Featured Courses
FALL 2013 UNDERGRADUATE FEATURED COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
LIT 4930: James Bond- Fifty Years (Boca campus)
Professor Buckton
“The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling—a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension—becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it. James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge.”
These words—the opening of Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel Casino Royale—introduced one of the most exciting and influential characters in modern literature, who would go on star in the longest-running franchise in film history. James Bond—also known as 007—was created by Ian Fleming 60 years ago, and his global popularity grew with the successful films that began with Dr No in 1962 and marked their fiftieth anniversary with Skyfall, in 2012. Launching an exciting series of adventures featuring international spies, glamorous Bond girls, Aston Martins and other fast cars, exotic travel, luxurious dining, vodka martinis (shaken, not stirred!) and a gallery of memorable, fiendish villains, Casino Royale changed the course of post-war literature. As the critical and commercial success of Skyfall shows, James Bond is as popular now as he has ever been. But how can we explain the long lasting global appeal of this character? How much of Bond’s story is the creation of Ian Fleming—who died in 1964—and how much is the invention of the filmmakers, and actors, who gave him life on the screen? In what ways do the changing faces and varied adventures of Bond reflect wider social issues, political events, and historical trends? What can Bond tell us about changing gender roles and class identities in the last fifty years? In this course we will be looking closely at a selection of Bond films and the novels that inspired them—such as Dr No, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Casino Royale, and Skyfall—so as to engage with the fascinating literary, cinematic, and cultural aspects of this popular icon. The assignments will include readings of novels and criticism (by Barthes, Eco, and others), film screenings, and quizzes and exams on the various works assigned.
[This course satisfies category II]
ENL 3425: Metamorphosis
Professor: Mitchell
In Metamorphosis students will read novels, poems, and plays that are concerned with transformation--physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual. This class will also explore the ways that writers transform earlier literary works into new literary creations, and examine the ways that some contemporary writers transform traditional genres into new forms. This class will also explore how language undergoes transformations through word play, puns, and even error, such ss malapropisms. Some of the texts we might read: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Apuleius's The Golden Ass, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, an ancient Greek play, Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, Nabokov's Pale Fire, Kafka's Metamorphosis.
[This course satisfies category II and Pre-1800]
ENL 3425: Greek and Roman Classics
Professor Leeds
This course introduces students to a body of literature that English and American authors from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century experienced as the heart of their education and assumed their readers knew as well: the literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Our first goal is acquaintance with the recurring conflicts of Greco-Roman civilization. Accordingly, the course focuses on a central theme, the competing claims of individual autonomy on the one hand and communal obligation on the other. Our second goal is exposure to the literary forms most favored by ancient authors: epic, tragedy, comedy, historiography, philosophical dialogue, and oratory. Toward these ends, we will study works by Homer, Aeschylus, Thucydides, Plato, Livy, Plautus, and Cicero.
[This course satisfies category II and Pre-1800]
