Chair: Graziella Parati
Professors J. V. Crewe (English, Comparative Literature), G. Gemünden (German, Comparative Literature), M. Gleiser (Physics and Astronomy), L. H. Glinert (AMELL), M. J. Green (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), L. A. Higgins (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), K. J. Jewell (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), J. M. Kopper (Russian, Comparative Literature), L. D. Kritzman (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), A. Lawrence (Film and Television Studies), P. A. McKee (English), G. Parati (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), B. Pastor (Spanish and Portuguese, Comparative Literature), B. P. Scherr (Russian), D. Washburn (AMELL, Comparative Literature); Associate Professors, I. Kacandes (German, Comparative Literature), H.N. Kadhim (AMELL), N. L. Canepa (French and Italian), D. P. LaGuardia (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), A. Martín (Spanish and Portuguese, Comparative Literature), M. Otter (English, Comparative Literature), U. Rainer (German, Comparative Literature), S. D. Spitta (Spanish and Portuguese, Comparative Literature), A. Tarnowski (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), R. Verona (French and Italian, Comparative Literature), M. R. Warren (Women's and Gender Studies, Comparative Literature), M. Williamson (Classics, Comparative Literature); Assistant Professors A. A. Coly (AAAS, Comparative Literature), B. P. Giri (English), A. Merino (Spanish and Portuguese), K. Mladek (German Studies), J. J. Santa Ana (English), A. Sokol (Spanish and Portuguese); Research Associate Professor L.J. Davies (English, Comparative Literature); Visiting Professor P. Carrard, R. H. Stamelman, A. Winograd (Theater); Instructor J. Smolin (AMELL); Lecturer K. F. Milich (Jewish Studies).
Courses in Comparative Literature are designed to meet the needs of students whose literary interests are broader than those that can be met by the curriculum of any single department.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJOR IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
The major seeks to provide an opportunity for selective and varied study of two or more literatures in their relation to each other, or for the study of a foreign literature in its relationship to an extraliterary discipline, such as film, music, or history (see the three options below). Each student's major plan is designed individually around a particular focus of interest. Students planning to major in Comparative Literature will normally enroll in an Honors Program, which entails writing a thesis (60 to 80 pages) during their senior year. Some students may choose to write two senior essays (about 25 pages each) in lieu of the thesis. Students pursuing the two-paper option will substitute another Comparative Literature course for CL 87. One senior essay will be written in Comparative Literature 85. The second will be written in a course taken senior year that is relevant to the student's course of study. The two-paper option does not carry honors credit.
The major is administered by the Comparative Literature Steering Committee. Students design their major plan in consultation with an advisor and the Chair. All applications to the major must be approved by the Steering Committee. Major cards can be signed only by the Chair. Students interested in becoming majors should consult the Chair well in advance of their intended declaration of a major.
Prerequisite for the major: Comparative Literature 10.
Required courses: Comparative Literature 72, 85, and, for honors majors only, 87.
Comparative Literature 85 (Senior Seminar) is required to fulfill the culminating experience requirement for students who do not meet the honor requirements, and Comparative Literature 85 and Comparative Literature 87 (Thesis Tutorial) for students meeting honors requirements.
Major options
A. Two foreign literatures.
We require fluency in the primary language and competence in the secondary language. Fluency and competence are determined by the chair in consultation with the chair of the relevant foreign language department. Competence is ordinarily defined as completion of the fourth quarter of language study, and fluency as three courses beyond the fourth quarter of study. One course from an LSA+ or FSP may be counted toward work in a language, as long as the course content is primarily literary. This major consists of 10 courses: Comparative Literature 72, 85, 87; at least 2 additional Comparative Literature courses; 3-4 courses in the primary literature; and 1-2 courses in the secondary literature.
Students interested in graduate study in Comparative Literature are strongly encouraged to choose Major option A.
B. Two literatures (one of which is a literature in English).
We require fluency in the non-anglophone language. Fluency is determined by the chair in consultation with the chair of the relevant foreign language department. One course from an LSA+ or FSP may be counted toward work in a language, as long as the course content in primarily literary. This major consists of 12 courses: Comparative Literature 72, 85, 87; at least 2 additional Comparative Literature courses; 3-4 courses in the non-anglophone literature; and at least 3 courses in the anglophone literature.
C. A foreign literature and a nonliterary discipline (e.g. literature and music; literature and film; literature and history, etc.).
We require fluency in the foreign language. Fluency is determined by the chair in consultation with the chair of the relevant foreign language department. One course from an LSA+ or FSP may be counted toward work in a language, as long as the course content in primarily literary. This major consists of 12 courses: Comparative Literature 72, 85, 87; at least 2 additional Comparative Literature courses; 3-4 courses in the foreign literature; and at least 3 courses in the nonliterary discipline.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER OF ARTS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
Each graduate student must receive credit for at least nine courses for the one-year Master of Arts degree and complete a major text presentation and prepare a paper of professional quality.
To receive the Masters degree in Comparative Literature a candidate must satisfactorily:
1. Complete nine courses as described below:
CL 72/100, Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory (required)
06F: 10A. Carrard.
CL73/101, Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory (required)
07W: 2A. Milich.
CL102, Tutorial (required)
Arrange with advisor.
CL103, Workshop in Critical Writing (required)
07S: Arrange. Kopper.
CL105, Graduate Seminar (required)
Arrange with graduate advisor.
Four elective courses in relevant Dartmouth language and literature departments including one upper level course in the candidate's first foreign language.
2. A major text presentation. In conjunction with CL101 and the Tutorial (CL102) and in consultation with an advisor, each candidate will study one major text and prepare a lecture on that text for public presentation. The text must be read in the original foreign language.
