Comparative Literature

This is an archived copy of the 2012-13 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalogs.uchicago.edu.

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Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature Francoise Meltzer
HM E688

Email

Secondary Contact

Director of Undergraduate Studies Tamara Chin
Cl 120

Email

Administrative Contacts

Department Administrator Rose Watson
Cl 116
773-702-8486
Email

Humanities Group Secretary Vicky Lim
Classics 116

Email

Website

http://complit.uchicago.edu

The major in Comparative Literature leads to a BA degree. This program is designed to attract students who wish to pursue an interdisciplinary plan of course work focused on the study of literature as written in various languages and in various parts of the world.

Such a student might come to the University with a strong background in languages other than English and want to work in two or more literatures (one of which can be English). Another student might have a strong interest in literary study and wish to address general, generic, and/or transnational questions that go beyond the boundaries of national literature offered by English and other literature departments. Or, a student might wish to pursue an in-depth study of the interrelationship of literature and culture, as well as issues that transcend the traditional demarcations of national literary history and area studies.

These descriptions of academic interest are not mutually exclusive. Each student will design a plan of course work that will suit his or her individual goals and that will take advantage of the rich offerings of this university.

Program Requirements

The aim of the following guidelines is to help students develop a balanced and coherent plan of study. The Director of Undergraduate Studies in Comparative Literature is available to discuss these guidelines with students who are interested in comparative literature.

In addition to the thirteen courses counted toward the major, students must complete a second-year sequence in a language other than English or demonstrate language ability of an equivalent skill through accreditation. Students should have completed this requirement, or be well on their way to its completion, by the time they apply to the program, typically the end of their second year. See Participation in the Program below for further details.
Six courses in a primary field, or in closely integrated subject areas in more than one field, are required.
Four courses in a secondary field, or in closely integrated subject areas in more than one field, are required.
All students will be asked to take two quarters of a sequence that introduces the theoretical, scholarly, and critical practices relevant to comparative literature. The first quarter, taught by a Comparative Literature faculty member, will be CMLT 29701 Introduction to Comparative Literature: Problems, Methods, Precedents. The second quarter will be a free-standing but related course taught by an advanced graduate student. Students are expected to take both courses in the same year. Critical methods classes taken prior to the 2012–13 inauguration of this sequence may count as the equivalents to one or both of the two new required courses.
Students who are majoring in Comparative Literature are required to complete a BA project. The project will be supervised by a faculty member of the student's choice, with that faculty member's consent and the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies; that faculty member may be, but need not be, on the faculty of Comparative Literature. A graduate student in Comparative Literature will serve as preceptor for all BA projects through the BA workshop, moderating discussions, working with students on the mechanics of writing, and providing tutorial assistance. For details, see the following information on the BA workshop and the BA paper.
As part of the process of writing the BA paper, fourth-year students are required to register for CMLT 29801 BA Project and Workshop: Comparative Literature and attend its meetings. The workshop begins in Autumn Quarter with readings and discussion of themes and methods in Comparative Literature. It continues through the middle of the Spring Quarter with workshops in which students provide written and oral feedback on each other's work in progress toward the BA project. While the BA workshop meets in all three quarters, it counts as a one-quarter course credit. Students may register for the course in any of the three quarters of their fourth year. A grade for the course will be assigned in the Spring Quarter based partly on participation in the workshop and partly on the quality of the BA paper.

Summary of Requirements

6 primary field courses		600
4 secondary field courses		400
2 critical/intellectual methods courses		200
CMLT 29801	BA Project and Workshop: Comparative Literature	100
Total Units		1300

The department encourages students to pursue further language study by taking courses in a second or third language. NOTE: Those language courses will be approved for use in the major only if they are at an intermediate or advanced level; elementary-level courses cannot be counted toward the total number of courses needed to complete the major.

Additional courses in critical/intellectual methods may be counted toward the six courses in the primary field or toward four courses in the secondary field if their materials are appropriate for those purposes, but the total number of courses presented for the major must total thirteen.

A student wishing to work in two literatures (one of which can be English) might choose two literatures as the primary and secondary fields. A student interested in literary study across national boundaries with a focus on generic and transnational questions might create a primary field along generic lines (e.g., film, the epic, the novel, poetry, drama, opera); the secondary field might be a particular national literature or a portion of such a literature. A student interested in literary and cultural theory might choose theory as either a primary or secondary field, paired with another field designed along generic lines or those of one or more national literatures.

