VIC VICTORIA COLLEGE COURSES

Victoria College offers the interdisciplinary programs and courses listed below so that students have an opportunity to examine important themes and problems of our culture from a variety of points of view. Most of the courses introduce ideas and methods from various disciplines; in this way students can explore areas of interest they otherwise might overlook, and also gain insight into comparative studies.

Several of the courses have a place in the established programs of study indicated below. In addition, the courses are designed to serve the interests of those who, whatever their intended field of specialization, wish to introduce variety into their program, or who have not decided on a discipline, and wish to examine different approaches to humane studies.

The American Studies Program (Major) offers a wide range of courses to give students broad exposure to American history, politics, literature, geography, and film. Courses offered on American topics throughout the Faculty of Arts and Science combine to give coherent perspectives.

The Literary Studies Program (Specialist, Major and Minor) makes it possible to study in translation the major works of Western literature as part of a coherent and continuous tradition. By avoiding national, linguistic, and departmental boundries, the student learns how to make connections not only between literature of different countries, languages and eras, but among other kinds of writing, philosophy, history, autobiography, science, and literary theory.

The Renaissance Studies Program (Major and Minor) studies one of the high points of Western civilization, in art and literature, in social and political development, and in the technological and scientific discoveries that were to transform man's picture of the universe. This interdisciplinary program is particularly attractive to students of history, politics, literature, fine art, history of science, music and theatre, because it assembles aspects of all these studies to focus on one seminal period in Western civilization.

The Semiotics and Communication Theory Program (Specialist, Major and Minor) investigates the science of communication and sign systems, the ways people understand phenomena and organise them mentally, the ways in which they devise means for transmitting that understanding and for sharing it with others. It covers all non-verbal signalling and extends to domains whose communicative dimension is perceived only unconsciously or subliminally. Knowledge, meaning, intention and action are thus fundamental concepts in the semiotic investigation of phenomena.

The Victorian Studies Program (Major) offers an opportunity to coordinate interdisciplinary study through concentration on the history and culture of Victorian England.

Fellows of Victoria College offer on the Victoria campus courses in the history of science, philosophy of science, and history of technology, which are listed in this Calendar under HPS.

Program Director: Principal W.J. Callahan

Enquiries: J.L. Welsh, Victoria College, 73 Queen's Park Crescent East (585-4496)

Faculty Members

VICTORIA COLLEGE PROGRAMS

Enrolment in Victoria College programs is open to students upon completion of four courses; no minimum GPA required.

AMERICAN STUDIES (B.A.)

Major program: M01351 (6 full courses or their equivalent)

The courses to include offerings of at least three disciplines and at least two 300+ series courses from:

ECO 306Y, 423H; ENG 250Y, 358Y, 359Y, 361H; FAH 312H, 375H, 410H; GGR 254H, 336H; HIS 271Y, 300Y, 321H, 370H, 371H/Y, 372Y, 373Y, 374H, 375Y, 376Y, 377Y, 378H, 379H, 384Y, 393H, 406Y, 408Y, 417Y, 447Y, 473Y, 474Y, 478Y, 479Y; HMU 133H; INI 225Y, 324Y, 423Y, 426Y; POL 203Y, 319Y, 326Y, 433Y, 456Y, 457Y

NOTES:
1. Most students will find advantages in taking both ENG 250Y and HIS 271Y.
2. Other 300+ series courses may be allowed; early approval should be sought.

LITERARY STUDIES (B.A.)

Major program (B.A.): M05391 (7 full courses or their equivalent)
1. VIC 110Y, 210Y, 310Y, 410Y
2. Three approved courses with thematic, generic or historical coherence chosen from the offerings of the colleges' programs and the university's departments, (but including no more than one course of literature in translation). VIC 300Y is strongly recommended. Normally, no more than one of these courses may be taken at the 200-level.

Minor program (B.A.): R05391 (4 full courses or their equivalent)

Four courses from: VIC 110Y, 210Y, 300Y, 310Y, 410Y

LITERARY STUDIES AND PHILOSOPHY (Hon.B.A.)

Specialist program: S18231 (14 full courses or their equivalent, including at least one 400-series course)
1. The seven courses of the Literary Studies Major program (above)
2. Six Philosophy courses, at least two of them 300+ series.

