The course will examine the "imaginary" that Venice has generated in art, architecture, literature, and film from the early Renaissance to the end of the millennium. This "imaginary"-a combination of image, myth, symbol, ideology, history, culture, aesthetics, reality, fantasy, and fascination-has enveloped Venice in an aura of paradoxes. The city is touched by mystery and melancholy, mist and clarity, water and sky, light and gloom, transparence and opacity, wonder and fear, decadence and spirituality, mirror and mask, carnival and sobriety, labyrinth and horizon, sensuality and artifice, wave and stone, movement and immobility, and commerce and art. Why has this watery city-this "ship of stone," this "serenissima," this "most stupendous . . . most far-reaching of humanist creations" (Adrian Stokes) at the intersection of East and West, this "unquenchable flame burning through a veil of water" (D'Annunzio)-so fascinated writers, artists, travelers, and traders for so many centuries? In what different ways and through what different images has it been represented (in painting, photography, novel, mystery, poem, travel narrative, film, etc.) over time and how have these aesthetic and cultural representations differed and yet remained the same? All readings in English. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: active participation in class discussions, oral presentations, one hour-exam, and two papers. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 15 (expected: 15).