Comparative Literature

Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature: Françoise Meltzer, HME 688, 702-8474
Department Secretary: Elizabeth Bigongiari, Wb 205A, 702-8486

Although the Department of Comparative Literature does not offer a concentration program leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree, a number of comparative studies courses are open to properly qualified College students. Normally, the prerequisite for these courses is the ability to read literary texts in at least one foreign language. More specific and/or extensive prerequisites may apply for some courses. College students wishing to pursue interdisciplinary literary studies should also consult the offerings of the Committee on General Studies in the Humanities. For courses, please consult the quarterly Time Schedules.

College students who wish to prepare themselves for graduate work in comparative literature should acquire strong preparation in at least one foreign language and some knowledge of at least one other foreign language. A concentration in a national literature (English, French, German, and so forth) and a minor field in another national literature are often required. For information about specific requirements for graduate work in comparative literature, interested students should consult with a member of the faculty.

Faculty

DAVID BEVINGTON, Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the Humanities and Departments of Comparative Literature and English Language & Literature, and the College

SANDER GILMAN, Henry R. Luce Professor of Liberal Arts and Human Biology; Professor, Departments of Germanic Studies, Psychiatry, Committee on Jewish Studies, and Comparative Literature and the College

W. R. JOHNSON, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Classical Languages & Literatures, Department of Comparative Literature, Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and the College

LOREN KRUGER, Associate Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature

SAREE MAKDISI, Assistant Professor, Departments of Comparative Literature and English Language & Literature and the College

FRANÇOISE MELTZER, Professor, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, the Divinity School, and the College; Chair, Department of Comparative Literature

MICHAEL J. MURRIN, Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature, the Divinity School, and the College

KENNETH J. NORTHCOTT, Professor Emeritus, Departments of Comparative Literature and Germanic Studies, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

LAWRENCE ROTHFIELD, Associate Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature and the College

JOSHUA SCODEL, Associate Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

FRANTISEK SVEJKOVSKY, Professor Emeritus, Departments of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages & Literatures, and Committee on Analysis of Ideas & Study of Methods

KATIE TRUMPENER, Associate Professor, Departments of Germanic Studies, Comparative Literature, and English Language & Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

YURI TSIVIAN, Professor , Departments of Art History, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Comparative Literature, Cinema & Media Studies, and the College

ROBERT VON HALLBERG, Professor, Departments of Germanic Studies, English Language & Literature, and Comparative Literature, and the College

EDWARD WASIOLEK, Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Departments of Comparative Literature, English Language & Literature, and Slavic Languages & Literatures, and the College

ANTHONY C. YU, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities and the Divinity School, Departments of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Civilizations, and English Language & Literature, and Committee on Social Thought

Courses

305. History and Theory of Drama I (=ClCiv 212/312, ComLit 305, Eng 138/310, GS Hum 242/342). PQ: May be taken in sequence with Eng 139/311 or individually. This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in western drama from the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, medieval religious drama, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson, along with some consideration of dramatic theory by Aristotle, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, and Dryden. The course features optional but highly recommended end-of-week workshops in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed. The goal 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. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with some other members of the class. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Autumn.

306. History and Theory of Drama II (=ComLit 306, Eng 139/311, GS Hum 243/343). PQ: May be taken in sequence with Eng 138/310 or individually. This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in western drama from the late seventeenth century into the twentieth: Molière, Goldsmith, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Wilde, Shaw, Brecht, Beckett, and Stoppard. Attention is also paid to theorists of the drama, including Stanislavsky, Artaud, and Grotowski. Like the autumn-quarter course, the winter-quarter course features optional but highly recommended end-of-week workshops in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed. The goal 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. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with some other members of the class. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Winter.

312. Multikulturelle Literatur im heutigen Deutschland (=ComLit 312, German 268/368, JewStd 268/368). PQ: Advanced knowledge of German. The class examines the literary and cinematic cultures of the "New" Federal German State in the light of their representation of "minorities" and the response by those groups. We focus on the "old" minorities (such as the Jews) who take on new meaning in present-day Germany, as well as on the voices of the "new" minorities (such as the African-Germans, Arab-Germans, and Turkish-Germans). We examine the rethinking of the category of "multiculturalism" in Germany after 1989. Texts and films in German. S. Gilman. Spring.

344. Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory (=ComLit 344, HiPSS 296, MAPH 310). PQ: Advanced standing and consent of instructor. This is a general introduction to the main concepts of psychoanalysis through a close reading of the central works of Sigmund Freud. S. Gilman, F. Meltzer. Autumn.

358. Left-Wing Art and Soviet Film Culture of the 1920s (=ArtH 290/390, CMS 247, ComLit 358, GnSlav 267/367). The course considers Soviet "montage cinema" of the 1920s in the context of coeval aesthetic projects in other arts. How did Eisenstein's theory and practice of "intellectual cinema" connect to Fernand Leger and Vladimir Tatlin? What did Meyerhold's "biomechanics" mean for filmmakers? Among other figures and issues, we address Dziga Vertov and Constructivism, German Expressionism and Aleksandr Dovzhenko, and Formalist poetics and FEKS directors. Film screenings are six hours a week in addition to scheduled class time. Y. Tsivian. Winter.

375. Fat Boys: Introduction to Literature and Medicine (=ComLit 375, HistC 375, MAPH 312). PQ: Consent of instructor. Recently the standard format for the study of gender and obesity has been to stress the meaning of fat in constructing the modern female body. In this course we look at how culture since Rabelais's Gargantua and Shakespeare's Falstaff has imagined the fat male body. We examine literary sources (from high to popular culture), as well as the medical literature on obesity and masculinity in the Western tradition from antiquity to the present. S. Gilman. Winter.

409. Tragedy: Texts and Theories (=ComLit 409, DivRL 433, Eng 314). PQ: Consent of instructor. A. C. Yu. Autumn.

510-511. The Story of the Stone I, II (=ComLit 510-511, DivRL 562-563, RelHum 562-563). PQ: Consent of instructor. A. C. Yu. Autumn, Winter.