Sections offered SPRING 2023:
#34011 |
SHARON BERRY |
MW 1:15 PM–2:30 PM |
EP 256 |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd A&H credit; COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
Class meets In Person. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html
This course will ask philosophical questions about literature and read some works of literature through a philosophical lens. We’ll explore philosophical questions like the following.
What is literature? What makes interpretive claims about fiction (like the claim that Sherlock Holmes had two nostrils) correct or incorrect? Are there objective facts about beauty and literary merit (and what functions do discussions of literary merit serve)? What is the relationship between aesthetic values and other values? For example, does engaging with great works of art provide some kind of special (and especially valuable) knowledge that’s impossible to communicate in other terms? Can works of art be morally misguided in a way that counts as an aesthetic flaw?
We will also read and discuss literary works by authors such as Borges, Proust, Nabokov, and Wilde from a philosophical point of view.