PHIL 288gp: Love and its Representation in Western Literature, Film and Philosophy Spring 2018

Class #49491R TuTh 9:30-10:45 p.m. SGM 101

Carries General Education credit in Category GE-B (Humanistic Inquiry) and in Category GE-H (Traditions and Historical Foundations) in the new GE program and Category I in the old GE program

Professor Edwin McCann

School of Philosophy MHP-205, mc. 0451,

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and by appointment.

Course Overview:

Love is one of the principal sources of value in most people’s lives. To love and to be loved ranks with some of the most basic needs, almost on a level with physical well-being; and for many people it is a basic element in their sense of their own identity. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the development of the Western cultural tradition there has been a central concern with love as a thematic motif or an object of investigation. In this course we will track some of the more important changes in the treatment of love through the course of development of Western culture, focussing on particularly influential works that constitute high points in this development, including works in the (relatively) new medium of film. We will look at love as a cultural artifact forged over a long period and in a variety of different cultural contexts; perhaps we will emerge from this investigation with a better of idea of what love is, and isn’t, and why we should want it, or not.

Course Learning Objectives:

1. To introduce students to some of the key works that have shaped the European and American cultural inheritance. We will be reading works by such authors as Plato, Ovid, Dante, Shakespeare, and Austen.

2. To help students develop critical and analytical skills through close reading and analysis of complex texts, and communication skills in both contribution to group discussion and in argumentative and critical writing in essay form.

3. To demonstrate that critical analysis and attention to the historical development and cultural role of key concepts (in this case, love) can bring us to a deeper understanding of the concept.

4. To provide the tools for analyzing the way different media of representation and communication (philosophical dialogues, theological works, epic poems, dramatic works, and films) shape our understanding of the underlying meaning of the work.

Course Requirements:

1. Regular attendance at lectures and your assigned discussion section and participation in the discussion section.. Attendance and particpation in discussion sections counts for 20% of the course grade.

2. One midterm examination, in-class essay format, given on February 27. Two weeks before the exam I will post a list of topics that may be covered in the exam. At the beginning of the exam period I will distribute a sheet of three exam questions, and you will choose two of those questions on which to write essays. Students are expected to supply their own large-format sized bluebooks. Midterm examination counts for 20% of the course grade.

3. Two critical/analytical papers, length 5-6 pages (1250 -1500 words) each, with the first paper due February 5 and the second due April 17 . Each counts for 20% of the course grade, so the two papers taken together count for 40% of the course grade. Due dates for the papers are listed below in the Schedule of Readings and Lectures section of the syllabus. (See policy on late papers in the Course Policies section of the syllabus.)

3. Final examination: in-class essay exam, same structure as the midterm exam (study sheet distributed in advance, three questions from which the student chooses two). Final exam counts for 20% of course grade.

Course books:

1. C. D. C. Reeve, ed. Plato on Love. Hackett. ISBN: 978-0-87220-788-2

2. Ovid, Metamorphoses. Tr. Stanley Lombardo. Hackett. ISBN: 978-1-60384-307-2

3. St. Augustine, Confessions. 2nd edition, Tr. F. J. Sheed. Hackett. ISBN 978-0-872-208162

4. Abelard and Heloise, The Letters and Other Writings Tr. William Levitan. Hackett. ISBN: 978-0-87220-875-9.

5. Joseph Bédier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseut. Tr. Edward J. Gallagher. Hackett. ISBN: 978-1-60384-900-5.

6. Marie de France, Poetry, Tr. And ed. Dorothy Gilbert (Norton Critical Editions),

W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN-13:978-0393932683

7. Dante Alighieri. The Portable Dante. Tr. and ed. Mark Musa. Penguin Classics.

ISBN: 978-0142437544.

8. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ed. Gordon McMullan (Norton Critical Editions), W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN-13:978-0393926262

9. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. Grace Ioppolo

(Norton Critical Editions) , W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN-13:978-0393923575

10. Maria Tatar, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales 2nd edition, (Norton Critical Editions),

W. W. Norton & Co., ISBN-13:978-0393602975

11. Jane Austen, Emma 4th edition, ed. George Justice (Norton Critical Editions),

W. W. Norton & Co.,ISBN-13: 978-0-393-92764-1

12. Soren Kierkegaard, The Seducer’s Diary, Tr. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0691158419

13. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness. Tr. Hazel Barnes. Washingon Square Press, ISBN: 978-0671867805

14. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex. Tr. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany- Chevallier. Vintage. ISBN: 978-0307277787

Schedule of readings and lectures:

Note: reading/viewing is to be completed before the lecture session in which it will be covered.

All dates of readings are CE/AD unless otherwise indicated.

Week one

1 Tu Jan 9 Introduction and overview of course

2 Th Jan 11 What is love and what is good about it? Plato’s Symposium [late 5th century or early 4th century BCE]. Reading: Symposium 172a-201c10, in Reeve pp. 26-60

Week two

3 Tu Jan 16 Plato on the true understanding of love and love’s relation to madness

Reading: Symposium 201d-223d10, in Reeve pp. 61-87, Phaedrus 227a-257b5, in Reeve, pp. 88-122

4 Th Jan 18 Ovid on the transformations of nature and love [late 1st century BCE], and a classic film noir.

Reading: Ovid, Metamorphoses Bk. I—includes the stories of Apollo and Daphne, and Io, in Lombardo pp. 5-29

Bk. II lines 445-593—the story of Callisto in Lombardo pp. 45-49

Bk. III lines 147-562—the stories of Diana and Actaeon, Jupiter and Semele, and Narcissus and Echo in Lombardo pp. 69-81

Bk. IV lines 1-456, 623-668—the stories of the daughters of Minyas: Pyramus and Thisbe, Mars and Venus, Lycothoe and the sun, Clytie and the sun, and Salmacis and Hermaphroditus; and the story of Cadmus and Harmonia in Lombardo pp. 91-104, 109-110

Bk. V lines 385-657—the story of Ceres, Proserpina and Pluto in Lombardo pp. 133-140

Film viewing: Out of the Past (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1949)

Week 3

5 Tu Jan 23 Ovid and Virgil on the derangements of love, and a classic film noir

Reading: Ovid, Metamorphoses Bk. VI lines 473-780—the story of Procne and Philomela in Lombardo pp. 161-169

Bk. VII lines 1-485, 755-960—the stories of Jason and Medea and Procris and Cephalus in Lombardo pp. 175-188, 196-202

Bk. IX lines 518-915—the stories of Byblis and her brother, and of Iphis and Ianthe in Lombardo pp. 252-263

Bk. X—the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice, Cyparissus and the stag, and the Songs of Orpheus (including the stories of Pygmalion, Myrrha and Cinryas, Venus and Adonis, and Atalanta and Hippomenes) in Lombardo pp. 267-291

Bk. XIV lines 1-149—the stories of Glaucus, Circe and Scylla, and Aeneas and Dido in Lombardo pp. 385-389;

Virgil, Aeneid [late 1st century BCE] Bk. IV—Dido and Aeneas http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidIV.htm

Virgil, Aeneid Bk. VI—Aeneas’s journey to the Underworld

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidVI.htm

Film viewing: Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944)

6 Th Jan 25 Platonic love made Christian [late 4th/early 5th century]

Reading: St. Augustine, Confessions Bk One, secs. I-XII (Sheed, pp. 3-14), XIX-XX (Sheed, pp. 19-21); Bk Two (Sheed, pp. 25-34): Bk Three (Sheed, pp. 37-51); Bk Four (Sheed, pp. 55-72): Bk Five, secs. I-II (Sheed, pp. 75-76), VIII-XII (Sheed, pp. 83-90): Bk Six (Sheed, pp. 95-114); Bk Seven (Sheed, pp. 117-137); Bk Eight, secs. I, V, VII-XII (Sheed, pp. 141-142, 147-148, 152-160)

