I realize that I've given most people only the most nebulous sorts of ideas of what I'm studying here in Oxford. Let me try to fix that: This term, I am taking four courses.
The first is a continuation of my 'Great Books' core curriculum called 'Theology and Philosophy.' Together with another Shimer student and our professor from back in Chicago, I've been reading the work by the likes of Plato and Aristotle treating the nature of the soul and the character of the divine. Presently, we are reading Saint Augustine's 'Confessions,' a bildungsroman of sorts, detailing the Saint's development from a fruit-stealing punk to a man of God.
I am also taking a 'French for Reading' tutorial in which I am translating Georges Bataille's novel 'Histoire de l'oeil,' or 'The Story of the Eye' in English. I'm taking the class to be able to read with confidence the huge body of French film criticism, so much of which still hasn't found its way into an English translation. I'm also really excited to be reading a book which fascinated the likes of Roland Barthes, Michell Foucault, and Susan Sontag.
My other courses are both being taught by Oxford scholars. The Oxford system, as I have mentioned before, is radically different from the model used at most American universities. First, rather than classes, each student is taught one-on-one by their professor, or don. At each weekly meeting with a professor, a student reads out loud a 3000 or so word essay they have written discussing the readings assigned by the tutor from the previous week. This then serves as the starting point for the rest of that week's tutorial. At the end of the tutorial, the don sets a title for the essay to be written for the next week.
The wonderful thing about Oxford is that a student can find a renowned scholar who shares their interests and then work together to develop a course that suits both student's and teacher's academic affinities. The terrifying part of it, for me at least, is the sheer vastness of learning and intellect possessed by my tutors, which can feel overwhelming at times.
My first tutorial, called a 'History of Vision' is with a professor at Oxford's Ruskin School of Fine Art.
But a little bit about the course: Descartes has said that 'sight is the noblest of senses' and even since the time of Plato, vision has been the operative metaphor for knowledge and understanding in Western culture. With all of this in mind, I decided to use my time at Oxford to pursue the interest I developed through a Shimer research project last semester which examined Foucault's discussions of the visual dimensions of power as they can be related to film theory. Broadly then, this course is a historical look at the ways vision has been thought about and practiced through the philosophy, art, and science of the post-Renaissance West.
This week, I'm writing a paper about the Formalist art critic Wolfflin and his discussions of the stylistic changes marking the move from Classic to Baroque painting in the 16th and 17th centuries. We meet in the room whose windows are at the far right side of the photograph.
My other course, which is at Balliol College, here,
is about the Frankfurt School, or the group of post-war German Marxist who sought to understand the cultural dimensions of ideology. Right now, I'm reading about the intellectual foundations of the concept of ideology in Hegel, Feuerbach, and Marx before moving to the Frankfurt School proper. I'm really happy about the way my two Oxford course have seem to conspire to compliment each other very well. My tutor for my vision tutorial is having me read a lot of Walter Benjamin, a prominent thinker related to the Frankfurt School; meanwhile, my Frankfurt School tutor has singled out the theme of sight in my essay for this week, which, by the way, he has given the impressive sounding title: 'Mediated Vision: Tropes of False Consciousness in Feuerbach and Marx.'
In other news, yesterday some of us took a road trip the hundred miles or so to the other center of English learning, Cambridge. It was amazing. I'll actually put up some text about what you're looking at when I have more time. For now suffice it to say that most of these are pictures of the Ely Cathedral, and a few are some of the best pictures I've ever taken. I promise to update this post later and to really try to keep you all better informed about what I'm up to.
That's Ely Cathedral.
Inside...
King's College Cambridge. We went to eventide and it was beautiful.