Courses in the various literature departments and in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities are obviously germane to the building of any individual program. A student is likely to find courses in the Humanities Collegiate Division and in the Department of History that extend beyond the usual definitions of literature (e.g., film, art, music, history) to be appropriate to her or his individual program of study. Study abroad offers an attractive means of fulfilling various aims of this program as well.

Participation in the Program

Students should express their interest in the major as soon as possible, typically before the end of their second year. The first step is to meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to consult about a program of study. Thereafter, students are required to submit a written proposal of about one thousand words in length that consists of two parts:

a statement explaining how the proposed plan of study will take advantage of existing College offerings and meet departmental requirements
a list of proposed courses (as well as alternates) and indications of how they will fulfill the department's requirements

Applicants must also submit a list of completed courses and a list of courses in which they are currently registered. Special mention should be made of language courses or other language training that affirms a student's level of language proficiency. Each proposal will be evaluated on the basis of the interest of the student and his or her achievement in the languages needed to meet the goals of the intended course of study. Students will be notified by email of their acceptance to the program.

Comparative Literature majors should demonstrate proficiency in a literary language (other than English) that is relevant to their proposed course of study (as indicated in requirement number one above). This requirement must be met at the time of application or shortly thereafter. Such proficiency is measured by the completion of a second-year sequence in the language, or by demonstration of an equivalent skill. Language ability is essential to work in comparative literature of whatever sort. The Department of Comparative Literature takes language preparation into consideration when evaluating applications, but it will also help students achieve their individual goals by suggesting programs of study that will add to their language expertise as appropriate.

BA Project

One obvious choice for a BA project is a substantial essay in comparative literary study. This option should not, however, rule out other possibilities. Two examples might be a translation from a foreign literature with accompanying commentary, or a written project based on research done abroad in another language and culture relating to comparative interests. Students are urged to base their project on comparative concepts, and to make use of the language proficiency that they will develop as they meet the program's requirements. Visit humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/complit/undergraduate/ for details on the BA project.

This program may accept a BA paper or project used to satisfy the same requirement in another major if certain conditions are met and with the consent of the other program chair. Approval from both program chairs is required. Students should consult with the chairs by the earliest BA proposal deadline (or by the end of third year, when neither program publishes a deadline). A consent form, to be signed by both chairs, is available from the College adviser. It must be completed and returned to the College adviser by the end of Autumn Quarter of the student's year of graduation.

Grading

All courses to be used in the major must be taken for a quality grade, which must be a B- or higher.

Honors

To be eligible for honors in Comparative Literature, students must earn an overall cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher, and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in the major. They must also complete a BA essay or project that is judged exceptional in intellectual and/or creative merit by the first and second readers.

Advising

In addition to their College adviser, students should consult on an ongoing basis with the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Further advice and counseling will be available from the preceptor for the program and from the faculty member who supervises the student's BA project.

Comparative Literature Courses

CMLT 20500. History and Theory of Drama I. 100 Units.

The course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in drama from the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, classical Sanskrit theater, medieval religious drama, Japanese Noh drama, Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Molière, along with some consideration of dramatic theory by Aristotle, Sir Philip Sidney, Corneille, and others. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with other members of the course. The goal of these scenes is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended.

Instructor(s): D. Bevington, J. Muse Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Preference given to students with third- or fourth-year standing.
Note(s): May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13900/31100 or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 13800,CLAS 31200,CLCV 21200,CMLT 30500,ENGL 31000,TAPS 28400

CMLT 20600. History and Theory of Drama II. 100 Units.

This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in Western drama from the eighteenth century into the twentieth (i.e., Sheridan, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Wilde, Shaw, Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard, Churchill, Kushner). Attention is also paid to theorists of the drama (e.g., Stanislavsky, Artaud, Grotowski). Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with other members of the course. The goal of these scenes is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended.

Instructor(s): D. Bevington, H. Coleman Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Note(s): May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13800/31000 or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 13900,CMLT 30600,ENGL 31100,TAPS 28401

CMLT 21101. Roman Elegy. 100 Units.

This course examines the development of the Latin elegy from Catullus to Ovid. Our major themes are the use of motifs and topics and their relationship to the problem of poetic persona.

