HS 412 - Gods and Monsters: An Iconography of Nineteenth-Century Europe

(3.00 cr.)

Prerequisite: One HS 100-level course, one HS 300-level course. Studies individuals whose careers mirrored and shaped the intellectual terrain of nineteenth-century Europe. Among these are "Chinese Gordon," hero of the Battle of Khartoum; Florence Nightingale, "savior" of the Crimean War; and Oscar Wilde, poster boy for the decadent art movement. These individuals are analyzed in the context of the most powerful critiques of nineteenth-century assumptions, those of Marx, Darwin, Freud, and Nietzsche.