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?nn 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." nn 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.
Last offered: Autumn 2011
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 14N:
Imagining India: Art, Culture, Politics in Modern India (CSRE 15N, FEMGEN 14N)
This course explores history via cultural responses in modern India. We will examine a range of fiction, film and drama to consider the ways in which India emerges through its cultural productions. The course will consider key historical events such as the partition of the subcontinent, independence from British rule, Green Revolution, Emergency, liberalization of the Indian economy, among others. We will reflect on epochal historical moments by means of artisticnresponses to these events. For example, Ritwik Ghatak's experimental cinema intervenes into debates around the Bengal partition; Rohinton Mistry's novel, A Fine Balance grapples with the suspension of civil liberties during the emergency between 1975-77; Rahul Varma's play Bhopal reflects on the Bhopal gas tragedy, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. Students willnread, view and reflect on the aesthetic and historical texts through their thoughtful engagement in class discussions and written e ssays. They will also have opportunities to imaginatively respond to these texts via short creative projects, which could range from poems, monologues, solo pieces, web installations, etc. Readings will also include Mahashweta Devi, Amitav Ghosh, Girish Karnad, Jhumpa Lahiri, Manjula Padmanabhan, Salman Rushdie, Aparna Sen, among others.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 27Q:
You Are Here: Writing in the Age of Environmental Crisis
How have writers on a global scale responded to a growing sense of environmental crisis? How do various literary genres and forms help writers convey a sense of urgency, evoke feelings of loss, or prompt a call to action? Students will encounter recent stories, songs, memoirs, essays, and poems by writers from around the world that engage with the relationship between humans and our precarious environment. Texts such as Cormac McCarthy¿s post-apocalyptic novel The Road, Inger Christensen¿s long poem alphabet, and Arundati Roy¿s fable ¿The Briefing¿ will allow us to see how race, class, and region impact experiences and depictions of a planet in crisis. These texts will also model options for students¿ own creative writing on nature, place, and crisis across genres. Assignments will include observational writing, experiments with genre shifts, and research and writing on the places we call home as members of a global community.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
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.
Last offered: Spring 2012
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 37Q:
Zionism and the Novel (JEWISHST 37Q)
At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 38Q:
Ethics of Jihad
Why choose jihad? An introduction to Islamic ethics. Focus on ways in which people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad. Topics include jihad in the age of 1001 Nights, feminist jihad, jihad in Africa, al-Qaida and Hamas, and the hashtag #MyJihad. All readings and discussion in English.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-ER, Writing 2
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.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 2-3
COMPLIT 41N:
Borderlands of Literature and Culture
Rather than try to examine the whole of such an extensive body of work by artists of Mexican descent living in Mexico and the United States, the focus will be on the transnational themes of border thinking, memory, and identity (both personal and collective). Looking at the foundational poetry, auto-ethnographies, and narratives by Américo Paredes and Gloria Anzaldúa and how their literary and ethnographic work laid the groundwork for subsequent imaginings in the narratives, poetry, and theory of border thinking and writing. We will explore the trans-frontier cultural conditions under which imaginative literary texts are produced, disseminated, and received. We will consider not only the historical transnational experiences that inform these borderlands texts but the potential futures of Mexico and the United States they imagine.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 41Q:
Ethnicity and Literature
Preference to sophomores. What is meant by ethnic literature? How is ethnic writing different from non-ethnic writing, or is there such a thing as either? How does ethnicity as an analytic perspective affect the way literature is read by ethnic peoples? Articles and works of fiction; films on ethnic literature and cultural politics. How ethnic literature represents the nexus of social, historical, political, and personal issues.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
COMPLIT 42:
Making Palestine Visible (CSRE 3A, HISTORY 3A)
The course will discuss topics that inform the debate over Israel-Palestine. We will address common misperceptions, key themes, concepts, and issues and present information aimed at helping students understand the complex history and array of contemporary political, cultural and legal structures at play and how they tend to render Palestinian claims to rights illegible for much of the American public. This learning experience, incorporating discussion and clarification at its core, connects with the national and Stanford campus discussion of activism on Israel-Palestine.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
COMPLIT 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
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: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
COMPLIT 55N:
Batman, Hamilton, Díaz, and Other Wondrous Lives
This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 57:
Human Rights and World Literature
Human rights may be universal, but each appeal comes from a specific location with its own historical, social, and cultural context. This summer we will turn to literary narratives and films from a wide number of global locations to help us understand human rights; each story taps into fundamental beliefs about justice and ethics, from an eminently human and personal point of view. What does it mean not to have access to water, education, free speech, for example?nnThis course has two components. The first will be a set of readings on the history and ethos of modern human rights. These readings will come from philosophy, history, political theory. The second, and major component is comprised of novels and films that come from different locations in the world, each telling a compelling story. nnWe will come away from this class with a good introduction to human rights history and philosophy and a set of insights into a variety of imaginative perspectives on human rights issues from different global locations.nnReadings include:nAmnesty International, Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human RightsnAndrew Clapman, Human Rights: A Very Short IntroductionnJames Dawes, That the World May KnownWalter Echo-Hawk, In the Light of JusticenAmitav Ghosh, The Hungry TidenBessie Head, MarunUrsula LeGuin, The Word for World is Forest
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 70N:
Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (CHINA 70N)
Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century?
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 90:
Conversations about Comparative Literature
Come to discuss literature and comparative literary studies in a relaxed and informative class, over lunch. You will meet comparative literature faculty and graduate students who will share their work, their experiences, and interests in literature. Discussions will range from the challenges and excitement of studying medieval Chinese poetry to blogging about the humanities; the relation of different cultures¿ notions of aesthetics and the role literature plays, and much more. Topics will also be generated by class participants. No pre-requisites.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 100:
CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)
This course takes students on a trip to eight capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, , and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Lope de Vega, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Dostoyevsky, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 101:
What Is Comparative Literature?
Introduction to the discipline of comparative literature and to the theory and practice of interpretation. How should we best read novels, plays, short stories, poetry, and a variety of other forms of literary expression? What role has literature played in human societies in different times and places? Primary works (a novel, several poems, and a play) represent different national literatures that gain from a comparative perspective. Fulfills the Writing-in-the-Major requirement. Gateway to the Comparative Literature Major.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 102:
Film Series: Understanding Turkey Through Film (COMPLIT 302)
Join us in our quest to understand the recent developments in Turkey and their impact on its people through cinematic production. Set against the backdrop of Turkey's cultural, political and social transformation in the last decade, the movies in this series tell the uneasy stories of individuals whose lives are affected by this disruptive change. By examining the link between individual troubles and public issues, the films confront issues such as globalization, gender and racial hierarchy, neo-liberal urban transformation, male domination, state oppression, and women's oppression in Turkey. Each screening will be followed by a discussion lead by invited scholars of Turkey or film directors. At each screening we will look closely at a film and discuss how the directors and script writers responded to larger scale cultural and social dynamics to present them as personal stories. Enrolled students must attend all five screenings and at least three talks of their choice at the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies annual conference Understanding Turkey: Vision, Revision, and the Future which will be held on April 28-29 2017. All screenings are free and open to the public. All attendees are encouraged to participate in the post-screening discussions. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
COMPLIT 104:
Love, Passion, and Politics in Chinese Film (CHINA 113, CHINA 213)
Focusing on the emotional structure of love and passion in Chinese films, the course will investigate the structures of feelings and moral relations in modern Chinese history from the 1940s till the present. Examining the interplay between private desire, romantic sentiment, family relations, and political passion, we will explore how men and women in China grapple with emotional and social issues in modern transformations. We will consider romantic love, the uplifting of sexuality into political passion, the intertwining of aesthetic experience with politics, nostalgia in the disenchanted modern world, and the tensions between the individual¿s self-realization and the community¿s agenda. Students will learn to ¿read¿ films as a work of art and understand how film works as expression of desire, impulse, emotional connections, and communal bonding during times of crisis. Course work includes a midterm exam (25%) and a final exam (25%), a weekly 250-300 word reflection on the film of the week (10%), participation and oral presentation in class (10%), and a paper of 5-7 pages to be submitted after the midterm week (30%).nnStarting from the second week, film screening will begin 6: 30 pm Monday before classes on Tuesday and Thursday. The course does not encourage private viewing. At least 5 dinners will be provided for movie-screening events.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 105:
Race and Human Rights (CSRE 115)
The recent elections in the United States, the BREXIT vote, and the rightward movement in many European nation states all may be taken as indexes to the ways race plays a central role in politics. Race and ethnicity show up in policies over immigration, refugees, citizenship, policing, incarceration, and other topics and issues. This all puts tremendous pressure on human rights discourse.nThe foundational document of modern human rights is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted at a time when the newly-established United Nations recognized the need for rights for a new post-war, and increasingly post-colonial world. Our course will study the basis of human rights historically and philosophically with particular attention to the relation between human rights and anti-racist work. What are the possibilities and challenges?nA unique and exciting part of the course is that it is an international collaboration with classes at the University of Wurzberg, Germany, and the University of California at Merced. Using the Stanford-based TeachingHumanRights.org website, we will create a three-campus project that puts students and instructors together as an international community of scholar-activists.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 109:
Masterpieces: Orhan Pamuk
This course explores the major works of Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk and the novel tradition. We will start with his more classical narratives such as Silent House and move to modernist, post-colonial, and post modernist works exemplified by The New Life, The White Castle, The Black Book, and My Name is Red. Topics include: East/West, the Ottoman theme, Istanbul, and autobiographical strands in fiction.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 110:
Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies (COMPLIT 310, FEMGEN 110X, FEMGEN 310X)
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 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 112:
Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents (COMPLIT 312, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312)
Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 113:
Of Woman Born: Feminist Poetry in the U.S., 1973-2017
Traces the development of feminist poetry in the United States from second wave feminists like Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Alicia Ostriker to contemporary poetry of Anne Boyer, Steph Burt, and Eileen Myles, among others. We will think broadly about the relationship between politics and poetry, and focus specifically on the influences of second- and third- wave feminism on poetry produced by women in the U.S. from the 1970s until today.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 114:
Masterpieces: Kafka (GERMAN 150, JEWISHST 145)
This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 115:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 315, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356)
Nabokov'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.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 117:
Women Writing War
War has long been recognized as a central theme in literature across traditions, yet little recognition has been given to women¿s voices in war writing. This course will explore female perspectives on America's wars and armed conflicts of the Twentieth Century, from World War One to the war in Afghanistan and the ¿War on Terror.¿ Readings will include poetry, fiction, memoir and reportage by American and international writers such as Gertrude Stein, Amy Lowell, Denise Levertov, Theresa Kak Kyung Cha, Dunya Mikhail, and Solmaz Sharif. We will explore such topics as the gendering of war and of mourning, the poetry of witness, the representation of violence, and political censorship and surveillance. All readings will be in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 119:
