Humanities

Classics course offerings at SLC include ancient Greek and Latin at the Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced levels as well as Literature courses in translation. Beginning language students acquire the fundamentals of ancient Greek or Latin in one year and begin reading authentic texts. Intermediate and Advanced students refine their language skills while analyzing specific ancient authors, genres, or periods.

Ancient Greek and Roman insights and discoveries originated Western culture and continue to shape the modern world. Ancient artists and writers still inspire the greatest artists and writers of today. Greek and Roman ideas about politics, drama, history, and philosophy (to name just a few) broaden 21st-century perspectives and challenge 21st-century assumptions. Classical Languages and Literature encourage thoughtful, substantive participation in a global, multi-cultural conversation and cultivate skills necessary for coping with both failure and success. Because it is multi-disciplinary, Classical literature adapts easily to students’ interests and rewards inter-disciplinary study. Classics courses contribute directly to SLC’s unique integration of the Liberal Arts and Creative Arts, as developing writers and artists fuel their own creative energies by encountering the work of ingenious and enduring predecessors. The study of Classics develops analytical reading and writing skills and imaginative abilities crucial to individual growth and essential for citizens in any functioning society.

Sarah Lawrence College offers six modern languages and their literatures. Students may take French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish from beginning to advanced levels that equally stress the development of communicative skills such as speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing, as well as the study of literature written in these languages in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. In addition to the regular seminar work with the language faculty, students will work closely with language assistants in individual or small-group meetings to practice their language skills and make further progress; language teaching is also supported by fully equipped computer labs, where students can use the Web, do computer exercises and enjoy audio facilities. Students of Spanish may also have the opportunity to make use of Community Partnerships. Some departments also offer literature courses in translation in which students are introduced to the various cultural and historical contexts of the modern languages at the College.

In an attempt to encourage students to study more than one foreign language at the same time, Sarah Lawrence College offers sophomores, juniors, and seniors the option of taking a Language Third. This allows students to continue a language on a more advanced level while, at the same time, enrolling in a beginner’s class in a different language. Students taking a Language Third will earn 10 credits for the combined study of two languages of their choice at no extra cost. An excellent option offered by the Modern Languages and Literatures department is the Lecture Language Third. This interdisciplinary link affords students the great opportunity of meeting the lecture requirement while fully benefiting from studying the foreign language of their preference at any level of proficiency, also at no extra cost. Students taking this option are not required to do conference work in their language courses.

As the official language of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and portions of several other European countries—and with linguistic enclaves in the Americas and Africa—German is today the native tongue of close to 120 million people. For such advanced degree programs as art history, music history, philosophy, and European history, German is still a required language. And whether the motivation for study is business, culture, travel, friendship, or heritage, a knowledge of German can add inestimable depth to a student’s landscape of thought and feeling.

Students should ideally plan to study German for at least two years. First- and second-year German aim to teach students how to communicate in German and acquire grammatical competency through exercises that both demand accuracy and encourage free expression. While conference work in Beginning German consists of intensive grammar work with the German assistant (both group and individual conferences), intermediate-level students work on their cultural competency by reading German literature (fairly tales, novellas; poems) and working on class-, group-,  or individual research projects (for example, writing a short story or screenplay in German; exploring German cities online; reading newspaper articles on current events). Advanced German is a cultural studies seminar. Students solidify their cultural competency by studying German history and culture from the late 18th century to the present. A special emphasis is placed on 20th-century German history and culture, including contemporary German literature and film.

Many German students spend a semester or year in Germany. Beginning in 2012, students have the opportunity to take a 5-weeks long summer seminar in Berlin (6 credits). Students will take a seminar on German Cultural Studies with an emphasis on the history and culture of Berlin AND a class in Art/Architecture, Dance or German Language (taught at Neue Schule in Berlin).

