Monash University - Faculty of Arts

Undergraduate Studies - Undergraduate Units

First Year Units

HSY1120 Conflict & coexistence: Jews, Christians, Muslims
Second semester, Caulfied and Clayton

This unit deals with the social, cultural, political and economic interactions of Jews with Christians and Muslims from antiquity to the present. In a contemporary world that frames these relations as a 'clash of civilisations', the course retraces the shifting relationships between the three monotheistic traditions, emphasising Jewish life in the medieval period under Christian and Islamic rule. The course will consider the legacy of this history in the modern period by reflecting on the post-Holocaust re-evaluation of Christian–Jewish relations and the way the Arab–Israel conflict has impacted on the place of Jews in the Middle East from the collapse of the Ottoman empire to the present.

HSY1190 The Bible as history
First semester, Caulfield

This unit spans some two thousand years, from the period of Abraham to the beginnings of early Christianity. Whilst the approach is chronological, events will be examined through the lens of various themes that have influenced Jewish civilisation throughout the centuries. For much of the period under study, our only source of information is the Bible. One of the central issues underpinning this unit concerns the extent to which we can rely on the Bible as a source for reconstructing a history of ancient Israel. Thus, whilst seeking to understand the relationship of the biblical writers to their own past, we will also examine the place of the contemporary historian within that relationship.

HSY1200 Histories of God
First semester, Clayton

This unit explores the different ways God has been presented in the scriptures and traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The emphasis is on exploring the broad history of religious ideas and images about divinity from the time of the formation of the canon of classic sacred texts in each of these religions to modernity. It will consider how these ideas and images have related to specific situations in human experience at particular moments in history, as well as how they have been used both to support and to question an established religious, social and political order. The emphasis will be on how these teachings are lived out in practice as well as in theory.

Second and Third Year Units

HSY2145/3145 The history of the Arab-Israeli conflict
Second semester, Caulfield and Clayton

This unit will provide an historical analysis of the changing dimensions of the Arab–Israeli conflict from its origins to the present day. Themes to be studied include Jewish–Arab relations under the Ottoman Empire and British Mandate, the emergence of Jewish and Palestinian nationalism, Zionist ideology, the impact of the Holocaust, the birth of Israel in 1948 and the Palestinian refugee crisis, war, the status of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, the rise of the PLO, the Intifadas, terrorism and counterterrorism. In tutorials, students will simulate the politics of negotiation by engaging with documents that have attempted to forge a peaceful end to the conflict.

HSY2570/3570 Modern Israel: History, politics and society
First semester, Clayton

The unit examines the history, politics and society of modern Israel from the early days of the Zionist movement to the beginning of the 21st century. Main topics include the varieties of Zionist ideology and practice, pre-independence Jewish society, the history of Jewish–Arab conflicts, constitutional and legal history of the State of Israel, and the growth of modern Israeli society. We will look at issues of identity, cultural coherence and variety, social divisions along national, ethnic, political and religious lines, Israel's international standing, and the common denominators of Israeli polity and society.

HSY2580/3580 The Holocaust in an age of genocide
First semester, Caulfield and Clayton

This unit examines the Holocaust and its place in the broader phenomenon of genocide and mass killing in history. Major topics covered include antisemitism, the Nazi state, ghettos and death camps, and the responses of victims, perpetrators and bystanders. The course will reflect on the Holocaust as a symbol of the modern condition, its uniqueness and relationship to other forms of violence and genocide. Other themes studied are trauma and testimony, the limits of representation, the survivor experience across generations and cultures, the role of the law in adjudicating war crimes, media coverage of atrocity, and the failure to prevent genocide in the post-war period.

HSY2745/3745 Jesus and the Jews
First semester, Clayton

Jesus was born, lived and died a Jew, as did many of his earliest followers. Beginning with an exploration of the Roman context, the geopolitical character of Judea and Galilee, and the sectarian and apocalyptic cast of first-century Judaism (e.g. the Dead Sea Scroll communities), the unit then concentrates on how the Jewishness of Jesus was represented by rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Relevant issues include Jesus the Jew, the Gospels and anti-Judaism, Paul's view of Judaism, the relationship between the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures, rabbinic depictions of Jesus, and modern scholarly debates about ‘the parting of the ways’ between Judaism and Christianity.