Travel Writing in the Pre-Modern Mediterranean
The rihla, or voyage, was an important part of many intellectuals¿ development in the pre-modern Arabophone world. This journey was understood not to mean just the physical displacement of a scholar over land and sea and as essential for his acquisition of knowledge at the feet of the foremost scholars of his day, but also as a metaphor for change, adventure, and intellectual development. Rihla also came to refer to texts written about these journeys, emerging in the 12th century as a term used to refer to a genre of travel writing¿a grouping of narratives which will be the focus of our class. Readings will be drawn from such Arabic texts as Ibn Battuta¿s Rihla, Ibn Khaldun¿s Muqaddimah, and al-Ghassani¿s Rihlat al-Wazir, as well as selections of European travel writing such as Marco Polo¿s Travels. Emphasis, where possible, will be placed on continuing to develop the skills to read these texts in the original Arabic, including grammar, dictionary use, voweling, and translation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 121:
Poems, Poetry, Worlds (DLCL 141)
What is poetry? How does it speak in many voices to questions of history, society, and personal experience? Why does it matter? The reading and interpretation of poetry in crosscultural comparison as experience, invention, form, sound, knowledge, and part of the world. The readings address poetry of several cultures (Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Occitania, Peru) in comparative relation to that of the English-speaking world, and in light of classic and recent theories of poetry.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 122:
Literature as Performance (DLCL 142)
Theater as performance and as literature. Historical tension between text and spectacle, thought and embodiment in western and other traditions since Greek antiquity. Dramas read in tandem with theory, live performances, and audiovisuals.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 123:
The Novel, the Global South (DLCL 143, ENGLISH 184)
Literary inventiveness and social significance of novelistic forms from the Great Depression to the present. The seminar will focus on texts by William Faulkner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, and Junot Diaz.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 125:
Past Desire Made Present: The Traditions of Erotic Poetry in Medieval Iran and Europe
Aims to make present and accessible, to our early 21st-century experience, convergences and differences between medieval Persian and medieval European love poetry. Poetry will be dealt with as a discursive and institutional means through which it is possible to make present and tangible that which is absent -- both in space and time. If we accept that medieval Persian and European love poetry conjured up moods of homo- and heteroerotic desire for contemporary audiences, then this desire can also become present for us today through a close reading of those same texts.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
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?
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 127B:
The Hebrew and Jewish Short Story (JEWISHST 147B)
Short stories from Israel, the US and Europe including works by Agnon, Kafka, Keret, Castel-Bloom, Kashua, Singer, Benjamin, Freud, biblical myths and more. The class will engage with questions related to the short story as a literary form and the history of the short story. Reading and discussion in English. Optional: special section with readings and discussions in Hebrew.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
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 132A:
Dynasties, Dictators and Democrats: History and Politics in Germany (GERMAN 132)
Key moments in German history through documents: personal accounts, political speeches and texts, and literary works. The course begins with the Prussian monarchy and proceeds to the crisis years of the French Revolution. Documents from the 1848 revolution and the age of Bismarck and German unification follow. World War I and its impact on Germany, including the rise of Hitler, as well as the aftermath, divided Germany in the Cold War through the fall of the Berlin Wall. Taught in German.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 135:
Chinese Cultural Revolution: Performance, Politics, and Aesthetics (CHINA 116, CHINA 216)
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.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 138A:
Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture (JAPAN 138, JAPAN 238)
This class introduces key literary texts from Japan's modern era (1868-present), locating these works in the larger political, social, and cultural trends of the period. Primary texts include: Futabatei Shimei's Floating Clouds, Higuchi Ichiyô's Child's Play, Natsume Sôseki's Kokoro, Kobayashi Takiji's Cannery Boat, Ôe Kenzaburô's The Catch, and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchen. Examination of these literary works will be contextualized within larger political trends (e.g., the modernization program of the Meiji regime, the policies of Japan's wartime government, and postwar Japanese responses to the cold war), social developments (e.g., changing notions of social class, the women's rights movement, and the social effects of the postwar economic expansion), and cultural movements (e.g., literary reform movement of the 1890s, modernism of the 1920s and 30s, and postmodernism of the 1980s). The goal of the class is to use literary texts as a point of entry to understand the grand narrative of Japan's journey from its tentative re-entry into the international community in the 1850s, through the cataclysm of the Pacific War, to the remarkable prosperity of the bubble years in the 1980s.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 141A:
The Meaning of Arabic Literature: a seminar investigation into the nebulous concept of adab
An investigation into the concept of literature in mediaeval Arabic. Was there a mediaeval Arabic way of thinking? We look to develop a translation for the word "adab," a concept that dominated mediaeval Arabic intellectual culture, and is related in some ways to what we mean today when we use the word literature. Our core text is a literary anthology from the 900s in Iraq and we try, together, to work out what literature meant for the author and his contemporaries. Readings, assignments and, class discussion all in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 142:
The Literature of the Americas (AMSTUD 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative 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.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 142B:
Translating Japan, Translating the West (JAPAN 121, JAPAN 221)
Translation lies at the heart of all intercultural exchange. This course introduces students to the specific ways in which translation has shaped the image of Japan in the West, the image of the West in Japan, and Japan's self-image in the modern period. What texts and concepts were translated by each side, how, and to what effect? No prior knowledge of Japanese language necessary.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 143A:
Alla Turca Love: Tales of Romance in Turkish Literature (COMPLIT 342)
An introduction to 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. Topics 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. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| 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, wrapped in past and present have inspired great art and literature. The class explores how Istanbul inspired artists and writers, and focuses on the idea of 'inbetweenness' through art, literature, music, and film seen chronologically. In addition to discussing literary, historical, and secondaty texts we will explore visual genres such as film, painting, and photography. All readings, screenings, and discussions will be in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 144B:
Istanbul the Muse: Gateways to the World
This course explores Turkish cultural and political history over the last century with a focus on the city of Istanbul. We will examine the opposing concepts that have been used to define the city (e.g., East/West, past/present, local/migrant, preservation/development) and competing memories of its diverse inhabitants through art, film, literature, and music. This course is an excellent preparation for students wishing to spend a quarter with the Bing Overseas Studies Program in Istanbul, Turkey, although it is open to any interested student. All readings and screenings will be in English.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 145:
Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature (AMELANG 126, JEWISHST 106)
How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views.nnGuest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 145B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 146:
Asian American Culture and Community (AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, CSRE 146S)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
COMPLIT 146A:
The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature (COMPLIT 347)
An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 147A:
The Hebrew Bible in Literature (COMPLIT 347A, JEWISHST 147A, JEWISHST 347A)
Close reading of major biblical stories and poems that influenced modern literature written in English and Hebrew. Hebrew texts will be read in translation to English. Each class will include a section from the Hebrew Bible as well as a modern text or film based on the biblical story/poem. Discussion of questions such as: the meaning and function of myths and the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the development of literary styles and genres.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 149A:
Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction (COMPLIT 346)
The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 151A:
Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives (COMPLIT 351A)
Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 151B:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (COMPLIT 351B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons. This course counts as a Writing in the Major course for TAPS in 2016-17.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 153C:
Aesthetics (COMPLIT 253C)
A double reflection about a) the historical emergence of concepts and discourses referring to aesthetic sensibility, creativity and judgment in early Western Modernity, and b) the potential and the limits of this philosophical endeavor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 154A:
Film & Philosophy (FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)
Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 154B:
Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 354B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B)
Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 157:
Contemporary Turkish Cinema and Society (COMPLIT 357)
This course is an examination of contemporary Turkish cinema in a social and political context. The course will focus on films and directors that revived Turkish cinema starting with the mid-1990s with a focus on key issues pertaining to belonging, denied identities, masculinity, nationalism, silencing of women, and urbanization. The course aims to provide an overview of contemporary Turkish cinema and society in cultural, political, and social framework. There will be approximately two hours of film screening and two hours of classroom discussion/seminar (in English) each week. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 160:
The Literature of Dehumanization
An examination of a constellation in Western literature that specifically deals with a borderline state between humanity and animality, showing different approaches to the problem of humanity and non-humanity through some of the major works in the modern Western literary canon. The class explores the different ways in which dehumanization takes place in these texts, and how these texts also suggest a regaining of one's lost humanity. Readings include: Ovid, Marie de France, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Heine, Baudelaire, Tolstoy, Nietszche, Lautreamont, Kafka, Rilke, Celan, and more.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 161:
Co-Existence in Hebrew Literature (AMELANG 175, JEWISHST 146)
Is co-existence possible? Does pluralism require co-existence? Can texts serve as forms of co-existence? The class will focus on these and other questions related to coexistence and literature. Through reading works mostly by Jewish authors writing in Europe, Israel and the US we will explore attempts for complete equality, for a variety of hierarchical systems and for different kinds of co-dependence. Guest speaker: professor Anat Weisman, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
| Units: 4-5
COMPLIT 162:
American Poetry and Secular Prayer
This course will explore the practice of "secular prayer" in early- and mid-20th Century North American poetry. We will look at diverse poetic examples of meditation, contemplation, exegesis and revelation in order to consider how and why poetry has maintained a particular relation to the sacred, even amidst a secular cultural and intellectual context. We'll also consider how this question has played out in several key strands of 20th century literary theory, with particular emphasis on New Criticism and Eco-Criticism. Primary readings will include the poetry of T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Audre Lorde, George Oppen, Robert Bly, Mary Oliver, Charles Wright and Jan Zwicky.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 171:
Ethics of Jihad (ETHICSOC 102R)
Why choose jihad? An introduction to Islamic ethics. Focus on ways in which people have chosen, rejected, or redefined jihad. Evaluation of the norms in moments of ethical and political choice. Topics include jihad in the age of 1001 Nights, jihad in the Arab Renaissance, jihad in Bin Laden's sermons, and the hashtag #MyJihad. All readings and discussion in English.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER
COMPLIT 181:
Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 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, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 183:
Self-Impersonation: Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir (ENGLISH 183E)
Course will examine the intersecting genres of fiction, autobiography, and memoir. Topics will include the literary construction of selfhood and its constituent categories (gender, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.); the role of language in the development of the self; the relational nature of the self (vis-à-vis the family, "society," God); the cultural status of "individuality"; the concept of childhood; and the role of individual testimony in our understanding of family, religious and national history.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 190:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 390, SLAVIC 190, SLAVIC 390)
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%).
