COMPLIT 10N:
Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context
Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 11Q:
Shakespeare, Playing, Gender
Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 11SC:
Worlds (No Longer) Apart
What (if anything) do supermall shoppers in the Philippines, a Filipino taxi driver in Paris, and television viewers in Nepal have to do with a legal case in Canada, two young Japanese on a pilgrimage to Graceland, and a South Asian lawyer/liquor store owner trying to reclaim his property in Uganda from where he lives, in Mississippi?n This course uses literary narratives, films, and historical research to examine new textures of contemporary life, where "borders" seem hard-pressed to contain culture. Texts include Pico Iyer, Video Night in Kathmandu, Mira Nair's film Mississippi Masala, and M.G. Vassanji, No New Land. New forms of identity have emerged that reflect the cultural changes that have accompanied such movements. Nevertheless, we will not idealize such phenomena either; we will want also to carefully observe the binding power of nations. The result will be a finer-tuned sense of "globalization" and the "local" and the "global." n The course emphasizes creative thinking and discussion. Students are expected to do the reading and be well prepared for every session with not only questions, but tentative answers. Each student will participate in one group presentation as their final project.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 12SC:
Ghost Stories: Why the Dead Return and What They Want From Us
Ghost stories haunt our imagination. When the dead return they may scare us or warn us, they may pursue us with violence or burden us with sorrow. They shock us with the "boo" of surprise, just as they frustrate us by their elusiveness. Blood-chilling stories terrify us, but they also provide entertainment. The ghost story is one of the most enduring genres, from classical literature to popular film. Yet behind the door of the story lurk both anxiety and wisdom: anxiety about our own mortality and wisdom about the cultural place of the past, between memory and regret, mourning and forgetting. The undead point to what we have not accomplished, just as they direct us - since the ghost of Hamlet's father - toward deeds. In this seminar, we will explore some of these ghostly ambitions. During the summer, in preparation for the seminar, students will read selected stories and novels and post comments to the course website. When we convene in September, we will discuss the summer findings and proceed to examine a selection of novels that explore ghosts and hauntings. Texts will include Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Peter Straub's Ghost Story, and others. We will also spend some dark and stormy nights with ghost films and even follow the trail to some hauntings at Stanford and in the Bay Area. Students are expected to participate regularly in the CourseWork discussion forum and work in small groups with other course members to discuss and present readings.
Terms: Aut, Sum
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 31SI:
What is Neoconservatism? The Movement's History and Ideas
Its thinking from its communist roots, through the changes of the 60s, the rise of conservatism in the 80s, and the invasion of Iraq. Readings include Irving Kristol, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Daniel P. Moynihan, and David Brooks. Guest lecturers from supporters and critics.
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 36:
IDA Integrative Seminar: Occupy Art - Immigration, Nation, and the Art of Occupation (AFRICAAM 15A, AMSTUD 15A, CSRE 15A, ENGLISH 15A)
This course consists of film screenings, dialogues, and performances that engage critically with the theme of Occupation across contexts, exploring both the potential and limitations of the art of Occupation. Students will engage some of the most provocative artists, writers, and thinkers of our times to consider the purpose of the arts across diverse communities that engage Occupation in local, transnational and global perspective.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-4
COMPLIT 49:
What is Nobel Literature? Reading, Assessing, and Interpreting the Nobel Novels on the World Stage
Recent Nobel laureates in literature: Gabriel García Márquez, Nadine Gordimer, Toni Morrison, Kenzaburo Oe, and V.S. Naipaul. These writers come from different locations, yet each participates in a global conversation about the human condition. The impact of their identities upon their thought and writing. How the Nobel prize is awarded. The role of literature in the world, and analytical skills for reading literary texts.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 51N:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51N, CSRE 51N)
We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 101:
What is Literature?
How critics and authors from different eras and different parts of the globe have considered how literature, as a traditional cultural form, can or cannot, help to sustain societies faced with concrete historical crises such as war, revolution, and colonization. How the aesthetic work of verbal art has been seen to offer the possibility of continuity in the face of change. What, if anything, can be continued? How does art perhaps aid in accommodating change?
