Degrees

EN 238 Masterworks of Western Literature II Course Objectives

1. Awaken in students a renewed respect for great literature, particularly those works which have been recognized as masterpieces through the centuries.
2. Make students more knowledgeable about the great literary and philosophical movements that have dominated European thought since the mid- 17^th century.
3. Show students how the allied arts (music, sculpture, painting) have reflected the same influences as the literature of a given period.
4. Present each of the writers under consideration as distinct personalities, not as disembodied intellects.
5. Highlight the main themes and emphases of the Age of Enlightenment, the Romantic Age, the late nineteenth century, and the Modern Era.
6. Show how the works of Moliere and Racine reflect the influences of the Enlightenment and the ways in which they oppose these influences.
7. Show how the works of Rousseau and Goethe exhibit both the eighteenth century’s Rationalism and the early nineteenth century’s Romanticism.
8. Show how Flaubert’s Madame Bovary embodies realism in literature.
9. Show how the work of Tolstoy presents a distinctively Slavic perspective on European culture.
10. Show how Proust reflects the new influences of Modernism in European history.
11. Show how Dostoyevsky redefines man, soul, and God.
12. Show how Kafka sees the individual’s struggle to understand the Modern world.