ITAL 3490

Literature and Moral Complexity

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

In this course, we will ask how literature helps us to formulate ethical questions, i.e., question for which there is no single, objectively correct answer.  Why literature as opposed to philosophy or history?  Numerous aspects of literture make it ideal for taking on complex ethical questions.  Literture can be used to persuade or even manipulate; it appeals to our emotions as well as our reason, and may even call into question the neat division between the two; it forges sympathies that tie us as readers to characters and narrators, even as we suspect their motives.  For most of our time together, we will focus on great writers and storytellers of early modern Europe (e.g., Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Marguerite de Navarre, Bandello), but we will also explore how ethical questions posed by these early modern writers continue to surface in the work of an author like Barbey D'Aurevilly and in a contemporary movie such as Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln. If there is student interest, we will offer discussion sections in French and Italian.

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (LA-AS)

Comments Conducted in English.

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