printer friendly pageCOMPLIT 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. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, Writing 2, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Berman, R. (PI)
COMPLIT 55N: Black Panther, Hamilton, Diaz, and Other Wondrous Lives (CSRE 55N)
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? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Saldivar, J. (PI)
COMPLIT 101: What Is Comparative Literature?
What makes comparative literature a distinct field? More than simply reading literature from different places and times, at base comparative literature emerges from a cosmopolitan and anthropological project, attempting to use literature (as an aesthetic object) as a particular index to Otherness. This means at its best comp lit also engages with (directly or indirectly) issues of ethics and responsibility. We will read early studies of folklore (Stith Thompson), philosophical texts of Otherness (Hegel, Fanon, Derrida, Levinas), feminist critique (Butler, Beauvoir), and anthropologists writing in a literary vein (Clifford). Finally, we address how the "human" finds itself offset by its environment (Tsing). Literary works include Al-Koni, The Bleeding of the Stone, Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Carpentier, The Kingdom of This World; Gao Xingjian, Soul Mountain (excerpts), Goethe, The East-West Divan (excerpts), LeGuin, "Those who walk away from Omelas," and Rhys, The Wide Sargasso Sea.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Saldivar, R. (PI)
;
Carter, H. (TA)
COMPLIT 107A: Ancient Knowledge, New Frontiers: How the Greek Legacy Became Islamic Science (CLASSICS 47, HUMCORE 121)
What is the relation between magic and science? Is religion compatible with the scientific method? Are there patterns in the stars? What is a metaphor? This course will read key moments in Greek and Islamic science and philosophy and investigate the philosophy of language, mathematical diagrams, manuscripts, the madrasa, free will, predestination, and semantic logic. We will read selections from Ibn Taymiya, Ibn Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Baha al-Din al-Amili, and others. This course is part of the Humanities Core, a collaborative set of global humanities seminars that brings all of its students and faculty into conversation. On Tuesdays you meet in your own course, and on Thursdays all the HumCore seminars (in session that quarter) meet together:
https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Netz, R. (PI)
COMPLIT 121: Poems, Poetry, Worlds
What is poetry? Why does it matter? How does it speak in many voices to questions of history, society, and personal experience? Readings will consider poetry as a cross-cultural way of thinking, through feeling, form, invention, sound, and language. The poetry of several cultures will be considered in comparative relation to that of the English-speaking world and in light of classic and more recent theories of poetry.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Santana, C. (PI)
;
Galietti, A. (TA)
COMPLIT 127: Adventures in Skepticism
Since Descartes' famous decision to doubt what he could not prove, the problem of knowledge has vexed philosophy, psychology, and literature. What do we know for certain? How does this certainty (or uncertainty) relate to what we believe, what we desire, what we fear? And if all knowledge is subject to doubt, then how do we ground ourselves in the world? Do knowledge and identity depend on a metaphysical God? Do they derive from human reason or from an autonomous interiority? Or is "the self" that seeks certainty itself a misunderstanding, merely an effect of language, of history, of narrative, or of the unconscious? This course surveys the modern era's search for certainty, focusing on a few major works of European literature, raising issues that still inform our daily experience: the instability of language; the fragmentation (or multiplicity) of identity; the vicissitudes of the body; and the disruptions of love. Readings may include Descartes, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Virginia Woolf.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Kurtz, G. (PI)
COMPLIT 144: The Idea of the "Poetic": Poetry and Other Arts in the Twentieth Century
In this course, we will explore the relationship between poetry and other art forms. What does it mean to say that something is "poetic," especially when we are talking about a non-poetic genre or artistic medium. Is the "poetic" a formal feature? An aesthetic quality? A stylistic choice? Or a mode of creative faculty? And does the way we talk about the "poetic" inform us of something about poetry itself? Together we will read narrative prose, photographs, films, paintings, and of course, poetry itself. Authors and artists we study might include Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Klee, Fei Ming, Virginia Woolf, Paul Celan, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelango Antonioni, Andre Tarkovsky, W.G Sebald, Jia Zhangke, and Gerhard Richter.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Ding, G. (PI)
COMPLIT 161E: Narrative and Narrative Theory (ENGLISH 161)
An introduction to stories and storytelling--that is, to narrative. What is narrative? When is narrative fictional and when non-fictional? How is it done, word by word, sentence by sentence? Must it be in prose? Can it be in pictures? How has storytelling changed over time? Focus on various forms, genres, structures, and characteristics of narrative. English majors must take this class for 5 units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Bronstein, M. (PI)
;
Molefe, M. (PI)
;
Nomura, N. (PI)
...
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Instructors:
Bronstein, M. (PI)
;
Molefe, M. (PI)
;
Nomura, N. (PI)
;
Saldivar, R. (PI)
;
Touma, A. (PI)
;
Barrett, K. (TA)
;
Starovoitov, S. (TA)
COMPLIT 181: Philosophy and Literature (CLASSICS 42, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ILAC 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181)
Can novels make us better people? Can movies challenge our assumptions? Can poems help us become who we are? We'll think about these and other questions with the help of writers like Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, Jordan Peele, Charlie Kaufman, Rachel Cusk, William Shakespeare, and Samuel Beckett, plus thinkers like Nehamas, Nietzsche, Nussbaum, Plato, and Sartre. We'll also ask whether a disenchanted world can be re-enchanted; when, if ever, the truth stops being the most important thing; why we sometimes choose to read sad stories; whether we ever love someone for who they are; who could possibly want to live their same life over and over again; what it takes to make ourselves fully moral; whether it's ever good to be conflicted; how we can pull ourselves together; and how we can take ourselves apart. (This is the required gateway course for the Philosophy and Literature major tracks. Majors should register in their home department.)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Peacocke, A. (PI)
;
Dowling, G. (TA)
...
more instructors for COMPLIT 181 »
Instructors:
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Peacocke, A. (PI)
;
Dowling, G. (TA)
;
Machado de Oliveira, M. (TA)
;
McGuthry, M. (TA)
COMPLIT 194: Independent Research
(Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
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