CMLT 121 - Love and Sexuality in Literature and the Arts: From Hesiod to Hip-Hop

Love and sexuality-how the two intersect, how they diverge, the joy and the pain they bring: these have been central topics in literature and art since the dawn of human culture. And as a glance at any TV, magazine, or movie screen attests, our interest in love and sexuality certainly has not waned. How could it be otherwise? Love and sexuality are two of the most basic forces in human life; yet they are also two of the most mysterious and complex forces. This course explores Western perspectives on love and sexuality ranging from the Paleolithic period to postmodernity, including prehistoric art, the ancient Greeks (Hesiod and Plato); the Bible (Song of Solomon and excerpts from Genesis, Leviticus, and Paul’s Letters); Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents; Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being; John Berger’s Ways of Seeing; Edward Lucie-Smith’s Sexuality in Western Art; Alan Moore’s critically-acclaimed graphic novel, V for Vendetta; and contemporary pop music. (Group III)