3. An M.A. essay. During spring term, in conjunction with CL103 (Workshop in Critical Writing), the candidate will prepare a paper of professional quality which will be reviewed by a subcommittee of the Graduate Committee.
Courses
INTRODUCTORY
7. First-Year Seminars
Consult special listings
10. What is Comparative Literature?
06F: 10A 07W: 12 07S: 2A 07F, 08W: 10A 08S: 12
Particular offerings of this course seek to introduce the student to the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading and the study of literature. This course is designed as an introductory course to the Comparative Literature major and other literature and humanities majors. It is recommended that students complete English/Writing 5 before enrolling in Comparative Literature 10.
In 06F, Ghostwriters and Artistic Haunts: The Aesthetics of Horror in Japanese and Western Fiction and Film. The Japanese tradition of stories about ghosts, spirit possession, demonic visitations and strange psychological phenomena has a rich, complex history that has intersected with Western traditions in productive ways. Beginning with a consideration of theories of the uncanny, the gothic, and the fantastic, the course will explore the aesthetics of horror and what horror stories tell us about moral values, concepts of identity, social and political power, and gender. Dist: LIT. WCult: NW. Washburn.
In 07W, The Cultural Corridor of the Danube. Can we speak of a "Danubian literature" with unifying themes, specific style and genres? What is the connection between geography and history, as it is mirrored in the Danube's flow from West to East? How are the "Danubian realities" represented in the literature produced on the river's shores? This course will emphasize the relation between art, memory and survival, as well as between literature, history and violence, as cultural testimonies to the traumatic historical and political events that took place along the Danube's banks, mainly in the territories of Central and south-Central Europe. Authors will include Josef, Popa, Kis, Magris, Ionesco, Canetti, Istrati, Eliade, and films by M. Mezaros, I. Pintilie and others. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W (pending faculty approval). Verona.
In 07S, "Some might call it Pla(y)giarism": Intertextuality in Literature, Film and the Arts. How does Kafka's The Trial relate to Orson Welles' film version of the novel? How does Oscar Wilde's Salome tragedy differ from Strauss's opera, Flaubert's short story, or Ruben's painting of the biblical figure? Coined in the 1960s to describe the way how texts are related to each other and to other genre, intertextuality breaks with traditional notions of "origin," "influence," "authorship." Instead, it assumes that every work of art refers (in various degrees) to other artifacts, and considers every text "a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture" (Roland Barthes). Authors include texts by Culler, Bakhtin, Kristeva, Barthes, Bloom, Genette. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Milich.
In 07F, Literatures of the Pacific. This course is a survey of Asian and Pacific American literature within the historical context of U.S. imperialism in the Asia-Pacific region. We will explore the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders in Hawaii and California. We will look at a range of materials such as movies, fiction, and personal and academic essays in order to examine the experiences of Asian and Pacific Islanders in relation to nationalism, empire, American historical race relations, and postcolonialism. Texts include Blu's Hanging, Rolling the R's, and Dogeaters. Dist: LIT. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI (pending faculty approval). Santa Ana.
In 08W, Male Friendship. This course examines representations of male relationships in literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and film. Ranging from classical texts such as the Bible and Cicero's "De Amicitia," to the cinema of Almodovar and Truffaut, we will study the rhetorical and social construction of male friendship and its relationship to gender, class and cultural politics. Texts will be drawn from the following literary and critical works: Aristotle, Martial, Montaigne, Balzac, Twain, Whitman, Nietzche, Freud, D.H. Lawrence, Waugh, Ben Jalloun, Alan Bennett, and Derrida. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W (pending faculty approval). Kritzman.
In 08S, Narratives of Theft and the Theft of Narratives. Novels, plays, and poetry obsessively revolve around objects and their importance in determining people's lives and actions. Both as gifts, as anchors of memory, and as things stolen, objects are central to people's lives. In this course we will study narratives of theft from the legend of Prometheus, to Borges' stories of objects that play out their history through the people that own them, to the many contemporary novels of theft involving art, museums, and cultural heritage, including The DaVinci Code and the theft of narrative as ploy of advertising. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W (pending faculty approval). Spitta.
18. Literature and Other Media
08S: 2A
In 08S, Dance and Literature. This course examines literary attempts to describe dance, presenting dance as alternately a reflection of differing cultural norms, a form of personal expression, professional display and communal practice. Literary forms will include poetry, biography and autobiography, criticism, novels, and non-fiction. Field trips will include attendance at events on and off campus (the Pow Wow, New England contra-dances, discussions with visiting dancers and choreographers). Students are encouraged to take a dance class (at any level). Lawrence.
19. Translation: Theory and Practice
07W: 11
Translation is at once the most basic and the most complicated aspect of what we call "comparative literature." Whether we are engaged in translation ourselves or studying literature already translated from other languages, we often take it for granted; yet the idea of meanings "lost in translation" is also a commonplace. This course examines both some practical aspects of translation and the theoretical questions to which it gives rise.
In 07W, This course has a theoretical and a practical component. We will analyze translations of literary works and sample the diverse field of translation theory. At the same time, each student will work on a translation project and participate in workshops on student translations. Reading knowledge of a foreign language is required: at least intermediate competence is recommended. Interested students who are unsure of their language preparation should contact the instructor. Dist: LIT or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Otter.
PERIODS OF EUROPEAN CULTURE
20. The Middle Ages
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
An introduction to the literary cultures of the Middle Ages based on detailed examination of selected works. The texts will vary from year to year, but will normally include classics of drama and poetry, epic and romance. The course will explore medieval dependence on earlier authority while stressing the development of themes, attitudes, and modes of expression that were characteristic of the period.