Terms Offered: Not offered 2012-13; will be offered 2013-14.
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 21100,CMLT 31101,LATN 31100

CMLT 21202. Decolonizing Drama and Performance in Africa. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24404,ENGL 44509,CMLT 41202,CMST 24508,CMST 44508,TAPS 28418

CMLT 21906. Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception. 100 Units.

A reading of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception (1945) with appropriate reference to its philosophical, psychological and even fictional predecessors. The course should be of interest to those working in the philosophy of consciousness, mind-body relations, critical theory, history of science, and even ethics and aesthetics. Reading ability in French encouraged but not required; we will use the original text and the translation by Colin Smith.

Instructor(s): Haun Saussy Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 21906

CMLT 22201. Magic Realist and Fantastic Writings from the Balkans. 100 Units.

In this course, we ask whether there is such a thing as a "Balkan" type of magic realism and think about the differences between the genres of magic realism and the fantastic, while reading some of the most interesting writing to have come out of the Balkans. We also look at the similarities of the works from different countries (e.g., lyricism of expression, eroticism, nostalgia) and argue for and against considering such similarities constitutive of an overall Balkan sensibility.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 27400,CMLT 32201,SOSL 37400

CMLT 22301. War and Peace. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): W. Nickell Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 22302,CMLT 32301,ENGL 28912,ENGL 32302,FNDL 27103,HIST 23704,RUSS 32302

CMLT 22400. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.

This course introduces what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.

Instructor(s): J. Lastra Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): This is the first part of a two-quarter course.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28500,ARTH 28500,ARTH 38500,ARTV 26500,ARTV 36500,CMLT 32400,CMST 48500,ENGL 29300,ENGL 48700,MAPH 36000

CMLT 22500. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.

The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction; and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.

Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28600,ARTH 28600,ARTH 38600,ARTV 26600,CMLT 32500,CMST 48600,ENGL 29600,ENGL 48900,MAPH 33700

CMLT 22501. Vico's New Science. 100 Units.

This course offers a close reading of Giambattista Vico’s masterpiece, New Science (1744) – a work that sets out to refute “all opinions hitherto held about the principles of humanity.” Vico, who is acknowledged as the most resolute scourge of any form of rationalism, breathed new life into rhetoric, imagination, poetry, metaphor, history, and philology in order to promote in his readers that originary “wonder” and “pathos” which sets human beings on the search for truth. However, Vico argues, the truths that are most available and interesting to us are the ones humanity “authored” by means of its culture and history-creating activities. For this reason the study of myth and folklore as well as archeology, anthropology, and ethnology must all play a role in the rediscovery of man. The New Science builds an “alternative philosophy” for a new age and reads like a “novel of formation” recounting the (hi)story of the entire human race and our divine ancestors. In Vico, a prophetic spirit, one recognizes the fulfillment of the Renaissance, the spokesperson of a particular Enlightenment, the precursor of the Kantian revolution, and the forefather of the philosophy of history (Herder, Hegel, and Marx). The New Science remained a strong source of inspiration in the twentieth century (Cassirer, Gadamer, Berlin, Joyce, Beckett, etc.) and may prove relevant in disclosing our own responsibilities in postmodernity.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 32900,FNDL 21408,CMLT 32501,ITAL 22900

CMLT 22504. Money and Literature. 100 Units.

This course explores a set of imaginative, anthropological, and economic writings about money. Topics will include economic rhetoric and genres, market values, housework, and ancient and modern economies. We will read Gide’s The Counterfeiters, Adiga’s White Tiger, biographies of coins, Chinese economic dialogues, and watch an episode of Suze Orman’s Money Class. Critical readings will include Mauss, Simmel, Marx, Goux, Rubin, Spivak.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 22505

CMLT 23301. Balkan Folklore. 100 Units.

This course is an overview of Balkan folklore from ethnographic, anthropological, historical/political, and performative perspectives. We become acquainted with folk tales, lyric and epic songs, music, and dance. The work of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, who developed their theory of oral composition through work among epic singers in the Balkans, help us understand folk tradition as a dynamic process. We also consider the function of different folklore genres in the imagining and maintenance of community and the socialization of the individual. We also experience this living tradition first hand through our visit to the classes and rehearsals of the Chicago-based ensemble “Balkanske igre.”

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 33301,NEHC 20568,SOSL 26800

CMLT 23401. The Burden of History: A Nation and Its Lost Paradise. 100 Units.