Last offered: Winter 2014
| 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: ;
Barletta, V. (PI);
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Brookshaw, D. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Dierkes, P. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Huber, M. (PI);
Karahan, B. (PI);
Key, A. (PI);
Landy, J. (PI);
Lee, H. (PI);
Moretti, F. (PI);
Mudimbe-Boyi, E. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Parker, P. (PI);
Saldivar, J. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
Wang, B. (PI);
Macdonald, M. (GP)
COMPLIT 195:
Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE 196C, ENGLISH 172D, PSYCH 155, SOC 146, TAPS 165)
How different disciplines approach topics and issues central to the study of ethnic and race relations in the U.S. and elsewhere. Lectures by senior faculty affiliated with CSRE. Discussions led by CSRE teaching fellows. Includes an optional Haas Center for Public Service certified Community Engaged Learning section.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 197:
Designing a Digital Community: Human Rights (DLCL 197)
This course will focus on helping to design, conceptualize, and populate an international human rights website. No knowledge of web design or of human rights is necessary to get started on this project. We have technical assistance available, though hopefully this course will attract students with those skills as well. Similarly, we will be learning about human rights as we build the site, explore and share resources and ideas, and reflect on the content. Preliminary site viewable at teachinghumanrights.org
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 199:
Senior Seminar
What is criticism? When we interpret literature today, are we fulfilling the critical vocation? What are the alternatives? We consider the origins of the idea of the critic in nineteenth-century culture, its development in the twentieth century, and its current exponents, revisionists, and dissenters. Senior seminar for Comparative Literature Senior majors only.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 202:
Peripheral Modernism, in light of Modern Hebrew Poetry
Modern Hebrew Poetry is a unique, surprising branch of European and Anglo-American modernism. Reading major works of this literature -- by Bialik, Rachel, Shlonsky, Goldberg, Amichai and Ravikovitch -- will serve both as a comprehensive introduction to Modern Hebrew poetry as well as a case study of Peripheral Modernism vs. Modernism.nTaught in English. Primary sources will be available also in Hebrew.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 203:
The Money Philosophers: Marx, Simmel, Keynes, Hayek
In this course we will discuss selections from writings by Marx, Simmel, Keynes, and Hayek that focuses on money, a key but neglected aspect of their work. It is money that drives todays economies, rather than "business", the "market", "capital", or the "state". It is this exclusive concern with monetary phenomena that uniquely defines these authors and characterizes their work as philosophical rather than economic, sociological or anthropological.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 209:
Advanced Readings in Persian
Close study and analysis of representative works of Persian literature (prose, poetry, drama) and culture (art, history, music, cinema, journalism) designed to enhance students reading skills by familiarizing them with a wide range of linguistic styles and registers.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-5
COMPLIT 210B:
Cinematic Neorealism (COMPLIT 310B, ITALIAN 210, ITALIAN 310)
The course will consist in a close reading and theoretical assessment of a much celebrated body of films by Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Pasolini, and others, subtitled in English. The seminar aims to provide students with the instruments of film analysis; to engage in the study of the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of this distinctive filmic style; to debate current definitions of realism and neorealism. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 211A:
Emile Zola (FRENCH 211)
A comprehensive introduction to and historical analysis of Emile Zola's literary work as foundational for the late-nineteenth century literary movement that we call "Naturalism." The analysis of Zola's novels will be embedded in the historical situation of France in the transition from the Second Empire to the Third Republic, with special emphasis on the epistemological situation of that time. Knowledge of French desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 213A:
Martin Heidegger (COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382)
Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 214A:
Wilde's Worlds: Oscar Wilde in an International Context (FEMGEN 214A)
Introduction to Oscar Wilde's major works and their reception history in various international and transnational contexts from the 1890s to today, in conjunction with Wilde's iconic importance for LGBTQ history and rights: from Wilde's own love for Greece, Rome, and Japanese art, to his erotic and aesthetic networks in Paris; from international adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salomé, The Importance of Being Earnest, and De Profundis across Europe, Asia, and the U.S.; to Wilde's vibrant afterlife in global cinema, the visual and performing arts, and popular culture today.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-5
COMPLIT 217:
The Poetry of Friedrich Holderlin (GERMAN 217)
A working through of the complex prosodic forms, existential and political concerns, and poetological reflections of both the most past-oriented and most pathbreaking German poet of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. A comprehensive introduction that will attempt to develop an innovative view in which Holderlin will appear as one of the founding figures of literary Modernity. Knowledge of German desirable but participation through English translations will be possible.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 219:
Dostoevsky: Narrative Performance and Literary Theory (SLAVIC 251)
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. Course applies recent theory of autobiography, performance, repetition and narrative gaps, to Dostoevsky's transformations of genre, philosophical and dramatic discourse, and narrative performance. Slavic students read primary texts in Russian, other participants in translation. Course conducted in English. For graduate students; undergraduates with advanced linguistic and critical competence may enroll with consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 220:
Renaissance Africa (AFRICAST 220E, ILAC 220E, ILAC 320E)
Literature and Portuguese expansion into Africa during the sixteenth century. Emphasis on forms of exchange between Portuguese and Africans in Morocco, Angola/Congo, South Africa, the Swahili Coast, and Ethiopia. Readings in Portuguese and English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 221A:
Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages (FRENCH 234, ITALIAN 234)
A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 222A:
German Literature 3: Myth and Modernity (GERMAN 222, GERMAN 322)
Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Undergraduates enroll in 222 for 5 units, graduate students enroll in 322 for 8 units.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 223:
Literature and Human Experimentation (AFRICAAM 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220)
This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
COMPLIT 224:
Literature in the Age of Digital Culture
Study literary classics about readers and reading (by Austen, Dickinson, Wilde, Benjamin, Eliot, Orwell, Borges, Calvino, Bechdel, etc.) and compare with digital reading/writing today: fan fiction and online expansions of "the book", literary collaborations online, changing notions of "author", "reader", "work", literary-social interactions. Our literary close readings will also introduce some useful new digital tools and methods for literary studies (annotation, editing, and research tools, web-based public social interactions, innovative digital humanities projects in literary studies today). No technical prerequisites.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 224A:
Genocide and The Humanities
We will study the history and current instances of genocide and waysnnin which the humanities deal with these. Mass slaughter would seemnnto be opposed by the supposedly humane nature of the humanities. Yetnneach realm of the humanities has its own constraints. We will studynnhistoriography, memoires, novels, and films in order to recognizennideologies of representation and signifying implications ofnnstructure. By discerning implicit values, students will gain toolsnnthey can use in working to eliminate genocide.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 225E:
Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 325E, ITALIAN 225, ITALIAN 325)
In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 226A:
Queer Literature and Film (FEMGEN 226A)
Close analysis of major works of LGBTQ literature, film, and visual art from the 1890s to today. Students will gain deeper knowledge and appreciation of historical and contemporary forms of queer representation in various national literatures, film, and visual art; understand relevant social and political debates; and gain a basic knowledge of feminist and queer theory. Course will include an optional online component to reach out to the public (class website queerlitfilm.wordpress.com, social media).
