Topics in Big Fat Books

CAS XL 230

  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Writing-Intensive Course

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.