Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature examines literature across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. The broad perspective of Comparative Literature generates sustained critical thinking about what literature is and does; how literature relates to other fields, including other art forms and kinds of writing; how literary texts and their translations produce meaning; and the ethical valence of literature in a globalized world. Advanced knowledge of at least one foreign language is essential for understanding and appreciating a given literature and culture. Therefore, all comparative literature and comparative arts majors study a foreign language and literature at an advanced level, and they are strongly encouraged to pursue a study abroad experience. Moreover, the study of works in translation — especially those originally written in non-European languages — facilitates cross-cultural comparisons and helps prepare students for a multilingual, pluralistic, and global world. Comparison of literature to other arts, media and modes of writing develops one's understanding of literature and culture as well as of technologies and aesthetic forms of mediation and transmission of world views, values and critiques.
Comparative Literature and Comparative Arts offer the following to students:
- A high degree of flexibility and individualization in their chosen program
- A rich array of courses spanning national, temporal and medial boundaries organized by genre (e.g., postmodern narrative, comedy, the novel, lyric poetry); cultural issues (e.g., exile, diaspora, cross-cultural encounters); themes (e.g., memory, obsession in the novel, mysticism in poetry); periods (Romanticism, the Renaissance); and transnational regions (e.g., Middle Eastern literature, African literature)
- Courses that instruct the student in the central practices, approaches, and theories of the discipline, including entry-level courses like World Literature and Introduction to Comparative Arts as well as courses on literature, literary theory, and translation
- Preparation for life in a reverberant, multicultural, and pluralinguistic world, including critical and analytical thinking skills and cross-cultural understanding
With the help of our major and the encouraged semester or year of study abroad, some graduates have pursued careers in international affairs, teaching English as a second language abroad, and international humanitarian programs such as the Peace Corps. Other recent graduates have found employment in such areas as the arts, business, media and technology as well as in writing, editing and publishing. In addition, our graduates are well prepared for the challenges of graduate or professional education in a variety of fields.
Comparative Literature and the Arts & Sciences Curriculum
Comparative Literature offers first-year seminars, writing-intensive courses, community-based learning opportunities and various capstone experiences, including directed research, creative projects and internships appropriate to the student's field.
Contact Info
Phone: | 314-935-5170 |
Email: | complit@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://complit.wustl.edu |
Director
Lynne Tatlock
Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
PhD, Indiana University
Endowed Professors
Timothy Moore
John and Penelope Biggs Distinguished Professor of Classics
PhD, University of North Carolina
Anca Parvulescu
Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature
PhD, University of Minnesota
Vincent Sherry
Howard Nemerov Professor in the Humanities
PhD, University of Toronto
Gerhild Scholz Williams
Barbara Schaps Thomas and David M. Thomas Professor in the Humanities
PhD, University of Washington
Professors
Nancy E. Berg
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Lingchei Letty Chen
PhD, Columbia University
Rebecca Copeland
PhD, Columbia University
Tili Boon Cuillé
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Matt Erlin
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Robert K. Henke
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Catherine Keane
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Stephanie Kirk
PhD, New York University
Tabea Linhard
PhD, Duke University
Joseph Loewenstein
PhD, Yale University
Marvin H. Marcus
PhD, University of Michigan
Erin McGlothlin
PhD, University of Virginia
Angela Miller
PhD, Yale University
Wolfram Schmidgen
PhD, University of Chicago
Henry Schvey
PhD, Indiana University
Michael Sherberg
PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Harriet Stone
PhD, Brown University
Associate Professors
J. Dillon Brown
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Ignacio Infante
PhD, Rutgers University
Caroline Kita
PhD, Duke University
Ji-Eun Lee
PhD, New York University
William McKelvy
PhD, University of Virginia
Steven Meyer
PhD, Yale University
Jamie Newhard
PhD, Columbia University
Jessica Rosenfeld
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Alexander Stefaniak
PhD, Eastman School of Music
Julia Walker
PhD, Duke University
Assistant Professors
Aylin Bademsoy
PhD, University of California, Davis
André Fischer
PhD, Stanford University
Sarah Koellner
PhD, Vanderbilt University
Professor of Practice
Matthias Goeritz
PhD, Washington University
Lecturer
Philip Purchase
PhD, University of Southern California
Professors Emeriti
Dolores Pesce
Avis Blewett Professor of Music in Arts & Sciences
PhD, University of Maryland
Paul Michael Lützeler
Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities
PhD, Indiana University
Robert E. Hegel
Liselotte Dieckmann Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature in Arts & Sciences; Professor Emeritus of Chinese
PhD, Columbia University
Naomi Lebowitz
Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Humanities
PhD, Washington University
Stamos Metzidakis
PhD, Columbia University
The Major in Comparative Literature
Total units required: 27
Required courses:
- 27 units of Comparative Literature courses, including the following:
- Comp Lit 211 World Literature (3 units)
- Comp Lit 3050 Literary Modernities in Europe and America: Text and Tradition
- Seven additional courses in Comparative Literature at both the 300 and 400 levels (21 units). With permission of the director of undergraduate studies, the student may substitute up to 6 units of appropriate foreign literature courses at the 300 or 400 level.
- The major also requires the completion of a capstone experience. Students who are double majoring may elect to complete their capstone in the other major.
- Students of Comparative Literature are also expected to have had substantial college-level experience with foreign language study as demonstrated by the completion of either one 400-level foreign language course or two 300-level courses.
The Major in Comparative Arts
Total units required: 27
Required courses:
- 21 units of Comparative Literature courses, including the following:
- Comp Lit 211 World Literature (3 units)
- Comp Lit 313E Introduction to Comparative Arts (3 units)
- Five additional courses in Comparative Arts at both the 300 and 400 levels (15 units), including one course on interrelations between literature and other art forms. With permission of the director of undergraduate studies, the student may substitute up to 6 units of appropriate foreign literature courses at the 300 or 400 level.
- 6 units of advanced study (300 level or above) in theoretical or historical courses in aesthetics, art history, dance, drama, film or music. (Students with minors or majors in one of these fields may elect to substitute 6 units of Comparative Literature.)
- The major also requires the completion of a capstone experience. Students who are double majoring may elect to complete their capstone in the other major.
- Students of Comparative Arts are also expected to have had substantial college-level experience with foreign language study as demonstrated by the completion of either one 400-level foreign language course or two 300-level courses. They are also expected to pursue work in an applied art form — music, fine arts, drama, dance or creative writing — for four semesters. This course work need not be conducted at the 300 or 400 level.
Note: Students should be aware that courses satisfying the major requirements in another department cannot also be counted toward the major requirements of Comparative Literature or Comparative Arts.
Additional Information
Senior Honors: To be considered for honors, a student must have a grade point average of at least 3.7 by the end of the sixth semester and must be approved to write a Senior Honors thesis by either the Director of Comparative Literature or the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Honors courses (Comp Lit 497 Independent Work for Senior Honors and Comp Lit 498 Independent Work for Senior Honors) supplement the major and do not satisfy any of the above requirements.
The Minor in Comparative Literature
Total units required: 15
Required courses: 15 units of study, distributed as follows:
- Comp Lit 211 World Literature (3 units)
- Comp Lit 3050 Literary Modernities in Europe and America: Text and Tradition
- Three additional Comparative Literature courses at the 300 or 400 level
Students who minor in Comparative Literature are also expected to have had substantial college-level experience with foreign language study as demonstrated by the completion of either one 400-level foreign language course or two 300-level courses.
The Minor in Comparative Arts
Units required: 15
Required courses: 15 units of study, distributed as follows:
- 6 units of Comparative Literature, including the following:
- Comp Lit 211 World Literature (3 units)
- Comp Lit 313E Introduction to Comparative Arts (3 units)
- One more Comparative Literature course at the 300 or 400 level
- 6 units of advanced study (300 level or above) in theoretical or historical courses in music, art history, drama, dance, film or aesthetics. (Students with majors or minors in one of these fields may elect to substitute 6 units of Comparative Literature.)
- Students who minor in Comparative Arts are also expected to have had substantial college-level experience with foreign language study as demonstrated by the completion of either one 400-level foreign language course or two 300-level courses.
