 |
 |
Fall 2006 Danz course instructed by Sara Goering (Philosophy) and Janelle Taylor (Anthropology).
The Danz Courses in the Humanities
provide unique opportunities for University of Washington first-year
students to engage in challenging, cross-disciplinary work. These
courses introduce students to the study of the humanities (including
literature, history, philosophy, cultural studies, and film) and
build the intellectual foundation for a liberal arts education
through the study of human thought, values, beliefs, creativity,
and culture. Teams of talented faculty from diverse disciplines
bring their perspectives to the Danz Courses in the Humanities,
encouraging students to become active and creative learners within
the university community. Offered for VLPA, I&S, and Writing credit, a Danz
Course is offered Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters.
The Danz Courses in the Humanities are made possible by the generous financial support of Fredric Danz, a College of Arts and Sciences alumnus (‘40) and longtime benefactor of the humanities at the University of Washington with additional thanks to the Graduate School for their support of the graduate student teacher assistants.
Danz Course Archives
|
|
|
|
|
Spring 2008 • HUM 208 (VLPA, I&S, W, 5 credits)
Violence, Myth, and Memory:
Southeast Asia at the Crossroads of Modernity
Francisco "Kiko" Benitez (Comparative Literature) and
Laurie Sears (History)
Course Syllabus (PDF)
This course is built around three popular films: Apocalypse Now: The Director's Cut (2001, orig. 1979), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), and Fight For Us (1989). We will use these films as starting points to explore ideas of violence, narrative, and global modernity in U.S. relations with Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. We will trace the ways in which these films evoke founding myths of Southeast Asian societies, regulate ethnic and religious tensions, and reflect anxieties about modernity.
For Viet Nam, we will read Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War to investigate celebrated stories of female courtesans who serve as metaphors for the beleaguered nation. We will read Jessica Hagedorn's novel Dream Jungle about two seemingly distinct events in the Philippines under Marcos: the discovery of a Stone Age tribe and the filming of Apocalypse Now. We will look at how colonial encounters (with both Spain and the U.S.) and the Catholic passion play serve as a complex founding myth for lowland Filipino society. Turning to Indonesia, we will see how the film and novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, resembles a Javanese shadow play. The movie and novel explore the U.S. and British involvement in the fall of Indonesia's first president Soekarno in 1945-68 and the violence that accompanied his fall.
|
|
|
Undergraduate Courses