21. Topics in Medieval Literatures
08W: 10
This course will focus on a specific topic, theme, or literary genre in the medieval period.
In 08W, Tristan and Isolt. One of the most famous and most provocative love stories of medieval Europe, the romance of Tristan and Isolt raises questions about love, passion and the social order; the relations between men and women; loyalty and self-interest; truth, lies, wit and improvisation; and, ultimately, the nature of art and fiction. We will consider different versions of the Tristan story, medieval and modern, as well as related Arthurian and Celtic tales and Tristan-related art and music. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Otter.
22. The Renaissance
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This period in European history, from the 15th to the 17th centuries, is often considered the founding moment of the modern university, with its emphasis on the liberal arts, modern science and Humanism. It also marks the early phases of European national consolidation and expansion to Africa and the Americas, and thus sets the stage for many modern geopolitical struggles. This course will study the texts and contexts-literary, artistic, historical - of the period from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives.
23. Topics in Early Modern Literatures
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will focus on a specific topic, theme, or literary genre in the period from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries in Western Europe (primarily Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, and the Netherlands).
25. The Enlightenment
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
The Enlightenment, which stretches from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the French Revolution of 1789, was a truly international movement. A time of great intellectual and artistic ferment, it produced the political, philosophic and literary models that shaped our contemporary ideas of individual freedom and civic responsibility, scientific and economic progress, religious tolerance, gender roles, the life of the body and the mysteries of the soul. This course will be offered periodically with varying content.
26. Romanticism
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Romanticism came into being in Germany, England and France in response to the political and emotional upheaval that culminated in the French Revolution. Many works of literature, music and art reflect the period's uncertainty and complexity, treating the conflicting issues of utopia and dystopia, excess and economy, nationalist tradition and universalist ethics, the appeal to reason and the eruption of the unconscious. The course will explore these divergent tendencies.
27. Topics in Nineteenth-Century Literatures
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will concentrate on major nineteenth-century movements and genres in the context of the period's historical upheavals. Topics covered might be realism, naturalism, symbolism, the fantastic, the notion of Bildung, and the influence of such figures as Marx, Nietzsche or Darwin on literary developments.
28. Modernism
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Modernism is the term given to the extraordinary renewal and experimentation in all the arts occurring from roughly the turn of the twentieth century to the end of World War II. Concurrent with the writings of psychoanalysis and existentialism, modernism, as it reaches its culmination during the social upheavals of the interwar years, continues to assert, even while questioning, humanity's artistic and moral potential. Offered periodically with varying content.
29. Postmodernism
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Reacting to the horrors of World War II and the period of decolonization, postmodernism has been questioning the humanistic assumptions of modernism while extending and sometimes transforming the earlier period's avant-garde techniques through such currents as the new novel, absurdism, minimalism, magic realism, etc. Each offering of this course will study postmodern literature and culture from a specific perspective.
LITERARY GENRES
31. Topics in Poetry
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Poetry was the first form of literary expression and is the most enduring. This course will explore the power of poetic expression through such topics as poetry and song, love and nature as poetic themes, theories of poetry, women poets from Sappho to Plath, poetry and graphic art, and political poetry.
33. Modern Drama
06F, 07F: 10A
In 06F and 07F, identical to Theater 18. The international classics of modern drama. The course begins with the revolutionary playwrights who defined the realistic drama and theatre of modern times-Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov. It then considers the developments out of and reactions against this conventional twentieth-century theatre-Pirandello's staging of life as theatre, the theatrical and philosophical explorations of O'Neill, Eliot's effort to recreate poetic drama, the minimalist theatre of Beckett, Brecht's expansive dialectical drama, and the total theatre of Peter Weiss. Lectures augmented by viewings of productions via videotape and film; optional sessions for discussion and readings of scenes. Dist: ART or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Winograd.
34. Topics in Drama
06F: 2A
This course will study a particular theme, sub-genre or period of dramatic literature.
In 06F, War Zones. In this course we will read combatant fiction and personal narrative, critique war documentary and fiction films, study the images of photojournalism and the texts of plays performed on many war-fronts: World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Chiapas, Iraq. Authors include Enloe, Showalter, Higgins, Schechner, Fussell, Gilman and Theweleit. We will ask, "Can the war experience be rendered in art? And if so, how?" Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI. Winograd.
35. History of Narrative
07S, 08W: 2
Individual offerings of this course might concentrate on the historical development of narrative, oral and written traditions, medieval epic, romance, and the early novel. In each case the relation between narrative forms and history will be foregrounded.
In 07S and 08W, The Arabian Nights East and West (Identical to Arabic 62). An introduction to Arabo-Islamic culture through its most accessible and popular exponent, The Thousand and One Nights. The course will take this masterpiece of world literature as the focal point for a multidisciplinary literary study. It will cover the genesis of the text from Indian and Mediterranean antecedents, its Arabic recensions, its reception in the West, and its influence on European literature. The course will be taught in English in its entirety. No prerequisites. Dist: LIT or INT; WCult: NW. Kadhim.
36. The Novel I: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will examine the rise of the novel as genre and its evolution in the context of bourgeois individualism. Some of the great social and psychological novels of the 18th and 19th centuries will be studied in relation to conventions such as the picaresque, the confessional, the epistolary, the Bildungsroman, realism and naturalism.
