Course Information

Studies in Literature and the Other Arts

Instructor: Sebastian Knowles (Email: knowles.1@osu.edu)

Class Description

Special Topic: Music and Modernist Literature. The idea behind this new course is that music has several kinds of connections with literature, and literature with music: we will study this subject from both sides of the interdisciplinary divide. The chief focus of the course will be the question of meaning: how music means (how we interpret sound), and how language means (how we interpret text). Knowledge of classical music is not a prerequisite for this course: the only real requirement is a sense of adventure, a curious mind, and a willingness to do and think about things a little differently. We will read poetry by Stephane Mallarme (in English), E.M. Forster’s Howards End, the poetry of Wilfred Owen, the “Sirens” section of Joyce’s Ulysses, and the final section of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. We will listen to Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” Beethoven’s Symphony #5, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Britten’s War Requiem, and the last movement of Mahler’s Symphony #9. Your grade will be based on discussion, 5 short reflections on the week’s work, and a final mixed-media project. MW 0930-1118 KNOWLES*S