USC Schedule of Classes

A broad survey, covering some 8,000 years and focusing on the material culture of the ancient world in a historical and social context.

Examines the relation between U.S. national culture, race, and popular culture.

Examines political and cultural change in the United States during the decade of the 1960s.

Introduction to an interdisciplinary study of American political, cultural and social life with a particular emphasis on the Western United States as a region. Recommended preparation: HIST 200, ENGL 263

Introduction to the culture of ancient Greece and its influence on contemporary ideas, institutions, values, and literary and artistic works of the imagination.

Political, ethical, and ideological aspects of classical WesternAttitudes towards human diversity. Relationship between classicaltradition and contemporary discussions of diversity and unity.

A broad introduction to the great works of Western culture from antiquity to 1800.

Comparative study of Latin American cultures, especially vis-a-vis those of Europe and the U.S. Materials drawn from literature, but also film, opera, history, cultural theory.

Study of the structures through which we shape our experience in religion, philosophy, literature, music, and the visual arts, and of competing theories of interpretation. Students may not take this course on a P/NP basis.

Systematic reasoning about values and ways of living; close reading of major texts within the Western Tradition; Biblical and classical through contemporary sources. Students may not take this course on a P/NP basis.

An issues-based introduction to critical theory in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially as it relates to philosophy, art, design, and visual culture.

A critical history of art, design, visual culture, and visual theory since 1960, addressing through a postcolonial/decolonial lens the concepts and practices of "global" art.

Fundamentals course on the elements of scene writing, story structure, and character development.

Exploration of dance as an art form in its artistic, political, and socio-cultural climate. Studies of the continuum of dance within its historical context.

Examination of the transnational production and circulation of Chinese-language cinema. Analysis of the larger sociocultural significance of films by engaging their historical context.

The history of Korean literature and culture from the ancient to the modern era. Recommended preparation: HIST 105g.

Characteristics and aspects of Chinese civilization;interpretation of philosophy, literature, religion, art, music.Conducted in English.

Cultural images of disorder and chaos, and of the search for order and reason, from the eighteenth century to the present.(Duplicates credit in ARLT 101g)

Introduction to the pleasures and power of poetry, exploring elements drawn from high-points of English poetry, and the lives and works of major poets. (Duplicates credit in ARLT 101g)

An exploration of the culture, vibrance, heritage, mythology, variety, and pathology of a city that was born in hopes and captured the worlds imagination. Duplicates credit in ARLT 101g.

Close study of Shakespeare's plays and poems to introduce his language, stagecraft, literary "genius," social and literary contexts, precursors and rivals, and legacy.

Intensive reading of major writers to 1800.

Intensive reading of major writers, 18001950.

Intensive reading of representative writers.

Study of literary modes of narrative and their uses in medical understanding, character formation, social identity, and relations between mind and body.

An introduction to the close reading of fiction and the understanding of the genre as an aesthetic and historical phenomenon.

Questions of gay and lesbian identity, expression and experience in a variety of literary and cultural forms; emphasis on sexual politics, equality and difference.

Literary travel using novels to explore regional culture and unify the study of literature, history, geography, politics and social studies.

Examination of legal problems and concepts in English and American literature. Recommended preparation: CORE-102 or ARLT-100; WRIT-140.

Study of prose written in English since 1945, principally fiction of the past two decades.

Selected British, Irish, and American drama from the post World War II period (1945 to the present).

Introduction to issues in visual and popular culture, focused on critical and historical interpretation of words and images in comic books and graphic novels.

Study of post-colonialism as a ferment for literary creation in the literature of French expression from Africa, the Caribbean and Canada. Conducted in French.

An exploration into how genocides and episodes of mass violence have been thought about, remembered and expressed in France and the Francophone world. Conducted in English.

Interpretation and analysis of works of the imagination, exploring language, thought, and cultural traditions in relation to one another. (Satisfies GE-B, Humanistic Inquiry) Open only to Freshmen.

Critical appreciation of various forms of human expression, evaluating works of literature, philosophy, and the arts to enable informed opinions about ideas and values. Offered by a professional school.

Patterns of American development from Colonial times to the present. Duplicates credit in former HIST-200.

The social, political, religious, intellectual and cultural landscapes of Europe and the Mediterranean, c. 300 to c. 1400.

The Enlightenment, French Revolution, industrialization, Darwinism, socialism, nationalism, technological revolutions, mass culture, imperialism, race, fascism, communism, world wars, genocide, migration, the Cold War, terrorism.

A topical and chronological study of the major political, social, and intellectual forces that have shaped the history of Korea.

Japan from the earliest times to the present; social, cultural,and political dimensions.

History of South Asia from the tenth century to the present day; examines imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, and immigration.

Introduction to the history and the study of the Middle East from ancient to modern times.

Introduction to Armenian history and its connections with the region and the world.

History of United States citizenship from its origins to the present day, with particular attention to relationship between law and culture.

A thematic approach to California history from precontact to present; focus on peoples, environment, economic, social, and cultural development, politics, and rise to global influence.

Readings of major texts of Italian literature of the 15th and 16th centuries, including works by Petrarch, the Humanists, Lorenzo de' Medici, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Castiglione and Tasso.

Major ideas, personalities, and movements in Jewish history from antiquity to the present in light of the interaction of the Jews with the general culture.

A topical study of critical issues and cultural relationships found in music from antiquity to the present and across musical genres and styles.

Introduction to the central ideas of philosophy, science, politics and economics in western European history between 1450 and 1800.

Explores philosophical treatments of the problem of the meaning or purpose of human life. (Duplicates credit in former PHIL 155)

A study of existentialist philosophy and its influence in 19th and 20th century culture, including both literature and film. Focus on works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, Beauvoir, Dostoevsky, Godard, and others.

Exploration of the philosophical and religious implications of major scientific revolutions, such as those of Copernicus, Galileo, and Darwin. (Duplicates credit in former PHIL 220g)

Explores various conceptions of morality and what makes actions right or wrong, together with the implications of these views for concrete ethical issues.

The Hebrew Bible in the cultural setting of the ancient Near East; the formation of theological and ethical concepts which have shaped Western culture.

History of Jerusalem as a window onto the nature of the three Abrahamic faiths.

Exploration of the senses and the technologies of pleasure in India, relating this material to some fascinating examples of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist literature.

Introduction to Islam, emphasizing its historical and cultural development since the seventh century C.E., and the basic teachings of Islam.

Varieties of religious experience as reflected in the literature, art, and cultic practices of the Hellenistic world.

Course traces the Jewish diaspora from Spain and Portugal with particular attention to how Sephardic Jews maintained ties of culture, commerce, language, and identity.

Key moments in the development of Russian culture since its westernization in the early eighteenth century to the present day. Focus on works of literature, art and other products of the culture that have significantly influenced Russian self-understanding as well as the ways in which Russians perceive the rest of the world.

Russian cultural identity from its beginnings until today. The Eastern Orthodox tradition, its traumatic confrontation with Western culture, and their continuous interaction.

Dostoevsky's novels as psychological and philosophical analyses of modern alienated man. Readings in Dostoevsky and selections from Gide, Kafka, Camus, and Sartre. Conducted in English.

Introduction to the cultural history of Spain, Portugal and Latin America with a focus on literature and visual works from the early-modern period to the twenty-first century.

Emergence of feminist thought from the Enlightenment to the present; historical development of female subjectivity; advancement of womens rights; feminisms from alternative ideological perspectives.