37. The Novel II: The Modern Novel
07X: 10A 08W: 2A
Prose writers in the twentieth century set out to create a new kind of novel. Exploding traditional fictional conventions, they created avant-garde forms that drastically challenged our reading habits and expectations. Transformation and experimentation continue to inform the development of the modern novel. Each offering of this course will study the fiction of the twentieth century in a specific manner.
In 07X, First Person Multiple. This course introduces a range of novels distinguished by their lively and inventive responses to the puzzle of modern subjectivity. In an age when the idea of the self as a unified and clearly-delineated whole has come under unrelenting scrutiny, choosing to write fiction as an 'I' is a license to experiment. Confession, con trick, mask, impersonation, memoir, apologia, metafiction: a first-person narrative may take any of these forms and often more than one. To demonstrate this variety, readings may include: Mann (Confessions of Felix Krull), Youcenar (Memoirs of Hadrian), Zamyatin (We), Carter (Wise Children), Woolf (The Waves), Faulkner (As I Lay Dying), Bâ (So Long a Letter), Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale), and Calvino (If on a Winter's Night). Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. (pending faculty approval). Davies.
In 08W, Immigrant Identities. This course focuses on the experience of immigrants in the USA, France, and Great Britain by addressing the questions of home and identity. We will examine cultural productions narrating the lives of Italians, Chinese, and Porto-Ricans in the USA; Pakistanis, Jamaicans, and Nigerians in Great Britain; and Africans in France. Texts include Liu's Accidental Asian, Santiago's When I was a Porto-Rican, and Hoffman's Lost in Translation. Theories of immigration and identity will frame our readings. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Coly.
38. Forms of Short Fiction
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Through the ages, from The Arabian Nights and the Old Testament to Thomas Mann and Alice Walker, short fiction in its many different shapes has been one of the most enduring and most adaptable genres of literary art. This course will be a study of various forms of short fiction such as novella, tale and short story. Offered periodically with varying historical content, the course will correlate literary texts with their social and cultural contexts.
39. Topics in Narrative
06F: 12 08S: 2A
This course will approach the study of narrative from the perspective of a specific technique or theme; it might explore narrative genres such as autobiography, memoir, letters, epistolary fiction, oral narrative traditions.
In 06F, Becoming Metropolitan: Paris and London in French and English Fiction of the Nineteenth Century. This course focuses on French and English novels. We study how novelists understand and represent urban modernity. We focus on how public and private experience become urban in fictional accounts; on the amount of crime and social surveillance; on secrecy and knowledge in stories of Paris and London; and on how modernity is imagined in city plots. Authors may include Balzac, Dickens, and Zola, Braddon, Conan Doyle, and James; and essays from twentieth-century cultural studies on urban modernity. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. McKee.
In 08S, The Global Detective. Since the 1970s, police literature has become one of the world's most popular and flexible literary genres. While the form's basic narrative structure is recognizable from America to Africa, each literary and cultural tradition localizes the genre in its own particular way. In this course, we will explore how the international detective novel has changed. Authors include Hamdouchi (Morocco), Khadra (Algeria), Gur (Israel), Miyabe (Japan), Xialong (China), Padura (Cuba), Diez (Mexico), Mankell (Sweden), Camilleri (Italy) and Pelletier (France). Dist: LIT. Smolin.
40. Special Topics: Genres
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will study texts from a generic perspective, concentrating on a particular genre or subgenre that stands outside the broad categories of poetry, drama and narrative.
41. The Comic Tradition
06F: 2A
This course will study aspects of the comic: satire, parody, comic theater or shorter forms, such as the anecdote, the joke or the caricature. Examples may be literary or pictorial.
In 06F, Rabbis, Rogues and Schlemiels: Jewish Humor and its Roots (Identical to Hebrew 63 and Jewish Studies 24.2). What is Jewish humor, what are its roots, and what can it begin to tell us about Jewish society, its values and its self-image? This course mines the long and rich tradition of Hebrew comic and satirical folklore and fine literature, and their relationship to Yiddish, Israeli and Anglo-American Jewish humor. We will also compare the joke, popular song, film and the cartoon, asking how genre impacts on theme. A valuable and unique resource for this course is the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive, with its wealth of online recordings. Taught in English translation. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Glinert.
42. Topics in Popular Culture
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Applying critical literary theories to the study of popular culture, this course will examine how popular culture is produced, disseminated, and consumed. Dist: Varies.
THEMATIC APPROACHES
45. The Quest for Utopia
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
46. Psychology, Society and Literature: The Family
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will explore the intersections of literary and familial structures in social and psychological contexts. It will study ideologies which both support and contest the family's cultural hegemony. Individual offerings might concentrate on mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, family romances, marriage, family and society. Readings will range from myth and fairy tale to some of the great family novels or dramas. Dist: Varies.
47. Myths and Transformations
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Myth has inspired literature from ancient times to the present. This course examines original mythic material and how that material has been transformed in later versions. Possible topics include: the legend of Troy, Odysseus through the ages, the Faust theme, the trickster figure, Antigone and Medea, the legend of Don Juan. Dist: Varies.
49. Special Topics: Themes
07S: 11
In 07S, National Allegory: Nationalism and Literature in the Postcolonial World (Identical to English 63). This course explores current theories of nationalism and postnationalism and how these theories could be productively utilized in making sense of literary texts from the postcolonial world. Authors include Lu Xun from China; Raja Rao from India; Sembene Ousmane from Senegal; Ngugi wa Thiong'o from Kenya; and Chinua Achebe from Nigeria. Cultural theorists whose work will be discussed include Ernest Renan, Benedict Anderson, Homi Bhabha, Partha Chatterjee, Franz Fanon, and Frederic Jameson, among others. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Giri.
