Contacts | Program Requirements | Summary of Requirements | Grading | Honors | Advising | Courses
Department 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 complit.uchicago.edu/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, except for CMLT 29801 BA Project and Workshop: Comparative Literature, must be taken for a quality grade, which must be a B- or higher. CMLT 29801 is graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
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. (D)
Instructor(s): D. Bevington 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. (D)
Instructor(s): D. Bevington 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: Will be offered 2016-17
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 22301. War and Peace. 100 Units.
A close reading of Tolstoy's great novel, with attention to theoretical approaches to be found in the large critical apparatus devoted to the novel.
Instructor(s): W. Nickell Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 22302,CMLT 32301,ENGL 28912,ENGL 32302,FNDL 27103,HIST 23704,RUSS 32302
CMLT 22400-22500. History of International Cinema I-II.
This sequence is required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Taking these courses in sequence is strongly recommended but not required.
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): T. Gunning Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. 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): T. Gunning 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 23201-23401. Returning the Gaze: The Balkans and Western Europe; The Burden of History: A Nation and Its Lost Paradise.
The Other Within the Self: Identity in Balkan Literature and Film. This two-course sequence examines discursive practices in a number of literary and cinematic works from the South East corner of Europe through which identities in the region become defined by two distinct others: the “barbaric, demonic” Ottoman and the “civilized” Western European.
CMLT 23201. Returning the Gaze: The Balkans and Western Europe. 100 Units.
This course investigates the complex relationship between South East European self-representations and the imagined Western "gaze" for whose benefit the nations stage their quest for identity and their aspirations for recognition. We also think about differing models of masculinity, the figure of the gypsy as a metaphor for the national self in relation to the West, and the myths Balkans tell about themselves. We conclude by considering the role that the imperative to belong to Western Europe played in the Yugoslav wars of succession. Some possible texts/films are Ivo Andric, Bosnian Chronicle; Aleko Konstantinov, Baj Ganyo; Emir Kusturica, Underground; and Milcho Manchevski, Before the Rain.
Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 27200,CMLT 33201,NEHC 20885,NEHC 30885,SOSL 37200
CMLT 23401. The Burden of History: A Nation and Its Lost Paradise. 100 Units.
What makes it possible for the imagined communities called nations to command the emotional attachments that they do? This course considers some possible answers to Benedict Anderson’s question on the basis of material from the Balkans. We will examine the transformation of the scenario of paradise, loss, and redemption into a template for a national identity narrative through which South East European nations retell their Ottoman past. With the help of Žižek’s theory of the subject as constituted by trauma and Kant’s notion of the sublime, we will contemplate the national fixation on the trauma of loss and the dynamic between victimhood and sublimity.
Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 27300,CMLT 33401,HIST 24005,HIST 34005,NEHC 20573,NEHC 30573,SOSL 37300
CMLT 23702. Making a Scene. 100 Units.
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 25931,ENGL 42409,CMLT 33702
CMLT 23901. Gender in the Balkans through Literature and Film. 100 Units.
This introductory course examines the poetics of femininity and masculinity in some of the best works of the Balkan region. We contemplate how the experiences of masculinity and femininity are constituted and the issues of socialization related to these modes of being. Topics include the traditional family model, the challenges of modernization and urbanization, the socialist paradigm, and the post-socialist changes. Finally, we consider the relation between gender and nation, especially in the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia. All work in English.
Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
CMLT 24220. A Hero and A Fool: Don Quixote and Its Impact on Art and Literature. 100 Units.
The course will study the most popular novel of Early Modern times, its heroic origins, its comedy, and its humanist message. The adventures of Don Quixote on the dusty roads of La Mancha challenge the actual world in the name of a dream and mix the highest ideals with the humblest reality. We will see how Cervantes’s novel dialogues with the narratives of its period and later play a major role in English, French, Russian, and Spanish fiction. We will also examine and appreciate the silent omnipresence of Italian Renaissance art in this novel.
Instructor(s): F. de Armas and T. Pavel Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 24220,CMLT 34220,FNDL 22405,REMS 34220,RLLT 34220,SPAN 34220
CMLT 24250. Crowds in Fin de Siècle Modernism. 100 Units.
The increasing urbanization of late 19th and early 20th century Europe witnessed the advent of a comparatively novel social phenomenon and cultural trope: the crowd. Crowds have been represented as alienating, faceless monstrosities and as liberatingly anonymous environments of self-realization. They are figured as manipulable but also as bullying, as hotbeds of rumor, irrationality, madness, sedition, and communicable disease, but also as sites of transcendent super-personal experience, invention, historical progress, and the groundspring of political legitimacy. Crowds have a (statistical, sociological, psychological) life of their own which confronts and contrasts with the life of the individual. They confirm the flâneur in his ironic distance and insulated subjectivity even as the phenomenology of “merging with” or “melting into” the crowd challenges prevailing notions of individual identity and personal responsibility. This course will examine a variety of literary and visual representations of the crowded turn-of-the-century European metropolis in conjunction with contemporaneous psychological, sociological, and philosophical reflections on the significance of modern multitudes. Though our focal texts are historical, we will also consider modulations of these themes in our own social environment of viral videos, big data, cyberbullying, crowd-sourcing, and zombie movies. We will study works by Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Elias Canetti, Gustave Caillebotte, Sigmund Freud, Siegfried Kracauer, Fritz Lang, Édouard Manet, Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and Georg Simmel.