Visit online course listings to view semester offerings for L16 Comp Lit.
L16 Comp Lit 1023 Beethoven in His Time and Ours
Ludwig van Beethoven not only composed some of the most significant works of Western classical music -- he continues to make his mark as the prototypical "troubled genius," symbol for a wide range of political causes, subject of numerous films, and classical music's main representative in American pop culture. We will begin with an exploration of Beethoven's life, music, and historical context and continue by tracing how, after his death, Beethoven became a cultural hero whose image took on a life of its own. Throughout, we will unravel the interaction of music, culture, and mythmaking. No previous musical experience required.
Same as L27 Music 1023
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 1024 Mozart: The Humor, Science, and Politics of Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most recognized composers of classical music and has come to symbolize beauty, "genius," and technical perfection. In this course, we'll peer behind this beauty and discover that Mozart speaks to some of our most complex present-day concerns. Mozart's music reflects the world of the Enlightenment, as well as challenges to its beliefs about reason and human nature. He also created musical comedies that make provocative, strikingly contemporary statements about power, gender, privilege, and sexuality. And, he delighted in musical engineering challenges and thought carefully about how we perceive music. Our focus works will range from symphonies and piano music to musical theatre. We'll also explore Mozart's afterlife: how his music has figured in film and popular culture. This course is open to all - no previous musical experience is required.
Same as L27 Music 1024
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 115 First-Year Seminar
A variety of topics in comparative literature, designed for first-year students -- no special background is required -- and to be conducive to the investigation and discussion format of a seminar. Previous topics include: Story Telling Through Sound; Banned Books; Immigrants and Exiles; Literature and Democracy; Literature and the Art of Apology; Hell on Earth: Crime, Conscience, and the Arts; and Magical Thinking: Literature and Theory Engage the Occult.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 137A First-Year Seminar
The destructive, scandal-ridden career of the Roman emperor Nero (mid-first century CE) almost defies belief. From his assumption of power as a teenager to his suicide after a military revolt, Nero flouted political and cultural conventions left and right. His inspiring debut notwithstanding, he killed off his family and mentor, held wild parties, poured money into extravagant projects, and neglected state business to pursue a career on stage. He came to be labeled one of the "Bad Emperors," and seen as a symbol of the decline of Rome itself — especially by sympathizers of the Christians he persecuted. Yet Nero as an emperor and a literary character was also a creation of his time. The figure of Nero is examined in his context. The central text is the Life of Nero by Suetonius (second century CE), a dense and colorful text read first in its entirety and then more carefully in pieces. Supplementary readings are from the abundant other sources on and interpretations of Nero, both ancient and modern. Discussions and writing assignments are varied and designed to develop analytical and writing skills.
Same as L08 Classics 137
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 200C Sanity and Madness
We will consider explicit and implicit models of mental life, motivation, and action in works by authors studied in 201C. We will investigate how concepts related to madness are formulated and regulated in these literary texts and in the societies that produce them, and we will read scholarship from the 19th through 21st centuries that has debated the scale and scope of irrationality in ancient, medieval, and early modern cultures.
Same as L93 IPH 200C
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 201A AMP: Classical to Renaissance Literature
Students enrolled in this course engage in close and sustained reading of a set of texts that are indispensable for an understanding of the European literary tradition, texts that continue to offer invaluable insights into humanity and the world around us. Homer's Iliad is the foundation of our class. We then go on to trace ways in which later poets and dramatists engage the work of predecessors who inspire and challenge them. Readings move from translations of Greek, Latin and Italian, to poetry and drama composed in English. In addition to Homer, we will read works of Sappho, a Greek tragedian, Plato, Vergil, Ovid, Petrarch, and Shakespeare.
Same as L93 IPH 201C
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 211 World Literature
This course teaches ways of reading literature across Eastern and Western cultures, introducing students to works of great imaginative power from many different regions of the world. The course focuses on a given historical period, such as the modern period or antiquity (the latter including Near Eastern as well as European texts). Organizing themes may include cultural translation, cross-cultural encounter (e.g., Orientalism), hybridity and displacement.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 215C Introduction to Comparative Practice I
This course permits the close examination of a particular theme or question studied comparatively, that is, with a cross-cultural focus involving at least two national literatures. Topics are often interdisciplinary; they explore questions pertinent to literary study that also engage history, philosophy and/or the visual arts. Although the majority of works studied are texts, the course frequently pursues comparisons of texts and images (painting, photography, film). Requirements may include frequent short papers, response papers and/or exams.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 226 Theatre Culture Studies I: Antiquity to Medieval
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 228B Thatre Culture Studies I: Antiquity to Renaissance
This course is a survey of ancient, medieval and Renaissance theater and performance: in both the West and in the East, as it both reflects and shapes culture. Coverage will include the following areas: ancient Greece, ancient Rome, classical Sanskrit theater, Yuan China, medieval Japan, medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, and Renaissance England. Both scripted theater and performance practices will be examined through the lenses of dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies, and dramatic theory. A continual emphasis will be on marginal and underrepresented figures, as we will attempt to excavate forgotten histories from the theatrical past.
Same as L15 Drama 228C
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 249C Paris: The Left Bank
First-year seminar. Taught in English. From the founding of the Sorbonne in the Middle Ages to the strikes and riots of 1968 and from Abelard and St. Thomas Aquinas to Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Camus and Sartre, Beckett and Ionesco, and beyond, the Rive Gauche — or Left Bank — has been the traditional center of Paris's intellectual creativity and political turmoil. This seminar will explore the area's history and political activism, its artistic legacy, and especially its philosophical and literary contributions to contemporary France and the world. Prerequisite: AP in English, French, or History, or permission of the instructor. Does not substitute for any other French course. Enrollment limited to 15.
Same as L34 French 249C
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS
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L16 Comp Lit 300 Undergraduate Independent Study
Students pursue personalized projects not normally covered in standard courses at this level. Prerequisites: acceptance by an appropriate instructor of a proposed project and permission of the chair of the committee.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3003 Writing Intensive in Ancient Studies
This is a Writing Intensive course involving the study of selected topics in Classics. Recent topics include The Banquet in Antiquity; The Art of Reading and Writing an Ancient Greek Vase; and Golden Ages, Nostalgia, and the Idealized Past.
Same as L08 Classics 3003
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 301C Greek Mythology
The myths of ancient Greece are not only inherently interesting, but they are an incomparable starting point for the study of the ancient world, and they have offered numerous images and paradigms to poets, artists, and theorists. This course provides an introduction to the major Greek myths, their role in literature and art, their historical and social background, and ancient and modern approaches to their interpretation. Student work will include discussing course material in sections and online, taking two exams covering both the myths themselves and the ancient authors who represent our richest sources, and writing several essays interpreting or comparing ancient literary treatments. 3 units.
Same as L08 Classics 301C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3023 Jazz in American Culture
This course will address the role of jazz within the context of twentieth-century African American and American cultural history, with particular emphasis on the ways in which jazz has shaped, and has been shaped by, ideas about race, gender, economics, and politics. We will make use of recordings and primary sources from the 1910s to the present in order to address the relationship between jazz performances and critical and historical thinking about jazz. This course in not a survey, and students should already be familiar with basic jazz history.
Same as L27 Music 3023
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3040 Introduction to Digital Humanities
It is a truism that computers have changed our lives and the way we think and interact. But in fact, systematic efforts to apply current technologies to the study of history and culture have been rare. This course will enable students to consider how these technologies might transform the humanities. We will explore the various ways in which ideas and data in the humanities can be represented, analyzed and communicated. We will also reflect on how the expansion of information technology has transformed and is continuing to transform the humanities, both with regard to their role in the university and in society at large. Readings and classwork will be supplemented by class presentations and a small assigned group project.