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 110:
Introduction to Queer Literary Studies (FEMST 110)
Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1890s to today: Wilde, Gide, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Radclyffe Hall, E.M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Georges Bataille, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters, Audre Lorde, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality (Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, Julia Serano, and others).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 110N:
Du Fu: The Case for Chinese Poetry
When one asks: what is a classic? one expects the title of a "big" novel as the response. This course argues the case for the classical Chinese poetry of the author who has the rightful claim of the greatest poet in Chinese history, Du Fu (712-770). We will look at how poetry focuses on the chemistry of language - the ways words can be put together just so to create specific catalytic "conversations" of meaning; the engineering of language - the ways specific structures build on and create certain distributions of energy and mass. We will learn to appreciate Du Fu's wit, compassion, learnedness and critical powers and to appreciate as well how poetry can illustrate the evocative and expressive power of language.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:IHUM-3
COMPLIT 115:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 215, SLAVGEN 156, SLAVGEN 256)
Nabakov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel The Gift, Lolita (the novel and screenplay), and Pale Fire. Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 118:
Women Poets of Iran: 1797-1967
This course traces the emergence of a female voice in Persian poetry and prose writing in the 19th and 20th centuries and, although focused on women¿s poetry, it will also explore the contribution of women to the wider Iranian literary scene during this period, one of the most turbulent of modern Iranian history. Starting at the dawn of the 19th century, this course will first examine the existing, indigenous tradition of women's poetry in Qajar Iran, in particular that of the Fath-`Ali Shah period (1797-1834). The focus of the course will then shift to the emergence of liberalist, modernist, and proto-feminist poets and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, moving to women poets¿ subsequent reconfiguration of (and ultimate break with) classical poetic forms. The course will culminate in an in-depth discussion of the iconoclastic and disruptive figures of Simin Behbahani (b.1927) and Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967), key figures in the development of Persian poetry in the late 20th century.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 120A:
On the Road: Cars and the Auto-Mobility of Race, Gender, Class, and Age in American Literature (AMSTUD 103)
The car in American literature, history, and culture, provides hope and makes it possible to relocate, transcend social status, and reinvent oneself. In this class we will examine how the car allows Americans to navigate identity in new ways. Readings include: Fitzgerald, Stein, Steinbeck, Escovedo-Colton, Nabokov, Barrett, Walker, Murray, Simpson, Wolfe, Kerouac, Davis, Freeman, Gilroy, Lucasi, Hamper, Moore, and Nass.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 121:
The Ghazal: The Origins, Evolution, and Migration of a World Poetic Genre
This course will explore the origins, evolution, and migration of one of the world's great poetic genres, the ghazal (short lyric poem, usually on love). Starting with a discussion of the origins of the genre in the late pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods in Arabic and Persian, the course will then move to an examination of the evolution of the genre in the early medieval Islamic period in those languages, and the subsequent emergence of the ghazal in the related literatures of Ottoman Turkish and Urdu. We will then consider European translations of selected Persian ghazals in the 18th and 19th centuries, the effect of these translations on contemporary European poetry, and the migration of the genre into English in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. The course will end with close reading of ghazals written in English by diasporic poets of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent writing in the US and the UK.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 122:
Literature as Performance
Theater as performance and as literature. The historical tension between performance and sexuality in the Western tradition since Greek antiquity. Non-European forms and conventions of performance and theatricality. The modern competition between theater and other forms of performance and media such as sports, film, and television. Sources include: classical Japanese theater; ancient Greek tragedy and comedy; medieval theater in interaction with Christian rituals and its countercultural horizons; the classical age of European theater including Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Molière.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 123:
Novels about China: Tradition and Modernity
Short novels by Chinese and Western writers about Chinese experience and culture in the interconnected and conflicted world between East and West. Topics include the persistence of tradition and premodern lifestyle and morality in modern changes, reform and revolution. We will also discuss the individual, society and gender issues and take a global, comparative approach to texts.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 128:
Survivors: Stories of Staying Alive
From deserted islands and nuclear wastelands to dangerous frontiers and zombie attacks -- this course explores aesthetic and intellectual issues in survival narratives both fictional and non-fictional: individualism and/or community; self-sufficiency and DIY movements; categorizations of good/evil, civilization/barbarity; survival as adventure; frontier experience. Survivorâ¿¿s guilt, trauma, and the moral ambiguities of human agency (such as violence or environmental impact). Readings from authors such as DeFoe, Steinbeck, Murakami, Spiegelman, Atwood, McCarthy, Auster, and Brooks. Examples in film, television and popular culture.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 130A:
Of Wine, Women, and Boys: Re-visiting Medieval Islamic Culture Through Texts
This course examines elements of medieval Islamic culture that, although technically at odds with a strict understanding of Islamic law, were integral to the majority of medieval Muslim societies. Through a mixture of close textual reading, lectures, and class discussion, this course will shed light on the social reality and cultural function/s of the supposedly transgressive behaviors of wine-drinking, and the eroticization of females and young males. These are elements of medieval Islamic culture which have stereotypically (and largely erroneously) been considered ¿taboo¿, both by Orientalist scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and by many modern-day observers of the Middle East and North Africa. The texts read in this course will introduce students to excerpts from some of the most celebrated texts within medieval Arabic, Persian, and Turkish poetry and prose. The texts will be studied in English translation, and no prior knowledge of Arabic, Persian, or Turkish is required.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 131:
The Decadent 1890s (COMPLIT 231A)
This course introduces you to major works of literature of Decadent literature and culture in the European fin de siècle, focusing on the artistic and social culture of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin in the 1870s-1900s. Among the topics to be studied are the interconnections between the movements of Decadence, Aestheticism and Symbolism; theories of cultural decay and degeneration; the culture wars of the 19th century; stereotypes of gender, specifically the Dandy and the New Woman; the influence of sexology (regarding homosexuality and sexual transgression); cultural and legal attitudes toward sexual ¿perversity¿ and homosexuality; the rise of Wagnerism and theories of Gesamtkunstwerk on the stage; and the period of cultural transition from Decadence to Modernism. We will read works by Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Wilde, Strindberg, Huysmans, Nordau, Nietzsche, Wedekind, Ibsen, Michael Field (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) and various New Woman writers such as George Egerton, Victoria Cross, and Olive Schreiner, among others. Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to historical, social, and political contexts for the period as well. In addition to the literature of the European fin de siècle, you will also be introduced to some of the most important movements in the visual arts and design (Art Nouveau) and in the performing arts (Ballets Russes, synesthetic theater, some of the most famous music of the period).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender
COMPLIT 133:
Gender and Modernism (COMPLIT 333)
Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 137:
War Creations: World War II and the Novel
World War II, with its unprecedented atrocities, ideological disputes, and engaged intellectuals, also threw into question the role of the novel and its relationship to society and to history, influencing literature, theory, and literary criticism in the decades that followed. How might we define an "engaged author" or a "political novel"? What are the different approaches of novelists to the war and its ideologies, and how does this differ between countries? How far might the "novel" venture into allegory, memoir, and political propaganda and still remain a novel? How does fiction recreate, revise, and help examine the horrific momentum of fanatical politics and the consequences, and how does it do this differently from journalism and historical writing? Finally, how might the breakdown of linear narratives relate to attempts to tell about the war? The course will address these questions through reading excerpts from theoretical texts in conjunction with works by a range of authors including Albert Camus, Italo Calvino, Heinrich Boll, Gunter Grass, Robert Antelme, Primo Levi, Kurt Vonnegut, Marguerite Duras, Georges Perec, and Joseph Heller. Texts will be discussed in English, but students are encouraged to read the texts in the original.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 140B:
Love à la Turque: Tales of Love in Turkish Literature (COMPLIT 240B)
This course will introduce students the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Classes will include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. nnOpen to undergraduate and graduate students. All readings and discussions will be in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 141:
Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (FRENLIT 133)
The course is reading, analysis and discussion of some of the most representative texts by 20th century Francophone writers from a variety of locations: the French Caribbean, Africa North and South of the Sahara. These works convey the changing aspects of Francophone Africa and the French Caribbean societies and cultures: from oral to written, colonization and changes, tradition competing with modernity, particularly for women, building new identities immigration narrative. The course aims to broaden knowledge of the Francophone societies and cultures, as well as improve skills in speaking and writing in French. Lectures and discussions are conducted in French, most required readings and background material are in French as well. Reading in fiction, poetry and theater include Laye Camara, Ferdinand Oyono, Maryse Condé, Aimé Césaire, Leila Sebbar, Mariama Ba, and others. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
COMPLIT 142:
The Literature of the Americas (AMSTUD 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E)
This course offers a wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas innncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes¿the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres¿in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 142A:
What is Hemispheric Studies? (CSRE 142A)
Will attempt to open up "America," beyond the United States. Have we reached the end of an era in our national literary imaginations? What is the utility and durability of the idea of the nation in a global era? New developments in hemispheric, Black Atlantic, and trans-american studies have raised questions about the very viability of US literary studies. Should we, as Franco Moretti suggests, map, count, and graph the relationships in our close (rhetorical) and "distant" readings of texts in the Americas? Topics include the definitions of concepts such as coloniality, modernity, time and the colonial difference, the encounters between world views of Europeans and indigenous Native American peoples, and the inventions of America, Latinamericanism, and Americanity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 144:
Interplay between Turkish Cinema and Literature (COMPLIT 244A)
Turkish cinema has looked to literature for inspiration and for its stories since its inception. In recent years, the relationship between literature and film in Turkey has become more complex and reciprocal. We will explore the interplay between the two by focusing on adaptations and inspirations as well as less traditional modes of interaction such as interpretation and intertextuality. The scope of discussions will include themes like masculinity, representation of women, honor killings, the divide between East and West, as well as the problems of translation from one medium to another. Among the directors and writers whose works will watch and read are Ya¿ar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk, Yavuz Turgul, and Dervi¿ Zaim.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 144A:
Istanbul the Muse: The City in Literature and Film
The multiple layers of culture and history in Istanbul, a city on two continents between East and West, have inspired great art and literature. The class focuses on the idea of "inbetweenness" through art, literature, music, and popular culture seen chronologically. In addition to discussing literary, historical, and academic texts we will explore visual genres such as advertising, architecture, caricature, documentary, film, and miniature painting. Readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 145A:
Digital Codex: Religion, Literary Culture and Technology in South Asia (RELIGST 108C)
This course seeks to understand Hindu visual and performative culture through one epic Sanskrit narrative, that of the Mahabharata. It begins with the history of the epic's production and circulation in South Asian communities and continues with an exploration of its constructions of faith and duty. The course moves onto a consideration of the Mahabharata's latest avatars, especially in visual culture (paintings, theatre, graphic art, film and television). Lastly, the course explores questions of cannon formation, literary genres and knowledge production in the digital age.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 146:
Asian American Culture and Community (AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, CSRE 146S)
An examination of the history, art and culture of Vietnamese Americans, and their contemporary experiences in the South Bay. The course will combine in-class learning with a major conference featuring prominent artists and scholars on the Vietnamese Diasporic community. A service learning component requires community work at a service organization in San Jose. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
COMPLIT 148A:
The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning (COMPLIT 249A)
This course will focus on the analysis of ten Iranian films with the view of conducting a discourse on the semiotics of Iranian art and culture.nEach session will be designated to the viewing of a film by a prominent Iranian film-maker. Students are expected to prepare for class by having previously examined other available films by the film-maker under consideration.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 148C:
Contemporary Iranian Theater (COMPLIT 249C)
Today Iranian plays¿both in traditional and contemporary styles¿are staged in theater festivals throughout the world play their role in forming a universal language of theater which combine the heritages from countries in all five continents. Despite many obstacles, some Iranian plays have been translated into English and some prominent Iranian figures are successful stage directors outside Iran.nForty six years ago when ¿Theater in Iran¿ (a monograph on the history of Iranian plays) by Bahram Beyzaie was first published, it put the then contemporary Iranian theater movement--which was altogether westernizing itself blindly --face to face with a new kind of self-awareness. Hence in today¿s generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. nIn this course we will spend some class sessions on the history of theater in Iran and some class meetings will be concentrating on contemporary movements and present day playwrights. Given the dearth of visual documents, an attempt will be made to present a picture of Iranian theater to the student.nStudents are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 149:
The Laboring of Diaspora & Border Literary Cultures (CSRE 149)
Focus is given to emergent theories of culture and on comparative literary and cultural studies. How do we treat culture as a social force? How do we go about reading the presence of social contexts within cultural texts? How do ethno-racial writers re-imagine the nation as a site with many "cognitive maps" in which the nation-state is not congruent with cultural identity? How do diaspora and border narratives/texts strive for comparative theoretical scope while remaining rooted in specific local histories.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 151:
Reality Check: Modes of Reality and Representation in the Age of Cyberculture
In an age when phantasmal projections on the computer and smart phone screens rule our daily lives and disembodied fragments of our audio-visual/textual representations fly around the globe, the question of â¿¿what is real and how is one to know what is realâ¿ weighs us down with an ever-pressing urgency. This course explores different modes of reality and their literary representations that make ontological and epistemological inquiries into the concept and nature of the â¿¿real.â¿ Readings include novels and short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, Stanislaw Lem, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Neil Stephenson and Murakami Haruki, and films (Ghost in the Shell, Inception). In English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 154:
World Literature/World Health: Global Writing on Illness and Healing
This class provides a survey of writing about health and medicine, primarily from non-Western (as well as a few Western) countries. While the focus is on literature, and an introductory literature class is strongly recommended as a prerequisite, we will also consider broader questions: literary and medical authority; private experience and the public sphere; and what the â¿¿worldâ¿, or worlds, in the course title might or might not be (according to different theories of globalization and cultural exchange). We will review a selection of critical approaches to literature and medicine and read texts from a variety of cultures and genres. The ideal student for this course would have a strong interest in both health care and writing, but everyone is welcome.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 156A:
States of Nature in Literature and Philosophy
The state of nature, a hypothetical condition of human existence before the establishment of societies, is a device many early modern thinkers use to address questions about ethics, justice, and politics. Fusing biblical narrative and geometric reasoning, accounts of the state of nature illustrate the overlap and tension between religion, science and philosophy. Questions include whether philosophers and artists actually believe in the state of nature, how it was imagined differently in poetry, the novel, and philosophy, whether it was used to legitimize or undermine existing political structures, and why it is relevant in today's society. Selected readings from Hobbes, Locke, Milton, Defoe, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Diderot.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSGEN 81, ENGLISH 81, FRENGEN 181, GERGEN 181, ITALGEN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVGEN 181)
Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track: majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. Issues may include authorship, selfhood, truth and fiction, the importance of literary form to philosophical works, and the ethical significance of literary works. Texts include philosophical analyses of literature, works of imaginative literature, and works of both philosophical and literary significance. Authors may include Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Borges, Beckett, Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas, Pavel, and Pippin.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 189A:
Honors Research
Senior honors students enroll for 5 units in Winter while writing the honors thesis, and may enroll in 189B for 2 units in Spring while revising the thesis. Prerequisite: DLCL 189.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Daub, A. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Landy, J. (PI);
Lerer, S. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Ruffinelli, J. (PI);
Safran, G. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Schnapp, J. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
White, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 189B:
Honors Research
Open to juniors with consent of adviser while drafting honors proposal. Open to senior honors students while revising honors thesis. Prerequisites for seniors: 189A, DLCL 189.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Daub, A. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Landy, J. (PI);
Lerer, S. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Ruffinelli, J. (PI);
Safran, G. (PI);
Saldivar, J. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Schnapp, J. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
White, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 190:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 290, SLAVGEN 190, SLAVGEN 290)
Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 194:
Independent Research
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Brookshaw, D. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Dierkes, P. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Karahan, B. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Saldivar, J. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI)
COMPLIT 196:
Incarceration as Inspiration: Russian and American Prison Narratives (SLAVGEN 196)
This course will employ a multitude of prison-related texts (letters, memoirs, short stories, historical accounts, films, and theoretical criticism) to explore the connection between incarceration and inspiration. Together we will examine the following questions: what is the link between creativity and the penitentiary? What is the allure of crime and the function of prison? What effect does the restriction of space have on the mind? How does life-writing versus fictional writing capture the prison experience? The quarter will culminate with a visit to an area correctional facility.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 199:
Senior Seminar: Narrative and Ethics (COMPLIT 299A)
Major terms of narratology; how different literary, cinematic, and popular culture narratives raise ethical issues, stir public debates and contribute to understanding human values. Readings include Biblical texts, Antigone, Kleist, Kafka, Coetzee, V for Vendetta, South Park, Kant, Arendt, Nussbaum, Rorty, and Levinas.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 210:
Bakhtin and His Legacy (SLAVLIT 226)
¿Quests for my own word are in fact quests for a word that is not my own, a word that is more than myself,¿ writes Mikhail Bakhtin towards the end of his life. It was this ceaseless pursuit of another word that allowed Bakhtin, one of the most distinguished literary critics of the twentieth century, to author several influential literary theory concepts, many of which deal with the ideas of multiplicity, diversity and unfinalizability. The seminar explores these core concepts through close reading of key texts in English and investigates their reverberations in the writings of other thinkers such as Kristeva, de Man and Derrida
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 215:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 115, SLAVGEN 156, SLAVGEN 256)
Nabakov's techniques of migration and camouflage as he inhabits the literary and historical contexts of St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris, America, and Switzerland. His early and late stories, last Russian novel The Gift, Lolita (the novel and screenplay), and Pale Fire. Readings in English. Russian speakers will be encouraged to read Russian texts in original.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 219:
Dostoevsky: Narrative Performance and Literary Theory (SLAVLIT 251)
This course is an in-depth engagement with a range of Dostoevsky¿s genres: early works (epistolary novella Poor Folk and experimental Double), major novels (Crime and Punishment, The Idiot), less-read shorter works (¿A Faint Heart,¿ ¿Bobok¿ and ¿The Meek One¿), and genre-bending House of the Dead and Diary of a Writer. We will apply recent theory of autobiography, performance, repetition and narrative gaps, to Dostoevsky¿s transformations of genre, philosophical and dramatic discourse, and narrative performance. For graduate students. Slavic students will read primary texts in Russian, other participants in translation. Course conducted in English. Undergraduates with advanced linguistic and critical competence may apply.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 221:
Memory, History, and the Contemporary Novel (GERLIT 246, JEWISHST 241)
How the watershed events of the 20th century, the philosophic linguistic turn, and the debate regarding the end of history left their mark on the novel. How does the contemporary novel engage with the past? How does its interest in memory and history relate to late- or postmodern culture of time or to political and ethical concerns? Novels by Toni Morrison, W. G. Sebald, J. M. Coetzee, Kazuo Ishiguro, and A. B. Yehoshua; theoretical works by Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Fredric Jameson, Paul Ricoeur Awishai Margalit, and Walter Benn Michaels.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 228:
Introduction to Digital Humanities: Concepts, Technologies, Tools
What happens when you think about computers and other digital devices as more than web browsers and word processing? Think this way about humanities disciplines, and you are in the realm of the digital humanities. In this course, we will explore the perspectives of scholars who have thought about what "digital humanities" means and the technologies and tools that are shaping new kinds of scholarship. Topics will include history of the digital humanities, textual studies, electronic literature, computational and new media, and emerging work around curation and visualization. This course is organized as a mix of seminar and workshop; active engagement by all participants is expected and thus enrollment is limited to 20 students. Students will contribute to the field with a creative final project that they develop over the course of the quarter. Enrollment limited to 20 students.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 231A:
The Decadent 1890s (COMPLIT 131)
This course introduces you to major works of literature of Decadent literature and culture in the European fin de siècle, focusing on the artistic and social culture of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin in the 1870s-1900s. Among the topics to be studied are the interconnections between the movements of Decadence, Aestheticism and Symbolism; theories of cultural decay and degeneration; the culture wars of the 19th century; stereotypes of gender, specifically the Dandy and the New Woman; the influence of sexology (regarding homosexuality and sexual transgression); cultural and legal attitudes toward sexual ¿perversity¿ and homosexuality; the rise of Wagnerism and theories of Gesamtkunstwerk on the stage; and the period of cultural transition from Decadence to Modernism. We will read works by Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Wilde, Strindberg, Huysmans, Nordau, Nietzsche, Wedekind, Ibsen, Michael Field (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) and various New Woman writers such as George Egerton, Victoria Cross, and Olive Schreiner, among others. Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to historical, social, and political contexts for the period as well. In addition to the literature of the European fin de siècle, you will also be introduced to some of the most important movements in the visual arts and design (Art Nouveau) and in the performing arts (Ballets Russes, synesthetic theater, some of the most famous music of the period).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 234:
Conservative Revolution (GERGEN 201)
An examination of conservative critiques of modernity in the early 20th century, including topics such as German nationalism, the war experience, responses to democracy, anti-liberalism, cultural pessimism in the decline of the West, crises of authority, technology, geopolitics, existentialism, and tradition. Readings from authors such as Oswald Spengler, Thomas Mann, Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rudolf Borchardt. Consideration of conservative exile authors such as Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt. Readings in either English or German.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 240B:
Love à la Turque: Tales of Love in Turkish Literature (COMPLIT 140B)
This course will introduce students the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Classes will include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. nnOpen to undergraduate and graduate students. All readings and discussions will be in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 244A:
Interplay between Turkish Cinema and Literature (COMPLIT 144)
Turkish cinema has looked to literature for inspiration and for its stories since its inception. In recent years, the relationship between literature and film in Turkey has become more complex and reciprocal. We will explore the interplay between the two by focusing on adaptations and inspirations as well as less traditional modes of interaction such as interpretation and intertextuality. The scope of discussions will include themes like masculinity, representation of women, honor killings, the divide between East and West, as well as the problems of translation from one medium to another. Among the directors and writers whose works will watch and read are Ya¿ar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk, Yavuz Turgul, and Dervi¿ Zaim.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 247:
Modernism and the Jewish Voice in Europe (GERGEN 221A, SLAVGEN 221)
Some of the most haunting literary voices of the 20th century emerged from the Jewish communities of Eastern and Central Europe. The Jewishness of the modernists is thematized, asking whether it contributed to shared attitudes toward text, history, or identity. Their works are situated in specific linguistic traditions: Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, or German. Primary readings from Ansky, Bialik, Mandelstam, Babel, Schulz, Kafka, Celan; secondary readings in history, E. European literature, and theory, including Marx, Freud, Benjamin, and Arendt.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 248A:
Reading Turkish I
This course is an introduction to the structures of Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students (undergraduates should consult the instructor). Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. The goal is to enable you to read Turkish at an advanced level in a relatively short period of time. It is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; it focuses only on reading, and as a result we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 248B:
Reading Turkish II
Continuation of language and reading development from Reading Turkish I. Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already taken Reading Turkish I.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 248C:
Advanced Turkish for Research
Refining advanced reading skills in modern Turkish through intensive reading and translation. Emphasis on Turkish cultural, historical, literary, and political texts depending on students¿ academic interests. Prior knowledge of Turkish and/or consultation with the instructor is necessary.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 249A:
The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning (COMPLIT 148A)
This course will focus on the analysis of ten Iranian films with the view of conducting a discourse on the semiotics of Iranian art and culture.nEach session will be designated to the viewing of a film by a prominent Iranian film-maker. Students are expected to prepare for class by having previously examined other available films by the film-maker under consideration.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 249C:
Contemporary Iranian Theater (COMPLIT 148C)
Today Iranian plays¿both in traditional and contemporary styles¿are staged in theater festivals throughout the world play their role in forming a universal language of theater which combine the heritages from countries in all five continents. Despite many obstacles, some Iranian plays have been translated into English and some prominent Iranian figures are successful stage directors outside Iran.nForty six years ago when ¿Theater in Iran¿ (a monograph on the history of Iranian plays) by Bahram Beyzaie was first published, it put the then contemporary Iranian theater movement--which was altogether westernizing itself blindly --face to face with a new kind of self-awareness. Hence in today¿s generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. nIn this course we will spend some class sessions on the history of theater in Iran and some class meetings will be concentrating on contemporary movements and present day playwrights. Given the dearth of visual documents, an attempt will be made to present a picture of Iranian theater to the student.nStudents are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 263:
Advanced Translation Workshop
Translation as a critical, creative, conservative, and subversive act. Students workshop and revise a translation project throughout the quarter. Readings include comparative translations and statements on the theory and craft of translation. Final project consists of an annotated translation. Prerequisite: ENG 293 or previous translation experience. Enrollment limited to 10 students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 290:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 190, SLAVGEN 190, SLAVGEN 290)
Anna Karenina, the novel as a case study in the contest between "modernity" and "tradition," their ethical order, ideology, cultural codes, and philosophies. Images of society, women and men in Tolstoy v. those of his contemporaries: Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Weber, Durkheim, Freud. Open to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Requirements: three interpretive essays (500-1000 words each). Analysis of a passage from the novel; AK refracted through a "philosophical" prism and vice versa (30% each); class discussion and Forum (10%).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 299A:
Senior Seminar: Narrative and Ethics (COMPLIT 199)
Major terms of narratology; how different literary, cinematic, and popular culture narratives raise ethical issues, stir public debates and contribute to understanding human values. Readings include Biblical texts, Antigone, Kleist, Kafka, Coetzee, V for Vendetta, South Park, Kant, Arendt, Nussbaum, Rorty, and Levinas.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 320A:
Epic and Empire (ENGLISH 314)
Focus is on Virgil's Aeneid and its influence, tracing the European epic tradition (Ariosto, Tasso, Camoes, Spenser, and Milton) to New World discovery and mercantile expansion in the early modern period.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 331C:
Institutions of Enlightenment: The Invention of the Public Sphere (ENGLISH 303F)
This course treats the cultural foundations upon which the Enlightenment instituted a public sphere and constituted its relationship to the private (or intimate) sphere. The aim is to explore the invention and naturalization of some of the most fundamental institutions of the Enlightenment -- institutions such as the public, the private, the market, public opinion, literature, and even more basic categories such as the individual, society, culture, knowledge, and politics.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 332:
The Transatlantic Renaissance (ENGLISH 310)
The emergence of a transatlantic culture in the early modern period. How is the Renaissance of Europe and England fashioned in a conversation with the cultural forms and material realities of the colonial Americas? And how do colonial writings expand and complicate the available understanding of the Renaissance? nnReadings in Columbus, More, Hakluyt, Spenser, Shakespeare, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 348:
The Novel as/and Critical Discourse (FRENLIT 358)
Literature is the site of a multiplicity of knowledges. This course is an attempt to build a history of ideas in the Francophone world. We will be looking at narrative styles, as well at the ways in which the 20th century theoretical discourse among Francophone intellectuals is often embedded in the novel. The role of intellectuals in society will be discussed, with a focus on three major topics: identities, religion (Islam, Christianity, violence), and democracy. Reading includes Assia Djebar, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Henri Lopes, Amin Malouf, VY Mudimbe, Franz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, Edward Said and others.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 349:
Literary Theory (DLCL 349, ILAC 349, SLAVLIT 349)
Advanced survey course of key schools in literary theory, from formalism onwards. Emphasis is on the discussion of primary sources. Topics include structuralism, ideology critique, psychoanalysis, reception aesthetics, deconstruction, feminism, and post-colonialism. Readings by Barthes, Bakhtin, Benjamin, Borges, Derrida, de Man, Foucault, Freud, Iser, Lacan, Shklovsky, and Spivak, among others.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 359A:
Philosophical Reading Group (FRENGEN 395, ITALGEN 395)
Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with H. U. Gumbrecht is required. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
COMPLIT 369:
Introduction to Graduate Studies: Criticism as Profession (FRENGEN 369, GERLIT 369, ITALGEN 369)
Based on a survey of (and a conversation about) the history of academic Literary Criticism, and on presentation (and discussion) of contemporary ¿theoretical¿ positions, this seminar will try to enhance a reflection on the conditions, difficulties, and rewards of Literary Criticism as a profession ¿ and as an intellectual life form. Attention will be paid to the most relevant (and most pressing) institutional frame-conditions ¿ but this attention will not prevent us from trying to explore a (seldom used) potential of eccentricity and freedom that has always been inherent to (although sometimes dormant in) Literary Criticism.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 395:
Research
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Brookshaw, D. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Fellner, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Karahan, B. (PI);
Lerer, S. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Saldivar, J. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Schnapp, J. (PI);
Surwillo, L. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
White, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 396L:
Pedagogy Seminar I (ENGLISH 396L)
Required for first-year Ph.D students in English, Modern Thought and Literature, and Comparative Literature. Preparation for surviving as teaching assistants in undergraduate literature courses. Focus is on leading discussions and grading papers.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 399:
Dissertation
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Lerer, S. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Schnapp, J. (PI);
Surwillo, L. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
White, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 40Q:
Aesthetics of Dissent: the Case of Islamic Iran (INTNLREL 71Q)
Censorship, Borges tells us, is the mother of metaphors. The Islamic regime in Iran censors all aethetic production in the country. But Iranian dissident artists, from film-makers and fiction writers to composers in a thriving under-ground musical scene, have cleverly found ways to fight these draconian measures. They have developed an impressive body of work that is as sophisticated in style as it is rich in its discourse of democracy and dissent. The purpose of the seminar is to understand the aesthetic tropes of dissent in Iran, and the social and theological roots of rules of censorship. Masterpieces of post-revolutionary film, fiction, and music will be discussed in the context of tumultuous history of dissent in Islamic Iran.
| Units: 3
COMPLIT 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Lerer, S. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Nightingale, A. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Schnapp, J. (PI);
Surwillo, L. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
White, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 125A:
The Gothic Novel
The Gothic novel and its relatives from its invention by Walpole in The Castle of Otranto of 1764. Readings include: Northanger Abbey, The Italian, The Monk, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Dracula. What defines the Gothic as it evolves from one specific novel to a mode that makes its way into a range of fictional types?
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 129A:
Contemporary Persian Poetry: Encounter of a Thousand-Year-Old Classical Tradition with Modernity
The primacy of poetic expression in Persian culture in the transition from tradition to modernity. Major 20th-century poets in relation to historical events and social change. Authors include: Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamloo, Sohrab Sepehri, Mehdi Akhavan Sales, Forough Farrokhzad, Nader Naderpour, Fereydoun Moshiri, Esma'il Kho'i, and Afghan and Tajik poets.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 135:
Chinese Cultural Revolution: Performance, Politics, and Aesthetics (CHINLIT 190, CHINLIT 290)
Events, arts, films, and operas of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Analysis of political passion, aesthetics, and psychology of mass movements. Places the Cultural Revolution in the long-range context of art, social movements, and politics. Chinese language is not required.