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 227A:
The Ballad Tradition (GERMAN 200)
This team-taught cross-disciplinary course traces the history and aesthetics of the ballad in German, English, and Scottish literature, from the 18th century to the early 20th century. No knowledge of German is required, but reading knowledge is a plus.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 228D:
Introduction to Digital Humanities: Concepts, Technologies, Tools (COMPLIT 338D, DLCL 228)
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 research, scholarship, and publishing. Topics will include history of the digital humanities, textual studies, electronic literature, computational and new media, and emerging work around text, image, and new media curation and visualization. This seminar is ideal for anyone interested in digital methods and digital in the humanities, teaching with new digital methods, or to learn about all the digital humanities projects at Stanford.nnThis course is organized as a mix of seminar and workshop and will be featuring a new platform called "Lacuna Stories," designed for Stanford students, that presents multiple platforms, media, and texts to digitally engage with narratives surrounding 9/11; active engagement by all participants is expected. Students may contribute to the field with a creative final project that they develop over the course of the quarter if they select the 3-unit option.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 229:
Literature and Global Health (AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
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.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 232:
Programming and Poetry (DLCL 226)
How can we study computer code as literature? What can poetry teach us about programming and vice versa? These types of questions drive this course, which has two different tracks: one for computer science students and one for literature students. The focus is on the development of a shared conceptual middle ground at which these two tracks can meet. Topics include critical code studies, code poetry, and cognition. Authors include Elizabeth Bishop, Ada Lovelace, Hayden Carruth, and Donald Knuth.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
COMPLIT 233:
Baroque and Neobaroque (ENGLISH 233, ILAC 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.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 235A:
The Queer Literature and Arts Salon, 1870s-1930s (FEMGEN 235A)
Study of the vibrant 1870s-1930s European salon culture in Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna, focusing on the crucial roles of queer writers, artists, composers, performers, and their aesthetic and erotic networks, which inspired important artistic alliances, collaborations, and avant-garde experimentations. Course addresses such figures as Wilde, Rachilde, Stein, Barney, Romaine Brooks, Winnaretta Singer, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Poulenc, Ravel, Man Ray, Cocteau; movements like the Ballets Russes, Art Nouveau, the Munich and Vienna Secession movements, Surrealism, Art Deco, etc. Assignments may include digital arts salon project (no technical prerequisites) and/or outreach to community organizations.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 2-5
COMPLIT 236:
Literature and Transgression (FEMGEN 236)
Close reading and analysis of erotic-sexual and aesthetic-stylistic transgression in selected works by such authors as Baudelaire, Wilde, Flaubert, Rachilde, Schnitzler, Kafka, Joyce, Barnes, Eliot, Bataille, Burroughs, Thomas Mann, Kathy Acker, as well as in recent digital literature and online communities. Along with understanding the changing cultural, social, and political contexts of what constitutes "transgression" or censorship, students will gain knowledge of influential theories of transgression and conceptual limits by Foucault, Blanchot, and contemporary queer and feminist writers.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 237A:
Jesters, Cross-dressers, and Rebels: A Subversive History of Persian Literature
This course seeks to offer an alternative history of Persian literature from the Middle Ages to the present by looking at literary forms and figures that are not part of the canon: the counter-classical traditions of parody and satire, the folk genres of shadow play and takhteh-howzi, the theatrical art of wandering minstrels, 20th century revolutionary songs, etc. We will be tracing the burlesque, scatological, carnivalesque, and, more generally, irreverent in Persian literature and see how these elements subvert established social norms and political orders. Even though the course will draw on materials from Persian literature and culture, the aim is broader: to ask questions about power, hierarchies, censorship, the formation of a literary canon through the exclusion of certain narratives, the role of humour and laughter, the subversive force of the female - even as a cross-dresser - in public performance, and profanity as a tool of protest against the hegemonic order. Open to undergraduates and graduates. Taught in English. If desired, selected readings can be provided in Persian.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 237C:
Human Rights, Literature, Justice
This course will have three components. The first will be a set of readings on the history and ethos of modern human rights. These readings will come from philosophy, history, political theory. The second component will consist of readings from various global locations that involve human rights in various ways, predominantly as they interface with issues of environmental justice. Finally, this course will involve students in creating and populating a website that will be not only the archive of our work in class but also build a set of resources to be shared with others (we will be adding partners from different locations to speak to us online from their locations as well as to share resources and ideas). We will come away from this class with a good introduction to human rights history and philosophy; a set of insights into a variety of imaginative workings-out of human rights and environmental justice issues from different global locations, and a rich web resource.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 238A:
Uneasy Modernity: 20th Century Persian Poetry and the Specter of Tradition
Drawing on poems, theoretical texts, and audio-visual materials, this course seeks to retrace the struggle for a modern poetic language in Iran from the time of the Constitutional Revolution (1905/6) to the Islamic Revolution (1979), and beyond. Topics include: the unresolved relationship between tradition and modernity; poetry as a vehicle of enlightenment and revolution; the quest for a new poetic expression of love; the construction of historical memory through literature; responses to the experience of modern alienation; the figure of the poet as dissident; and the subversive force of poetic form itself. Poets include: Iraj Mirz, Mohammad Taqi Bah'r, Nim Yushij, Ahmad Shmlu, Sohrb Sepehri, Mehdi Akhavn Sles, Forugh Farrokhzd, and Esm'il Kho'i. Secondary readings include texts by Theodor W. Adorno, Mikhail Bakhtin, Emile Benveniste, Maurice Blanchot, Michel de Certeau, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and Paul Ricur. Taught in English.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 239B:
Literature and Social Online Learning (CS 27, ENGLISH 239B)
Study, develop, and test new digital methods, games, apps, interactive social media uses to innovate how the humanities can engage and educate students and the public today. Exploring well-known literary texts, digital storytelling forms and literary communities online, students work individually and in interdisciplinary teams to develop innovative projects aimed at bringing literature to life. Tasks include literary role-plays on Twitter; researching existing digital pedagogy and literary projects, games, and apps; reading and coding challenges; collaborative social events mediated by new technology. Minimal prerequisites which vary for students in CS and the humanities; please check with instructors.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 240A:
Introduction to Hebrew Literature
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.
Last offered: Winter 2011
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 242A:
Short Stories from South Asia
This course will explore how cultural identities of the nations in South Asia were re-defined after the Partition of India in 1947, the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948 and the formation of Bangladesh in 1971. Comparative/cross-cultural study of stories will be taken up for indepth analysis based on certain themes like partition and violence, myth and narrative, gender and narrative, music and narratology, familial patterns, etc.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 243A:
From Idol to Equal: Changing Images of Love in 20th-Century Persian and Turkish Literature
This course will explore the changing images of love in pivotal works of modern Persian and Turkish literature. Classes will include close readings and discussions of poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the constellation of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. Our starting point will be the adoption of the novel as a form in the late 19th century. From there, we will explore different figurations of love in key texts of the 20th century up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978) and the coup d'état in Turkey (1980). Themes will include the end of empire and the demise of the concubine, the portrayal of the homeland as lover, secularization and the lifting of the veil, the figure of the female pioneer, the conflict of western and eastern morals, the prostitute as a new paradigm, the emergence of female writers, and avantgarde conceptions of love. Open to undergraduate and graduate students. All readings and discussions will be in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 243B:
Readings in Avicenna and al-Jurjani
Classical Arabic reading course. Instructor approval required. Pre-requisite: minimum two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 245:
Introductory Ottoman Turkish
This course is an introduction to basic orthographic conventions and grammatical characteristics of Ottoman Turkish through readings in printed material from the 19th and 20th centuries. Selected readings will range from poetry to prose, from state documents, newspaper and journal articles to reference works. Course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Prior knowledge of modern Turkish is required (Completion of COMPLIT 248A, COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish I&II and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish OR AMELANG 184 & 185 First & Second Year Turkish OR a solid knowledge of Turkish grammar.) Please contact the instructor for more information.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 245B:
ADVANCED READING IN TURKISH
Close study and analysis of representative works of Italian literature (prose, poetry, drama) and culture (art, history, music, cinema, politics) designed to enhance the student's reading skills. Usually offered every year.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-53
COMPLIT 246B:
Ottoman Translation Workshop
This course aims to provide students with training in reading printed Ottoman Turkish texts and translating them into English. Through translation we will explore not only syntactical and lexical problems, but also cultural history and politics as they relate to the texts. Open to undergraduate and graduate students. High intermediate or advanced level of modern Turkish and introductory level of Ottoman Turkish is required. Contact Burcu Karahan Richardson (bkarahan@stanford.edu) for more information.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 1-2
| Repeatable
for credit
(up to 99 units total)
COMPLIT 247:
Bollywood and Beyond: An Introduction to Indian Film (FILMSTUD 250B, GLOBAL 250)
A broad engagement with Indian cinema: its relationship with Indian politics, history, and economics; its key thematic concerns and forms; and its adaptation of and response to global cinematic themes, genres, and audiences. Locating the films within key critical and theoretical debates and scholarship on Indian and world cinemas. Goal is to open up what is often seen as a dauntingly complex region, especially for those who are interested in but unfamiliar with its histories and cultural forms.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 247F:
Beyond Casablanca: North African Cinema and Literature (FRENCH 242, JEWISHST 242)
This course explores the emergence of Francophone cinema and literature from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco) in the post-independence era: aesthetics, exile, language métissage, race and gender relations, collective memory, parallax, nationalism, laicité, religion, emigration and immigration, and the Arab Spring will be covered. Special attention will be given to judeo-maghrebi history, and to the notions of francophone / maghrebi / "beur" / diasporic cinema and literature. Readings from Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, Kateb Yacine, Albert Camus, Colette Fellous, Abdelkebir Khatibi, Leila Sebbar, Benjamin Stora, Lucette Valensi, Abdelwahab Meddeb. Movies include Viva Laldjérie, Tenja, Le Chant des Mariées, Française, Bled Number One, Omar Gatlato, Casanegra, La Saison des Hommes. Taught in French. Films in French and Arabic with English subtitles.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 248A:
Reading Turkish I
Reading Turkish I is an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; since the goal is advanced reading level, the focus is mainly on grammar, reading comprehension, and translation. With full concentration on reading, we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time. The course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class. nnCOMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I is followed by COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II in the Winter and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring."
