Cultural Extinction                                                                           התכחדות תרבויות   

Dr. Nir Evron                                                                                          ד"ר ניר עברון

MA Seminar                                                                                            סמינר אמ.אי.

Course Description:

Israeli novelist Amos Oz has argued that, “the greatest creations in world literature have generally been produced in the twilight, or in relation to a period of twilight.” Twilight, for Oz, means the decline and fall of a way of life—the ending of a cultural world. Our seminar will focus on realist novels that deal with the theme of cultural extinction. Primary sources will include texts by Cooper, Willa Cather, Joseph Roth, and Ahmed Ali. We shall examine these works through the lens of literary theories of realism (Elizabeth Ermarth, George Lukacs); of philosophical perspectives on value and valuing (Jonathan Lear, Samuel Scheffler); and of anthropological theory (Clifford Geertz, James Clifford).

Requirements:

Constant and active class participation

Midterm paper

Seminar paper

Tentative reading list (subject to changes):

James Fennimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children (1862)

Joseph Roth, Radetzky March (1932)

Ahmed Ali, Twilight in Delhi (1940)

Willa Cather, A Lost Lady (1923)

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard (1958)