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Dec 30, 2024
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HNSM 466 - Making Sense of Suffering: Wisdom and Power 3 Credit Hours
Suffering is ubiquitous, and it demands explanation. We struggle to make sense of suffering that so often seems gratuitous, meaningless. We want suffering - our suffering - to matter, to be meaningful. This desperation to find meaning in suffering, to create meaning even when confronted with the apparent absence of meaning, will be the focus of our investigation throughout the semester. We will use texts, fictional and non-fictional, written and visual, to enable us to explore matters of suffering and meaning: Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Book of Job, Primo Levi’s Survival In Auschwitz and “The Gray Zone,” Paul Celan’s Death Fugue, and Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts. To supplement our readings, we will watch Richard Eyre’s production of King Lear, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, Andy de Emmony’s God on Trial, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.
Prerequisite(s): Honors program students only. Senior standing.
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