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-4
COMPLIT 248B:
Reading Turkish II
This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I, which served as an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This 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. This course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class.nnCOMPLIT 248B is followed by COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
COMPLIT 248C:
Advanced Turkish-English Translation
This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I and COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II. Refining advanced grammar, reading, and translation skills in modern Turkish through intensive reading and translation from a variety of source texts. Emphasis on Turkish cultural, historical, literary, and political texts depending on students' academic interests. Prerequisites COMPLIT 248A & B or prior knowledge of Turkish and consultation with the instructor is necessary.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2-4
COMPLIT 249A:
The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning (GLOBAL 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. Each session will be designated to the viewing of a film by a prominent Iranian filmmaker. Students are expected to prepare for class by having previously examined other available films by the filmmaker under consideration.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 249B:
Iranian Cinema in Diaspora (GLOBAL 249B)
pite enormous obstacles, immigrant Iranian filmmakers, within a few decades (after the Iranian Revolution), have created a slow but steady stream of films outside Iran. They were originally started by individual spontaneous attempts from different corners of the world and by now we can identify common lines of interest amongst them. There are also major differences between them. These films have never been allowed to be screened inside Iran, and without any support from the global system of production and distribution, as independent and individual attempts, they have enjoyed little attention. Despite all this, Iranian cinema in exile is in no sense any less important than Iranian cinema inside Iran. In this course we will view one such film, made outside Iran, in each class meeting and expect to reach a common consensus in identifying the general patterns within these works and this movement. Questions such as the ones listed below will be addressed in our meetings each week: What changes in aesthetics and point of view of the filmmaker are caused by the change in his or her work environment? Though unwantedly these films are made outside Iran, how related are they to the known (recognized) cinema within Iran? And in fact, to what extent do these films express things that are left unsaid by the cinema within Iran?
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 249C:
Contemporary Iranian Theater (GLOBAL 249C)
Today, Iranian plays¿both in traditional and contemporary styles¿are staged in theater festivals throughout the world and 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. Forty-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, today's generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. In 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. Students are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions. NOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 250:
Literature, History and Memory (FRENCH 248)
Analysis of literary works as historical narratives. Focus on the relationship history, fiction, and memory as reflected in Francophone literary texts that envision new ways of reconstructing or representing ancient or immediate past. Among questions to be raised: individual memory and collective history, master narratives and alternatives histories, the role of reconstructing history in the shaping or consolidating national or gender identities. Readings include fiction by Glissant, Kane, Condé, Schwarz-Bart, Djebar, Perec, as well as theoretical texts by Ricoeur, de Certeau, Nora, Halbwachs, White, Echevarrîa. Taught in French.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 252A:
Classic Arabic Poetry
Introduction to great Arabic poetry from the sixth to the twenty-first century. Imru¿ al-Qays, al-Mutanabbi, Mahmud Darwish, and more. Includes focus on the skills needed to read and understand, from grammar to dictionaries, encyclopedias, memorization, and the internets. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 252B:
Classic Arabic Prose
Introduction to great Arabic prose writing from the 700s and the dawn of Islam to the 2010s and the Arab Spring. Al-Jahiz, Naguib Mahfouz, and more. Includes focus on the skills needed to read and understand, from grammar to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and the internets. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 253:
Honoré de Balzac (FRENCH 253)
Working through a selection of novels by the author widely considered as a founder of western (19th-century) "Literary Realism." Balzac's will be contextualized within his life and the French culture and literature of his time. We will also approach, from a philosophical point of view, the emergence and functions of "Literary Realism." Another focus will be Balzac's work as exemplary of certain traditions within Literary Criticism (particularly Marxist Literary Criticism). Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 253C:
Aesthetics (COMPLIT 153C)
A double reflection about a) the historical emergence of concepts and discourses referring to aesthetic sensibility, creativity and judgment in early Western Modernity, and b) the potential and the limits of this philosophical endeavor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 254:
Modern Chinese Novel: Theory, Aesthetics, History (CHINA 374)
By reading theories of fiction along with 5 representative Chinese novels, the course explores the individual¿s relationships to the moral fabric of family, community, and society. In the transition from the traditional culture to the modern world, the traditional moral order was dismantled. Yet strands of old morality persist and are revitalized into new moral imperatives. The modern Chinese novel will be a prism to comprehend the critique and novelization of the moral norms in the formation of modern subjectivity. The theoretical half of the course includes Taylor¿s Sources of the Self, Slaughter¿s Human Rights, Inc., Marston Anderson¿s Limits of Realism, and works by Chinese theorists. We will read fictions by Wu Woyao, Mao Dun, Ding Ling, Zhang Rong, and Yu Hua. This course will be part of the workshop ¿Moral Reform, Public Virtue, and Literature,¿ sponsored by Stanford¿s McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society. Speakers will be invited to present their work. All books are provided for free.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 257A:
Literature and Death: An Existential Constellation in its Historical Unfolding (COMPLIT 355A, FRENCH 256, ITALIAN 255)
This seminar will pursue the intuition that literary texts, due to their status as ¿fiction,¿ have always been intensely related to Death as the ultimate horizon of individual existence, a horizon that is only available to our ¿imagination.¿ We will concentrate on this ¿ largely unexplored ¿ link as an existential constellation of concrete historical and of challenging philosophical complexity. The discussions will begin with a detailed analysis of the canonical passages in Martin Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ from 1927 that try to understand the difference between Death ¿as seen from outside¿ and Death in its ¿Jemeinigkeit,¿ that is Death as the absolute end-horizon of individual existence which necessarily causes ¿Angst¿ because it is followed by ¿Nothingness.¿nnOn this basis and supplemented by an introduction into several present-day theories and reflections on ¿imagination¿ as a distinct potential of the human mind, we will dedicate the weekly seminar sessions to specific historical moments and different literary (and perhaps artistic) forms that have articulated the connection between Death and Literature (with the final choice of texts and paradigms being open to the participants¿ interests and area of competence). Topics and textual materials may include:nn- fifth century Greek Tragedy,n- Roman Stoicism,n- Medieval Epic in the context of Christian cosmology,n- Death as a horizon of individual existence in early Modernity (¿Don Quijote¿),n- the invisible presence of Death in baroque artn- the bracketing of Death in the context of the Enlightenment mentality,n- Death and suicide as gestures of Romantic self-stylization,n- the presence of Death in Classical and Romantic conception of musicn- Death and ¿the absence of God¿ in nineteenth century novels and philosophy,n- the experience of World War I and a new intensity in the experience of Death,n- Death and grand abstraction in artn- Death in mid-twentieth century Existentialismn- Death and its place in the ¿¿Anthropocene¿ as an early twenty-first century frame of mind.nnEmphasizing weekly the reading assignments and intense participation in the seminar discussions, this course is laid out for two units (no final paper) but open for the participation of auditors (including undergraduate students with specific areas of competence) who are willing to work through the full range of philosophical texts, literary texts, and artworks on the syllabus. Students interested in this topic should begin with a reading of Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ and try to remember own readings and forms of experiences that seem pertinent to this topic. Contact with the instructor during the summer months is encouraged (sepp@stanford.edu).