Same as L93 IPH 312
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3050 Literary Modernities in Europe and America: Text and Tradition
The course examines the various facets of modernity in major works of European, Eurasian, and, sometimes, American literature from the early 17th century to the 1920s, starting with "Don Quixote." We will explore, among other things, the eruption of the novel, the secularization of autobiography, the literary discovery of the city, and the rise of literary and aesthetic criticism that takes literature and art seriously as political and social institutions. In addition to literary works, the course will engage with two or three important models of critical practice (e.g., Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women"; Marx's "German Ideology"; Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams"; Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent"; or perhaps that great work of fictionalized literary criticism, Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote").
Same as L93 IPH 3050
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 306 Modern Jewish Writers
What is Jewish literature? While we begin with -- and return to -- the traditional question of definitions, we will take an unorthodox approach to the course. Reading beyond Bellow, Ozick and Wiesel, we will look for enlightenment in unexpected places: Egypt, Latin America, and Australia. Recent works by Philip Roth, Andre Aciman, Simone Zelitch and Terri-ann White will be supplemented by guest lectures, film, short stories and significant essays. We will focus on issues of language, memory and place. Background knowledge is not required, though it is warmly welcomed.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 306C Voice, Language and Power: Late Medieval Religious Writing
In the later Middle Ages, there is a flowering throughout Christian Europe of religious writings that offer a new voice in which personal religious experience can be pursued and expressed. Their voices are mainly intended to be communal ones, to be contained within the Church and regulated by it. But in each case the fact that it is a voice may offer a mode of resistance, or of difference. Such writing is often aimed at lay people, sometimes exclusively at women; and sometimes the intended auditors become the authors, and propose a version of religious experience that claims a new and more intimate kind of power for its readers. This course looks at a wide range of such writing in vernacular languages read in translation (English, French and German), including the work of Meister Eckhart, Marguerite Porete, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, Eleanor Hull, the anonymous writer of The Cloud of Unknowing and the perhaps pseudonymous William Langland, author of Piers Plowman. Whether such writing seeks to be orthodox or conducive to heresy, it presents a challenge to the power of clergy — a challenge that is written in the vernacular language of lay people, rather than clerical Latin, and in doing so offers distinctively new voices for religious experience. The course will also look at ways in which such work might have been influenced, if only oppositionally or at times indirectly, by contact with Muslim and Jewish writing (including Jewish exegesis of the Psalms).
Same as L23 Re St 3065
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3071 Caribbean Literature in English
Rum! Fun! Beaches! Sun! This is the image of the Caribbean in America today. This course surveys literature and culture from these islands, looking both at and beyond this tourists' paradise. It aims to introduce students to the region's unmistakably vibrant tradition of multicultural mixture, while keeping an eye on the long history of slavery and rebellion out of which the islands' contemporary situation formed. Along the way we encounter a wide variety of texts, from the earliest writing focused on life in urban slums, to the first novel ever to have a Rastafarian as its hero, to more contemporary considerations of the region's uncertain place in a U.S.-dominated world. Toward the end of the course, we also look at important films like The Harder They Come as well as discussing the most globally famous cultural product of the contemporary Caribbean: reggae music. The course involves readings from multiple genres and covers authors such as C.L.R. James, Derek Walcott, Jean Rhys, V.S. Naipaul, Jamaica Kincaid, and Caryl Phillips.
Same as L14 E Lit 3071
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 307B Literary Modernities in East Asia: The Interplay of Tradition, Modernity, & Empire: Text & Tradition
This course will explore the complex forces at work in the emergence of modern East Asia through a selection of literary texts spanning fiction, poetry and personal narrative. Our readings — by Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese writers and poets — will point to the distinctively different and dramatically shifting circumstances of modern East Asian nations and peoples, as well as to their shared values and aspirations.
Same as L93 IPH 307
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 311A Topics in English and American Literature: The Environment Crisis Novel
Topics: themes, formal problems, literary genres, special subjects (e.g., the American West, science and literature, the modern short story). Consult course listings for offerings in any given semester.
Same as L14 E Lit 311
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H UColl: CD
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L16 Comp Lit 311B Topics in English & American Literature: International Modernism
Topics: themes, formal problems, literary genres, special subjects (e.g., the American West, science and literature, the modern short story). Consult Course Listings for offerings in any given semester.
Same as L14 E Lit 311
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H UColl: CD
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L16 Comp Lit 3123 Introduction to Digital Humanities
It is a truism that computers have changed our lives and the way we think and interact. But in fact systematic efforts to apply current technologies to the study of history and culture have been rare. This course will enable students to consider how these technologies might transform the humanities. We will explore the various ways in which ideas and data in the humanities can be represented, analyzed, and communicated. We will also reflect on how the expansion of information technology has transformed and is continuing to transform the humanities, both with regard to their role in the university and in society at large. Readings and classwork will be supplemented by class presentations and a small assigned group project.
Same as L93 IPH 3123
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 312A Medieval Romance and Arthurian Legend
The romance grows out of the epic: how we get from the fall of Troy to the fall of Troilus. Readings from Vergil's Aeneid to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Same as L14 E Lit 3121
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 312C Topics in English and American Literature
Starting with Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, a book that helped re-ignite the Culture Wars, this course will consider the debates and problems that pervaded American culture during the 1990s. From the end of the Cold War to the sexual scandals that rocked Bill Clinton's presidency, from the emergence of the Internet to the rise of grunge and rap, the 1990s were a time of vast change in American culture. It was period when we, as a nation, reconsidered the legacy of the 1960s, the Reagan revolution, and the end of the Cold War, a time of economic expansion and cultural tension. In our consideration of this period, we will take a multidisciplinary approach when tackling a variety of materials-ranging from literary fiction (Philip Roth's The Human Stain, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections) and popular films (Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and The Cohen brothers' The Big Lebowski) to the music of Nirvana and Public Enemy-in an attempt to come to a better understanding of our recent history. Throughout the semester, we will pursue the vexed cultural, political, and historical questions that Americans faced in the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and consider how literary texts imagined this period of American history.
Same as L14 E Lit 312W
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3132 Romantic Revolutions in European Music and Culture
The early 19th century in Europe witnessed sweeping changes in social, political, and cultural life, but some of the most fascinating happened in music. This course considers intersections between Romantic thinking about music — which inspired an idealistic vision of the art form as a source of quasi-spiritual experience — and other contemporary "revolutions." To what extent was Romantic music a "holy art" that offered a refuge from the world? In what ways was it a worldly participant in larger currents in society and culture? By exploring these questions and more, students develop the skills and framework needed to incorporate works of music into their investigation of enduring issues in history and the humanities. Although this course requires listening and viewing of musical works, it is designed for students with intellectual curiosity but without prior musical background. We also require weekly readings, occasional presentations, three short papers, and spirited class discussion.
Same as L27 Music 3132
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 313A Topics in English Literature: Asian American Fictions: Space, Place, & the Makings of Asian America
Called the "Age of Revolution," the Romantic Age of British literature, 1770-1830, witnessed the birth of new lyric forms, the effacement of traditional strictures on style and taste, and produced through poetic voice (and its quaverings and multiplications) what might be called, over simply, the modern subject. Within a developing discourse of human rights and personal freedom, this growing assertion through poetry of individual expressivity allowed William Blake to construct in a single work a visual and verbal "Jerusalem." It encouraged William Wordsworth to write a pathbreaking investigation of the sources of his own creativity that challenged conventional restraints on what topics can, and cannot, be confessed in poetry. Beginning with these two poets, we will consider the historical contexts, and the sometimes competing histories of ideas, that shaped the five major British Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, and John Keats. We will follow an anthology for much of the poetry, including the poems and prose of influential contemporaries (female as well as male) who included the political philosopher Edmund Burke and Mary Wollstonecraft. Texts also to be assigned will include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Byron's Don Juan.
Same as L14 E Lit 313
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 313B Nordic Noir Adaptations
The past decade has seen an unprecedented passion for crime fiction, film and TV originating in the Nordic countries, such as Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the TV series The Killing and The Bridge. Before they are distributed in the United States, Scandinavian cultural products undergo a degree of adaptation via tactics ranging from translation to subtitling to the creation of complete remakes. Many of these works are also subject to transmedial adaptation (e.g., from the page to the screen). In this course, we will use Nordic noir as a vibrant case study to consider the theoretical implications of adaptations across media and across cultures. In workshops, students will also gain exposure to the practical side of adaptation. No knowledge of Scandinavian languages is required to enroll.
