This course surveys the evolution of European culture from 1500-1950. It defines 'culture' broadly to include not only philosophy, literature, and art but also science, manners, sexuality, morality, and religion. Lectures, readings, and discussions will introduce students to what Europeans thought and wrote about these questions. Readings will include no 'history books' but only novels, plays, and memoirs. We will discuss these writings, on the one hand, as 'literature', that is, as examples of literary styles and themes and, on the other hand, as documents that reveal much about the philosophical and social conflicts that divided Europeans.