Spring 2025 First-Year Seminar BC1739 section 001

Dead and Undead (Wkshop)

DEAD AND UNDEAD (WKSHOP)

Call Number 00405
Day & Time
Location
MW 2:40pm-3:55pm
To be announced
Points 4
Grading Mode Pass/Fail
Approvals Required None
Instructor Penelope Usher
Type LECTURE
Course Description

What does it mean to be dead? Why the fascination—across time and culture—with conceiving of ways in which the dead can become un-dead? And how is being undead different from being alive? To investigate and trouble the boundaries between life and death (and un-death), we will analyze works from various genres and media, discussing near-death experiences, beating-heart cadavers, and a range of figures including zombies, ghosts, and other revenants. Objects of study include texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Ovid, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Nalo Hopkinson, and Mary Shelley; music by Camille Saint-Saëns; artwork by Hans Holbein and Breughel; television and film (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie); and more.

 

NOTE: This 4-credit version of First-Year Seminar (FYS)—FYS “Workshop”—is specially designed for students who believe they would benefit from extra support with their critical reading and academic writing skills. In addition to regular seminar meetings twice per week, students are assigned a Writing Fellow who they meet with for one hour every other week. APPLICATION REQUIRED BY THURSDAY, 11/7 @ 5PM: https://forms.gle/FNjftqoHRSQTQUSW9

Web Site Vergil
Department First-Year Seminar Program @Barnard
Enrollment 14 students (14 max) as of 11:06AM Thursday, December 5, 2024
Status Full
Subject First-Year Seminar
Number BC1739
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Open To Barnard College
Note Barnard 1st Year Students Only
Section key 20251FYSB1739X001