everything.study
21A.113

The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2013

Topics

  • Introduction
  • The social history of witch-hunting
  • Witch-hunting discussion
  • Introduction to Shakespeare’s Macbeth
  • Macbeth discussion
  • Shakespeare, Kurosawa and context discussion
  • Purcell, Dido and Aeneas
  • Purcell discussion
  • Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique ; Verdi, Macbeth
  • Berlioz, Verdi discussion
  • Verdi’s Macbeth
  • Introduction to learned magic and alchemy Guest: Tara Nummedal
  • Visit to MIT Libraries Special Collections
  • Introduction to Goethe’s Faust
  • Goethe’s Faust ; Murnau
  • Murnau’s Faust , Marlowe’s Faust , and the Faust puppet play
  • Faust in music
  • Liszt, Faust Symphony
  • Henry James and Spiritualism Guest: Paul Fisher
  • Introduction to James’ The Turn of the Screw
  • James’ The Turn of the Screw discussion
  • Music of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw
  • Student presentations preparation
  • Student presentations and discussion

Readings

  • Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth . Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780192834171.
    Required
  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Goethe’s Faust . Translated and with an Introduction by William Kaufmann. Anchor Books, 1962. ISBN: 9780385031141.
    Required
  • James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw . 2nd ed. Edited by Deborah Esch, and Jonathan Warren. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. ISBN: 9780393959048.
    Required
Sources