This course begins by defining the nation both historically and conceptually, with attention to Romantic nationalism and its flourishing in Southeastern Europe. We then look at the narrative of original wholeness, loss, and redemption through which Balkan countries retell their Ottoman past. With the help of Freud's analysis of masochistic desire and Žižek's theory of the subject as constituted by trauma, we contemplate the national fixation on the trauma of loss and the dynamic between victimhood and sublimity. The figure of the Janissary highlights the significance of the other in the definition of the self. Some possible texts are Petar Njegoš's Mountain Wreath; Ismail Kadare's The Castle; and Anton Donchev's Time of Parting.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 33401,NEHC 20573,NEHC 30573,SOSL 27300,SOSL 37300

CMLT 23500. Gender and Literature in South Asia. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): SALC 23002,GNDR 23001,GNDR 33001,SALC 33002

CMLT 23502. Bakhtin and Lotman: From Polyphony to Semiosphere. 100 Units.

This seminar will focus on major works by the Russian philosopher, philologist and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), including his early philosophical work Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity, his essays on Speech genres and the Bildungsroman, as well as his books Rabelais and His World and Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. We will also read contemporary scholarly studies devoted to Bakhtin and his circle (Clark&Holquist, Morson&Emerson, Tihanov etc.) In the last two weeks of the seminar we will turn to Yurii Lotman, examining his works on semiotics of culture as an original approach to literary theory and semiotics as well as a response to Bakhtin. The course is open to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. All texts are in English. Discussion and final papers are in English. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Instructor(s): Lina Steiner Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 33501,CMLT 33502

CMLT 23702. Making a Scene. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 25931,ENGL 42409,CMLT 33702

CMLT 24401. Beautiful Souls, Adventurers, and Rogues. The European 18th Century Novel. 100 Units.

The course will examine several major eighteenth-century novels, including Manon Lescaut by Prevost, Pamela and fragments from Clarissa by Richardson, Shamela and fragments from Joseph Andrews by Fielding, Jacques le Fataliste by Diderot, and The Sufferings of Young Werther by Goethe.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Not open to first-year undergraduates.
Note(s): Taught in English. A weekly session in French will be held for French majors and graduate students.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 35301,CMLT 34401,SCTH 38240,FREN 25301

CMLT 24408. Before and After Beckett: Theater and Theory. 100 Units.

Beckett is conventionally typed as the playwright of minimalist scenes of unremitting bleakness but his experiments with theatre and film echo the irreverent play of popular culture (vaudeville on stage and screen eg Chaplin and Keaton) as well as the artistic avant garde (Jarry). This course with juxtapose these early 20th century models with Beckett’s plays on stage and screen and those of his contemporaries (Ionesco, Genet, Duras). Contemporary texts include Vinaver, Minyana, in French, Pinter, Churchill, Kane in English. Theorists include Barthes, Badiou, Bert States, and others. ComLit students will have the opportunity to read French originals.

Instructor(s): L. Kruger Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: HUM and TAPS course; this course is for juniors and seniors only; not open to first-year College students
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24408,TAPS 28438

CMLT 24409. Modern Rewritings of the Gospel Narratives. 100 Units.

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the literary dimension of the gospels and on their artistic reception in modern culture. Starting from a presentation of narrative theory, it asks whether religious and secular narratives differ in structure, and illuminates narrative conventions of different media and genres. Both thematic aspects (what aspects of the gospels are selected for development in modern adaptations?) and features of presentation (how do different media and styles transform similar content?) will be considered. Principal works include Johann Sebastian Bach, The Passion According to St. Matthew (1720); Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus (1865); Nikos Kazantzákis, The Last Temptation of Christ (1955); Pasolini, The Gospel According to Matthew (1964); José Saramago, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991); Norman Mailer, The Gospel According to the Son (1997); and Monty Python, Life of Brian (1979). Secondary readings include Mieke Bal, Narratology, and Bultmann, History of the Synoptic Tradition.

Instructor(s): Olga Solovieva Terms Offered: Spring 2013
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 34409,GRMN 24413,GRMN 34413,RLST 28809,RLIT 34400

CMLT 24901. Cosmopolitanisms. 100 Units.

This course explores notions of cosmopolitanism in philosophy, historiography, and literature. Topics to be addressed include world literature, hospitality, hybridity, Silk Road history. Readings will draw from Hellenistic philosophy, the Alexander Romance, Kant, Yasushi, Arendt, Bhabha, Cheah.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24305,ENGL 34901

CMLT 24902. Mimesis. 100 Units.

