| Course Winter Timetable |

VIC201Y1
Ancient and Medieval Literary Modes: Conventions and Continuities 52L

Selected genres, topoi, or modes (such as epic, romance, satire, tragedy, lyric, utopia, autobiography, confession), with special
attention to their roots in the Ancient and Medieval period.
Exclusion: VIC110Y1

VIC210Y1
Literary Studies II: Empire, Literature and Modernity 52L, 26T

The rise of modern European literatures in various contexts - colonialism, humanism, literacy, nation-states, democratic movements,
ideologies, individualism - which prompted development of new literary genres and sub-genres, figures, personae and filiations.
Texts: Petrarch, (selected poems); Montaigne, Essays, (selection); Shakespeare, The Tempest; Cervantes, Don Quixote; Milton,
Paradise Lost; Juana Ines de la Cruz, (selected poems and prose); Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Wheatley, (selected poems); Rousseau,
Emile; Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Goethe, Elective Affinities; Claire de Duras, Ourika, (MLA Texts and
Translations); Bremer, The Colonel’s Daughter; Tolstoy, The Cossacks; Haggard, She; Pauline Johnson, (selected short stories)

VIC211Y1
Literature and Film: Issues of Adaptation 52L

Cinematic readings of epic and lyric poetry, folk tale, biblical narrative, novel, short story. The focus will be on cross-cultural
translation in a wide variety of cinematic styles and forms, including classic Hollywood film, animation, film noir, neo-realism,
surrealist film.
Exclusion:

INI328Y
VIC300H1/Y1

Special Topic in Literary Studies 78S
Interdisciplinary seminar on an author or extensive work (eg. Proust’s, Remembrance of Things Past, Joyce’s, Finnegans Wake) or on
a historical period (eg. Late Antiquity, Romanticism, the Harlem Renaissance): emphasis on literature and its relation to fine arts,
philosophy, politics, history
Prerequisite: VIC 110Y1/201Y1/301Y1/310Y1/instructor’s approval

VIC310Y1
Literary Studies III: Readings in 20th Century Literature 52L, 26T

Joyce and after: the avant-garde and its querying of language, representation, and interpretation. In the first term, intensive study of
Joyce’s Ulysses. In the second term, 6-7 works by writers such as Borges, Robbe-Grillet, Brecht, Gombrowicz, Duras, Christa Wolf,
Garcia Marquez, Shalamov, Spiegelman, Ann Carson

VIC410Y1
Seminar in Comparative Studies 78S

For students enrolled in the Literary Studies program, although other students are welcome. Intensive study of general issues of
poetics and critical theory, including representative literary and philosophical texts from the European tradition.
Prerequisite: VIC110Y1/210Y1/310Y1/a course in the study of literature

VIC411H1
Postmodernist Approaches to Film and Literature 36S

Study of current filmic and literary theories, with emphasis on the rhetoric of film: the concept of the trope, metaphor, metonymy,
allegory, irony, repetition, and specific thematic tropes like the eye, the face, the death mask, the mirror, the dream, etc.
Prerequisite: VIC110Y1/210Y1/310Y1/a course in the study of literature
Renaissance Studies Courses (see Section 4 for Key to Course Descriptions)
For Distribution Requirement purposes (see Pages 37ff), all VIC Renaissance Studies courses are classified as HUMANITIES courses.

VIC240Y1
The Civilization of Renaissance Europe 52L

An interdisciplinary introduction to the civilization of the Renaissance illustrated by a study of the institutions, thought, politics,
society and culture of both Italy and Northern Europe. Italian city states such as Florence, Urbino and Venice, Papal Rome and
despotic Milan are compared with the northern dynastic monarchies of France and England.
Exclusion: VIC140Y1

VIC341H1
The Self and Society: Women, Men and Children 26S

A study of the changing conception of the human self in the Renaissance, and of its representation by major authors: Erasmus,
Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Castiglione, Machiavelli and others.