The Sarah Lawrence College Classics program emphasizes the study of the languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Greek and Latin constitute an essential component of any humanistic education, enabling students to examine the foundations of Western culture and explore timeless questions concerning the nature of the world, the place of human beings in it, and the components of a life well lived. In studying the literature, history, philosophy, and society of the ancient Greeks and Romans, students come to appreciate them for themselves, examine the continuity between the ancient and modern worlds and, perhaps, discover “a place to stand”—an objective vantage point for assessing modern culture.

In their first year of study, students acquire proficiency in vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, with the aim of reading accurately and with increasing insight. Selected passages of ancient works are read in the original languages almost immediately. Intermediate and advanced courses develop students’ critical and analytical abilities, while exploring ancient works in their literary, historical, and cultural context. Conference projects provide opportunities for specialized work in areas of interest in classical antiquity. Recent conference projects include close readings of Homer’s Iliad, Aristophanes’ Clouds, Pindar’s Odes, Plato’s Republic, Cicero’s de Amicitia, the poetry of Catullus, Virgil’s Aeneid, as well as studies of modern theories of myth, Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy in connection with the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the social implications of Roman domestic architecture, and a comparison of Euripides’ Hippolytus with Racine’s Phèdre.

Greek and Latin will be especially beneficial for students interested in related disciplines, including religion, philosophy, art history, archaeology, history, political science, English, comparative literature, and medieval studies, as well as education, law, medicine, and business. Greek and Latin can also prove valuable to all those who wish to enrich their imagination in the creative pursuits of writing, dance, music, visual arts, and acting.

The study of Italian at Sarah Lawrence College offers the rigors of language study and the joys of immersion in one of the richest cultures of the West. The course of study consists of classroom, conference, and conversational components, all enhanced by the flexible academic structure of the College and proximity to New York. In the classroom, students learn Italian grammar, syntax, and phonology, using sources of everyday communication and literary texts. In conference sessions—especially helpful in customizing study to each student’s level of fluency—students pursue reading and writing related to topics that compel them. And in conversation meetings, students simply talk with native Italians about anything of common interest. Individual conference projects can be as creative and diverse as is appropriate for each student and can include interdisciplinary work in the Italian language. As in other disciplines, the resources of New York City enhance student experience: opera performances at the Metropolitan Opera (after preparatory readings from libretti), film series and lectures, museums, and internships related to conference work all offer ways to bring Italian to life. And for bringing students to Italy, Sarah Lawrence’s study program in Florence maintains the small scale and individual attention that is the mark of the College, providing an exceptional opportunity to combine a yearlong academic experience with the cultural immersion of a homestay living arrangement.

The Italian Department periodically offers courses in Literature in Translation as part of the literature curriculum. Among these courses are Images of Heaven and Hell, The Grand Tour: A Literary Journey to Italy, and The Three Crowns: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.

Students may explore both Japanese language and Japanese literature at Sarah Lawrence College. In beginning and intermediate-level language courses, students master the basic skills in speaking, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing. By the end of the first year, students should be able to use their skills to express themselves in a variety of situations and have reading comprehension of the hiragana, katakana, and approximately 150 kanji (Chinese characters). In the second year, students continue to broaden their knowledge of Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and kanji. Learning Japanese also involves developing an awareness of expressions without direct English equivalents, such as honorific and modest verbal forms. Through intensive practice both in class and with language assistants in smaller groups, students are given the opportunity to actively practice their skills and reinforce their understanding in ways that relate to their own experiences.

Courses offered in Japanese literature include Modern Japanese Literature, Postwar Japanese Literature, and Representations of Ethnicity in Japanese Literature and Film. In these courses, students are introduced to a variety of Japanese literary texts in English translation. From Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s plays of love suicides, to the mysterious worlds created by Izumi Kyoka, to Ooka Shohei's depiction of a soldier's struggle to survive in the Philippines at the end of the Pacific War, to the existential fiction of Abe Kobo in the postwar period, students explore different authors' writings in terms of style as well as in relation to social and historical contexts. In addition to literature, courses include screenings of films (including dramas, anime, and documentaries) that are directly relevant to the literary texts and their themes. Such themes include the representation of social obligation (duty) versus emotional desire, the alienation of the modern self, Westernization, the experience of war and memory, and the search for meaningful existence in the postwar era.