This course introduces the concept of mimesis (imitation, representation), tracing it from Plato and Aristotle through some of its reformulations in recent literary, feminist, and critical theory. Topics include desire, postcolonialism, and non-Western aesthetic traditions. Readings may include Plato, Aristotle, Euripides’s Bacchae, Book of Songs, Lu Ji’s Rhapsody on Literature, Auerbach, Butler, Derrida, and Spivak.

Instructor(s): T. Chin Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): This course meets the critical/intellectual methods course requirement for students who are majoring in Comparative Literature.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24903,EALC 24902

CMLT 24903. Greece/China. 100 Units.

This class will explore three sets of paired authors from ancient China and Greece: Herodotus/Sima Qian; Plato/Confucius; Homer/Book of Songs. Topics will include genre, authorship, style, cultural identity, and translation, as well as the historical practice of Greece/China comparative work.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 37612,CLCV 27612,EALC 24901,EALC 34901

CMLT 25001. Foucault and The History of Sexuality. 100 Units.

This course centers on a close reading of the first volume of Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality, with some attention to his writings on the history of ancient conceptualizations of sex. How should a history of sexuality take into account scientific theories, social relations of power, and different experiences of the self? We discuss the contrasting descriptions and conceptions of sexual behavior before and after the emergence of a science of sexuality. Other writers influenced by and critical of Foucault are also discussed.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): One prior philosophy course is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 24800,FNDL 22001,GNSE 23100,HIPS 24300

CMLT 25004. Sea Fictions: Reading Transnationally. 100 Units.

This course will examine texts like Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and Melville’s Typee alongside Reinaldo Arenas’s Farewell to the Sea (Cuba), Agualusa’s Creole (Angola), and Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies amongst others as transnational representations of the sea and human relationships to it. We will ask how these stories of oceanic journeys and the transnational affinities they produce generate accounts of language and history, and we will think comparatively about how the dangers these texts associate with the sea –such as shipwreck, cannibalism, death and loss –figure alongside its potentials –as a means of mobility and freedom, as a site of friendship and understanding. Discussing these fictional texts alongside theoretical works by writers such as Paul Gilroy, Mikhail Bakhtin, Isabel Hofmeyr, Emily Apter, and Michel Foucault, we will try to determine what new theoretical concepts and affiliations emerge when we untether these fictions from their national literary traditions. Students will have the opportunity to read originals in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Instructor(s): Chandani Patel Terms Offered: Autumn 2012
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24311

CMLT 25005. Specificity/Interdisciplinarity: Myths of Orpheus. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): David Markus Terms Offered: Spring 2013

CMLT 25102. Problems Around Foucault. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21910,PHIL 31910,CMLT 35102,DVPR 35100,CHSS 31910,HIPS 21910

CMLT 26000. Medieval Vernacular Literature in the British Isles. 100 Units.

This course covers the Celtic tradition, Old and Middle English, Anglo-Norman French, and a late text from Scotland. Texts include: from Old English, Beowulf; from Irish, The Battle of Moytura and the Tain, and two of the immrana or voyages that concern Bran Son of Ferbal and Mael Duin; from Anglo-Norman French, The Lays of Marie de France; from Welsh, The Four Branches from the Mabinogion; from Middle English, selections from The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and from Scotland, Dunbar.

Instructor(s): M. Murrin Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): This course meets the critical/intellectual methods course requirement for students who are majoring in Comparative Literature.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 15801

CMLT 26400. Introduction to the Renaissance. 100 Units.

The Renaissance, which first and foremost flourished in Italy, founded our modern concept of the self. The way we see ourselves, the values we cherish, derive from the Renaissance. Modernity is a product of the Renaissance. This course emphasizes the importance of introspection in Renaissance culture, poetry, and philosophy. The books I have selected have a strong autobiographical element. However, they also illuminate how the Renaissance theorizes the relationship between the individual and society. We will read, in Italian, passages from major Italian texts in prose, such as Castiglione's Il cortigiano, Machiavelli's Discorsi, Campanella's Città del Sole, and poetry by Michelangelo, Monsignor della Casa, and numerous women poets, such as Veronica Franco, Vittoria Colonna, and Veronica Gambara.

Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 22200

CMLT 26500. Renaissance Romance. 100 Units.