VIC343Y1
Sex and Gender

(formerly VIC343H1) 52S
An interdisciplinary approach to questions of gender and sexuality in early modern Europe, with special focus on the representations
of the sexual drive, the gender roles of men and women, and varieties of sexual experience in the literature and art of the period.
Exclusion: VIC343H1

VIC344H1
Renaissance Narrative

(formerly VIC242H1) 26S
Focuses on analysis of short stories and longer prose works including, in English translation: Boccaccio’s stories of love, fortune and
human intelligence in the Decameron; Rabelais’ humorous parody of high culture in Gargantua; the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet;
and the adventures of picaresque rogues in Lazarillo de Tormes and Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveler.
Exclusion: VIC242H1

VIC345H1
Media and Communications in the Early Modern Era 26S

This course examines the various media (printing press, representation art, music, preaching) and social and political forces (family
and political networks, censorship, education, etc.) that conditioned the communication of ideas in early modern society.
Prerequisite: VIC240Y1

VIC346H1
Orpheus in the Italian Renaissance 26S

A study of Orpheus as portrayed in art, music, poetry, and philosophy of the Italian Renaissance.

VIC440Y1
Florence and the Renaissance 52L

An interdisciplinary seminar on Florence in the 15th and 16th centuries: humanism, culture and society in the republican period, the
rise of the Medici, Florentine neoplatonism, the establishment of the Medici principate, culture, society and religion.
Prerequisite: VIC140Y1, 240Y1 or permission of instructor
Semiotics Courses (see Section 4 for Key to Course Descriptions)
For Distribution Requirement purposes (see Pages 37ff), all VIC Semiotics courses are classified as SOCIAL SCIENCE courses.

VIC120Y1
Introduction to Semiotics and Communication 52L, 26T

Systems and processes of verbal and non-verbal communication. Processes of constituting texts out of sign systems in a variety of
contemporary modes and genres: language, literature, cinema, advertising, the media, art, gestures.

VIC220Y1
Post-Structuralism/Post-Modernism 52L, 26T

Studies the international culture emerging in media and literature and examines recent communication theory as it applies to literary,
social and cultural issues.
Prerequisite: VIC120Y1

VIC221Y1
Semiotics in the Professions 52L

Using semiotic analysis to understand impact of postmodernism on professional fields, including education, medicine, law, and the
church.
Recommended preparation: VIC120Y1

VIC320Y1
Semiotics of Visual Art 52L, 26T

Theories and models of applied semiotics: analysis of sign systems as articulated in various forms of artistic and cultural production.
Prerequisite: VIC120Y1

VIC321Y1
Semiotics and the Representation of Social Spaces 52L, 26T

Studies of social space, art works, and their interaction with social subjects. Semiotic investigations into the visual cultures of story
space in mythic narrative, ritual and liturgical enactment, and modern texts; studies of architecture, iconography perspective, cinema,
digitialised media, post-colonial art.
Recommended preparation: VIC120Y1

VIC420Y1
Theories of the Sign 52L, 26T

Theories of signification studied with a focus on major works in the semiotics of modern and contemporary culture.
Prerequisite: ANT323Y1/VIC220Y1/320Y1
Other Victoria College Courses

VIC299Y1
Research Opportunity Program

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. See page 44 for details.

VIC350Y1
Creative Writing: A Multicultural Approach 52S

Practice and instruction in writing poetry and fiction, paired with study of literature and theory introducing the multicultural richness
of contemporary English writing. Approximately three-quarters of class periods are workshops, one-quarter lecture discussions. Work
by many writers from contemporary and traditional literatures are read in English translation.
Prerequisite: four credits
This is a Humanities course

VIC390Y1/391H1
Victoria College Independent Studies

TBA

VIC490Y1/491H1
Victoria College Independent Studies

TBA
These courses provide an opportunity to design an interdisciplinary course of study not otherwise available within the Faculty.
Written application (detailed proposal, reading list and a letter of support from a Victoria College faculty member who is prepared to
supervise) should be made through the Program Director for approval by Victoria College Council’s Academic Advisory Committee
by April 30 for a Fall course or by November 30 for a Spring course.
Prerequisite: Permission of College Program Director

• VISUAL STUDIES — See under FAH: VIS
• WOMEN’ S STUDIES — See NEW: New College