Sarah Lawrence College’s Classics program emphasizes the study of the languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Greek and Latin constitute an essential component of any humanistic education, enabling students to examine the foundations of Western culture and explore timeless questions concerning the nature of the world, the place of human beings in it, and the components of a life well lived. In studying the literature, history, philosophy, and society of the ancient Greeks and Romans, students come to appreciate them for themselves, examine the continuity between the ancient and modern worlds, and, perhaps, discover “a place to stand”—an objective vantage point for assessing modern culture.

In their first year of study, students acquire proficiency in vocabulary, grammar and syntax, with the aim of reading accurately and with increasing insight. Selected passages of ancient works are read in the original languages almost immediately. Intermediate and advanced courses develop students’ critical and analytical abilities while exploring ancient works in their literary, historical, and cultural context. Conference projects provide opportunities for specialized work in areas of interest in classical antiquity. Recent conference projects include close readings of Homer’s Iliad, Aristophanes’ Clouds, Pindar’s Odes, Plato’s Republic, Cicero’s de Amicitia, the poetry of Catullus, and Virgil’s Aeneid, as well as studies of modern theories of myth, Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy in connection with the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the social implications of Roman domestic architecture, and a comparison of Euripides’ Hippolytus with Racine’s Phèdre.

Greek and Latin will be especially beneficial for students interested in related disciplines, including religion, philosophy, art history, archaeology, history, political science, English, comparative literature, and medieval studies, as well as education, law, medicine, and business. Greek and Latin can also prove valuable to all those who wish to enrich their imagination in the creative pursuits of writing, dance, music, visual arts, and acting.

The goal of the Russian language classes at Sarah Lawrence College is to teach students to speak, comprehend, read, and write a fascinating language with a logic very different from that of English. Oral proficiency is the focus of the first-year class, culminating in end-of-semester projects where students write and film skits in small groups. In the second-year course, reading is also emphasized—and we include short stories and poetry, as well as texts paired with films. Topics, texts, and authors covered in the advanced class vary widely, and student input is strongly encouraged; past syllabi have included works by authors such as Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Tsvetaeva, Bulgakov, and Pelevin, as well as films. Student work in class and conference is also supplemented by weekly meetings with the language assistant and by a variety of extracurricular activities, including a weekly Russian table, Russian opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and excursions to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn’s “Little Odessa.”

Students of Russian are strongly encouraged to spend a semester or, ideally, a year abroad. Sarah Lawrence students regularly attend a variety of programs, including: Middlebury College’s School in Russia, with sites in Moscow, Irkutsk, and Yaroslavl; Bard College’s program at the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg; the Moscow Art Theater School Semester through Connecticut College; ACTR in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Vladimir; and CIEE.

The Russian department also offers courses taught in translation as part of the literature curriculum. Recent literature courses include: The Literatures of Russian and African American Soul: Pushkin and Blackness, Serfs and Slaves, Black Americans and Red Russia; Dostoevsky and the West; The 19th-Century Russian Novel; and Intertextuality in the 20th-Century Russian Novel. Students of Russian also pursue their interest in Russia and Eastern Europe more generally in many other areas of the College. Conference work always may be directed toward the student’s field of interest; courses focusing either entirely or in part on Russia and/or Eastern Europe are regularly offered in a number of disciplines, including history, film history, dance history, and philosophy.

Sarah Lawrence’s courses in Spanish cover grammar, literature, film, music and translation—all with the aim of making students more capable and confident in thinking, writing and expressing themselves in Spanish. Each of the yearlong courses integrates activities such as panel discussions, lectures and readings with classroom discussion and conference work to provide students with stimulating springboards for research and study.