It is strongly recommended that courses in the following areas be included:

Two History of Philosophy 1/2 Logic
One Epistemology/Metaphysics 1/2 Ethics/Social and Political Philosophy
1/2 Aesthetics/Philosophy of literature

RENAISSANCE STUDIES (B.A.)

Major program (B.A.): M05321 (6 full courses or their equivalent)

NOTE: At least two courses of the six must be 300+ series courses.
1. VIC 440Y
2. Equivalent of two full credits from: VIC 140Y, 240Y, 341H, 342H, 343Y, 344H
3. One full course equivalent in Literature from: DRM 262H; ENG 220Y, 302Y, 304Y, 330H, 332Y, 440Y, 455H; FRE 319H, 420H; ITA 333H, 345H, 355H, 370Y, 426H, 436Y, 470H, 480H; PRT 343H, 351H, 451H; SPA 350Y
4. One full course equivalent in History, Economics or Religion from: ECO 201Y; HIS 243H, 303Y, 304Y, 340Y, 349Y, 357Y, 399H, 486H; RLG 223H
5. One full course equivalent in Art or Music from:

FAH 270Y, 272Y, 273H, 274H, 307Y, 324H/Y, 326Y, 331H/Y, 333H, 334Y, 339H, 341H, 428H, 438H, 473Y, 474Y, 484H/485H; MUS 208H, 410H; HMU 121H, 122H, 331H

Minor program (B.A.): R05321 (4 full courses or their equivalent)

NOTE: At least one course must be in the 300+ series.
1. Equivalent of two full courses from: VIC 140Y, 240Y, 341H, 342H, 343Y, 344H
2. Two courses from any of those listed above

SEMIOTICS AND COMMUNICATION THEORY (B.A.)

Professor M. Danesi, Victoria College.

Specialist program (Hon.B.A.): S19391 (12 full courses or their equivalent, including at least one 400-series course)
1. VIC 120Y, 220Y, 320Y/321Y, 420Y
2. One Literary Studies course from Group A
3. Two Anthropology courses from Group B
4. Two Linguistics courses from Group C
5. Three Philosophy and/or Psychology courses from Group D

Major program (B.A.): M19391 (6 full courses or their equivalent)
1. Three courses from: VIC 120Y, 220Y, 320Y/321Y, 420Y
2. One full course equivalent from each of Groups A, B/C and D

Minor program (B.A.): R19391 (4 full courses or their equivalent, including at least one 300+series course)
1. VIC 120Y
2. One of VIC 220Y, 320Y/321Y, or 420Y
3. Plus two courses from those listed below in Groups A, B/C, and D

Group A: Literary Studies: VIC 310Y or 410Y

Group B: Anthropology: ANT 100Y, 204Y, 323H, 328Y, 329H, 343Y, 351H, 425Y, 427H, 450Y

Group C: Linguistics: LIN 100Y, 200H, 341H, 480H; JAL 253H, 254H, 328Y, 355H, 356H

Group D: Philosophy and Psychology: PHL 235H, 243H, 250H, 255H, 267H, 285H, 290H, 320H, 322H, 342H, 383Y, 385H; PHI/PHL 230H, 247H; PSY 270H, 271H, 280H, 301H, 312H, 320H, 323H, 325H, 383Y, JLP 374H

NOTE: other courses may be substituted with the approval of the Program Coordinator

VICTORIAN STUDIES (B.A.)

Major program: M24111 (6 full courses or their equivalent)
1. At least one course from: HIS 239H, 339Y, 442Y, 477Y
2. At least one course from: ENG 309Y, 310Y, 324Y
3. Three additional courses from those listed in categories 1 and 2 above or ENG 443Y, 458H, FAH 413H, HPS 202H, 323H and other courses may be counted with approval of the program coordinator
4. VIC 490Y

VICTORIA COLLEGE COURSES

Literary Studies Courses

For Distribution Requirement purposes, all VIC Literary Studies courses are classified as HUMANITIES courses.