REGIONAL APPROACHES
50. Europe and its Cultural Others
08S: 3A
Literatures of the world cannot be compared without regard for the relations of domination that exist among the cultures that produced them. Colonialism and imperialism constitute important aspects of European history and self-perception from the Middle Ages through the 20th century. This course will focus on the cultural impact of domination on colonizer and colonized. Offered periodically with varying content.
In 08S, The Celtic Fringe. From the Middle Ages to the present, the "edges" of Europe have served as places of fantasy and fear for those who see themselves as firmly located in the "center." Britain has played this role for the continent, and there a further "edge of otherness" has been defined in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Drawing on theories of colonialism and the concept of "internal colonialism," we will explore the various roles attributed to "Celts"-by Celts themselves, by the English, and by the continent. In each case, we will take a long view through representative works from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Warren.
51. African Literatures
06F: 2A
This course will survey the texts and contexts of literatures, theories and criticisms from the distinctive cultures of East, Central, North, South and West Africa as well as the Caribbean. It will examine the evolution of literary forms as well as shifts of emphasis in issues and consciousness. Offered periodically, it will focus on genres, periods, authors, or geolinguistic categories such as anglophone, francophone, hispanophone, or lusophone.
In 06F, Masterpieces of Literatures from Africa (Identical to African and African American Studies 51). This course is designed to provide students with a specific and global view of the diversity of literatures from the African continent. We will read texts written in English or translated from French, Portuguese, Arabic and African languages. Through novels, short stories, poetry, and drama, we will explore such topics as the colonial encounter, the conflict between tradition and modernity, the negotiation of African identities, post-independence disillusion, gender issues, apartheid and post-apartheid. In discussing this variety of literatures from a comparative context, we will assess the similarities and the differences apparent in the cultures and historical contexts from which they emerge. Readings include Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley, Calixthe Beyala's The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, Camara Laye's The African Child, and Luandino Vieira's Luanda. Dist: LIT or INT; WCult: NW. Coly.
52. Latin American Literatures
07W: 10
Some of the most fascinating literary works of this century have been written by Latin American authors such as Neruda, García Márquez, Fuentes, Allende, etc. This course will analyze modern Latin American literature, its connection to or rejection of European traditions, the ways in which individual works illuminate third world realities and challenge accepted Western views of the world. Offered periodically with varying content.
In 07W, The Borderlands: Latina/o Writers in the United States (Identical to Women's and Gender Studies 47.2). In this course we will focus on the writings of US Latina/o writers. We will analyze how writers (Anzald√∫a, Alvarez, Cisneros, Castillo and others) negotiate a path between the two cultures (the US and Latin America) and the two languages that inform their literary production and shape their identity. This in-between status translates into an experimentation with genres and a questioning of traditional gender divisions as well as the construction of transcultural icons and objects. Dist: LIT or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Spitta.
53. Middle Eastern Literature
07S: D.F.S.P.
This course, offered periodically, will examine texts from the cultures of the Middle East originally in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, or Hebrew. The issue of comparative focus will vary.
In 07S, History, Politics and the Moroccan Novel. This course will explore Moroccan novels and their grounding in Moroccan culture, placing special emphasis on the way in which these texts represent contemporary and historical reality and contribute to the construction of a postcolonial identity. Students with a background in French or Arabic will be encouraged to do the reading in the original languages. Texts will include the work of Tahar ben Jalloun, Mohamed Berrada, Abdelhak Serhane, Leila Abouzeid and Driss Chraibi. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. M. J. Green.
54. Jewish Literatures
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
From Biblical times to the present, Jewish literary production has ranged over numerous countries and languages and thus needs to be studied from a comparative perspective. This course will explore Jewish literature from generic, thematic or cultural perspectives.
55. Asian Literatures
06F: 12
The literatures of Asia are so rich and diverse that they defy the simplistic categorization implied by the notion of national traditions. The forms and conventions of literary works in India, China, or Japan have been shaped over a long period of time by a shared sense that literary culture is continuous and by an awareness of difference inherent to particular cultural epochs. This course will examine Asian literatures within their specific historical contexts in order to illuminate the cultural ground of literary practices and to provide a basis for comparison with the literary traditions of the West.
In 06F, The Karma of Love: Japanese Women Writers and the Classical Canon (Identical to Japanese 63). The Japanese literary tradition is notable for the overwhelming dominance of women writers in the classical canon and for the ways their work was later co-opted by the literary culture of warrior society. We shall analyze the social, economic, and political contexts that led to the dominance of women writers, focusing primarily on depictions of sexual relationships and the development of an ideology of love. Reading selections include history, poetry, drama, essays, criticism, and fiction created within the culture of the Japanese court from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries. Major texts covered include The Gossamer Diary, As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams, The Pillow Book, The Tale of Genji, and The Confessions of Lady Nijô. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Washburn.
56. Eastern European Literatures
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
Courses taught under this rubric offer regional or thematic approaches to the literature of Eastern Europe, its many diverse cultures, traditions, and prospects-from the Baltic to the Balkans, from Islam to Russian Orthodoxy, from the Ottoman Empire to Communism and beyond, from Mikhail Bulgakov to Eugene Ionesco and Vaclav Havel.
57. Special Topics: Regions
08S: 11
In 08S, A Tale of Three Cities: Paris, Bucharest, Istanbul. This course will explore the way in which these cities have been imagined and constructed by French, Romanian and Turkish literatures. Through close readings of works from various genres, we will examine how the city has been used as a topic and a trope of modernity. Readings will include literary texts by Baudelaire, Aragon, Modiano, Eliade, Loti, Pamuk and critical texts by Benjamin, de Certeau, Nora, Said. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. (pending faculty approval). Verona.