Selections from a trio of texts will be studied: Ovid's Metamorphoses (as the recognized classical model), Boiardo's Orlando innamorato (which set the norms for Renaissance romance), and Spenser's Faerie Queene. A paper will be required and perhaps an oral examination.

Instructor(s): M. Murrin Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16302,CMLT 36500,ENGL 36302,RLIT 51200

CMLT 26600. Ren/Lit Imagination. 100 Units.

CMLT 26901. Orality, Literature, and Popular Culture of Afghanistan and Pakistan. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): C. R. Perkins Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 26910,CMLT 36901,HIST 26905,HIST 36905,NEHC 20901,NEHC 30901,SALC 36901

CMLT 27402. Contemporary Chinese Writers and the Literary Field. 100 Units.

Equivalent Course(s): EALC 28620,EALC 38620,CMLT 37402

CMLT 28601. Fiction, Ideals, and Norms. 100 Units.

This course will discuss the ways in which fiction imagines a multitude of individual cases meant to incite reflection on moral practices. The topics will include: the distance between the “I” and its life, the birth of moral responsibility, and the role of affection and gratitude. We will read philosophical texts by Elisabeth Anscombe, Charles Taylor, Robert Pippin, Hans Joas, Charles Larmore, and Candace Vogler, and literary texts by Shakespeare, Balzac, Theodor Fontane, Henry James, Carson McCullers, and Sandor Marai.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 28600,CMLT 38601,FREN 38600,SCTH 38211

CMLT 28610. The German Romantic Lied. 100 Units.

In the romantic genre of the German Lied, music and poetry meet with a precision, complexity and affective intensity unheard of since the times of medieval Minnesang. At the center of this undergraduate seminar is the relationship of Robert Schumann and Heinrich Heine and their cycle “Dichterliebe,” supplemented by Schumann’s rendering of other poets’ work (for example, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Joseph von Eichendorff). The larger context of Lied-making the class also seeks to explore is formed by pieces by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelsohn Bartholdy, and Johannes Brahms. Readings and discussions in German.

Instructor(s): F. Klinger Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 25013

CMLT 28900. Health Care and the Limits of State Action. 100 Units.

In a time of great human mobility and weakening state frontiers, epidemic disease is able to travel fast and far, mutate in response to treatment, and defy the institutions invented to keep it under control: quarantine, the cordon sanitaire, immunization, and the management of populations. Public health services in many countries find themselves at a loss in dealing with these outbreaks of disease, a deficiency to which NGOs emerge as a response (an imperfect one to be sure). Through a series of readings in anthropology, sociology, ethics, medicine, and political science, we will attempt to reach an understanding of this crisis of both epidemiological technique and state legitimacy, and to sketch out options.

Instructor(s): E. Lyon, H. Saussy Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing
Note(s): This course does not meet the requirements for the Biological Sciences major.
Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 29323,BPRO 28600,HMRT 28602

CMLT 29100. Renaissance Epic. 100 Units.

A study of classical epic in the Renaissance or Early Modern period. Emphasis will be both on texts and on classical epic theory. We will read Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Camões' Lusiads, and Milton's Paradise Lost. A paper will be required and perhaps an examination.

Instructor(s): M. Murrin Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16300

CMLT 29700. Reading Course. 100 Units.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for a quality grade. This course does not satisfy distribution requirements for students who are majoring in CMLT unless an exception is made by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

CMLT 29701. Introduction to Comparative Literature: Problems, Methods, Precedents. 100 Units.

CMLT 29801. BA Project and Workshop: Comparative Literature. 100 Units.

This workshop begins in Autumn Quarter and continues through the middle of Spring Quarter. While the BA workshop meets in all three quarters, it counts as a one-quarter course credit. Students may register for the course in any of the three quarters of their fourth year. A grade for the course is assigned in the Spring Quarter, based partly on participation in the workshop and partly on the quality of the BA paper. Attendance at each class section required.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): Required of fourth-year students who are majoring in CMLT.

CMLT 30202. Mimesis. 100 Units.

This course will examine one of the central concepts of comparative literature: mimesis (imitation). We will investigate traditional theoretical and historical debates concerning literary and visual mimesis as well as more recent discussions of its relation to non-western and colonial contexts. Readings will include Aristotle, Auerbach, Butler, Spivak, and Taussig. Students are encouraged to write final papers on their own research topics while engaging with issues discussed through the course.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 39200,EALC 30100

CMLT 30500. History and Theory of Drama I. 100 Units.

