Comparative Literature

An exploration of the concept of hospitality, individual and collective, in French, Mediterranean, and Maghrebi (i.e., North African: Arab, Berber, and Jewish) cultures. Draws on materials from literature and the arts, politics and law, philosophy and religion. Issues studied include immigration, citizenship, alienation, and, more generally, the meaning of welcoming a stranger. Prerequisite: a 200-level course in French or instructor's permission. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute preceptorial.

A hands-on approach to this interdisciplinary field. We will apply key readings in performance theory to space and time-based events, at sites ranging from theatre, experimental art, and film, to community celebrations, sport events, and restaurant dining. We will observe people's behavior in everyday life as performance and discuss the "self" through the performativity of one's gender, race, class, ability, and more. We will also practice ethnographic methods to collect stories to adapt for performance and address the role of the participant-observer, thinking about ethics and the social responsibilities of this work.

The history of sound and color film produced since World War II. Emphasis on Italian neorealism, French New Wave, American avant-garde, and the accomplishments of such major filmmakers as Bergman, Hitchcock, Bresson, and Antonioni. Modernism in film will be a central consideration. One three-hour class, weekly film screenings.

An examination of concepts involved in the interpretation and evaluation of works of art. Emphasis will be placed on sensuous quality, structure, and expression as aesthetic categories. Illustrative material from music, painting, and literature. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Poetry, prose, and drama of the Golden Age. Readings might include the works of authors such as Garcilaso, Saint Theresa, Saint John of the Cross, Góngora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, and Calderón. Two 90-minute classes. Prerequisite: a 200-level Spanish course or instructor's permission.

This course examines an emergent historical situation as it unfolds: the ongoing financial, social, and humanitarian "crisis" in Greece, including the "refugee crisis." It offers a comparative approach to current Greek cultural production, through literature and film of the past decade and writings drawn from history, anthropology, political science, economics, news sources, and political blogs. We also probe terms like "crisis," exploring how language shapes our understanding of events and how our perceptions of an unfamiliar culture, history, and society are mediated not just by linguistic translation but by market forces and media spin.

Study of a selected theme or topic in comparative literature. Subjects will range from historical and cultural questions (literature and politics, the literature of the avant-garde) to the study of specific literary themes or topics (feminine autobiography, the grotesque in literature).

A study of Milton's poetry and prose, with particular attention to Milton's poetic style and development and his indebtedness to various classical traditions. Emphasis will also be given to Milton as thinker and to the place he holds in 17th-century thought. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An exploration of the cultural meanings of the Gothic mode through a study of its characteristic elements, its origins in 18th-century English and German culture and thought, its development across Western national traditions, and its persistence in contemporary culture, including film, electronic media, clothing, social behavior, and belief systems, as well as literature. Films, artifacts, websites, and electronic publications will supplement readings. One three-hour seminar.

Translation is at the core of our engagement with China, Japan, and Korea, influencing our reading choices and shaping our understanding of East Asia. From translations of the classics to the grass-root subtitling of contemporary Anime movies, from the formation of the modern East Asian cultural discourse to cross-cultural references in theater and film, the seminar poses fundamental questions to our encounters with East Asian cultural artifacts, reflecting on what "translation" of "original works" means in a global world where the "original" is often already located in its projected "translation."

The course will focus on topics and issues related to literary translation, from Urdu into Hindi, Hindi into Urdu, as well as the translation of Hindi/Urdu literary works into English and from English into Hindi/Urdu. Readings will address issues of theory and practice, as well as selected literary works and their translations. Includes student translation workshops.

Topics will range from the study of a single author (such as Leopardi, Manzoni, Verga) to the thematic, artistic, and cultural analysis of either a genre or a literary movement (such as Romanticism, Verismo). One three-hour seminar. Prerequisite: a 200-level Italian course or instructor's permission.

This course examines how Arab writers have used the craft of fiction to address major social and political issues such as displacement, labor migration, war, social repression, and dictatorship. The course covers novels from Egypt, the Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, and Iraq. Topics covered include the Lebanese Civil War, the Palestinian struggle, Islamic fundamentalism, and Iraq under the Baathist regime. The course will also look more broadly at experiences of exile and migration and the postcolonial world as reflected in modern Arabic writing. All readings are in English translation.

The evolution of Italian contemporary civilization through the study of historical, sociopolitical, and cultural topics. The approach will be interdisciplinary; each year a different topic will be selected and studied as portrayed in representative samples of slides, films, and pertinent reading material. One-hour lecture, two-hour precept. Prerequisite: a 200-level Italian course or instructor's permission. Offered in alternate years.

This course will explore the ways in which national identity was imagined and implemented within Italian literature, culture, and cinema before, during, and after the period of Italian Unification in the mid-XIX century. Examples are drawn from a wide range of literary, artistic, and cultural media. Prerequisite: 200-level Italian course or instructor's permission. One three-hour seminar.

Symbolic systems and social life in specific historical eras. Topics will vary. Recent courses include, for example, magic, art, and science in Renaissance culture, political discourse and nationalism, culture and inequality, history of technology, and the rhetoric of new media.

A classical genre or literary theme will be studied as it was handed down and transformed in later ages, for example, the European epic; ancient prose fiction and the picaresque tradition; the didactic poem. Two 90-minute seminars.

The Bible will be read closely in its own right and as an enduring resource for literature and commentary. The course will cover its forms and genres, including historical narrative, uncanny tales, prophecy, lyric, lament, commandment, sacred biography, and apocalypse; its pageant of weird and extraordinary characters; and its brooding intertextuality. Students will become familiar with a wide variety of biblical interpretations, from the Rabbis to Augustine, Kafka and Kierkegaard. Cinematic commentary will be included--Bible films, from the campy to the sublime. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An examination of various issues raised in, and by, Nietzsche's writings. Apart from discussing views like the eternal recurrence, the overman, and the will to power, this course considers Nietzsche's ambiguous relationship with philosophy, the literary status of his work, and his influence on contemporary thought. Prerequisite: one philosophy course or equivalent preparation in the history of modern thought or literature. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Reading and viewing of select Hindi/Urdu literary works and their cinematic adaptations, covering a wide-range of registers, genres and styles: drama, short story, novel (excerpts), as well as commercial and alternative cinema. Attention will be given to historical and social context, as well as different styles and trends. Stories and films will address issues of discrimination, inequity, and reform, representations of gender, social and cultural norms and conventions, stereotypes, taboos, and transgressions. In-depth classroom discussion in Hindi/Urdu of all materials.

Literary texts from two or more national cultures will be viewed in a historical perspective of a specific period (the Renaissance or the Enlightenment) or a significant event (the French Revolution or World War I) or a social phenomenon (the Industrial Revolution). The mutual relationship between the image of the world created by writers and the impact of writers upon the world they reflect.

Relationships between conceptions of literary form and developments in intellectual history, spanning different genres and cultural traditions. Some examples: modernism in the context of 20th-century ideological conditions; the rise of the novel traced through philosophies of the 18th and 19th centuries.

An examination of selected works of European literature, chiefly around the turn of the 20th century, that provoke distinctive "forms of (literary) excitement." Topics will include decadence, ecstasy, ekphrasis, self-mirroring, asceticism, sadomasochism, dandyism, epiphany, and l'art pour l'art. One three-hour seminar.

Studies in the international exchange of literary forms and ideas, intellectual and artistic movements. The topic will be drawn from among the following or others similar in scope: the literature of exile, the avant-garde, formalism and structuralism, Byronic hero and antihero, literary relations between East and West, surrealism and its legacy, the international response to individual writers.

The course will deal with a theme, author, or problem in comparative literature studies.