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CO120: Literature, Power, and Identities:

An examination of literature as a venue of explorations of power and identities, particularly of how identities are constructed as well as of how literary texts (re)present and can work to deconstruct identities. Emphasis on close reading of texts as well as on critical analysis and writing. 1 unit.

Block 2: Digitalia from the Margins: Reading the World Computer

This course investigates how digital culture, computational infrastructure, and aesthetics are imagined, contested, and re-coded from the margins of global power. We will think of the Computer and the Internet as units of physical matter with a story to tell, from data centres to undersea optical fibre cable networks with substantial ecological implications. We will examine literature, film, essays, and online media that engage critically with the so-called “World Computer”: a term that captures the techno-utopian dream of a seamless, global digital order powered by platforms, algorithms, and data. AIM, EPG

An examination of the literature as a venue for understanding the rich diversity of global humanity and perspectives, with special attention to how "place" informs literary settings as well as sites of composition and sites of consumption. Emphasis on close reading of texts as well as on critical analysis and writing. 1 unit.

Block 5: The Other Europe: Contemporary Eastern European Fiction

Henry James remarked, “It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.” Accordingly, this course will examine 20^th- and 21^st-century Eastern European fiction and explore how literature not only reflects and comments on historical developments but also enacts them, focusing on representations of identity, memory, war, and exile. Also. listed as RS200 AIM, HP

Scheiner

Are we entering a posthuman era? This course will focus on recent science fiction literature, along with a few films, that draw on current questions and concerns regarding what it means to be human. We will also examine key theoretical texts regarding technology and the posthuman. In the wake of the digital revolution we encounter both hopes that humans can achieve great things that would never before have seemed possible, along with fears that much of our understanding of what it means to be human is being eroded, even that “the human” may becoming superfluous. At the same time, humans are questioning the status of homo sapiens as the pinnacle of the living world, wondering if we are really such a special category of living organisms. Literary science fiction is a form of cultural representation in which many of these questions and ideas of the status of the human find expression. Representative science fiction authors include: H.P. Lovecraft, Ted Chiang, Jeff Vandermeer, Kathe Koja, Michael Marrak, China Miéville, Neil Gaiman. Representative theorists include: Timothy Morton, Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles. Also listed as GR220 AIM, SHB

Davis

Block 8: The "Genius in the Garage" Syndrome: Thinking Aspirationality and Digital     Literacies

An examination of the intersections between literary texts and other forms of media and textuality, in an international context. Emphasis on close reading of texts as well as on critical analysis and writing. 1 unit.

Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, works of metafiction do not follow the advice to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Nor do they allow readers to do so either. Instead, works of metafiction pull back the curtain and call attention to themselves as fictional constructs. They do not let readers forget they are reading texts that have been written and are being read. In doing so, works of metafiction call into question the boundaries between fiction and reality. Although the term “metafiction,” which William Gass coined in 1970, is used most often to refer to postmodern works in the Western tradition written in the 1960s and 1970s, works of metafiction date back to antiquity and can be found across the globe. Accordingly, this course examines contemporary works of metafiction from East Africa, China, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, as well as their precursors. Emphasis on close reading of literary texts as well as on critical analysis and writing. AIM

Scheiner

Consideration of literature in a comparative context. Comparisons may take place across languages, cultures, periods, genres, or disciplines. (May be taught as a January half-block.) .5 or 1 unit.

Block 1: Homer

The Iliad and Odyssey as oral traditional poems, preservers of Bronze Age and archaic lore, locus of the creation of classical Greek culture and predecessors of European epic; together with Hesiodic epic and Homeric hymns. Reading in English with attention to the formal Greek diction and the problems of translation, except that students who know Greek will read parts of the original text. Also listed as CL218 AIM, HP

Cramer

Block 3: Chekhov to Joyce: Invention of the Modern Short Story

Anton Chekhov defined the genre of the modern short story--minimal exposition, rejection of dogmatism, meticulous economy of detail, plot integrated with characterization, and open endings. Class time will be devoted to close readings of Chekhov's stories, as well as viewings of Russian film adaptations of his works. We will also learn about Chekhov's life in the context of the then current cultural and ideological trends. Also listed as EN280/RS200

Pavlenko

Block 7: Discovering the Unconscious

Major psychoanalytic perspectives of the late 19th and 20th centuries on the concept of the unconscious in theory, case studies, and fiction. Emphasis on unconscious processes as they relate to the formation of identity. Readings from such authors as Freud, Jung, Klein, Winnicott, Kohut, and Yalom. Also listed as PH262

Dobson

Block 6: Borders, Migration, & Citizenship in the Contemporary World

Over the last decade, Europe, and Germany in particular, have received an unprecedented number of refugees. This course looks at recent and historical conditions of movement and displacement, from European colonialism, Nazi Germany, postwar labor migration, and European integration to the fall of the Berlin Wall, current EU policies, the rise of the far right, and larger global debates. Through the lens of social justice and using literature and film as the main frameworks for analysis, students will investigate the long-term social and cultural impacts of these developments and explore larger questions of identity, inclusion, exclusion, borders, migration, and citizenship.