CMLT 30600. History and Theory of Drama II. 100 Units.

CMLT 31101. Roman Elegy. 100 Units.

This course examines the development of the Latin elegy from Catullus to Ovid. Our major themes are the use of motifs and topics and their relationship to the problem of poetic persona.

Terms Offered: Not offered 2012-13; will be offered 2013-14.
Equivalent Course(s): LATN 21100,CMLT 21101,LATN 31100

CMLT 31851. Zhuangzi: Lit, Phil, or Something Else. 100 Units.

The early Chinese book attributed to Master Zhuang seems to be a patchwork of fables, polemical discussions, arguments, examples, riddles, and lyrical utterances. Although it has been central to the development of both religious Daoism and Buddhism, the book is alien to both traditions. This course offers a careful reading of the work with some of its early commentaries. Requirement: classical Chinese.

Instructor(s): H. Saussy
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 31851

CMLT 32201. Magic Realist and Fantastic Writings from the Balkans. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 27400,CMLT 22201,SOSL 37400

CMLT 32301. War and Peace. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): W. Nickell Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 22302,CMLT 22301,ENGL 28912,ENGL 32302,FNDL 27103,HIST 23704,RUSS 32302

CMLT 32400. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.

This course introduces what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.

CMLT 32500. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.

CMLT 32501. Vico's New Science. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): R. Rubini Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 32900,FNDL 21408,CMLT 22501,ITAL 22900

CMLT 33301. Balkan Folklore. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 26800,CMLT 23301,NEHC 20568,NEHC 30568,SOSL 36800

CMLT 33401. The Burden of History: A Nation and Its Lost Paradise. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 27300,CMLT 23401,NEHC 20573,NEHC 30573,SOSL 37300

CMLT 33502. Bakhtin and Lotman: From Polyphony to Semiosphere. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Lina Steiner Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 33501,CMLT 23502

CMLT 34401. Beautiful Souls, Adventurers, and Rogues. The European 18th Century Novel. 100 Units.

CMLT 34409. Modern Rewritings of the Gospel Narratives. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Olga Solovieva Terms Offered: Spring 2013
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 24413,GRMN 34413,RLST 28809,RLIT 34400,CMLT 24409

CMLT 34903. Greece/China. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Spring 2012

CMLT 35902. Virgil, The Aeneid. 100 Units.

A close literary analysis of one of the most celebrated works of European literature. While the text, in its many dimensions, will offer more than adequate material for classroom analysis and discussion, attention will also be directed to the extraordinary reception of this epic, from Virgil's times to ours.

Instructor(s): Glenn Most Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Prerequisite(s): Latin helpful
Equivalent Course(s): CLAS 44512,ENGL 35902,SCTH 35902

CMLT 35903. Sohocles, Oedipus at Colonus. 100 Units.

A close literary and philological analysis of one of the most extraordinary of all Greek tragedies. While this play, in its many dimensions, will offer more than adequate material for classroom analysis and discussion, some attention will also be directed to its reception.

Instructor(s): Glenn Most Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Prerequisite(s): Greek or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): GREK 40112,SCTH 35901

CMLT 36500. Renaissance Romance. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): M. Murrin Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 16302,CMLT 26500,ENGL 36302,RLIT 51200

CMLT 36901. Orality, Literature, and Popular Culture of Afghanistan and Pakistan. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): C. R. Perkins Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 26910,CMLT 26901,HIST 26905,HIST 36905,NEHC 20901,NEHC 30901,SALC 36901

CMLT 38601. Fiction, Ideals, and Norms. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 28600,CMLT 28601,FREN 38600,SCTH 38211

CMLT 39601. Historiography, Literature, Archaeology. 100 Units.

This course examines the relation between historicity and the literary, using Sima Qian’s Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) as the primary example. The Shiji is arguably the most influential Chinese work of historiography, and we will also explore its interdisciplinary and international afterlife. Particular attention will be paid to notions of the immaterial (the unreal, the fictional, the spiritual, the theoretical), the exotic (the non-Chinese, the foreign), and the universal, in traditional Chinese historiography and poetics, in modern archaeology, and in critical theory. Students without classical Chinese reading knowledge are welcome to join and to write their final papers on comparative topics.

Instructor(s): Tamara Chin Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 37460

CMLT 42418. Theory of the Novel. 100 Units.