LITERATURE AND OTHER DISCIPLINES
60. Literature and Music
07S: 2A
The affinities between literature and music have always held a special fascination for poets, writers, musicians, and critics. By studying the two arts as comparable media of expression, this course will test the legitimacy of interart parallels.
In 07S, an introduction to the major aspects, aesthetic implications, and interpretive methods comparing the two arts. Topics for lectures and discussion will include: musical structures as literary form; verbal music, word music, and program music; word-tone synthesis in the Lied; music and drama in opera; music in fiction; and the writer as music critic. Music-related poetry and prose examples, complemented by musical illustrations and ranging from the German and English Romantics through the French symbolists and the Dadaists to contemporary writing, will be selected from texts by Goethe, Brentano, Hoffmann, DeQuincey, Poe, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Proust, Thomas Mann, Joyce, Eliot, Huxley, Shaw, and Pound. No particular musical background or technical knowledge of music required. Dist: LIT or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Kopper.
61. Literature and the Visual Arts
07W: 10A
Cultural history and criticism has returned repeatedly to the affinities, dissimilarities, and tensions between words and images. This course addresses the fundamental dialogue between these forms of communication and notation.
In 07W, Surrealist Photography: The Body, The City, And Desire. The course will examine the interaction between the surrealistic and the photographic from the early 1920s to the present. With its power to capture the immediacy of the ephemeral moment, to capture the wonder of the everyday city, and to offer new configurations of the human body, photography became the surrealist art par excellence. Work by several photographers from Atget, Brassai and Man Ray to Claude Cahun, Sophie Calle and contemporary fashion photographers will be studied. Dist: ART. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Stamelman.
62. Literature and Film
07S: M 3-6
A study of selected major film traditions from a literary perspective. By examining themes, structures, montage, and other literary and filmic elements, students will become familiar with important concepts in film analysis. Individual offerings of the course may focus on filmmakers, movements, periods, or themes. The goal will be to appreciate the aesthetic and social significance of film as a twentieth-century medium and to explore various intersections of film and literature.
In 07S, The Cinematic City. The urban metaphor, the city in its cultural, political, and social complexities, has been either a working political utopia of diversity, freedom, and change or a manifestation of dystopia, commodification, social inequities, and dehumanization since the origins of filmmaking. Beginning with Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) and ending with Pedro Almodóvar's All About my Mother (1999), this course will provide a historical overview of the different kinds of political, cultural, and sexual metaphors the cinematic city articulates. Screenings of German, U.S., Italian, Japanese, British, Spanish, French, and Cuban films. Dist: ART. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Martín.
63. Literature and Politics
07S, 07X: 2A 08S: 10A
This course will be offered periodically and with varying content. It will explore the rich relations that exist between literature and politics, focusing on literature both as an instrument of political interest and as a product of political contexts.
In 07S, Fascist Italy: Fascism in Literature and Film (Identical to French and Italian 35). This course focuses on the history of the rise and fall of fascism and on the cultural forces that validated its power. Special attention will be given to literature and film in propaganda. Students will watch films such as Cabiria, Black Shirt, The White Squadron, and A Very Special Day and read novels and short stories by Alberto Moravia, Fausta Cailente, F.T. Marinetti, and Elsa Morante and critical texts by Spackman, Pickering-Iazzi, de Grazia, and Ben-Ghiat. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Parati.
In 07X, The Literature of Human Rights. What rights do people have as individuals, families, communities, or nations? Can there, should there be a code of universally-acknowledged human rights? What would be the source of its legitimacy? We shall consider some literary ways of speaking to these questions. Readings will cover drama, fiction, poetry, and essays; the authors may include Sophocles, Gámbaro, Pinter, Shakespeare, Burns, Blake, Szymbórska, Delbo, Silko, Faiz, Akutagawa, Le Guin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Levi, Head, Soyinka, Morison, and Mary Shelley. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W (pending faculty approval). Davies.
In 08S, Shades of Noir: Film, Fiction, Politics. 'Film Noir' evokes memories of stylish, cynical, black-and-white movies from the 1940s and 1950s-melodramas about private eyes, femmes fatales, criminal gangs, and lovers on the run. Noir narratives revolve around questions of racial and national identity; the postwar crisis of masculinity and gender relations; and the experience of alienation and dislocation. The course will also trace the pervasive presence of noir and its continuing appeal for artists and audiences throughout the world. Dist: ART or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU or NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Gemünden.
64. Literature and History
07S: 10A 08W: 10
The course will explore the relationship between literature and history, focusing both upon the interplay of historiographical and fictional discourses and upon conceptualization and representation of history in some major literary texts. Dist. Varies.
In 07S, Metaphors in the Making. What did Henry James mean by "it takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature"? This course will examine the complex and often competing notions of literature and history in their constant interaction. We will focus on such issues as truth and fiction, rewriting and reinterpretation, myth, chronicle, and memoir, as well as the device "based on a true story." Readings will be drawn from such authors as Plato, Tacitus, Columbus, Bodin, Mme de Lafayette, Pushkin, Michelet, Carpentier, Mayakovski, and Zweig. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Sokol.
In 08W, The Burden of the Nazi Past: World War, Genocide, Population Transfer, and Firebombing (Identical to Jewish Studies 37.3 and German Studies 43). This course studies the main events of World War Two and the different stages of processing that past post-1945. In an interdisciplinary and comparative fashion we take up selective controversies in order to understand the formation of postwar German identity, e.g., the Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Eichmann trials, the Berlin Jewish Museum and Holocaust memorial, Neonazism, and the current campaign to remember German civilian casualties. Authors include Weiss, Schlink, Flannery, Singer, Modiano. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI. Kacandes.