Week 4

7 Tu Jan 30 Illicit love and Christian duty: St. Augustine on love and lust, and the story of Abelard and Heloise [12th century]

Reading: St. Augustine, Confessions Bk Nine, secs. VII-XIII (Sheed, pp. 174-185); Bk Ten (Sheed, pp. 189-229); Bk Eleven, secs. XIV (Sheed, pp. 242-243), XXVIII-XXXI (Sheed, pp. 254-257); Bk Thirteen, sec IX (Sheed, pp. 294-5); excerpt from St. Augustine, The City of God tr. Marcus Dods (The Modern Library, 1950), Book XIV. pp. 441-477, available online at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm; Levitan, Letters of Abelard and Heloise [letters written (in Latin) ca. 1128 CE; first published in Paris in 1616 CE]

The Calamities of Peter Abelard (pp. 10-20, 38-46)

First Letter: Heloise to Abelard (pp. 49-62)

Second Letter: Abelard to Heloise (pp. 63-67)

Third Letter: Heloise to Abelard (pp. 71-84)

Fourth Letter: Abelard to Heloise (pp. 85-104)

Fifth Letter: Heloise to Abelard (pp. 105-106)

Sixth Letter: Abelard to Heloise (pp. 127-143, 149-170)

8 Th Feb 1 Courtly love: short stories/songs

Reading: The Lays of Marie de France [late 12th century] in Gilbert pp. 3-174; Fables Prologue, Fable 25, Fable 44, Fable 45; Short selections from translations from Ovid and from Capellanus (pp. 175-176, 188-189, 191-192, 192-193, 269-279)

MONDAY FEBRUARY 5, 11:59 P.M.: FIRST PAPER DUE

Week 5

9 Tu Feb 6 Courtly love: chivalry and the invention of romantic love

Reading: Bédier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseut [12th century CE; Bédier’s compilation, 1900 CE] (Gallagher pp. 3-104)

Film viewing: Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz; Warner Bros. 1942)

10 Th Feb 8 Poetry in the ‘sweet new style’: Dante’s idealized love of Beatrice

Reading: Dante, Vita Nuova ([1295] (Musa pp. 589-649)

Week 6

11 Tu Feb 13 Dante’s Comedy I: Dante pilgrim lost in the dark wood and the journey downward led by Virgil; how appetite distorts love

Reading: Dante, Inferno [1310-1318] Cantos I-XVII (Musa, pp. 3-94)

12 Th Feb 15 Dante’s Comedy I: Dante pilgrim in the depths; love perverted by violence, fraud and betrayal

Reading: Dante, Inferno Cantos XVIII-XXXIV (Musa, pp. 94-191)

Week 7

13 Tu Feb 20 Dante’s Comedy II: Dante pilgim witnesses the healing power of love

Reading: Dante, Purgatory Cantos I-III, XVI-XVIII, XXV-XXXIII (Musa, pp. 195-212, 281-297, 334-387)

14 Th Feb 22 Dante’s Comedy III: Dante pilgrim from the earthly paradise to the heavenly paradise via love’s ascent

Reading: Dante, Paradise Cantos I-V, XV-XXXIII (Musa, pp. 391-419, 476-585 )

Week 8

15 Tu Feb 27 MIDTERM EXAMINATION

16 Th Mar 1 A Renaissance comedy of love.

Reading: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream [1595-1597]

Week 9

17 Tu Mar 6 A Renaissance tragedy of love. [1597]

Reading: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet in McMullan pp. 3-98; Susan Snyder, “Romeo and Juliet: Comedy into Tragedy” in MacMullan, pp. 202-211; Jill L. Levenson, “The Definition of Love: Shakespeare’s Phrasing in Romeo and Juliet” in MacMullan, pp. 228-243; Lloyd Davis, “Death-Marked Love: Desire and Presence in Romeo and Juliet“ in MacMullan, pp. 243-257; Arthur Brooke, The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562) available at http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/romeo/BrookeIndex.html