This course introduces undergraduates to some of the fundamental conceptual issues raised by novels: how are novels formally unified (if they are)? What are the ideological presuppositions inherent in a novelistic view? What ethical practices do novels encourage? What makes a character in a novel distinct from character in other fictive systems? Readings include Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Dickens, Great Expectations; Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway. Critics covered include Lukacs, Bakhtin, Watt, Jameson, McKeon, D.A. Miller, Woloch, Moretti, and others.�

Instructor(s): Lawrence Rothfield Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 42418

CMLT 43002. The Face on Film. 100 Units.

The seminar will discuss on the workings of the face –as imprint of identity, as figure of subjectivity, as privileged object of representation, as mode and ethic of address – through film theory and practice. How has cinema responded to the mythic and iconic charge of the face, to the portrait’s exploration of model and likeness, identity and identification, the revelatory and masking play of expression, the symbolic and social registers informing the human countenance. At this intersection of archaic desires and contemporary anxieties, the face will serve as our medium by which to reconsider, in the cinematic arena, some of the oldest questions on the image. Among the filmmakers and writers who will inform our discussion are Balázs, Epstein, Kuleshov, Dreyer, Pasolini, Hitchcock, Warhol, Bresson, Bazin, Barthes, Doane, Aumont, Nancy, Didi-Huberman, and others.

Instructor(s): Noa Steimatsky Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 43002,CMST 63002

CMLT 46902. South Asia From the Peripheries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Transnational. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): C.R. Perkins Terms Offered: Autumn 2012
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 46902,HIST 46601,SALC 46902

CMLT 50103. Narratology: Classical Models and New Directions. 100 Units.

This seminar is an introduction to the formal study of narrative. Its purpose is to provide graduate students with a set of conceptual instruments that will be useful to them in a broad range of research contexts. Topics to be considered: 1) the structure of the narrative text; 2) the logic of story construction; 3) questions of perspective and voice; 4) character and identification; 5) narrative genres. After a brief consideration of Aristotle’s Poetics, we will move on to fundamental contributions by (among others) Propp, Lévi-Strauss, Barthes, Greimas, Genette, Eco, Lotman, Marin, Ricoeur, and then finish with recent work in analytic philosophy and cognitive science. Readings in theoretical/analytical texts will be combined with practical exercises.�

Instructor(s): David Wellbery Terms Offered: Autumn 2012
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 40212

CMLT 50202. Seminar: Historicism and the Comparative Method. 100 Units.

This seminar will explore historicism as a theoretical problem in the study of literature. Our particular foci will be the development of historicism as a distinctly modern hermeneutic mode from the 18th c. to the 20th c.; its relation to organicism, aestheticism, and evolutionism; the rise of comparative literature alongside other "comparative disciplines" on a historicist-empiricist basis in the second half of the 19th century; literary methodologies that profess a version of historicism (Historical Poetics, (Neo)-Marxism, New Historicism). Critics discussed will include Johann von Herder, Alexander Veselovsky, Georg Lukács, Mikhail Bakhtin, Erich Auerbach, Leo Spitzer, Fredric Jameson, Reinhart Koselleck, and Carlo Ginzburg.

Instructor(s): Boris Maslov Terms Offered: Winter 2013
Equivalent Course(s): SLAV 50202,GRMN 40213

CMLT 50511. Models of Philosophy/Religion as a Way of Life. Units.

In the first part of this course, we will examine Stoicism as a way of life through a reading of Pierre Hadot’s commentary (in French) on Epictetus’ Manual, supplemented by other writings of Hadot. The second part of the course will be devoted to the topic of Judaism as a way of life, focusing on the writings of Joseph Soloveitchik. The third part of the course will consider a number of historically and theoretically heterogeneous essays that take up different aspects of our theme. Depending on the interests of the seminar participants, texts for this part of the course may include the writings of Francis of Assisi, essays by Michel Foucault, Hilary Putnam, and Wittgenstein’s “Lectures on Religious Belief”. (I)

Instructor(s): A. Davidson Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge of French required. Limited enrollment; Students interested in taking for credit should attend 1st seminar before registering. Consent only.
Equivalent Course(s): DVPR 50211,FREN 40212,HIJD 50211,PHIL 50211

CMLT 51500. Race, Media and Visual Culture. 100 Units.

For course description contact CDIN Center for Disciplinary Innovation.

Equivalent Course(s): CDIN 51300,ARTH 49309,ARTV 55500,CMST 51300,ENGL 51300