Credit 3 units. BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 313E Introduction to Comparative Arts
Intro to Comparative Arts is an interdisciplinary, multimedia course that explores the relationship among the arts in a given period. In their written work, students will venture beyond the course material, alternately assuming the roles of artist, critic, and consumer. Students will attend (virtual and/or in-person) performances and exhibits. Ability to read music is not required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3153 The Women of Greek Tragedy
This course examines the role of women in Athenian drama. Students will read English translations of the works of the three major tragedians — Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides — and their near contemporary, the comedian Aristophanes. Direct engagement with ancient texts will encourage students to develop their own interpretations of and written responses to the political, social, and ethical manipulation that these mythological women were compelled to endure and the subtle ways in which they appear to exercise power themselves. Selected scholarly articles and book chapters will help students to contextualize these ancient dramas in their culture of origin. Because such issues continue to preoccupy both sexes today, students will see how Greek tragedy addresses perennial historical and cultural concerns through the examination of adaptations of Greek tragedies ranging from Seneca in ancient Rome to Spike Lee's Chi-Raq and Luis Alfaro's Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles. The final research paper will encourage students to consider how a specific female character from antiquity is transformed for a "modern" dramatic audience.
Same as L08 Classics 3153
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 320A The Intellectual History of Race and Ethnicity
This course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of historical ideas, contexts, and texts that have shaped our understandings of race and ethnicity. We will examine the ways in which our definitions and categories of race and ethnicity have helped us to construct (and continuously reinvent) our sense of who counts as human, what counts as human behavior, the possibilities of artistic expression, the terms of political engagement, and our critical and analytical frameworks. Students should be prepared to do quite a bit of reading of some very challenging yet rewarding texts.
Same as L93 IPH 320
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3231 Transatlantic Foreignisms, 1878-1946
Intensive study of one or more American writers. Consult course listings for offerings in any given semester.
Same as L14 E Lit 323
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3301 Topics in Chinese Literature and Culture
This course invites students to assess China's rise from an environmental perspective. Since the founding of PRC, China has transformed the natural landscape through the accelerating extraction of resources to facilitate the country's pursuit of power and wealth. While China redirected its rivers, levelled its mountains, and cultivated expanses of barren land, a set of cultural expressions also emerged to compel, reflect, and document the environmental changes and their impact on human life. Focusing on Chinese fictions and films, this course investigates rural industrialization, infrastructural construction, species extinction, air pollution, and toxic waste. Students will discuss cultural materials together with critical scholarship that bridges humanistic analysis and environmental concerns in lived experience. Interdisciplinary in nature, this course equips students with a fresh eye to understand the environment not only as an issue for government leaders, engineers, or scientists but also a platform for cultural contestation that problematizes state policy, everyday lifestyle, labor management, and consumption habits. Students will have the chance to develop creative projects (i. e. podcasts or video essays) to articulate their ideas. All class materials will be available in English. No prerequisites for knowledge of environmental humanities or Chinese history.
Same as L04 Chinese 330
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, IS EN: H UColl: CD
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L16 Comp Lit 331A Topics in Holocaust Studies
This course will approach the history, culture and literature of Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust by focusing on one particular aspect of the period — the experience of children. Children as a whole were drastically affected by the policies of the Nazi regime and the war it conducted in Europe, yet different groups of children experienced the period in radically different ways, depending on who they were and where they lived. By reading key texts written for and about children, we will first take a look at how the Nazis made children — both those they considered "Aryan" and those they designated "enemies" of the German people, such as Jewish children — an important focus of their politics. We will then examine literary texts and films that depict different aspects of the experience of European children during this period: daily life in the Nazi state, the trials of war and bombardment in Germany and the experience of expulsion from the East and defeat, the increasingly restrictive sphere in which Jewish children were allowed to live, the particular difficulties children faced in the Holocaust, and the experience of children in the immediate postwar period. Readings include texts by Ruth Klüger, Harry Mulisch, Imre Kertész, Miriam Katin, David Grossman and others. Course conducted entirely in English. Open to freshmen. Students must enroll in both main section and a discussion section.
Same as L21 German 331
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 336C The Novel: Textures and/of Salvation
Emphasis on understanding and enjoying individual novels by such writers as Dante, the Lazarillo-author, Mme de Lafayette, Goethe, Balzac, Laclos, Lady Murasaki, Stendhal, Flaubert, Dostoevsky.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 343A Literature and Science: Two Cultures?
The relation between biology and literature as it has been examined and expressed in poetry, fiction and nonfiction of the past two centuries.
Same as L14 E Lit 343
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 350C Don Quixote and Madame Bovary as Readers
yThese two novels have as their main characters avid readers who fail to integrate books and other aspects of life. Detailed analysis of these interrelated texts illuminates the question of reading adequately in different cultures and periods. Both novels read in English translations, with frequent reference to the Spanish and French originals. Two short papers, midterm and final examinations.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 351 A World of Words
This seminar is designed for undergraduate students who are interested in literature, foreign languages, creative writing and translating. In this course, students will enrich their studies in foreign languages, cultures and literatures with creative work. Participants will read and discuss practical criticism, present their own creative projects, and hone their skills as writers, translators and readers. At the conclusion of the course, students will have the choice of presenting a polished work of translation or a piece of original writing. In addition to presenting myriad possibilities for translating into and from English, the course can accommodate creative writers in English, Spanish, French, German, Korean and Chinese. Students who wish to enroll in this course should contact the Program in Comparative Literature for further information. There is a limit of 14 participants for this class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 351B A World of Words
This seminar is designed for undergraduate students who are interested in literature, foreign languages, creative writing, and translating. In the course, students will enrich their studies in foreign languages, cultures, and literatures with creative work. Participants will read and discuss practical criticism, present their own creative projects, and hone their skills as writers, translators, and readers. At the conclusion of the course, students will have the choice between presenting a polished work of translation or a piece of original writing. In addition to myriad possibilities for translating into and from English, the course can accommodate creative writers in English, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Chinese. Students who wish to enroll in the course should contact the Program in Comparative Literature for further information.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 351C The Singing Line I: Lyric Poetry from Antiquity to the 19th Century
The lyric impulse in western and nonwestern cultures in its most significant periods. Focuses on the short lyric closely tied to music. Poets include Pindar, Sappho, Vergil, Horace, poets from the T'ang dynasty in China and Heian Japan, French trouveres, troubadours, Villon, Ronsard, Dante, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Donne, Marvell, Keats, Goethe, Holderlin. Non-English poems read in translation, with accompanying texts in the original.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3520 Introduction to Postcolonial Literature
At its zenith, the British Empire encompassed almost a quarter of the globe, allowing the diminutive island nation unprecedented economic, military, and political influence upon the rest of the world. This course will introduce some of the foundational responses to this dominance, both literary and theoretical, by the colonized and their descendants. We will examine important critiques of colonialism by theorists such as Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, as well as literary works that reflect a postcolonial critique by authors such as V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming, Doris Lessing, and N'gugi wa Thiong'o. The course will interrogate how literature could be said to help consolidate Empire as well as ways in which it might function as rebellion against imperial power, with a view toward teasing out the problematics of race, gender, language, nationalism, and identity that postcolonial texts so urgently confront. This course may fulfill the global or minority literatures requirement for students who declare an English major in the fall 2021 semester and beyond.
Same as L14 E Lit 3520
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 352A Topics in Literature
Topics course which varies by semester.
Same as L14 E Lit 3522
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 352C The Singing Line II: Lyric Poetry of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Focus on the extended lyric of romanticism, symbolism, and modernism and the sprawl of lyric into other genres ("lyric novel," "prose poem," "lyric drama"). Baudelaire, Mallarm, Bonnefoy, Rilke, Neruda, Blok, Eliot, Hart Crane, Dickinson, Whitman, the imagists. Non-English poems read in translation, with accompanying texts in the original.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3552 Introduction to Literary Theory
This course introduces students to some of the most influential theoretical approaches to interpretation applied to English-language literature; to significant conceptual and historical debates about literary and cultural theory; and to the keywords used in these debates. Students will learn how to write and speak about theoretical texts and how to recognize the theoretical assumptions that underlie acts of literary interpretation. Theoretical approaches to be featured may include formalism; Marxism; psychoanalysis; gender and sexuality studies; structuralism and post-structuralism; postcolonial studies; critical race studies; new historicism and cultural materialism; cultural studies; affect theory; neurocognitive approaches; and disability studies. This course fulfills the literary theory requirement for the English major; no substitutions will be permitted. In order to preserve necessary seats for English majors, the course will be enrolled through the wait list.