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 2-3
COMPLIT 258A:
Existentialism, from Moral Quest to Novelistic Form
This seminar intends to follow the development of Existentialism from its genesis to its literary expressions in the European postwar. The notions of defining commitment, of moral ambiguity, the project of the self, and the critique of humanism will be studied in selected texts by Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Unamuno, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Joan Sales.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 259A:
Levinas and Literature (JEWISHST 249A)
Focus is on major works by French phenomenologist Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) and their import for literary studies. Aim is to discuss and evaluate Levinas's (often latent) aesthetics through a close reading of his work in phenomenology, ethics, and Jewish philosophy. If poetry has come to seem barbaric (or at least useless) in a world so deeply shaped by genocide, forced migration, and climate change, Levinas offers a clear and deeply engaged path forward. If you love literature but still haven't figured out what on earth it might be good for, this course is for you. Readings and discussion in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 260B:
Love and Negativity in Medieval Persian Mysticism
An analysis of apophatic discourses of love in medieval Persian mystical texts, 800-1300 AD. The philosophical underpinnings and implications of Sufi thought are discussed in this course. The principal aim, however, is to shed light on the radical poetic force of the Persian texts. Topics to be addressed include the fundamentally oral, temporal nature of mystic speech; the relation of the speaking I to the unknown and unknowable Other; the discourse of love in which God and the beloved are one; the linguistic fragmentation of mystical discourse, straining against the edges of meaning; the possibility of salvaging mystical experience in language; and, finally, the question of apophasis as a theologically and politically subversive act. Primary readings include texts on and by Bayazid Bastami (800-874), Mansur al-Hallaj (857-922), Ayn al-Qozat al-Hamadani (1098-1131), Ruzbihan Baqli (1128-1209), Farid al-Din Attar (1145/46-1221), Shahab ad-Din al-Suhrawardi (1154-1191), and Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273). These texts will be complemented by readings from Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Michel de Certeau, Jacques Derrida, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Emmanuel Levinas, and Paul Ricoeur, among others. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 262A:
Explosions of Enlightenment (GERMAN 262A)
Eighteenth-century culture seen as permeated by intellectual and artistic practices and plays pushing principles of reason and rationality to an extreme that becomes self-undercutting. Such obsessions and practices are becoming more visible and prominent now, as the traditional concept of "Enlightenment" (synonymous with the 18th century) is undergoing a profound transformation. Among the protagonists of this seminar will be: Diderot as a philosopher and novelist; Lichtenberg as a scientist and writer of everyday notes; Goya, accusing violence and obsessed with nightmarish visions; Mozart as the excessive master of repetition and variation.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 264:
Walter Benjamin (GERMAN 264A)
Walter Benjamin's work as cultural historian, critic, literary author and philosopher, seen from the trajectory of a German-Jewish intellectual life in the context of the first half of the 20th century. Providing such a historical perspective will be the condition for an actively critical reading of Benjamin's works; a reading that -- counter to the predominant Benjamin-reception -- will try to distinguish between works of purely biographical and historical interest and those Benjamin texts that prove to be of great and lasting intellectual value. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 270:
Poetess (Obsolete): Women Poets Take Back Time
Is there a tradition of women poets creating forms against the grain of their time? Close reading of women poets in conjunction with short readings in philosophy of time (Kant, Kierkegaard, Bergson, Heidegger). Syllabus includes Sappho, Dickinson, G Mistral, M Moore, E Bishop, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Plath, N Sachs, G Brooks, Harjo, Cisneros, Szymborska, Students will introduce their favorites. Last weeks: living poet-performers, including our own Stanford talent. Poetry party/Symposium at end.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 275:
Humanities Education in the Changing University (DLCL 320, GERMAN 250)
Advanced study in the humanities faces changes within fields, the university and the wider culture. Considers the debate over the status of the humanities with regard to historical genealogies and current innovations. Particular attention on changes in doctoral education. Topics include: origins of the research university; disciplines and specialization; liberal education in conflict with professionalization; literature and literacy education; interdisciplinarity as a challenge to departments; education policy; digital humanities; accountability in education, assessment and student-centered pedagogies.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3
COMPLIT 278:
European Nihilism (COMPLIT 378, FRENCH 278, FRENCH 378, ITALIAN 278, ITALIAN 378)
This course will probe the thought of nothingness in various European writers and thinkers. The main authors include Giacomo Leopardi, Nietszsche, Michelstader, Heidegger, Beckett, and Emile Cioran.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 281:
Visions of the Future in Literature
Emphasis on personal and collective future as perceived and described in works translated from Hebrew or written originally in English. Focus on novels, short stories, poems and movies that deal both with the future of Israel and the Middle East and the future of individuals in the area. Guest speaker on Science Fiction and the Graphic Novel. The course is part of "The Future of Storytelling" activities organized by Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
COMPLIT 281E:
Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 381E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314)
In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 283:
Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature from the Bible to the Present (JEWISHST 243)
This course presents and reflects on some of the canonical works of Hebrew literature, from biblical era to the present. Discussing works such as the Wisdom Books and selections from the Midrash; and reflecting on important periods such as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain, the Renaissance, and contemporary Israeli literature, we will highlight linguistic innovation, as well as crucial thematic and philosophical concerns. Readings include the Book of Job, Psalm, Ibn Gabirol, Mapu, Rachel, Goldbegr, Agnon, S. Yizhar, Amichai, Oz and more.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 290:
Human Rights in a Global Frame: Race, Place, Redress, Resistance (AFRICAAM 290, CSRE 290)
A presentation of human rights discourse around issues of how we "occupy" space. Centering on racialized spaces and the effects on a wide range rights in US and in other countries. Readings on human rights, history, critique. Deep readings in cultural texts and practices that name injustice and seek redress in a number of forms.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 302:
Film Series: Understanding Turkey Through Film (COMPLIT 102)
Join us in our quest to understand the recent developments in Turkey and their impact on its people through cinematic production. Set against the backdrop of Turkey's cultural, political and social transformation in the last decade, the movies in this series tell the uneasy stories of individuals whose lives are affected by this disruptive change. By examining the link between individual troubles and public issues, the films confront issues such as globalization, gender and racial hierarchy, neo-liberal urban transformation, male domination, state oppression, and women's oppression in Turkey. Each screening will be followed by a discussion lead by invited scholars of Turkey or film directors. At each screening we will look closely at a film and discuss how the directors and script writers responded to larger scale cultural and social dynamics to present them as personal stories. Enrolled students must attend all five screenings and at least three talks of their choice at the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies annual conference Understanding Turkey: Vision, Revision, and the Future which will be held on April 28-29 2017. All screenings are free and open to the public. All attendees are encouraged to participate in the post-screening discussions. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
COMPLIT 303D:
Thinking in Fiction (ENGLISH 303D)
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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 306:
"Rethinking" Cognitive Mapping
Fredric Jameson begins his famous 1990 essay: "I am addressing a subject about which I know nothing whatsoever, except for the fact that it does not exist." A quarter of a century later we are going to ask, does it now? How does our sense of the world now register a new set of aesthetic, technological, and ideological formations? What is a "global positioning system"? What does it mean to walk through space these days? We will look at major theoretical essays, as well texts from China, Palestine, and Los Angeles. We will examine new cartographies, technologies, literary representations, all with a commitment to history and "location", whatever that us, and an abiding question about ethics - what does it mean to "take a position"?. Students will be encouraged to experiment with and introduce to us new modes of mapping. Throughout we will strive to maintain both a spirit of exploration and of critique.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 310:
Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies (COMPLIT 110, FEMGEN 110X, FEMGEN 310X)
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 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 310B:
Cinematic Neorealism (COMPLIT 210B, ITALIAN 210, ITALIAN 310)
The course will consist in a close reading and theoretical assessment of a much celebrated body of films by Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Pasolini, and others, subtitled in English. The seminar aims to provide students with the instruments of film analysis; to engage in the study of the aesthetics, ethics, and politics of this distinctive filmic style; to debate current definitions of realism and neorealism. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
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.
Last offered: Spring 2009
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 312:
Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents (COMPLIT 112, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312)
Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 313A:
Martin Heidegger (COMPLIT 213A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382)
Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2012
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 315:
Nabokov in the Transnational Context (COMPLIT 115, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356)
Nabokov'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.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 317:
João/Joyce: Guimarães Rosa and the World Novel (ILAC 367)
A comparative analysis of João Guimarães Rosa's (1908-1967) work, with special attention to the novel Grande Sertao-Veredas, translated by a Stanford professor, launched by A. Knopf in 1963. Rosa's fiction disturbs gender, racial, and literary divisions by the creation of a Babelic Brazilian Portuguese language from the sertao. Students increase their literary vocabulary with new terms, nonada and conconversa, and a gallery of Indigenous, Afro-Americans, mestizos, and foreigners' characters. Discussions in English; readings in Portuguese and Spanish.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
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 321A:
German Literature 2: Selfhood and History (GERMAN 221, GERMAN 321)
How the literature of the period between 1750 and 1900 gives voice to new conceptions of selfhood and articulates the emergent self understanding of modernity. Responses to unprecedented historical experiences such as the French Revolution and the ensuing wars, changes in the understanding of nature, the crisis of foundations, and the persistence of theological motifs. Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Kleist, Heine, Buchner, Keller, and Fontane. Taught in English, readings in German. (Note: Fulfills DLCL 325 for AY 1415 for the PhD Minor in the Humanities)
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 321B:
Anthropology and Literature: Problems of Representation, Power, and Textuality (ANTHRO 321A)
How are literary and social scientific forms of cultural description, evocation, and interpretation related? The seminar reads classic texts as well as recent experiments, addressing issues of genre, rhetoric, epistemology, translation, authority, and collaboration. The emphasis is on writing as a situated practice¿embodied, relational, and historically circumscribed. Authors may include Malinowski, Mead, Benedict, Lévi-Strauss, Geertz, Taussig, Leiris, Conrad, Achebe, Said, Barthes, Kroeber, Le Guin, and selected contemporary ethnographies. Examples from film, visual culture, and performance art may also be included.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 322:
A Re-reading of "Critique of Cynical Reason," Thirty-Three Years Later
With a publication date of the German original in 1983, Peter Sloterdijk's "Critique of Cynical Reason" has become one of the most influential and widely read philosophical works of the 20th century. Based on a close reading of its English translation, the author offers a historical and self-revisionist reading of his own -- long canonized -- text. This course meets only four times: 11/18, 11/30, 12/02, and 12/09. INSTRUCTOR: Peter Sloterdijk.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
COMPLIT 324:
Landscapes of the Sublime
The modern notion of the sublime in philosophy, literature, and art, emphasizing its connection to space and landscape. Topics include: how global exploration contributed to the sublime in the late 17th and 18th centuries; the romantic interiorization of the sublime; and the sublime's connection to mimesis, power, work, and technology. Writers may include Milton, Burke, Kant, Deleuze and Guattari, Freud, the Shelleys, Coleridge, Hugo, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud; artists may include Gericault, Turner, Delacroix, and Friedrich.
