HUM 400NExpressions in the Humanities

3 credits · Humanities -​ CA · Penn State

Advanced interdisciplinary study of a particular theme, period, or topic including materials from various arts and humanities disciplines and interdisciplinary works. Students will identify and apply several approaches to interpretation of such works-theoretical perspectives, integrating questions, comparative criticism-and express their understanding in class discussion, formal and informal writing, and creative expression. The course investigates the humanities from different perspectives-moral, social, historical, literary, artistic, and philosophical. The major fields within the arts and humanities that are covered in the course include, from the arts, the visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture) and the performing arts (theater, film, music), and from the humanities, art history, history, literature, philosophy, and mythology. The selected works within the disciplines exemplify the broad theme of the course. This thematic course emphasizes the development of students' interpretative and close reading skills as applied to historically significant works in the fields of the arts and humanities. The course promotes the improvement of students' writing and critical thinking. It is designed so that students investigate, analyze, and interpret topics within the arts and humanities as they develop principles of critical practice and interpretation. The course promotes critical conversation among students, through the framing of topics for discussion. The course also emphasizes interdisciplinary connections between these arts and humanities fields, through broadly synthetic interpretations of important works within their cultural settings. Each iteration of the course is designed by the instructor teaching it, within the framework set out here. The specific works from the humanities covered in the course are selected by the instructor, and represent major works within the disciplines specified above.