Steckenbiller

Block 6: Exploring Cajun and Creole Cultures in the US

This course, taught in English, explores the historical presence and significance of Cajun and Creole cultures in North America, in the US particularly. The course also studies the social and cultural significance of processes of Creolization of French, as well as French as a heritage language in the US. This investigation is carried through the reading and critical study of works by U.S. authors of Black, Cajun, and Creole origins as well as critical study of filmic representations of histories and cultures of Creoles, and Cajuns in Louisiana. Particularly, Ann Rice’s popular television series, Feast of All Saints, amongst others, will be studied. The course’s critical exploration of Cajun and Creole and heterogenous southern cultures culminates with a 4 to 5-day guided visits (field trip) in the historical city of New Orleans and vicinity in Louisiana. Also listed as FR317

Wade

Block 6: Shakespeare's Political Wisdom

This course will explore Shakespeare’s dramas as political philosophy. In his plays, Shakespeare often immerses the audience in richly detailed political situations that give rise to profound political and moral dilemmas which human beings continue to confront to this day. The class will pursue the moral and political education that thoughtful and prudent political men and women had for generations found in so many of Shakespeare’s dramas.

Grace

An introduction to philosophy through works of science fiction. Many profound questions about the nature of reality and the nature of humanity have been raised in sci fi and discussed in philosophical essays. Students in this course will consider a wide range of important philosophical questions with the help of mutually illuminating works of philosophy and science fiction. Also listed as PH142

Daly

Introduction to the major twentieth-century theories of literature, including such approaches as formalism and structuralism, hermeneutics, reception theory, feminist theory, psychoanalytic approaches, post-structuralism and new historicism. Study of important theoretical texts as well as literary works from a variety of language traditions, exploring the ways in which theory informs possibilities of interpretation. Also listed as EN250

What is Comparative Literature? What is world Literature? Examination of the history, methods, conceptual frameworks, canonical thinkers, critics, current issues, and debates in these interrelated fields and how they shape our reading of literature. Emphasis on close ready of both theoretical and literary texts, critical analysis, and writing in a comparative context. AIM, EPG

Davis

Consideration of literature in a comparative context. Comparisons may take place across languages, cultures, periods, genres, or disciplines. No prerequisite. (May be taught as a January half-block) .5 or 1 unit.

Block 3: Chicanx/Latinx Literature

This course examines Chicanx/Latinx literature, including fiction, poetry, and critical essays through a comparative, regional, and interdisciplinary approach. Through our study of Chicanx/Latinx literature, we will underscore the relationship between place and identity for Chicanx/Latinx peoples of the Southwest, West, and Midwest; and we will consider how written texts reflect social, political, and historical contexts. We will read literature that crosses a wide temporal sequence to discuss how Chicanx/Latinx authors have, and continue to address, issues of colonialism, race, class, gender, and sexuality. Throughout the course, we will also examine how the increasing U.S. presence of Chicanx/Latinx peoples is radically reshaping the American literary canon. Also listed as SW337.

Roybal

Block 5: Global Chaucer: Telling Tales

The Qur'an in its historical and literary context. Students engage the text in translation but develop a technical vocabulary in transliterated Qur'anic Arabic; those who have prior experience with Arabic language are encouraged to develop their skills with the printed text of the Arabic Qur'an. Also listed as RE346. AIM

Wright

Block 7: Doctor Faustus

Thomas Mann’s 1947 novel, Doctor Faustus (originally published in German as, Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde), follows the life of fictional composer Adrian Leverkühn against the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. The rich interplay between different timelines and topics—the narrator’s perspective from within the Third Reich, Leverkühn’s descent into madness, and the Faust legend itself—invite a myriad of interpretations and interdisciplinary approaches. Through the lens of Doctor Faustus, this class will explore the socio-political, literary, and musical history of the German speaking lands during the 19th-20th centuries. Our study of the novel will also give students a broad overview of the history of Western European art music, particularly regarding changing aesthetic values, the ever-evolving role of the composer, and the concept of “genius”. Also listed as MU398

Chang

Block 8: Margaret Atwood

An examination of poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and environmental activist Margaret Atwood’s fiction. Particular emphasis on the wide range of genres Atwood employs and how she engages in what she terms “genre-bending,” that is, how she exploits and transgresses the expectations and conventions of specific genres such as autobiographical fiction, historiographic metafiction, and speculative fiction. Additional focus on Atwood’s use of intertextuality, especially how, as Kristeva would describe it, she “absorbs and transforms” fairy tales and myths. Also listed as EN381. AIM, EPG

Scheiner

Thesis subject chosen by student and approved by Comparative Literature Program Director. Choice of subject, research, outline and writing completed in this course. Prerequisite: CO255 and CO430, required for majors. 1 unit.