231 - 240 of 246 results for: Literary history

This course offers an in-depth comparison of two major figures in the history of Europe and Asia, Alexander III of Macedon (r. 336-323 BCE), famed since ancient times as the Greek world's conqueror par excellence, and Asoka Maurya (r. 268-232 BCE), remembered not only as the ruler of an Indian empire of unprecedented extent, but also as an influential proponent of Buddhism. What are the makings of history and memory in relation to these figures? How do we distinguish between fact and fantasy? In this course we will sift through selected sources, both contemporary documents and later literary texts. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

This course stages a series of encounters with the concept of devotion, or "bhakti," a theological framework whose varied, vivid, and heartfelt expressions form an integral part of how religion is experienced in South Asia. Though most commonly identified with one particular literary genre, devotional lyric poetry written in north Indian vernaculars, and one particular religion, Hinduism, bhakti comes in many guises. We will examine bhakti as part of a phenomenology of authentic and personal religious experience but also as an emblem of legitimacy that empowers specific communities and values at the expense of others. We will explore the vital role that bhakti has played in Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim and even South Asian Christian religious imaginations. We will look at how bhakti is inscribed within Indian history, in the context of ephemeral performance, as well as within colonial and contemporary South Asian politics and political theology. As the course unfolds, we will trace the multi-dimensional impact of devotional religion within literate and non-literate media, through languages and regions, among different castes, classes, traditions, even across and beyond the category of religion itself. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

The study of verse is foundational to literary theory and poetics. The practical goal of the course is to acquaint the students with specific features of Russian prosody and verse in its historical development and to survey such basic concepts as meter and rhythm, iamb and trochee, ternary meters and dolniks, accentual verse and free verse, rhyme and stanza in order to grasp their difference within Russian poetry from what we encounter in ancient Greek and Latin, as well as modern European literatures. The material of the course helps better understand the different stages in the history of Russian literature. We also address various approaches to poetry translation and the use of oriental verse forms (Persian, Japanese etc.) in Russian modern and modernist literature. Taught in English, readings in Russian. Prerequisite: Two years of Russian.

This course traces the history of Russian literature before the eighteenth century. It is divided into two sections. The first section examines literature from Kyivan Rus' (up to the thirteenth century), the medieval conglomerate to which Belarus, Russia and Ukraine all trace their cultural heritage. The second section examines old Russian literature specifically, from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. We pay close attention to the development of literary genres, moral/religious and aesthetic features and their relationship, and the beginnings of Russian belles lettres. Our approach to the texts will be two-fold. On the one hand, we will spend some time situating the sources within their historical contexts. On the other hand, we will explore the interpretive possibilities of premodern literature using formal analysis and critical theory. Knowledge of an East Slavic language is required.

We may know about "French Theory" and German philosophy, but what was the role of thinkers from the Slavic and East European world in formulating modern literary theory -- from formalism, structuralism, and semiotics to psychoanalysis, Marxism, and reader-response criticism? This course will evaluate foundational theorists from this region, including Formalists (Russian, Ukrainian, and otherwise), the Bakhtin circle, Czech structuralists, Hungarian Marxists, and South Slavic psychoanalytic thinkers, as well as important 19th century predecessors (Humboldt, Potebnia, Veselovsky). Key issues will include the concept of literary or poetic language, the definition of "form" and its relationship with "content," the relationship between literature, history, and society, the meaning of genre, and the goals and disciplinary boundaries of literary scholarship. Theoretical texts will be closely read. Knowledge of Russian or another Slavic language is helpful but not required. Readings will be offered in English translation.

The Balkans is a region that is often marginalized, even though throughout modern history it has stood at the crossroads between East and West and has been the locus of the major developments of the 19th and 20th centuries - the site of Great Power competition, the first de-colonization movements, the rise of the modern nation-state, the outbreak of the First World War, Nazi occupation and resistance, genocides, the rise of emancipatory communist regimes that have challenged the hegemony of the Soviet Union, the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and a challenge for democratization and western-based military intervention. Today the Balkans are a region where the European Union, Russia and the China vie for control. This course draws on a range of primary and secondary, literary, historical and policy sources as well as a range of scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore the significance of the Balkans to global affairs in historical and contemporary contexts. Section REES 224C is offered for graduate student enrollment.

The country of Yugoslavia existed for less than a century, and in that brief time, it developed a novel socialist system and culture that decisively broke with Stalin's Soviet bloc; formed connections with India, Indonesia, Egypt, Ghana, and other countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America through the Non-Aligned Movement; and fostered some of the 20th century's most exciting and critical literature, cinema, philosophy, and art. For many observers, the legacy of Yugoslavia has been eclipsed by its violent end during the wars and genocide of the 1990s, but scholars identifying with "New Yugoslav Studies" increasingly reject the notion that ethno-nationalism and the destruction of socialist Yugoslavia are the only lens through which its significance ought to be viewed. Yugoslavia's end was no more preordained by fate than were its origins. In fact, Yugoslav literature, history, and culture provides some of the modern world's most gripping reflections upon freedom and self-determination, on both an individual and a collective scale. In this course, we will read literary masterpieces from both the short-lived interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia (a.k.a. the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) and the more long-lasting Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Tito, as well as some more contemporary texts from post-Yugoslav states and writers from the former Yugoslav diaspora. Authors will include Miroslav Krleza, Ivo Andric, Mesa Selimovic, Danilo Kis, Miljenko Jergovic, Dubravka Ugresic, Masa Kolanovic, and more. Readings and discussion in English with optional Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian component for those who are interested.

In the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the institution of censorship was especially harsh and politically important. Permanent pressure caused the intense development of self-censorship among the loyal writers and the flourishing of roundabout artistic language. Studying the history of censorship in Russia helps us also understand authoritarian tendencies in Putin's Russia. During the course we will read the historical documents and literary texts to examine the conflicts between writers and censors and the development of symbolic orders in the different periods of Russian cultural history. Some of the discussion topics include censorship as a social institution and its influence on public space; relationship between the authors, censorship, and public; correlation between the aim of censorship (aspects of a given work that controllers consider "dangerous"), actual aesthetic and political "focus" of a text, and its innovative features; an official ban as a spur for the readers' attention.

The study of verse is foundational to literary theory and poetics. The practical goal of the course is to acquaint the students with specific features of Russian prosody and verse in its historical development and to survey such basic concepts as meter and rhythm, iamb and trochee, ternary meters and dolniks, accentual verse and free verse, rhyme and stanza in order to grasp their difference within Russian poetry from what we encounter in ancient Greek and Latin, as well as modern European literatures. The material of the course helps better understand the different stages in the history of Russian literature. We also address various approaches to poetry translation and the use of oriental verse forms (Persian, Japanese etc.) in Russian modern and modernist literature. Taught in English, readings in Russian. Prerequisite: Two years of Russian.