Curiosity and the Birth of the Imagination

This is a first-year seminar that analyzes the changing values and relationship of curiosity and the imagination over time. We will examine literary texts and cultural artifacts (maps, paintings, chronicles, instruments of discovery, and more) to study how attitudes towards curiosity and imagination have evolved over time, and how working together, they now fuel invention, innovation, and artistic achievement. Authors studied include Apuleius, Cervantes, Galileo, Mary Shelley, and more. Reserved for First-Year students only.