Same as L14 E Lit 3552
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H UColl: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3556 Exile in Global French & Francophone Cultures: Senegal, Algeria, & the Caribbean
French is the fifth most spoken language in the world, with an estimated 300 million speakers in 106 countries and territories. It is the only language aside from English to be spoken on five continents, according to the OIF. In the wake of decolonization and the rapid spread of globalization, the French language has been adopted, adapted and transformed in various locales and with widespread cultural implications. This course will aim to explore French culture through the specific case studies of Senegal, Algeria, the Caribbean and Francophone exiles worldwide. We will explore the history, literature, poetry and film of these regions and, in doing so, gain a more nuanced and complex understanding of global French cultures. In this course, we will study a range of works that will provide a window onto the issues of French cultural and national identity in the modern world. We will delve into the role of race, ethnicity, belonging and identity in global French and Francophone societies. Students will gain an understanding of French (post)colonial history and current French politics and culture through novels, poetry and film. Knowledge of French is not required for this class.
Same as L97 GS 3556
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3561 Exodus
We will investigate the biblical book of Exodus in both its original significance in the ancient Near East and its later meanings for Jews, Christians, and Muslims in societies around the world. Why did its narratives and ideas about law and justice and religion resonate so strongly both in biblical times and afterwards? Which assumptions did the biblical authors make about writing stories and poetry? What is the historical reality of the Exodus? How did the biblical Israelites conceive of their religious practices and institutions? We will also explore how Exodus and the celebration of Passover has been, and continues to be, a crucial source of identity in Jewish and Christian circles. How has Exodus been re-imagined and transfigured multiple times, and how has the Passover celebration reflected transformations in the understanding of the Exodus? We will analyze many types of expression influenced by Exodus: historical sources, liturgy, art, commentaries, theology, literature, film, mysticism, and music.
Same as L75 JIMES 3561
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 356C Islamic Literature in Translation 1200-1800
The literary cultures of later Islamic civilization, in various linguistic traditions (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu). Themes and topics include mystical literature, court patronage, love and wine poetry, social satire, popular literature, allegory, romance, and epic. Comparisons to medieval Western literatures. Readings in English.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 358C Modern Near Eastern Literatures
This course introduces literary expressions of the struggle for love, self-realization, and liberation. Genres include romanticism, realism, and the surreal. A comparative, team-taught approach is used to instruct students in selected genres, authors, or themes in two or more Near Eastern literatures (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish) in English translation.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 359 Travelers, Tricksters, and Storytellers: Jewish Travel Narratives and Autobiographies
Jewish literature includes highly fascinating travel accounts and autobiographies that are still awaiting their discovery by a broader readership. In this course, we will explore a broad range of texts originating from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. They were written by both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews hailing from countries as diverse as Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. Among the authors were pilgrims, rabbis, merchants, and one savvy businesswoman. We will read their works as responses to historical circumstances and as expressions of Jewish identity, in its changing relationship to the Christian or Muslim environment in which the writers lived or traveled. Specifically, we will ask questions such as: How do travel accounts and autobiographies enable their authors and readers to reflect on issues of identity and difference? How do the writers produce representations of an "other," against which and through which they define a particular sense of self? This course is open to students of varying interests, including Jewish, Islamic, or Religious Studies, medieval and early modern history, European or Near Eastern literatures. All texts will be read in English translation. Please note: L75 559 is intended for graduate students only.
Same as L75 JIMES 359
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 359C The Art of Short Prose Fiction
A study of the short forms of prose fiction.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 369A Reading Sex in Premodern England: Medieval Sexualities
This course introduces students to the literary representation of gender and sexuality in England from the medieval period to the 18th century. To understand a tradition that addressed the intractable problem of human sexuality in terms very different from ours, we will ask certain questions: How does premodern culture imagine gendered identities, sexual difference, and erotic desire? How do various contexts — medical, religious, social, private, and public — inform the literary representation of gender and sexuality? What are the anatomies and economies of the body, the circuits of physical pleasure, and the disciplines of the self that characterize human sexuality? Students will have the opportunity to study romances, saints' lives, mystical writings, diaries, plays, sex guides, novels, and scientific treatises. By learning how to "read sex" in premodern literature, students will acquire a broad cultural and historical understanding of English sexualities before the descent of modern sensibilities.
Same as L14 E Lit 369
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3721 Topics in Renaissance Literature
Same as L14 E Lit 3725
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 375 Topics in Comparative Literature
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 376 Reading Across the Disciplines: Introduction to the Theoretical Humanities
What does theory look like in an age like ours so sharply marked by interdisciplinarity and in which most humanities scholarship crosses disciplines — for instance, combining literature or history with philosophy or critical race studies? In this way all (or almost all) humanities scholars are comparatists in practice if not always in name. The course is designed to introduce this complex and exciting state of affairs to CompLit and English majors, yet any students in a humanities program, or with an interest in the humanities, will fit right in. Our main text is Futures of Comparative Literature, ed. Heise (2017), which contains short essays on topics like Queer Reading; Human Rights; Fundamentalism; Untranslatability; Big Data; Environmental HUmanities. We will supplement this material with relevant short texts from a variety of fields, including some that cross over into the social sciencs.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 376C Topics in Comparative Literature II
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 384 Romance
Romances tell how young lovers learn about the world and themselves by loving, suffering, and growing up. An exploration of the genre over time, space, and culture, including examples from elite and popular literatures.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 385 Topics in Comparative Literature
Topics in comparative literature. Subject matter will vary from semester to semester.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 385A Comedy, Ancient and Modern
In this course we will examine the nature of dramatic comedy and its role in society. We will read, discuss and write about comedies from ancient Greece and Rome and from various modern nations, paying particular attention to the following questions: Do comic plays reinforce or challenge the preconceptions of their audiences? How have comic playwrights responded to issues such as class, gender, religion, and politics? Why does comedy have such power both to unite and to divide people? This course has an extensive writing component, so much of our time will be spent writing about the comedies we will read, revising what we have written, and discussing how best to write about comedy.