Last offered: Winter 2009
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 325:
Rethinking Comparative Literary Study Outside of Academia
This graduate seminar will serve three primary purposes: 1) we will create and inspire a dialogue to help us think through the application of comparative literary study in non-academic contexts, 2) we will refine our ideas by applying them in various exercises and settings, and, as a result, 3) we will need to investigate what is meant by the phrase "critical thinking." nnBroadly speaking, this seminar represents a forum for thinking creatively about the unique skills of a doctoral student as well as the specific challenges that await when pursuing career opportunities outside of academia. The goal is to come out of the seminar with a heightened appreciation of the humanities skill set in applications that may present new opportunities for the student. Texts will be highly cross-disciplinary, drawing from legal, financial, and technological traditions and mediums. No prerequisites required.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 325E:
Petrarch & Petrarchism: Fragments of the Self (COMPLIT 225E, ITALIAN 225, ITALIAN 325)
In this course we will examine Francis Petrarch's book of Italian lyric poems, Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, and its reception in early modern France, England, and Spain. Readings from Petrarch's epistolary and ethical writings will contextualize historically and intellectually the aesthetics and ethics of the fragment in his poetry. With this foundation, we will investigate the long-lasting impact of Petrarch¿s work on Renaissance poetry and humanism, with attention to both the literary and the material aspects of its reception. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 326:
(Pseudo)Bakhtin: Marxism, Formalism and Psychoanalysis in the Early 20th-Century Cultural Discourse. (SLAVIC 326)
The course explores the works allegedly written by the great Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin but published under the names of his friends and colleagues. The three texts include critical engagements with Marxism, Formalism and Psychoanalysis¿key interpretative frameworks of the early 20th century. The seminar investigates core Bakhtinian concepts and their dialogic reverberations in the "pseudo-Bakhtinian" corpus.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
COMPLIT 327:
Genres of the Novel (ENGLISH 327, FRENCH 327)
Provides students with an overview of some major genres in the history of the modern novel, along with major theorists in the critical understanding of the form. Novels might include works by Cervantes, Defoe, Lafayette, Radcliffe, Goethe, Scott, Balzac, Melville, and Woolf. Theorists might include Lukacs, Bakhtin, Jameson, Gallagher, Barthes, Kristeva, and Bourdieu. *PLEASE NOTE: Course for graduate students only.*
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 328:
Literature, Narrative, and the Self (FRENCH 328, ITALIAN 328)
The role of narrative in the well-lived life. Are narratives necessary? Can they, and should they, be literary? When might non-narrative approaches, whether literary or otherwise, be more relevant? Is unity of self something given, something to be achieved, or something to be overcome? Readings from Aristotle, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, MacIntyre, G. Strawson, Velleman; Ricoeur, Brooks; Shakespeare, Stendhal, Musil, Levi, Beckett, Morrison; film. Taught in English.
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 3-5
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.
Last offered: Spring 2011
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 331:
The Contemporary
Drawing on philosophy, theory, literature, and the arts, this graduate students seminar examines the concept of the contemporary and asks what it means to belong to our historical age: how do thinkers, writers, and artists make sense of the man-made catastrophes of the modern era; how by employing innovative thinking and aesthetics they allow us to consider the human condition as well as politics and ethics in our time. Philosophical readings include Arendt, Rorty, Agamben, Bauman, Taylor; literary readings include Marilynne Robinson, J. M. Coetzee, Phillip Roth, Sebald, Kluge, Celan among others.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 332:
The Transatlantic Renaissance
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? Readings in Columbus, More, Hakluyt, Spenser, Shakespeare, the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| 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.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 334B:
Concepts of Modernity II: Culture, Aesthetics, and Society in the Age of Globalization (ENGLISH 334B, MTL 334B)
Emphasis on world-system theory, theories of coloniality and power, and aesthetic modernity/postmodernity in their relation to culture broadly understood.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 335A:
Materialism and Literature (ILAC 335)
Exploration of vibrant materialism (Bennet, Latour) and historical materialism (critical theory) as a basis to approach Latin American commodity novels, i.e., those that revolve around bananas, coffee, etc. Literary works by J.E. Rivera, García Márquez, Asturias, Neruda, Magnus, and others. Taught in Spanish.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 336:
Medieval Culture as Presence Culture
Both an introduction into the complexities of medieval Western culture (from a perspective of "presence"-philosophy) and an introduction into Presence-Philosophy (through the lens of medieval Western culture).
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMPLIT 338D:
Introduction to Digital Humanities: Concepts, Technologies, Tools (COMPLIT 228D, DLCL 228)
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 research, scholarship, and publishing. Topics will include history of the digital humanities, textual studies, electronic literature, computational and new media, and emerging work around text, image, and new media curation and visualization. This seminar is ideal for anyone interested in digital methods and digital in the humanities, teaching with new digital methods, or to learn about all the digital humanities projects at Stanford.nnThis course is organized as a mix of seminar and workshop and will be featuring a new platform called "Lacuna Stories," designed for Stanford students, that presents multiple platforms, media, and texts to digitally engage with narratives surrounding 9/11; active engagement by all participants is expected. Students may contribute to the field with a creative final project that they develop over the course of the quarter if they select the 3-unit option.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
| Units: 1-3
COMPLIT 339:
What was the Ethical Turn in Literature?
As we entered the new millennium, literary studies took yet another "turn" (after its linguistic and cultural turns). We will examine the historical context for the "ethical turn," some of its key texts and debates, and read a number of literary works to see how they might both manifest and resist an "ethical" reading. At base we will question why literature was, and perhaps still is, considered a good vehicle for ethical thinking. How are notions of "otherness," "dignity," "narrative," "responsibility" each inflected differently? Texts by Spinoza, Levinas, Butler, Cavavero, Coetzee, Octavia Butler, LeClezio, Al-Koni, Toni Morrison, Dorfman, Ghassan, others.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 342:
Alla Turca Love: Tales of Romance in Turkish Literature (COMPLIT 143A)
An introduction to 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. Topics 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. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 345B:
The African Atlantic (AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B)
This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 346:
Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction (COMPLIT 149A)
The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 347:
The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature (COMPLIT 146A)
An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 347A:
The Hebrew Bible in Literature (COMPLIT 147A, JEWISHST 147A, JEWISHST 347A)
Close reading of major biblical stories and poems that influenced modern literature written in English and Hebrew. Hebrew texts will be read in translation to English. Each class will include a section from the Hebrew Bible as well as a modern text or film based on the biblical story/poem. Discussion of questions such as: the meaning and function of myths and the influence of the Hebrew Bible on the development of literary styles and genres.
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 348:
US-Mexico Border Fictions: Writing La Frontera, Tearing Down the Wall (ILAC 348)
A border is a force of containment that inspires dreams of being overcome, crossed, and cursed; motivates bodies to climb over walls; and threatens physical harm. This graduate seminar places into comparative dialogue a variety of perspectives from Chicana/o and Mexican/Latin American literary studies. Our seminar will examine fiction and cultural productions that range widely, from celebrated Mexican and Chicano/a authors such as Carlos Fuentes (La frontera de cristal), Yuri Herrera (Señales que precederan al fin del mundo), Willivaldo Delgaldillo (La Virgen del Barrio Árabe), Américo Paredes (George Washington Gómez: A Mexico-Texan Novel), Gloria Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza), and Sandra Cisneros (Carmelo: Puro Cuento), among others, to musicians whose contributions to border thinking and culture have not yet been fully appreciated such as Herb Albert, Ely Guerra, Los Tigres del Norte, and Café Tacvba. Last but not least, we will screen and analyze Orson Welles' iconic border films Touch of Evil and Rodrigo Dorfman's Los Sueños de Angélica.nnProposing a diverse and geographically expansive view of the US-Mexico border literary and cultural studies, this seminar links the work of these authors and musicians to struggles for land and border-crossing rights, anti-imperialist forms of trans-nationalism, and to the decolonial turn in border thinking or pensamineto fronterizo. It forces us to take into account the ways in which shifts in the nature of global relations affect literary production and negative aesthetics especially in our age of (late) post-industrial capitalism.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 350A:
What is Left of Marxism
A both historical and systematic retrospective on "Marxism" as the intellectual configuration and movement that most strongly influenced politics and the state of societies during the 20th century. Discussions will be grounded on a reconstruction of Marx's most canonized writings [especially "Capital"] as emerging from Hegel's work as their philosophical ground, and then proceed to a survey of "Marxism" in its most prominent forms of ideological and intellectual appropriation. Guiding questions [not rhetorical questions!] will be [a] what basic concepts developed by Marx have remained indispensable in 21st century world views and [b] whether "Marxism" today deserves more than an academico-antiquarian interest.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 351A:
Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives (COMPLIT 151A)
Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Last offered: Spring 2013
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 351B:
Great Books: Dramatic Traditions (COMPLIT 151B, TAPS 151T, TAPS 351)
The most influential and enduring texts in the dramatic canon from Sophocles to Shakespeare, Chekhov to Soyinka. Their historical and geopolitical contexts. Questions about the power dynamics involved in the formation of canons. This course counts as a Writing in the Major course for TAPS in 2016-17.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 352A:
The Novel in Africa (AFRICAAM 352)
A study of the novel as generic form and site of theorization for African writers and scholars of literature, via close reading of key works of fiction and critical analysis. We will consider the place of historical and cultural context in creative and artistic production, publication, and reception within the continent and beyond it. We will certainly pay close attention to innovation at the level of form, theme, plot, characterization, style or poetics. But we will also attend to questions that arise with the formation of African literature as an autonomous corpus and field, including those critical questions that concern uses of orality, performance, and tradition as indices of authenticity; the challenges and possibilities of language; and the common presumption of the nation as realist or allegorical frame, as well as its complex relationship to class, gender, and ethnic minoritization.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 353A:
Experiment and the Novel
A double exploration of experiment in the novel from 1719 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. Texts by: Sterne, Walpole, Burney, Sade, Godwin, Lewis, and Goethe. Substantial readings in the theory of the novel.
