FRS 002CC —
Sec. 001 —
(2 unit) — CRN 56359 — T 9:00-10:50am — 25 Wellman
Voltaire’s Candide: A Reflection on
Knowledge, Sex,
Happiness and Much Else
Instructor: Manfred Kusch, Department of French & Italian, College
of Letters and Science
Description: Voltaire's Candide, a key text of the
European Enlightenment,
is also a classic of world literature. Delightfully short (about 100 pages) and
deceptively funny even in describing the most horrific events, it
manages to seduce
us into considering the most profound and confounding conundrums of
humanity and
of modern humans in particular. Why do we seek knowledge? Is knowledge good for
us? What is the link between knowledge and sex (gender?)? Do the world in which
we live and the events that occur in it have meaning? Does our "pursuit of
happiness" ever succeed? What about sex (love?) and happiness? Why do so
many stories end in marriage or death, a wedding or a funeral? What
about paradise?
Could we imagine a paradise in which we might be able to exist? The
seminar will
consider these and many other questions through a close reading of the text and
by reference to some other brief texts, such as the story of Adam and
Eve in Genesis
and an excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh (a total of a few
pages). Students
will learn not only how to interpret a rich literary-philosophical
text but will
also pick up in passing a wealth of information about history, the evolution of
the novel, the rise of science, and the decline of human importance in the face
of ever greater human power. As for sex itself, the course will,
alas, teach less
than students already know.
Format: The seminar will meet for two hours once a
week. Students
will be required to read the text carefully and to keep a journal in which they
will record questions and observations that occur to them in the
course of their
readings. These questions and observations will be the starting point
of our discussion
each session. I will provide background information and guidance when
appropriate.
Grading: The letter grade for the course will be based
on performance in the seminar and on a 5 page paper due the last session of the
class.
About the Instructor: I am an emeritus faculty member in the
departments of French & Italian and of Comparative Literature,
where I taught
for over 31 years until my retirement in 2002. I also served as
department chair
of French and Italian for 10 years, of Spanish and Classics for 2 years and as
director of Comparative Literature for 6 years. I served as
undergraduate advisor
and on committees dealing with undergraduate education, both on
campus and statewide,
for much of my career. My interests are broad, including, besides literature,
evolutionary biology and philosophy; my area of specialization is the
literature
of the European Enlightenment. I enjoy bird watching, fly fishing,
and, in imitation
of Candide, working in my rather large garden along Putah Creek west of Davis.