Topics in Big Fat Books
CAS XL 230
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120) - Enters deeply into the world of one literary work and explores its reverberations across national and disciplinary boundaries. Topics for Fall 2025 & Spring 2026: TBD. Previous Topics: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Marcel Proust's Swann's Way. Death in Venice. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course.
SPRG 2026 Schedule
| Section | Instructor | Location | Schedule | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Micallef | STH 636 | TR 3:30 pm-4:45 pm | Seeing and Believing: Narrative, Art, and Identity in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red. Explores this contemporary novel set in 16th-century Istanbul as a crossroads of literature, visual culture, philosophy. Examines how multiple narrators challenge conventional ideas of truth, authorship, artistic representation, and weave together elements of mystery, romance, and metafiction. |
SPRG 2026 Schedule
| Section | Instructor | Location | Schedule | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Waters | IEC B01 | MWF 11:15 am-12:05 pm | Semester-long attentive reading of Homer’s Iliad (in English), the oldest work of Western literature. First-time readers today are finding that this epic of the Trojan War is not only absorbing and relevant, but important to them personally. Find out why. |
Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.