Instructor(s): Daniel Smyth Terms Offered: Spring 2014
Note(s): Current MAPH students and 3rd and 4th years in the College. All others by instructor consent only.
CMLT 24270. Poetry and Translation: Theory and Practice. 100 Units.
It is frequently said that poetry cannot be translated, or can only be translated with significant loss. Yet translations of poetry continue to appear, and the work of some poets even seems to thrive in translation. Can translation theory help us to account for this apparent paradox? This course will introduce students to classic and contemporary texts of translation theory in the West, with an eye to the relevance of these theories for the difficulties and promises of translating poetry. We will read theoretical texts by Jerome, Dryden, Herder, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Pound and others, and will test these theories against one another and against various English translations of excerpts taken from Dante's Inferno, as well as translations of individual poems from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal and Petits Poèmes en prose. Students will have the opportunity to produce their own translations as part of their required work for the course.
Instructor(s): V. Joshua Adams Terms Offered: Not offered in 2014-15
Prerequisite(s): Reading knowledge of one foreign language.
Note(s): Current MAPH students and 3rd and 4th years in the College. All others by instructor consent only.
Equivalent Course(s): MAPH 34310,CMLT 34271,ENGL 27807
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, e.g., Chaplin and Keaton) as well as the artistic avant garde (Jarry). This course will 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. Comparative Literature students will have the opportunity to read French originals. (D, G, H)
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 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. (A)
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 25009. Comparative Modernisms: China and India in the Modern Literary World. 100 Units.
This course takes a comparative approach to the literary term “modernism.” Instead of reading the term as originating in the West and subsequently travelling to the East, we will explore modernism as a plural and globally constituted literary practice. In doing so, we will also challenge the literary and real categories of “East” and “West.” Reading the roles and imaginations of China, North India, and the (differentiated) West in a variety of texts, we will question the aesthetics and politics of representation, of dynamic cultural exchange, and of the global individual in the modern literary world. Through novels, short stories, poetry, and theoretical orientations, we will conduct close readings and develop working definitions of cross-cultural comparative modernisms. Contributing to recent interest in China-India relationships, this course also aims to uncover new dialogues between Chinese and Indian writers during the modern period. Literary readings include E.M. Forster, Franz Kafka, Lu Xun, Yu Dafu, Premchand, Nirmal Verma, among others. We will also consider the theoretical works of Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and Georg Lukacs, and others. All readings will be in English.
Instructor(s): A. Mangalagiri Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 25009,SALC 27300
CMLT 25010. Comparative Migrations. 100 Units.
"Comparative Migrations" interrogates how literature and film takes up the issue of migration across the globe. How do these texts represent the experiences of dislocation, marginalization, and acculturation usually associated with migration across literary traditions? How do the ideas of home, longing, and belonging shift throughout these texts? How do distinct historical, social, cultural and political parameters impact both the writing and reading of these texts? Texts under consideration will include novels by Samuel Selvon, Calixthe Beyala, Milton Hatoum, and Junot Diaz and films by Gurinder Chadha, Pedro Costa, and Mathieu Kassovitz. Theorists include Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Édouard Glissant, Michel Foucault, and Miguel Vale de Almeida.
Instructor(s): C. Patel Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 25010
CMLT 25011. Beckett Beyond the 'Absurd' 100 Units.
As an author who dislikes being pigeonholed, Samuel Beckett nonetheless gets labeled as an Absurdist, even the father of the Theater of the Absurd. It is not as if this label is entirely unmerited, but his philosophical interests reach beyond the species of existentialism that was fashionable at the moment of his literary debut. This course will look at theatrical and prose texts spanning Beckett’s career, in conjunction with a variety of philosophical texts from the Cartesian, continental, and analytic traditions, to see how Beckett re-appropriates and transforms philosophical problems and themes within a literary context. Specifically we will look at how Beckett reorients the relations between philosophical skepticism, the philosophy of language, and the problem of meaning.
Instructor(s): B. Berry Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 24409
CMLT 25102. Problems Around Foucault. 100 Units.
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 21910,PHIL 31910,CMLT 35102,DVPR 35100,CHSS 31910,HIPS 21910
CMLT 26014. Seriously Funny: Comedy, Critique, and Transformation. 100 Units.
