This course analyzes a culture through the study of its art, philosophy, and literature. It not only acquaints cadets with a particular period and place but also introduces them to various definitions of culture and to recent themes and debates in cultural studies. The work of theorists as diverse as Matthew Arnold, Walter Benjamin, Raymond Williams, and Laura Mulvey informs this team-taught course's interdisciplinary approach to cultural artifacts as well as its investigation of aesthetics, ideology, and issues of ethnicity, gender, and class. Typical areas of focus include Augustan Rome, Enlightenment France, and Meiji Japan. Cadets should take this course early in their program of study.