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 354B:
Poetic Thinking Across Media (COMPLIT 154B, GERMAN 154, GERMAN 354, JEWISHST 144B)
Even before Novalis claimed that the world must be romanticized, thinkers, writers, and artists wanted to perceive the human and natural world poetically. The pre- and post-romantic poetic modes of thinking they created are the subject of this course. Readings include Ecclestias, Zhaozhou Congshen, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kafka, Benjamin, Arendt, and Sontag. This course will also present poetic thinking in the visual arts--from the expressionism of Ingmar Bergman to the neo-romanticism of Gerhard Richter.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 4
COMPLIT 355:
Alterity, Ethics, Politics
How do literary texts and the investigation into language allow us to think through, debate, and re-imagine our relation to others, and even the idea of alterity? And what ethical and political considerations feed into these discussions?
Last offered: Spring 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 355A:
Literature and Death: An Existential Constellation in its Historical Unfolding (COMPLIT 257A, FRENCH 256, ITALIAN 255)
This seminar will pursue the intuition that literary texts, due to their status as ¿fiction,¿ have always been intensely related to Death as the ultimate horizon of individual existence, a horizon that is only available to our ¿imagination.¿ We will concentrate on this ¿ largely unexplored ¿ link as an existential constellation of concrete historical and of challenging philosophical complexity. The discussions will begin with a detailed analysis of the canonical passages in Martin Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ from 1927 that try to understand the difference between Death ¿as seen from outside¿ and Death in its ¿Jemeinigkeit,¿ that is Death as the absolute end-horizon of individual existence which necessarily causes ¿Angst¿ because it is followed by ¿Nothingness.¿nnOn this basis and supplemented by an introduction into several present-day theories and reflections on ¿imagination¿ as a distinct potential of the human mind, we will dedicate the weekly seminar sessions to specific historical moments and different literary (and perhaps artistic) forms that have articulated the connection between Death and Literature (with the final choice of texts and paradigms being open to the participants¿ interests and area of competence). Topics and textual materials may include:nn- fifth century Greek Tragedy,n- Roman Stoicism,n- Medieval Epic in the context of Christian cosmology,n- Death as a horizon of individual existence in early Modernity (¿Don Quijote¿),n- the invisible presence of Death in baroque artn- the bracketing of Death in the context of the Enlightenment mentality,n- Death and suicide as gestures of Romantic self-stylization,n- the presence of Death in Classical and Romantic conception of musicn- Death and ¿the absence of God¿ in nineteenth century novels and philosophy,n- the experience of World War I and a new intensity in the experience of Death,n- Death and grand abstraction in artn- Death in mid-twentieth century Existentialismn- Death and its place in the ¿¿Anthropocene¿ as an early twenty-first century frame of mind.nnEmphasizing weekly the reading assignments and intense participation in the seminar discussions, this course is laid out for two units (no final paper) but open for the participation of auditors (including undergraduate students with specific areas of competence) who are willing to work through the full range of philosophical texts, literary texts, and artworks on the syllabus. Students interested in this topic should begin with a reading of Heidegger¿s ¿Being and Time¿ and try to remember own readings and forms of experiences that seem pertinent to this topic. Contact with the instructor during the summer months is encouraged (sepp@stanford.edu).
Last offered: Autumn 2015
| Units: 2-3
COMPLIT 357:
Contemporary Turkish Cinema and Society (COMPLIT 157)
This course is an examination of contemporary Turkish cinema in a social and political context. The course will focus on films and directors that revived Turkish cinema starting with the mid-1990s with a focus on key issues pertaining to belonging, denied identities, masculinity, nationalism, silencing of women, and urbanization. The course aims to provide an overview of contemporary Turkish cinema and society in cultural, political, and social framework. There will be approximately two hours of film screening and two hours of classroom discussion/seminar (in English) each week. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Last offered: Winter 2016
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 359A:
Philosophical Reading Group (FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 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. Taught in English.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
COMPLIT 360B:
The Theory of the Novel
Topics will include: theories of the novel's origin; novelistic subjectivity; voice and text; body and text; the problem of the quotidian; democracy, revolution and novelistic form; and the peculiar dynamic of the novelistic trinity (author, character, reader).
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 363:
Ecology, History, Exchange
Readings of novels, ecocriticism. Ghosh, Gordimer, Coetzee, Al-Koni, Ondatjee, Silko.
| Units: 4-5
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.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 369:
Introduction to the Profession of "Literary Studies" for Graduate Students (DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, GERMAN 369, ITALIAN 369)
A history of literary theory for entering graduate students in national literature departments and comparative literature.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-2
COMPLIT 371:
Aesthetics, Politics, and Modernity: Critical Theory and China (CHINA 371)
This course explores a number of key motifs of critical theory relevant to Chinese studies. The class will focus on theories of modernity, media, literature, film, and the relation of aesthetics and politics. The prevalent view believes that a radical politics can be articulated aesthetically by unleashing sensual pleasure, forging subjectivity or staging performance. This view is at risk of reducing the political potential of artworks to spectacle, commodity, and consumption. By re-examining major pronouncements about artworks, culture and politics, we will explore the ways aesthetics and politics are intertwined, break apart, and re-configured. Our discussion will explore the potential of aesthetics and politics as analytical categories for understanding literature, culture, power, morality, media, and history. We will read works from the Chinese classics and representative theorists. We will also read critical theories by Walter Benjamin, Althusser, Eagleton, and Buck-Morss.nIn each class students should be ready to raise at least one question and explain the origin of the question, or make a brief comment on readings. I will randomly ask students to respond and this performance is graded. The final work will be a digestion and synthesis (18-22 pages) of a set of questions or motifs from 3 writers. Students may have an option of writing a research paper working the concepts into the analysis of primary texts.nGrade composition: attendance (10%). Class discussion (15%). Term Paper (75%).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2-5
| Repeatable
for credit
COMPLIT 376C:
Tragic Form and Political Theory (PHIL 376C)
Tragic form and political theory have in common a profound interest in the conflictual foundation of human society. This course explores how the two intellectual approaches define the actors of conflict, its causes, and its possible (or impossible) resolution.
Last offered: Spring 2015
| Units: 5
COMPLIT 378:
European Nihilism (COMPLIT 278, FRENCH 278, FRENCH 378, ITALIAN 278, ITALIAN 378)
This course will probe the thought of nothingness in various European writers and thinkers. The main authors include Giacomo Leopardi, Nietszsche, Michelstader, Heidegger, Beckett, and Emile Cioran.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 381E:
Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett (COMPLIT 281E, FRENCH 214, FRENCH 314, ITALIAN 214, ITALIAN 314)
In this course we will read the main novels and plays of Pirandello, Sartre, and Beckett, with special emphasis on the existentialist themes of their work. Readings include The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV; Nausea, No Exit, "Existentialism is a Humanism"; Molloy, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, Waiting for Godot. Taught in English.
Last offered: Winter 2015
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 390:
Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophical, Social, and Ethical Thought (COMPLIT 190, SLAVIC 190, SLAVIC 390)
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%).
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 3-5
COMPLIT 398L:
Literary Lab (ENGLISH 398L)
Gathering and analyzing data, constructing hypotheses and designing experiments to test them, writing programs [if needed], preparing visuals and texts for articles or conferences. Requires a year-long participation in the activities of the Lab.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 2-5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
COMPLIT 399:
Individual Work
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| 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);
Huber, M. (PI);
Ikoku, A. (PI);
Karahan, B. (PI);
Key, A. (PI);
Lee, H. (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);
Macdonald, M. (GP)
COMPLIT 680:
Curricular Practical Training
CPT course required for international students completing degree. Prerequisite: Comparative Literature Ph.D. candidate.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
COMPLIT 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bender, J. (PI);
Berman, R. (PI);
Brookshaw, D. (PI);
Cohen, M. (PI);
Eshel, A. (PI);
Frank, J. (PI);
Greene, R. (PI);
Greenleaf, M. (PI);
Gumbrecht, H. (PI);
Key, A. (PI);
Lee, H. (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);
Macdonald, M. (GP)