65. Literature and Science
07W: 10
This course will consider the intertwining of literature, science, and technology. We shall investigate the literary representation of scientific activity and the variety of ways in which literary and scientific modes of thought have diverged or come together.
In 07W, A Matter of Time (Identical to Mathematics 5). Everybody knows about time. Our everyday language bears witness to the centrality of time with scores of words and expressions that refer to it as a measure, a frame of reference, or an ordering factor for our lives, feelings, dreams, and histories. Playing with time has been a favorite game in works of high culture-from the Greek sophists to cubism-and in popular culture-from H.G. Wells to Monty Python. And time is at the center of one of the most revolutionary scientific theories of all time: Einstein's Theory of Relativity. In this course we will use mathematics, literature, and the arts to travel through history, to explore and understand Time as a key concept and reality in the development of Western culture and in our own twentieth -century view of ourselves and the world. Dist: QDS. Lahr, Pastor.
66. Literature and Psychoanalysis
07F: 2A
This course aims to explore the relationship between literature and the theoretical and clinical writings of psychoanalysis. Through readings representing a range of psychoanalytic and literary traditions, we will examine the connections that can be made between psychic structures and literary structures, between the language of the mind and the emotions and the language of the literary, cultural or cinematic text.
In 07F, What is Psychoanalysis? What is the relationship between "literary" works and the theoretical and clinical writings of psychoanalysis? This large question will be examined through readings of essays and case histories by such analysts and theorists as Freud, Klein, Lacan, Kristeva, Butler, Bersani and Zizek. The course will focus on the theme of the family romance and its relationship to the question of gender in works by authors such as Sophocles, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Kafka, Woolf, Mann, Proust, Duras, Kushner, Almadovar, and Woody Allen. Dist: LIT or INT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU or NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Kritzman.
67. Literature and Women's/Gender Studies
06F: 3B 08W: 10A
This course will focus on the cultural construction of gender as it is manifested in various texts and traditions. Topics may include one or more aspects of gendered literary study: writing (male/female authorship), reading, literary form, masculine and feminine subjectivity, representation, or feminist literary and cultural criticism.
In 06F, Colonial and Postcolonial Masculinities (Identical to AAAS 67 and WGST 52.1). In this course, we will develop an understanding of masculinity as a construct which varies in time and space, and is constantly (re)shaped by such factors as race, class, and sexuality. The contexts of the colonial encounter and its postcolonial aftermath will set the stage for our examination of the ways in which social, political, economic, and cultural factors foster the production of specific masculinities. Texts include Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Lafferiere's How to Make Love to a Negro, and additional writings by Irish, Indian, and Australian authors. Our study will be organized around the questions of the production of hegemonic and subaltern masculinities, the representation of the colonial and postcolonial male body, the militarization of masculinity, and the relation between masculinity and nationalism. Theoretical material on masculinities will frame our readings. Dist: LIT. Coly.
In 08W, Fictions of Sappho (Identical to Women's and Gender Studies 21.2 and Classical Studies 10). Goddess of poetry, sexual predator, exotic holiday destination, lovelorn suicide, schoolmistress, parchment scrap: these are among the associations clustering around Sappho. From antiquity to the twenty-first century her poems and the legends about her life and loves have fascinated writers, artists and musicians as different as Queen Victoria, Willa Cather, Boccaccio, Jeanette Winterson, Ezra Pound, Gounod, and Ovid. We sample some of the twists and turns in this seemingly endless stream of fantasy and creative reaproppriation. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: CI. Williamson.
70. Special Topics: Literature and Other Disciplines
06F: 2A 07S: 10 08S: 2
In 06F, European Jewish Intellectuals (Identical to Jewish Studies 26). The course will examine the role of the Jewish intellectual in 20th-century Europe. We shall focus on several paradigmatic figures (Adorno, Arendt, Benjamin, Levinas, Derrida) who confront the redefinition of politics and civil society in modern times. Some attempt will be made to deal with these changes through a critical reflection on the concepts of democracy and ethics and on how justice can be practiced either within or outside the geographical and spiritual boundaries of the modern nation state. Particular attention will be paid to topics such as the challenges of Eurocentric Christian humanism and universalism to Jewish assimilation; the promises of totalitarianism, Marxism and messianism; the politics of biblical exegesis; history and Jewish mysticism; Zionism, anti-Zionism, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Kritzman.
In 07S, Us And Them: Aliens, Fiction, And Nonfiction. The possibility of extraterrestrial life, in particular, intelligent extraterrestrial life, has fascinated cultures throughout history and is, today, a central topic of scientific research. "Aliens" have been represented in literature and film both as benevolent and malevolent creatures. This course will investigate the cultural and scientific roots of these polar representations as they evolved from the seventeenth century onwards through a critical analysis of fictional and non-fictional texts and a representative sample of movies. Readings will include texts by Kepler, de Fontenelle, Huygens, Voltaire, H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, and Ursula Le Guin. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU or NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Gleiser.
In 08S, The Fashioning of Fashion: Theory and Practice. The course studies fashion as a system of communication, a writing (on and of the body), and a meeting point for gender, class, and social relations. We will explore the ways that clothing, perfume, and cosmetics create a certain "imaginary," where fantasies of desire and national identity circulate. Poetry and fiction: Donne, Herrick, Zola, Süskind. Films: Funny Face, Unzipped, Ready to Wear. Art and photography: Tissot, Sargent, Avedon, Newton, Turbeville. Designers: Worth, Chanel, Dior, Saint Laurent, Versace, Miyake. Stamelman.
