Moderns tend to suppose that in all this reading, thinking, and writing, Montaigne also made the self that we can know. Civil War Women. This course studies the experience of women in the American Civil War, considering at the same time the depiction of women in postwar public culture. Using the Battle of Gettysburg as a case study, students begin with discussions of how women and issues of gender, race, and sexuality helped bring about sectional conflict in the 1850s and then examine how black women and white women took part in the war itself. They also investigate the evolving representation of Civil War women in fiction, film, and in public history.
Students regularly submit essays of historical analysis, and engage in rewriting and peer review.
Class requirements also include a final research paper and several oral presentations. The course examines the challenges of talking about and evaluating music. The question of what makes a music review authoritative is posed by investigating how institutions, such as large-circulation newspapers and prestigious journals, lend weight to an individual critic's aesthetic evaluation. Historically exemplary music criticism is analyzed along with reviews appearing in The New York Times and other prominent journals. Students write reviews of both recordings and live performances.