symbolic and metaphoric power. Looking at the masks of the world will reveal how to use distortion, stylization, and exaggeration for great effect.