18 Th Mar 8 Romeo and Juliet go to the movies.

Reading: Courtney Lehman, “Shakespeare with a View: Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet” in MacMullan, pp. 360-377; Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, from “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet” in MacMullan, pp. 378-383; Barbara Hodgdon, “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet: Everything’s Nice in America?” in MacMullan, pp. 384-398

Viewing: Romeo and Juliet (dir. Franco Zeffirelli, Paramount, 1968); Romeo + Juliet (dir. Baz Luhrmann, 20th Century Fox, 1996); West Side Story (dir. Robert Wise, choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, MGM, 1961); and if you have time, Romeo and Juliet (dir. George Cukor, MGM, 1936)

Spring recess Mar 11-18

Week 10

19 Tu Mar 20 Love, matchmaking, and social class in Jane Austen’s Emma [1816]

Reading: Emma Vol. 1, chapters 1-18 (= pp. 5-106)

20 Th Mar 22 Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill enter the picture; catastrophe on Box Hill.

Reading: Emma Vol. II, chapters 1-18 and Vol. III, chapters 1-9 (= pp. 107-270)

Week 11

21 Tu Mar 27 True love, or at least, true marriage.

Reading: Emma Vol. III, chapters 10-19 (= pp. 271-333); Marilyn Butler, “Emma” in Justice pp. 385-396; Jan S. Fergus, “Sex and Social Life in Jane Austen’s Novels” in Justice pp. 396-401; Mary Poovey, “The True English Style” in Justice pp. 401-406

Film viewing: Clueless (dir. Amy Heckerling, Paramount 1995)

22 Th Mar 29 Kierkegaard’s Johannes on the love affair as work of art.

Reading: Kierkegaard, The Diary of a Seducer [1843] in Hong & Hong, pp. 3-200

Week 12

23 Tu Apr 3 Sartre on the nature of consciousness and free choice. Reading: Sartre, Being and Nothingness [1943] pp. 9-44, 49-85

24 Th Apr 5 Sartre on bad faith, the Look and the Other, and the being of value . Reading: Sartre, Being and Nothingness pp. 86-116, 133-146, 340-400

Week 13

Tu Apr 10 Sartre on concrete relations with others: love and sexual desire.

Reading: Sartre, Being and Nothingness pp. 471-534

Th Apr 12 A foundational feminist existentialist philosophy: Simone de Beauvoir.

Reading: Beauvoir, The Second Sex [1949] Introduction; Vol. I Part Three ‘Myths’: Chapters 1 and 3 in Borde and Malovany-Chevallier pp. 3-17, 159-213, 266-274

MONDAY APRIL 17 11:59 P.M.: SECOND PAPER DUE

Week 14

Tu Apr 17 Simone de Beauvoir on love and its meaning for free human beings.

Reading: Beauvoir The Second Sex; Vol. II ‘Lived Experience’: Introduction and Part 1 ‘Formation’ Chapter 1 ‘Childhood’ (selection); Vol. II Part 2 ‘Situation’: Chapter 10, ‘Woman’s Situation and Character’; Vol. II Part Three ‘Justifications’: Chapter 12 ‘The Woman in Love’, Chapter 13 ’The Mystic’; Vol. II Part Four ‘Towards Liberation’: Chapter 14 ‘The Independent Woman’, and Conclusion pp. 283-285, 638-664, 683-766.

Th Apr 19 Fairy tales: original and Disney version; love and marriage on a barge (Love Boats I)

Reading: ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Snow White’, and ‘Cinderella’ in Tatar pp. 30-181; Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, “[Snow White and her Wicked Stepmother]” in Tatar pp. 387-393: Marina Warner, “From The Old Wives’ Tale” in Tatar, pp. 405-414; Jack Zipes, ‘Breaking the Disney Spell’ in Tatar pp. 413-435; Maria Tatar, “From Sex and Violence: The Hard Core of Fairy Tales” in Tatar pp. 446-456