2:30-3:45P   TR   SB 140

	Exploration of a perennial theme in Western Literature and
Culture, including works in a variety of forms (poetry, fiction, film,
drama, and popular music) wherein lovers or close friends for one reason
or another are forced apart or driven to their death. Perhaps the best
know example is Romeo and Juliet, a drama which has been recast many
times, most recently in the movie, Shakespeare in Love. The theme of
forbidden companionship is a flexible one, however, as can be seen from a
partial listing of works - dating from the 12th to the 21st century - to
be examined by the class during the course of the semester: The Romance of
Tristan and Iseult; A Streetcar Named Desire; Notes from Underground;
Thelma and Louise; Lolita; Venus and Adonis; The Sorrows of Young Werther;
and Hedda Gabler. Conventiently for our purposes, the Indiana University
Opera has scheduled a performance of Faust for the spring of 2001, which
will allow the class an opportunity to witness one such work in a liver
performance.
	Throughout the semester, we will engage in the process of
comparison and analysis, putting things together, and taking them apart.
In what respects does the legendary Tristan resemble Goethe's Werther, or
Ibsen's Hedda? How might we distinguish between the techniques employed in
the film Streetcar and the novel Lolita to indicate a forbidden sexual
relationship? By what means does a musical composer convey heartbreak,
especially when the lyrics may be in a foreign language? These and other
questions will provide the substance of inquiry as we attempt to
comprehend the various works, first on their own terms, and then in
relation to one another. Underlying the entire course will be the question
of how we might explain the persistence of the theme throughout so many
centuries.