“True earnestness itself invents the comic,” according to Søren Kierkegaard. Exploring philosophies of the comic, as well as filmic and literary material, this seminar seeks to investigate what may be called the serious core of comedy. First, some fundamental theories of comedy, humor, and laughter will be introduced. These range from perspectives of supremacy, relief, shallowness, or negligibility (especially when compared to the tragic), the mechanic, the lowly/corporeal, to theories of incongruity. We will then focus on the critical, transformative, and political potentials of the comic/comedy: ways in which comedy copes with chance and contingencies; with strategies of resistance and inversion in face of disproportionately more powerful opponents; the comic as a mode of inclusion and exclusion; comedy and its relation to freedom and to the sublime; comedy as a means to exceed, undermine, and open up boundaries; the comic as an attempt to get to grips with situations and events we cannot (fully) master. We will also discuss limits and complications of any such critical potential. Readings may include texts by S. Freud, I. Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, F. Th. Vischer, Jean Paul, Søren Kierkegaard, Mikhail Bakhtin, Henri Bergson, Judith Butler, Alenka Zupančič, and others; films include works by Ernst Lubitsch and Woody Allen.
Instructor(s): B. Loschenkohl Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Some reading knowledge of German is desirable, but not a course requirement.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 26014
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 26600. Ren/Lit Imagination. 100 Units.
CMLT 26610. Kinds of Narratives: the Novella. 100 Units.
The course will discuss the place of the novella among nineteenth-century prose narratives. We will read works by Balzac, Gogol, Stifter, Mérimée, Melville, Fontane, Chekhov, and Henry James.
Instructor(s): T. Pavel Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English. For French majors and graduates there will be a weekly one-hour meeting to study the original French texts.
CMLT 26700. Renaissance and Baroque Fairytales and Their Modern Rewritings. 100 Units.
We study the distinctions between myth and fairy tale, and then focus on collections of modern Western European fairy tales, including those by Straparola, Basile, and Perrault, in light of their contemporary rewritings of classics (Angela Carter, Calvino, Anne Sexton). We analyze this genre from diverse critical standpoints (e.g., historical, structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist) through the works of Croce, Propp, Bettelheim, and Marie-Louise Von Franz.
Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Class conducted in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 36200,CMLT 36700,ITAL 26200
CMLT 26701. Marsilio Ficino's "On Love" 100 Units.
This course is first of all a close reading of Marsilio Ficino’s seminal book On Love (first Latin edition De amore 1484; Ficino’s own Italian translation 1544). Ficino’s philosophical masterpiece is the foundation of the Renaissance view of love from a Neo-Platonic perspective. It is impossible to overemphasize its influence on European culture. On Love is not just a radically new interpretation of Plato’s Symposium. It is the book through which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe read the love experience. Our course will analyze its multiple classical sources and its spiritual connotations. During our close reading of Ficino’s text, we will show how European writers and philosophers appropriated specific parts of this Renaissance masterpiece. In particular, we will read extensive excerpts from some important love treatises, such as Castiglione’s The Courtier (Il cortigiano), Leone Ebreo’s Dialogues on Love, Tullia d’Aragona’s On the Infinity of Love, but also selections from a variety of European poets, such as Michelangelo’s canzoniere, Maurice Scève’s Délie, and Fray Luis de León’s Poesía.
Instructor(s): A. Maggi Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Course taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 33900,CMLT 36701,FNDL 21103,ITAL 23900
CMLT 27014. Voices from the Iron House: Lu Xun’s Works. 100 Units.
An exploration of the writings of Lu Xun (1881–1936), widely considered the greatest Chinese writer of the past century. We will read short stories, essays, prose poetry, and personal letters against the backdrop of the political and cultural upheavals of early 20th century China and in dialogue with important English-language scholarly works.
Instructor(s): P. Iovene Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 27014,CMLT 37014,EALC 37014,FNDL 21907
CMLT 27114. Faust, Myth of the Modern World. 100 Units.
In this course, we will consider three renderings of the Faust myth: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Part One, Heinrich Heine’s “dance poem” Faust, and Friedrich Murnau’s expressionist film Faust. In addition to these core readings/viewings, we will study the origins of the Faust myth in sixteenth-century Germany and survey its many transformations across art, literature, and music. This course is an excellent introduction to the history of German literature and culture.
Instructor(s): David Wellbery Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): All readings and class discussions will be in German.
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 27114
CMLT 27402. Contemporary Chinese Writers and the Literary Field. 100 Units.
Equivalent Course(s): EALC 28620,EALC 38620,CMLT 37402
CMLT 27701. Imaginary Worlds: The Fantastic and Magic Realism in Russia and Southeastern Europe. 100 Units.
In this course, we ask what constitutes the fantastic and magic realism as literary genres while reading some of the most interesting writings to have come out of Russia and Southeastern Europe. We consider how these narrative modes conjure alternative realities and how they conceptualize the human self. We also think about the political power of these alternative realities in their historical contexts: from subversive to escapist, from giving voice to the disempowered to supportive of nationalist imaginaries.
Instructor(s): A. Ilieva Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SOSL 37700,CMLT 37701,RUSS 27300,RUSS 37300,SOSL 27700
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 Mendelssohn 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: Winter. Not offered in 2014-2015; will be offered in 2015-16.
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing. This course does not meet requirements for the biological sciences major.
Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 29323,BPRO 28600,HMRT 28602
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 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.