New spring 2023 English course: Love and Money from Shakespeare to Crazy Rich Asians
The English Department has added an exciting new course for spring 2023: Love and Money from Shakespeare to Crazy Rich Asians.
This course will fulfill the humanities, cultural legacies, and Global Heritage requirements and will also count toward the writing intensive/written communication requirement.
The course meets from 2:20 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The catalog name is ENG 3010W Literature in Its Time I: Love and Money. There are no prerequisites, and it is open to non-majors. Also, because ENG 3010 is a variable content course, you are welcome to take it again if you took a different version of Literature in Its Time in the past.
Below is a fuller description from the course instructor, Casey Caldwell:
“’Love is like money…hard to find and easy to lose.’ Writers through the ages and across cultures have long mined uncanny similarities between the pursuit of love and money, though not always in such a melancholy note, for their plots and poetic language. In this course, we take a comparative approach to global literatures, as we ponder the entertainment value of certain potent combinations of romance and riches.
We’ll explore an international cast of some of literature’s best known and more recent works, including Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” Moreno-Garcia’s “Mexican Gothic,” and Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians,” as they confront us with fascinating questions about erotic desire and wealth that play upon our hopes and fears. How do we know if we love someone for themselves or for their money? What is the difference between a romantic and financial bond? What does it mean to experience passion through the filter of financial language and metaphors? Can we really have it all?
As we consider the relationship in these texts between romance and riches, jealousy and insolvency, we will challenge our basic assumptions about what it means to be in love, in debt, flush with money, and trapped in poverty.”
Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:
English Department
For more information, contact:
Rick Meier: rmeier@carthage.edu