Refer also to Philosophy 20.
LITERARY CRITICISM/THEORY
71. History of Literary Criticism: The Western Tradition to 1900
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
This course will focus on three periods in particular-antiquity, the Renaissance and the Romantic period-and on topics and issues which link these periods, such as theories of representation, the functions of poetry, the relationship of poetry to truth, the privileging of particular genres at different times, the sublime, theories of the self. We will pay particular attention to texts that are still generating debate and critique today, including some from a feminist perspective, and will end with a brief consideration of some of the nineteenth-century thinkers whose work has been influential in this century. Readings may include the following authors: Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Lucian, Horace, Longinus, Jonson, Sidney, Burke, Kant, Wordsworth, J.S. Mill, Coleridge, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud.
For a related course, see English 63.
72. Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory
06F, 07F: 10A
Covering some of the major theoretical movements of the second half of the twentieth century, this course focuses on the issues and questions motivating theoretical debate in literary and cultural studies. Movements studied may include New Criticism, structuralism, semiotics, poststructuralism and deconstruction, Marxist criticism, psychoanalysis, narratology, reader-response theory, feminist criticism, African American criticism, film criticism, and the new historicism.
In 06F, Literary Criticism and Theory. The course provides an overview of current literary theory. After considering competing definitions of "literature," "theory," and "reading," we examine texts that represent the New Criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism, African American criticism, and the new historicism. We also question our activities, reviewing the arguments that challenge the relevance of "theory." In order to make things more concrete, we also read studies that concern specific texts. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Carrard.
In 07F, What is Theory? Since the beginnings of the 20th Century, critical theory has slowly transformed the study of literature. Although most scholars who study literary texts now use theory in one way or another, few would be able to define the discipline. This course will examine some of the major texts in the field, including the roots of contemporary critical practices in philosophy, linguistics, and semiotics, as well as some of the latest, "cutting edge" applications of theory to all kinds of cultural "objects": texts, films, clothes, bodies, genders, identities, buildings, cities, nations, etc. Works by Saussure, Jakobson, Foucault, Lacan, Benjamin, Derrida, Hegel, Butler, Venturi, Kohlhaas and others. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. La Guardia.
73. Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory
07W: 2A 08W: 3A
This course will focus on a specific preoccupation of contemporary theory or on a particular theoretical movement.
In 07W, Modernity and Postmodernity in a Transatlantic Perspective. Why did postmodernity become a cultural dominant in the United States but not in Europe, and why did poststructuralism become more prominent in the American academy than in the French? Exploring the meanings of modernity, postmodernity, or the avant-garde in the works of Arnold, Huxley, Adorno, Marcuse, Trilling, Howe, Sontag, Fiedler, Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Barthes, Jameson, and others, we shall discuss how these and other ostensibly universal terms inflect concepts of culture on both sides of the Atlantic, and accrue specific meanings in the society in which they appear. Dist: LIT. Class of 2007 and earlier: WCult: EU or NA. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Milich.
In 08W, A Tale of Two Sites: Cities as Narrative and the Narration of Objects. Cities are complex sites for "stories" taking place across time. Using St. Petersburg, Prague, Mexico City, and Paris as models, we will discuss the virtual urban spaces created by literature and cinema, and the restrictions placed on them by medium, history, and society's need for urban mythologies. We will also consider the use of non-literary artifacts as "texts": the risks of applying terms like narrative, memory, and palimpsest to services and commodities (e.g. a subway system or a clothes store). Critical readings may include Poniatowska, Boyer, Connerton, Lagopoulos, Konvitz, Eco, Nora, Greimas, Habermas. Dist: LIT. Class of 2008 and later: WCult: W. Kopper.
79. Independent Study
06F, 07W, 07S: Arrange
A tutorial course designed by the student with the assistance of a member of the Comparative Literature faculty who is willing to supervise it. Offers the student an opportunity to pursue a subject of special interest through a distinctive program of readings and reports. During the term prior to the course, applicants must submit a course outline to the Chair for written approval.
80. Advanced Seminar: Special Topics
Not offered in the period from 06F through 08S
85. Senior Seminar in Research and Methodology
07W: Arrange. Parati.
87. Thesis Tutorial
07S: Arrange.
Permission of the Chair is required.
100. Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory
06F: 10A
See description under Comparative Literature 72. Carrard.
101. Topics in Literary Criticism and Theory
07W: 2A
See description under Comparative Literature 73. Milich.
102. Tutorial
Arrange with advisor. This course is open to M.A. candidates only.
103. Workshop in Critical Writing
07S: Arrange
Critical thinking and concise, persuasive writing are prerequisites for any professional career. In fact, both go hand in hand. The Workshop in Critical Writing introduces graduate students to advanced research techniques, to the conventions of scholarly discourse, and to the various kinds of writing practiced in literary studies. We will analyze scholarly articles as examples of research methods, argument development, rhetorical technique, and stylistic presentation; we will test a variety of practical approaches to the interpretation of literary texts; and we will explore how we might use theory in critical argument. Students will be asked to prepare and submit a scholarly article using previous written work of their own (senior thesis, independent study project) as a basis. The workshop format of the course will permit students to read and critique each other's work and to sharpen their editorial skills. Washburn. This course is open to M.A. candidates only. Kopper.
105. Graduate Seminar
07W: Arrange
This course is open to M.A. candidates only.
106. Graduate Research
06F, 07W, 07S: Arrange