421      SEMINAR IN CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS
SW                  3:00-4:50 M
402 GREG HALL        WAGNER

The classics are Sophocles=s Antigone and Goethe=s The Elective Affinities, both of which will be read in translation, with reference to the original texts as needed.  The main themes are familiar from current literary theory and political philosophy: gender, power, rationality, empire.  We will also pursue some subtle questions of self and motivation in Antigone, and about the connections between art, aesthetic theory, and politics in Elective Affinities.  My agenda is not rigid, though; the class will approach the books as art works and be open to any perspectives that might illuminate them.  As for the pairing of these works, it=s certainly not random.  E.g., Goethe was intensely concerned with Greek tragedy, and several of his works either use or--interestingly--parody the themes of tragedy.  But I=ll let specific connections emerge during the course.

Sophocles=s other Theban plays (Oedipus Tyrannos and Oedipus at Colonus) will be read in conjunction with Antigone.  A background in German literature is not required, but if you haven=t yet read Faust, why not do that early in the term?  (Part II is particularly relevant.)  Concerning Antigone, we will use various pieces of criticism, including an exegesis by Hegel (which I find wrongheaded,...but which has influenced everyone) and Judith Butler=s recent Antigone=s Claim.  Although this is not a classics course, I am serious about using the scholarly tradition (Jebb, Knox, Benardete, Nussbaum, many others) to constrain and guide our interpretations.  For Elective Affinities, one main source of illumination will be F. Schiller=s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Humanity; another will be Walter Benjamin=s famous essay.

One similarity between the works is that they have given rise to wildly divergent interpretations.  Thus our collective investigation is likely to produce something new.