Same as L08 Classics 385W
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Art: CPSC BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 387C African-American Literature: Rebels, Sheroes, and Race Men
Same as L14 E Lit 387
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 389 Topics in Comparative Literature
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 3894 Topics in African Literature
Beginning with a survey of African oral narratives, then analyzing selected texts by such leading African authors as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi waThiongUo, Wole Soyinka, and Ousmane Sembene, this course will examine ways in which African narrators have represented the struggle to uphold African identity in the face of such insidious influences as individualism, colonialism and neo-colonialism. Translations from indigenous African languages will supplement the study of works originally written in English. Critical issues in African literature such as the role of literature in society and the issue of language and audience in multilingual African societies will be discussed. The course will help students understand and appreciate the distinctiveness of African culture and encourage them to explore the meaning and complexity of that experience through the eyes of African narrators.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 3895 Topics in African Literature
Beginning with a survey of African oral narratives, then analyzing selected texts by such leading African authors as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi waThiongUo, Wole Soyinka, and Ousmane Sembene, this course will examine ways in which African narrators have represented the struggle to uphold African identity in the face of such insidious influences as individualism, colonialism and neo-colonialism. Translations from indigenous African languages will supplement the study of works originally written in English. Critical issues in African literature such as the role of literature in society and the issue of language and audience in multilingual African societies will be discussed. The course will help students understand and appreciate the distinctiveness of African culture and encourage them to explore the meaning and complexity of that experience through the eyes of African narrators.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 394 Worldwide Translation: Language, Culture, Technology
This course considers the crucial role played by translation across the world today: from new technologies and digital media, to the global demands of professionals working in fields as diverse as literature, law, business, anthropology, and health care. We will begin our exploration of the concept of translation as a key mechanism of transmission between different languages by looking at works of literature, and film. Students will then examine how different cultures have historically required translation in their encounter with each other, studying how translation constitutes a necessary transcultural bridge both from a colonial and postcolonial point of view in different historical moments and parts of the world. The course also analyzes from practical and real-world perspectives whether concepts such as war, human rights, democracy or various illnesses have the same meaning in different societies by considering the diverse frames of reference used by linguists, lawyers, anthropologists, and medical doctors across the world. Finally, we will focus on translation from a technological perspective by examining various modes of transfer of information required for the functioning of digital tools such as Google Translate, Twitter, Duolingo, or various Iphone applications. Throughout the semester we will also examine a range of creative artworks, and various forms of digital technology and computing (AI, machine translation) related to the theory and practice of translation. Readings will include works by Jorge Luis Borges, Walter Benjamin, Gayatri Spivak, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Susan Basnett, Lawrence Venuti, Emily Apter, Gideon Lewis-Krauss, and Karen Emmerich among others.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 395 Paris and New York: The Art of the City
The cultural icons Paris and New York exert a powerful hold on our imagination. We will explore how the French and Americans define themselves, and each other, through their premiere cities. The themes of integration and isolation, class and race, innovation and tradition, and commemoration and celebration will ground our discussions of writers Zola ("Therese Raquin"), Wharton ("The Age of Innocence"), Proust ("Swann's Way"), Foer ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"), Krauss ("The History of Love"), Truong ("The Book of Salt"), and Gopnik ("Paris to the Moon"); painters Vuillard, Caillebotte, and de Kooning; photographers Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Ronis, Abbott, Hine, and Stieglitz; and filmmakers Godard ("Breathless"), Allen ("Manhattan," "Midnight in Paris"); Jeunet ("Amelie Poulain"), and Kassovitz ("Hate").Through our study of public spaces (the Brooklyn Bridge, the Twin Towers, the Eiffel Tower, and the streets themselves), we will consider how each city functions as a site of memory even as it fashions the future.
Credit 3 units.
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L16 Comp Lit 4012 Staging Atrocity: Theatre of the Holocaust
Responding to the Holocaust has challenged artists working in every medium. Nowhere are these challenges more extreme than in the theater, where the intimacy of the space, the close proximity of live actors and audience, and the subject matter itself may serve to intensify its effect. We will read a careful selection of modern and contemporary dramas and explore the range of responses. Underneath each weekly topic reverberate the nagging question of whether one can -- or should -- make art from the Holocaust, as well as a serious exploration of the uses and effectiveness of theater to communicate on this subject. We look at the ways in which the Holocaust has been used as a subject to raise moral dilemmas, examine the limits of humanity, elicit doubt or faith, and provide political commentary. We will also discuss the ways in which playwrights have stretched the limits of the theater to meet the challenge of staging the Holocaust. Topics considered include the nationalization and personalization of the Holocaust, the role of the second generation, issues of audience, and the use of experimental forms and obscenity. The plays on the syllabus are from North America, Israel and Europe. All readings are in English (original or translation).
Same as L15 Drama 4011
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 403 Poems, Poets, Poetics: Changing Lit. Conv.
Comparison of poems and poetics of European and American poets of the 19th and 20th centuries. Writers include Schiller, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Poe, Baudelaire, ValÄry, T.S. Eliot, Brecht, and the concrete poets. The changing functions of the lyric genre and the history of its theory and practice. Prerequisite: 6 units of literature, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 405A Theory and Methods in the Humanities
Same as L93 IPH 405
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 409C Beyond Geography: The Meaning of Place in the Middle East
This course considers the importance of place in the Middle East with particular reference to Jewish and Islamic traditions. Topics covered include the creation of holy sites, the concept of sacred space, the practice of pilgrimages, and the tropes of exile and return. Texts range from analytical essays to novels, memoirs and films by authors such as Edward Said, Naguib Mahfouz, Taher Ben Jelloun, Elif Shafak, A.B. Yehoshua, Shulamit Hareven, and Hanan Al-Shaykh. Requirements include participation, short assignments, and a seminar paper. This course fulfills the capstone requirement for students majoring in Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies, but it is open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Prerequisites: course work in JIMES and senior standing or permission of instructor.
Same as L75 JIMES 409
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4100 Medieval Women's Writing
Topics course in Medieval English literature.
Same as L14 E Lit 4101
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 411 The Empire Writes Back
Britannia did indeed once rule the waves, controlling an empire that encompassed a quarter of the globe. In the estimation of many, literature was a crucial component of its power. This course will examine the nature of Britain's cultural power, as well as the ways colonial authors answered back through an assertive rewriting of the British canon. We will read classic texts of British literature - Charlotte Brontë's JANE EYRE, E.M. Forster's HOWARD'S END, Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS - in tandem with later reworkings of them by authors such as Zadie Smith and Jean Rhys, in order to tease out the implications of literary emendation and adaptation. The course will also look at film versions of these works, as well as some critical theories of revision, hoping to shed light on both the opportunities and the pitfalls of attempting to critique a system of thought within the constraints of that very system.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4111 Pastoral Literature
This course will open with a survey of the classical tradition in pastoral/bucolic. We will consider questions of genre, intertextuality and ideology, and we will ask how "the lives and loves of herders" became favored ground for literary meditation on issues of surface and depth, reality and illusion, artifice and sincerity. This portion will involve intensive reading in translation of Theocritus, Vergil and Longus. In the second half of the semester, we will consider the survival, adaptation and deformation of ancient pastoral themes, forms and modes of thought in British and American writing from the 19th and 20th centuries. We will read works of Mark Twain, Kenneth Grahame, Thomas Hardy and Tom Stoppard.
Same as L93 IPH 4111
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4120 The Cultural Poetics of the Early Modern Book
Same as L14 E Lit 412
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4130 Modernity & Historicity in Renaissance
Introduction to a pivotal period in the emergence of the modern consciousness by an intensive, sustained study of a few major Renaissance or "early modern" writers such as Petrarch, Castiglione, More, Erasmus, and Montaigne. The relationship of these authors to their ancient and medieval past, their "modernity," and their historical otherness. Of central concern is the nature of "humanism," imitative and antagonistic relationships with ancient texts, the complex Renaissance "self" as integral and individual or as a product of its cultural and material relations, utopias and anti-utopias, the discovery of historicity, and the state as a work of art. The course does not assume that its students have already done substantial work in the Renaissance.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 415A Music inthe Romantic Era: Aesthetics and Ideologies
This course explores pivotal developments in 19th-century thinking about music's cultural and aesthetic significance -- developments that reverberate well beyond that historical period. Rather than surveying repertoire, we will emphasize in-depth exploration of selected issues and music, reading important contemporary writings and grappling with challenging musical works. Our topics will include discourses about musical interiority, the post-Beethovenian symphony, the Lied tradition, performance aesthetics and the creative agency of the performer, intersections of music and literature, and canon formation and its consequences. Our topics will include, to cite but a few examples, discourses about musical interiority, the post-Beethovenian symphony, the Lied tradition, performance aesthetics and the creative agency of the performer, intersections of music and literature, and canon formation and its consequences.
Same as L27 Music 415
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 418A Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies
Readings in such authors as Carlyle, Tennyson, Browning, Mill, Arnold and Pater.
Same as L14 E Lit 418
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4204 Film Theory
This course is an introduction to both classical and contemporary film theory. Beginning with the earliest attempts to treat cinema as a new and unique art form, the course initially reviews the various ways in which film theory attempted to define cinema in terms of its most essential properties. The course then examines more contemporary developments within film theory, more specifically its attempt to incorporate the insights of other critical and analytical paradigms, such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory and postmodernism. Throughout the course, we consider questions regarding the ontology of cinema, its relation to spectators, and the various ways in which its formal properties create meaning. Readings for the course include the major works of Sergei Eisenstein, Andre Bazin, Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey and Fredric Jameson. Required screenings.
