Imagining Cities: Early Modern Urban Perspectives (HMAN 2400T / EMOW 2400T)
Evelyn Lincoln (History of Art and Architecture, Italian Studies)
Laura Bass (Hispanic Studies, History of Art and Architecture)
The cities we inhabit and remember are constituted not only by bricks and mortar, but also in textual and visual representations. How were early modern cities imagined and represented, from the ideal to the disastrous, and how were these representations contested both locally and from afar? We will respond to these questions and consider how performances and experiences of city life were mediated textually and visually, using a diverse archive of narratives, festival accounts, architectural treatises, legal documents, historical records, maps, images, and archaeological remains, among other sources. Taught by two early modernists, an Italianist and a Hispanist, this collaborative humanities seminar invites students to draw on each other’s interests and participate in the construction of the syllabus, expanding its geographical and chronological purview.
Penser et écrire le non-humain au XVIIème siècle (FREN 2130R / EMOW 2130R)
Lewis Seifert (French and Francophone Studies)
Under the influence of “New Science,” the 17th century witnessed dramatic shifts in ways of perceiving and relating to the natural world. Guided by theoretical and historical work in environmental humanities and with a focus on literature, we will consider how French thinkers and writers framed the relationship between humans and their non-human others (animals, plants, natural landscapes). Theoretical readings in Braidotti, Descola, Foucault, Latour; primary texts by Descartes, Cyrano de Bergerac, Cureau de la Chambre, Scudéry, Pascal, La Fontaine, Sévigné, Perrault (Claude and Charles), d’Aulnoy, among others. Taught in French.