HSY2765/3765 Mystics, authority and society
Second semester, Clayton

This unit explores the literature of mysticism in a variety of religious traditions, in particular of medieval Christianity, Sufism within Islam, and of Jewish esoteric teaching, the Kabbalah. It will consider how mystical literature and teaching relates to any religious practice, its social function within any religion, and the extent to which it may challenge religious authority, while also drawing its discourse from a religious tradition. There will be opportunity to consider mysticism outside as well as within monotheist tradition. It thus raises questions about the nature of mysticism in its various forms, and its relationship to both rational and poetic thought.

PHL2010/3010 After the death of God: Continental philosophy of religion from Nietzche to today
Second semester, Clayton

The unit provides an overview of major developments in Continental philosophy of religion. The beginning of the unit explores the influential critiques of religion made by Kant, Nietzsche and Feuerbach, analyses the significance of the announcement that ‘God is dead,’ and examines the philosophical implications of atheism. The remainder of the unit addresses major figures in the Continental tradition for whom the ‘death of God’ opens new ways for thinking about religion. These thinkers include Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, Levinas, Derrida, Marion and Vattimo. The unit also provides an introduction to the philosophical methods of 'phenomenology' and 'hermeneutics'.

INT2120/3120 Post-conflict: Justice, memory, reconciliation
Second semester, Clayton

This unit examines the emergent histories of post-genocide and post-conflict societies. It explores the negotiation of perpetrator, victim and bystander identities after genocide through histories of return and diaspora; and considers the local initiatives that rebuild post-conflict societies, including strategies of genocide prevention. It recognizes the different experiences of women, children and men in conflict and their different paths to reconciliation. Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, South Africa, post-Holocaust German-Jewish relations, Germany's reunification, and Australia will be discussed, along with processes such as reparations, international criminal tribunals and truth commissions.

JWC3260 Final journey: The life and death of European Jews, 1900–45
Winter semester abroad

This three-week intensive study abroad unit explores the modern history of European Jews before the destruction. Students will travel to the major centres of interwar Jewish life in Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw, and encounter the diverse heritage of Jewish life in each country. The unit will explore issues central to this period and the individuals who shaped their times. Students will visit museums, synagogues, cemeteries, destroyed ghettos, and conclude with a guided visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. We will ask what remains of the past, by looking at the ways in which the lost world of European Jews is being memorialised and renewed through tourism and return.

HSY3195 Israelis and Palestinians between war and peace
Summer intensive abroad

This three-week intensive unit will be based at Haifa University in Israel where students will experience first-hand the complexities of Israeli and Palestinian society. The focus will be on investigating current attempts to mediate peace between Jews and Palestinians through political, social and educational institutions. Themes to be explored include the impact of the conflict on the lives of people, poverty, illegal workers, immigrants, settlements and security issues, terrorism and counter-terrorism, Jerusalem and its holy sites. Students will travel the length and breadth of Israel where they will visit schools, museums, the Supreme Court and NGOs engaged in reconciliation work.

JWC2110 Yiddish language, culture and literature
First semester, Clayton

Yiddish 2A is a continuation of first year level Yiddish. The central feature of both Yiddish 2A and 2B will be the more advanced teaching of Yiddish as a living language, as a tool for both written and spoken communication. The course is designed for students who wish to improve their knowledge of the subject both in its literary and conversational form. The course will include use of non-literary texts and exercises to develop grammatical, syntactic and idiomatic mastery of the language. An additional component will utilise Yiddish literary texts of Australia as well as of other countries. Completion of parts A and B will prepare students to continue to an eventual major in the subject.

JWC2280/3280 Jewish philosophy and Kabbalah
Second semester, Clayton

From the 11th to the 13th centuries Jewish expression underwent a remarkable renaissance that saw the birth of its greatest philosophical and mystical exponents. We will study Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed as a universalistic philosophy of religion, as well as an exponent of the particulars of Jewish law. The second half of the course will examine the extraordinary rise of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition that flourished in Spain from the end of the 13th century. Besides considering the relations between Maimonides and the mystics we will also examine the different but equally daring reading techniques of philosophers and mystics alike.

CLS2840/3840 Modern Jewish literature: writing across the languages
First semester, Clayton

Over the last one hundred years, Jewish writers throughout the world have composed a remarkable array of works that deal with the modern experience. Students will analyse a variety of modern Jewish creative writing and consider the following questions: How did the writers understand modernism and their own identities as ‘modern’ writers? How did they deal with issues of Jewishness and the intersection of the Jewish and the modern? What were the influences in their writings from European and American literature? How did they place their work in the larger framework of Jewish literature? What language did they choose to write in and what was the significance of that choice?