Same as L53 Film 420
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 420A Topics in English and American Literature
Comparing the literatures — readings in the literature and theory of English and American Literature. Topics vary according to semester offerings.
Same as L14 E Lit 420
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 420B Topics in Literature: The Novel and Globalization
Comparing the literatures — readings in the literature and theory of English and American Literature. Topics vary according to semester offerings.
Same as L14 E Lit 420
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4210 Correlations Between East & West: Japan & the West
Investigations of the particular cultural moments when eastern and western literature and thought converge and provide a terrain for detailed comparison and contrast. Content varies.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 423A Topics in American Literature: Diaspora and the African American Literary Tradtion
Same as L14 E Lit 423
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 425A Humanities by the Numbers
To what extent can computational techniques that draw on statistical patterns and quantification assist us in literary analysis? Over the semester, we will juxtapose the close reading of historical documents or literary works with the "distant reading" of a large corpus of historical data or literary texts. We will ask how the typically "human" scale of reading that lets us respond to literary texts can be captured on the "inhuman" and massive scales at which computers can count, quantify and categorize texts.While this class will introduce you to basic statistical and computational techniques, no prior experience with technology is required. Prerequisites: two 200-level or one 300-level course in literature or history. This is a topics-type course and the specific documents and works examined will vary from semester to semester. Please refer to semester course listings for current offerings.
Same as L93 IPH 425
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 426 Seminar in Dramatic Theory
This course is an in-depth exploration of core works of dramatic theory from the ancient world to the present, and it will introduce texts that enunciate what theater is, has been, and should be. We will study authors' expressions of theater's role in society, their articulations of and responses to anti-theatrical prejudice, and their negotiations of the contradiction of putting "the real" on stage. Other significant themes include accounting for the aesthetic pleasures of drama and theater; theater as a means of educating the citizen; and the relationship between dramatic form and social and political revolution. Moving chronologically, we begin with foundational documents of the ancient world, including Aristotle's "Poetics," Bharata's "Natyasastra," and Horace's "Ars Poetica." The course then progresses through the Middle Ages, the Neoclassical and Romantic eras, and the explosion of fin de siecle avant-gardes. We will also read key texts from beyond the European tradition, including works of dramatic theory written in medieval Japan (Zeami), postcolonial Nigeria (Soyinka), and the millennial, multicultural United States (Parks). Along these same lines, we will also be attuned to transnational exchange and influence, particularly as it appears in the 20th-century theories of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Although the course will be focused on efforts to describe and prescribe theories of drama, dramatic genre, and theatrical pleasure, it will also position play scripts alongside the theoretical treatises that guide or are guided by them.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L16 Comp Lit 429 The Commedia Dell'arte
This course explores the history, style and dynamics of the commedia dell'arte: an originally Italian type of improvisational theater that has flourished from the time of Shakespeare to the present day. As we study, we will also put this theater on its feet. Students with a background and interest in improvisation are encouraged to take the class. (At the same time, no acting background is required to take the course--just a willingness to try.) We will examine primary and secondary texts regarding the Italian "golden age" of 1570-1625, and we will study the flowering of the commedia dell'arte in Paris during the seventeenth century. The influence of the commedia dell'arte on Shakespeare and Molière will be examined, and we will experiment with a new body of French scenarios from the time of Molière that have never before been translated into English. Questions of theater and performance history will be examined, as we consider various historical myths regarding this theater in the light of actual primary documents. We'll spend the final part of the course looking at political uses of this form of theater in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, considering things like the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the radical socialist theater of Dario Fo, and the international Theater Hotel Courage that uses commedia-style performance for social change.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4300 Data Manipulation for the Humanities
The course will present basic data modeling concepts and will focus on their application to data clean-up and organization (text markup, Excel and SQL). Aiming to give humanities students the tools they will need to assemble and manage large data sets relevant to their research, the course will teach fundamental skills in programming relevant to data management (using Python); it will also teach database design and querying (SQL). The course will cover a number of "basics": the difference between word processing files, plain text files, and structured XML; best practices for version control and software "hygiene"; methods for cleaning up data; regular expressions (and similar tools built into most word processors). It will proceed to data modeling: lists (Excel, Python); identifiers/keys and values (Excel, Python, SQL); tables/relations (SQL and/or data frames); joins (problem in Excel, solution in SQL, or data frames); hierarchies (problem in SQL/databases, solution in XML); and network graph structures (nodes and edges in CSV). It will entail basic scripting in Python, concentrating on using scripts to get data from the web, and the mastery of string handling.
Same as L93 IPH 430
Credit 1 unit. EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4310 Statistics for Humanities Scholars
A survey of statistical ideas and principles. The course will expose students to tools and techniques useful for quantitative research in the humanities, many of which will be addressed more extensively in other courses: tools for text-processing and information extraction, natural language processing techniques, clustering & classification, and graphics. The course will consider how to use qualitative data and media as input for modeling and will address the use of statistics and data visualization in academic and public discourse. By the end of the course students should be able to evaluate statistical arguments and visualizations in the humanities with appropriate appreciation and skepticism. Details. Core topics include: sampling, experimentation, chance phenomena, distributions, exploration of data, measures of central tendency and variability, and methods of statistical testing and inference. In the early weeks, students will develop some facility in the use of Excel; thereafter, students will learn how to use Python or R for statistical analyses.
Same as L93 IPH 431
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, AN EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 432A Programming for Text Analysis
This course will introduce basic programming and text-analysis techniques to humanities students. Beginning with an introduction to programming using the Python programming language, the course will discuss the core concepts required for working with text corpora. We will cover the basics of acquiring data from the web, string manipulation, regular expressions, and the use of programming libraries for text analysis. Later in the course, students will be introduced to larger text corpora. They will learn to calculate simple corpus statistics as well as techniques such as tokenization, chunking, extraction of thematically significant words, stylometrics and authorship attribution. We will end with a brief survey of more advanced text-classification terminology and topics from natural language processing such as stemming, lemmatization, named-entity recognition, and part-of-speech tagging.
Same as L93 IPH 432
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 435A Expressionism in the Arts
A close study of expressionism as an international phenomenon in the arts, from the anti-naturalist movements of the 1890s to Hitler's condemnation of expressionism as decadent. The evolution of expressionist theatre from Wedekind to Toller and Kaiser; such composers as Schoenberg and Berg; in the visual arts, such groups as Der blaue Reiter and Die Brucke, such independents as Kokoschka; in cinema, such figures as Pabst, Murnau, Von Sternberg, Lang. Prerequisite: Drama 208E, Drama 336, or permission of instructor.
Same as L15 Drama 435
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 436 Seminar in Dramatic Theory
The course begins with Plato's critique of mimesis and Aristotle's defense, as we read The Poetics as a response to Plato. We take some of Aristotle's basic concepts, such as mimesis, plot, character and thought, and attempt to apply them to drama up to the present day. We also consider fundamental elements of both the dramatic text and the dramatic production, such as space, time, dialogue, narrative devices and perspective. Brecht's theory of "epic drama" forms the other conceptual pole in the course, opposing Aristotle. Besides these two theorists, other figures include Ben Jonson, Corneille, Dryden, Diderot, Schiller, Hegel, Zola, Artaud and Grotowski. The course, then, has both chronological and thematic axes. Three papers and one oral presentation.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 440A James Joyces Ulysses
Same as L14 E Lit 440
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 4471 Modern Poery I: Modernisms
American and British poetry before, during, and after World War I. Readings include Hardy, Yeats, Frost, Stein, Eliot, Williams, Moore, Johnson, Pound, H.D. and Stevens, as well as selections from Wordsworth, Whitman and Dickinson. First half of two-course sequence; second half optional
Same as L14 E Lit 4471
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 449 Topics in Comparative Literature
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 449A Seminar in Dramatic Theory
This course is an in-depth exploration of core works of dramatic theory from the ancient world to the present, and it will introduce texts that enunciate what theater is, has been, and should be. We will study authors' expressions of theater's role in society, their articulations of and responses to anti-theatrical prejudice, and their negotiations of the contradiction of putting "the real" on stage. Other significant themes include accounting for the aesthetic pleasures of drama and theater; theater as a means of educating the citizen; and the relationship between dramatic form and social and political revolution. Moving chronologically, we begin with foundational documents of the ancient world, including Aristotle's "Poetics," Bharata's "Natyasastra," and Horace's "Ars Poetica." The course then progresses through the Middle Ages, the Neoclassical and Romantic eras, and the explosion of fin de siecle avant-gardes. We will also read key texts from beyond the European tradition, including works of dramatic theory written in medieval Japan (Zeami), postcolonial Nigeria (Soyinka), and the millennial, multicultural United States (Parks). Along these same lines, we will also be attuned to transnational exchange and influence, particularly as it appears in the 20th-century theories of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Although the course will be focused on efforts to describe and prescribe theories of drama, dramatic genre, and theatrical pleasure, it will also position play scripts alongside the theoretical treatises that guide or are guided by them.