VIC110Y
Literary Studies I: The Classical and the Biblical Tradition 52L, 26T

The European literary tradition from the Bible and classical antiquity through the Middle Ages. Readings in English translation from the classical epic, Greek tragedy and philosophy, the Biblical tradition and Dante's Divine Comedy. By introducing students to practical criticism and to the interpretation of texts and their intertexts, the course seeks to develop a theoretical and comparative language for literary analysis.

VIC210Y
Literary Studies II: The Rise of Modern Literatures 52L, 26T

Central traditions of Western Literature from the Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century: Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain; Cervantes, Don Quixote; plays by Shakespeare and Calderon; Montaigne, Essays; Pascal, Pensees; Milton, Paradise Lost; Mozart, Don Juan; Rousseau, Reveries of a Solitary Walker; Goethe, Faust; Kierkegaard, Diary of a Seducer; Nietsche, Zarathustra (Part 4); Whitman, Song of Myself; Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov.

VIC300Y
Special Topic in Literary Studies 78S

Interdisciplinary approach to a specific historical period or movement (such as Romanticism, Late-Antiquity, Post-modernism, etc.) within the development of European arts and letters: emphasis on the literature, fine arts, music and philosophy of the period.

VIC310Y
Literary Studies III: Readings in 20th Century Literature 52L, 26T

Modern directions in literature and criticism. Joyce, Ulysses; Kafka, The Trial; selected poetry (Mallarmé, Rilke, Stevens, Neruda); Robbe-Grillet, Jealousy; Borges, Labyrinths; Brecht, Galileo; Levi, The Periodic Table; Wolf, Cassandra; Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude; readings in literary theory.

VIC410Y
Seminar in Literary 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 Western tradition.
Prerequisite: VIC110Y/210Y/310Y/a course in the study of literature

VIC411H
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: VIC110Y/210Y/310Y/a course in the study of literature

Renaissance Studies Courses

For Distribution Requirement purposes, all VIC Renaissance Studies courses are classified as HUMANITIES courses.

VIC240Y
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: VIC140Y

VIC341H
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.

VIC342H
War and Peace in the Renaissance 26L

Examination of central issues in Renaissance thought on the conduct and justification of war, and discussion of representations of war and the life of soldiers in historical writing, literature, and the visual arts. Core readings from Erasmus, Machiavelli, Vitoria, Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes.
Exclusion: VIC340Y

VIC343Y
Sex and Gender (formerly VIC343H) 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: VIC343H

VIC344H
Renaissance Narrative (formerly VIC242H) 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: VIC242H

VIC440Y
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: VIC140Y, 240Y or permission of instructor

Semiotics Courses

For Distribution Requirement purposes, all VIC Semiotics courses are classified as SOCIAL SCIENCE courses.

VIC120Y
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.

VIC220Y
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: VIC120Y

VIC320Y
Semiotics of Visual Art 52L, 26T

Theories and models of applied semiotics: structural analysis of sign systems as articulated in various forms of artistic and cultural production. (Offered in alternate years)
Prerequisite: VIC120Y

VIC321Y
Semiotics and Visual Culture 52L, 26T

Semiotic theories and models and visual culture; applications include architecture, cinema, painting and video/new media. (Offered in alternate years)
Recommended preparation: VIC120Y

VIC420Y
Theories of the Sign 52L, 26T

The major theories of semiosis and signification. Definition of the sign from the ancient world to the 20th Century (Saussure, Peirce, Morris, Greimas, Eco, Hjelmslev, Jakobson). Historical genealogy of analytical models and methodological practices that characterize contemporary semiotics. Main theories on the origins of sign and communication systems in humans.
Prerequisite: VIC120Y, 220Y, 320Y or permission of instructor

Other Victoria College Courses

VIC299Y
Research Opportunity Program

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. See Research Opportunity Program for details.

VIC312Y
Surrealism 52L, 26T

The surrealist movement in literature, fine arts and cinema. Literary texts and manifestos in translation; slides and documents concerning works of art and films. Influence on contemporary aesthetics and sensibilities. The tutorial includes one optional section in French for students who wish this course to count toward their specialization in French. (Offered in alternate years)

This is a Humanities course

VIC350Y
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 writing 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

VIC390Y/391H
Victoria College Independent Studies TBA

VIC490Y/491H
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

We welcome your comments and enquiries. Revised: April 6, 1998

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