HUM 350 - Maritime Culture

Class Hours: 3, Units: 3
General Education: Area C2 Humanities - upper division
Prerequisite(s): EGL 100
This is a course about maritime culture, and over the semester we will define and explore three things: “culture” in general, meaning the ways people understand and live their lives, “maritime,” which most simply means any human interaction with, understanding of, or profitable use of navigable water, and “maritime culture,” as a subset of our inherited and evolving “western” culture. We will examine culture through a variety of its products: representations in literature, visual arts like painting and film, and the more intimate products of maritime culture formerly restricted to coteries of seafarers themselves: chantey songs, tattoos, and crafts like scrimshaw and fancy-work. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining culture; some of the skills and techniques to which you will be introduced include formal analysis of prose and poetry, technical and stylistic scrutiny of paintings, prints, drawings and objects, and the careful observation and description of content presented in films and music.
CC