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 218:
The work of Luis Martín Santos in Mid-Twentieth Century Spain
First published in 1962, "Tiempo de Silencio" is the only book that the young psychiatrist Luis Martin Santos finished during his lifetime, and, although largely overlooked (even in Spain) until the present day, one of the great European novels of the 20th century. It brings to a complex convergence the evocation of Spain's decadent and run-down post-Civil War society with high-modernist literary procedures and (an implicit parody of) phenomenological analysis.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 223:
Literary Diaries of Classic Modernity
Focus is on self-analysis in works of key modern writers. Since Montaigne's Essais and Rousseau's Confessions, analysis of the self has been a central topic for modern literature. Texts include Baudelaire's Intimate Journals, Kafka's Diaries, Gide's Journals, Woolf's Moments of Being, Benjamin's Berlin Childhood, and Pavese's Diaries. Analysis of the self as polarizing between the imagination of a utopian childhood and self-deprivation.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 230A:
The Novel in Europe: The Age of Compromise, 1800-1848
The novel after the French revolution and the industrial take-off. Novelistic form and historical processes ¿ nation-building and the marriage market, political conservatism and the advent of fashion, aristocracy and bourgeoisie and proletariat... ¿ focusing on how stylistic choices and plot structures offer imaginary resolutions to social and ideological conflicts. Authors will include Austen, Scott, Shelley, Stendhal, Puskin, Balzac, Bronte.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 233:
Baroque and Neobaroque (SPANLIT 293E)
The literary, cultural, and political implications of the 17th-century phenomenon formed in response to the conditions of the 16th century including humanism, absolutism, and early capitalism, and dispersed through Europe, the Americas, and Asia. If the Baroque is a universal code of this period, how do its vehicles, such as tragic drama, Ciceronian prose, and metaphysical poetry, converse with one another? The neobaroque as a complex reaction to the remains of the baroque in Latin American cultures, with attention to the mode in recent Brazilian literary theory and Mexican poetry.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 240A:
Introduction to Hebrew Literature (JEWISHST 140)
The influence of biblical poetry, piyut, and medieval Hebrew poetry on the development of Modern Hebrew poetry. With focus on voice, space, lyrical Subjectivity, Intertextuality, and Poetic Forms. Guest Speakers include Tamar Zwei, Susan Einbinder, Berry Saharoff, and Raymond Scheindlin.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 254:
Modern Chinese Novel: Theory, Aesthetics, History (CHINLIT 174, CHINLIT 274)
From the May Fourth movement to the 40s. Themes include enlightenment, democracy, women's liberation, revolution, war, urban culture, and love. Prerequisite: advanced Chinese.
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 303D:
Thinking in Fiction
Narrative and cognition in 18th-century fictional, philosophical, scientific, and cultural texts. Probable readings: Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Swift, Defoe, Hume, Lennox, Sterne, Adam Smith, Wollstonecraft, and Bentham.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 311:
Shakespeare, Islam, and Others
Shakespeare and other early modern writers in relation to new work on Islam and the Ottoman Turk in early modern studies. Othello, Twelfth Night, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, and other Shakespeare plays. Kyd's Solyman and Perseda, Daborne's A Christian Turned Turk, Massinger's The Renegado, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and literary and historical materials.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 330:
The Bourgeois
Goal is to define the ruling class of modern times. Social history (Weber, Hirschmann, Marx); literary texts (Defoe, Goethe, Gaskell); and Henrik Ibsen who produced an intransigent criticism of the bourgeois ethos.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 333:
Gender and Modernism (COMPLIT 133)
Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 340:
Literature of the Iranian Diaspora
This course examines poetry and prose produced by authors of Iranian descent living outside of Iran. The focus will be on works composed in English that have appeared since the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. The course will examine recurrent themes in Iranian diasporic writing such as memory, childhood, nostalgia, identity, rebellion, belonging, and return. The texts selected for detailed discussion are almost all by women writers, reflecting the fact that the Iranian expatriate literary scene is dominated by female poets and novelists. Special attention will be paid to those novels that have become best-sellers in North America and Europe, and which have provoked the most intense reactions from scholarly and writerly communities in the West. As well as texts originally written in English, translations of pieces composed in Persian and French will also be discussed. Although focused on the Iranian immigrant experience, this course seeks to locate Iranian diasporic writing within the context of the broader non-western diasporic literary scene in the US, UK, and France.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 353A:
Experiment and the Novel
A double exploration of experiment in the novel from 1750 into the 19th century. Taking off from Zola's The Experimental Novel, consideration of the novel's aspect as scientific instrument. Taking the idea of experimental fiction in the usual sense of departures from standard practice, consideration of works that seem to break away from techniques of "realism" devised prior to 1750. Possible texts by: Lennox, Sterne, Walpole, Goldsmith, Godwin, Lewis, Shelley, Hogg, Emily Bronte, and Diderot.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 364:
Style
The return of a term that was central in 20th-century criticism, and has all but disappeared in recent decades. Focus ison looking at concepts of style from various branches of linguistic and literary theory, and examination of some revealing examples in novels and films. Team taught with D.A. Miller from U.C. Berkeley.
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 371:
Seminar in Chinese Literary Criticism (CHINLIT 371)
How aesthetics and politics intertwine and break apart in Western and Eastern traditions. Aesthetics for understanding culture, morality, and power in crosscultural contexts. Readings include Hegel, Kant, Marcuse, Lukacs, and Adorno; and Chinese thinkers Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Li Zehou, and Mao. Prerequisite: CHINLIT 127/207 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 2-5
| Repeatable
for credit
