GERST 1117 - [FWS: Just Friends?]

Fall or Spring. Next Offered: 2020-2021. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar. No knowledge of German is expected.

Staff.

In popular culture and literature, in the humanities and in the social sciences, friendship – a relationship of choice without institutional foundation – is a topic that allows for the exploration of the concept of community. We speak of ‘friending’ someone or being ‘Facebook friends,’ but can we define friendship? Plato and Aristotle already asked: Are friends alike or do opposites attract? Can a good friendship end? Other questions recently emerged: Can individuals of the same sexual orientation be friends? Is friendship between humans and animals possible? How does one mourn the end of a friendship? Looking at philosophical essays, literary texts, films, and scholarship from various disciplines the seminar will hone the ability to critically reflect in writing and discussion on arguments, concepts and representations.