Same as L15 Drama 449
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L16 Comp Lit 450A Interdisciplinary Topics in the Humanities: Freedom | Information | Acts
Same as L93 IPH 450
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 450B Interdisciplinary Topics in the Humanities
Same as L93 IPH 450A
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 450C Interdisciplinary Topics in the Humanities: Romancing the Ruins
Same as L93 IPH 450A
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 450E Masterworks of Early Japanese Literature: The Tale of Genji and its Afterlives
This course is an intensive study of one of the central texts of classical Japanese literature. Selection of texts rotate among works including: The Tale of Genji, court diaries, poetry anthologies, Noh drama, The Tale of the Heike, setsuwa collections, and medieval memoirs. In addition to exploring the historical, literary, and cultural significance of the work from its genesis to the present age, students engage in a close reading of the text and an investigation of the primary theoretical issues and approaches associated with the work both in Japan and abroad. Prior knowledge of early Japanese literature or history is recommended. Texts will be read in English translation. Prerequisite: junior level or above or permission of instructor.
Same as L05 Japan 450
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 454 History of Literary Criticism II
Continuation of C Lit 453.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 455C Senior Colloquium
Same as L93 IPH 455
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 461 Topics in Literary History: Thematics
Extensive and intensive reading and discussion of a literary theme as it appears in the literatures of several languages.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 461A Topics in English Literature I
This course involves studies of special subjects, such as allegory and symbolism in the medieval period, the sonnet in English literature, and English poetry and politics. Consult the course listings for the current subject.
Same as L14 E Lit 461
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 462A Topics in Literature: Virtual Reality: Multimedia Stein
Credit 3 units. BU: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 4647 Ancient Madness
In this course we will ask what madness meant in Greek and Roman culture. We will find reading strategies that are sensitive both to ancient evidence and to the ethical demands of talking about, evaluating, and categorizing people treated as mad. While we will concentrate on literary (particularly tragic and epic), philosophical, and medical texts, we will also look at visual representations and evidence from ritual and cult. An important part of our project will involve tracing the afterlife of classical ideas: The history of melancholia will ground this aspect of the course. Finally, we will consider how antiquity informs psychoanalysis (Oedipus, Antigone, Narcissus), and how ancient madness might partake in a critique of contemporary understandings of mental illness.
Same as L08 Classics 4647
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 469 Special Topics in Comparative Literature: Festivity, Folly
A variety of offerings in different aspects of comparative literature varying from year to year.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
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L16 Comp Lit 470A Interdisciplinary Topics: Data Signs — A Literary History of Information
Various interdisciplinary topics are explored that may includes around the humanities, social sciences and data sciences.
Same as L93 IPH 470
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 471A Topics in Modern Arabic Literature
Modern Arabic narratives read in English translation foregrounding themes such as the conflict between tradition and modernity, civil war, poverty, alienation, religion and politics, and changing gender roles.
Same as L49 Arab 471
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 486 The Business of Books
Book publishing shapes our literary and intellectual landscape in defining ways, yet only with the recent rise of Publishing Studies has the theory and practice of publishing become a serious subject of attention within the academy. This course offers a broad introduction to publishing, with a practical emphasis on contemporary literary publishing. We will explore how publishing communities form in relation to aesthetics, demographics, and technologies, and will consider how ethics and business practices are defined within these communities. On the applied side, we will study editing, contracts, marketing, sales & distribution, infrastructure, and media, and students will write reader's reports, marketing plans, and a final paper analyzing a contemporary publishing project and placing its work in relation to the historical and cultural context, demonstrating how each particular publishing practice is adapted to its own cultural ecosystem. Industry professionals will visit to speak with the class by Zoom, and Professor Riker brings two decades of experience as a book publisher, author, and reviewer. Alongside these other activities, over the course of the semester students will follow the progression of a book published by the nationally acclaimed publishing house Dorothy, a Publishing Project, of which Professor Riker is the publisher.
Same as L14 E Lit 486
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 493 The Unmaking and Remaking of Europe: The Literature and History of the Great War of 1914-1918
The Great War of 1914-1918 is one of the most momentous events in history. We can approach its broad European import by reading its literatures comparatively. Far wider than the concerns of any one national ideology, the literature of record represents a profound crisis in the European cultural imaginary. A number of critical and interpretive issues will be in play in our readings, which will move through three major phases. We begin with the powerful immediacy of trench poetry (1914-1919), develop into the constructed narratives of the great postwar novels and memoirs (1920-1931), and then turn toward the retrospect of the 1930s, which is also the prospect on the next, now inevitable, war. The authors featured include combatant and civilian writers, names well-known and not so famous: Mann, Apollinaire, Owen, Pound, Cocteau, H.D., Woolf, Maurois, West, Celine, Joyce, Musil, Eliot, Rosenberg, Sassoon, Graves, Hardy, Trakl, Stramm, Lichtenstein, Péguy, Barbusse, Manning, Jünger, Zweig, Brittain, and Kroner. All readings for class will be in English translation. Our secondary literature will provide approaches to specific texts and models of literary and cultural history that represent the longer-range importance of the war.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 494 Seminar: Diverse Topics in Literature
This course may offer a variety of topics. Semester subtitle varies. It has been offered as an in-depth study of the individual through autobiographies; and as a course on visual poetics from antiquity to the present. Consult the department for further details.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 495 The 19th-Century Novel: Ambition and Desire
Seminar in Comparative Literature Studies. Topics vary. Consult course listings for current semester's offering.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 497 Independent Work for Senior Honors
One or more long papers on a topic chosen in conjunction with the adviser and an examination. A committee determines whether the student will receive credit only or Honors. Prerequisites: senior standing and permission of chair of the committee. Fall semester only.
Credit 3 units.
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L16 Comp Lit 4970 Performance Theory
This course introduces students to contemporary theories of performance, with "performance" understood as both metaphor and event. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, students will consider how cultures produce meanings-and, indeed, perform those meanings-to create and/or disrupt their own social coherence. Theories likely to be studied include: J. L. Austin's speech-act theory and its engagement by John Searle and Jacques Derrida; Victor Turner's analysis of ritual as social process and Richard Schechner's use of it to transform "theater studies" into "performance studies;" Erving Goffman's sociology of the self and its relation to a post-structuralist model of subjectivity; Michael Fried's screed against minimalist art and its relation to Happenings, Body Art, Fluxus, and other mid- to late-20th century examples of "performance art;" and Judith Butler's influential revision of Austin's performative in her theory of queer "performativity."
Same as L15 Drama 497
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 498 Independent Work for Senior Honors
Advanced work as indicated in Comp Lit 497. Prerequisites: senior standing and permission of chair of the committee.
Credit 3 units.
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L16 Comp Lit 4980 Spenser
This course involves graduate and undergraduate students in the ongoing work of the Spenser Project, an interinstitutional effort to produce a traditional print edition of the Complete Works of Edmund Spenser.
Same as L14 E Lit 498
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L16 Comp Lit 498A Spenser Lab
In this Writing Intensive course, the students will be given a variety of writing tasks: writing commentaries, introductions, software manuals, grant proposals, software requirements, and design documents (SRDDs).
Same as L14 E Lit 498W
Credit 4 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI EN: H
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