printer friendly pageCOMPLIT 133A: Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean (AFRICAAM 133, AFRICAST 132, COMPLIT 233A, CSRE 133E, FRENCH 133, JEWISHST 143)
This course provides students with an introductory survey of literature and cinema from Francophone Africa and the Caribbean in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will be encouraged to consider the geographical, historical, and political connections between the Maghreb, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa by reading course materials, completing writing assignments, participating in class activities, listening to contextualizing lectures, and conducting student-led presentations. This course will help students improve their ability to speak and write in French by introducing students to new academic registers, vocabulary, and syntax. While analyzing novels and films, students will be exposed to a diverse number of intersectional topics such as national and cultural identity, race and class, gender and sexuality, orality and textuality, transnationalism and migration, colonialism and decolonization, history and memory, and the politics of language. Readings include the works of writers and filmmakers such as Aimé Césaire, Albert Memmi, Assia Djebar, Dani Laferrière, Djibril Tamsir Niane, Fatou Diome, Leïla Sebbar, Léopold Senghor, Mariama Bâ, Maryse Condé, and Ousmane Sembène. Taught in French. Students are encouraged to complete
FRENLANG 124 or to successfully test above this level through the Language Center.
Terms: Aut, Sum
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 134A: Classics of Persian Literature (COMPLIT 234)
Why do poems that were written hundreds of years ago still capture the imagination? How is love configured in the texts of a distant culture? Who sings the tales and who are the heroes? This course offers an introduction to the central works of Persian literature, from the 10th century to the present, across the genres of epic, romance, lyric, and novel. As we become acquainted with texts from a millennium of literary history, we will touch upon questions of performance (music and dance), storytelling, profane and divine love, the nature of spiritual quests, the development of narrative and poetic form, the formal and ethical aspects of translation, and, finally, the meaning of modernity in a non-Western context. Readings include: the Book of Kings by Ferdowsi (d.1020); Layla and Majnun by Nezami (d.1209); The Conference of the Birds by Attar (d.1221); selections from the Masnavi and Divan of Rumi (d.1273); the Rose Garden by Sa`di (d.1292), selections from the Divan of Hafez (d.1390); The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat (d.1951); and selected modern poems. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Huber, M. (PI)
;
Shuchmacher Endebo, N. (TA)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, GER:EC-AmerCul
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.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 145: Reflection on the Other: The Arab Israeli Conflict in Literature and Film (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. Guest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Shemtov, V. (PI)
COMPLIT 148: Transcultural Perspectives of South-East Asian Music and Arts (COMPLIT 267, FRENCH 260A, MUSIC 146N, MUSIC 246N)
This course will explore the links between aspects of South-East Asian cultures and their influence on modern and contemporary Western art and literature, particularly in France; examples of this influence include Claude Debussy (Gamelan music), Jacques Charpentier (Karnatak music), Auguste Rodin (Khmer art) and Antonin Artaud (Balinese theater). In the course of these interdisciplinary analyses - focalized on music and dance but not limited to it - we will confront key notions in relation to transculturality: orientalism, appropriation, auto-ethnography, nostalgia, exoticism and cosmopolitanism. We will also consider transculturality interior to contemporary creation, through the work of contemporary composers such as Tran Kim Ngoc, Chinary Ung and Tôn-Thât Tiêt. Viewings of sculptures, marionette theater, ballet, opera and cinema will also play an integral role. To satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units. In AY 2020-21, a letter grade or `CR¿ grade satisfies the Ways requirement. WIM credit in Music at 4 units and a letter grade.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Kretz, H. (PI)
COMPLIT 149: The Laboring of Diaspora & Border Literary Cultures (CSRE 149, ILAC 149)
Focus is given to emergent theories of culture and on comparative literary and cultural studies. How do we treat culture as a social force? How do we go about reading the presence of social contexts within cultural texts? How do ethno-racial writers re-imagine the nation as a site with many "cognitive maps" in which the nation-state is not congruent with cultural identity? How do diaspora and border narratives/texts strive for comparative theoretical scope while remaining rooted in specific local histories. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit. In AY 2020-21, a "CR" grade will satisfy the WAYS requirement.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Saldivar, J. (PI)
;
Wager, J. (PI)
COMPLIT 154A: Film & Philosophy (ENGLISH 154F, 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: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Dannenberg, J. (PI)
;
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Jaarte, M. (TA)
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Instructors:
Dannenberg, J. (PI)
;
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Jaarte, M. (TA)
;
Salvidea, G. (TA)
;
Soler, C. (TA)
;
Zurita, V. (TA)
COMPLIT 155A: The Mafia in Society, Film, and Fiction (ITALIAN 155)
The mafia has become a global problem through its infiltration of international business, and its model of organized crime has spread all over the world from its origins in Sicily. At the same time, film and fiction remain fascinated by a romantic, heroic vision of the mafia. Compares both Italian and American fantasies of the Mafia to its history and impact on Italian and global culture. Taught in English.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-SI
COMPLIT 159: Asian American Film and Popular Culture (AMSTUD 115, ASNAMST 115, ENGLISH 169C)
Tracing the evolution of Asian American cultural representations from the silent film era through the first generation of Asian American YouTube stars, this course examines the economic, political, and cultural influence of Asian American screen images on U.S. society. Through a focus on both mainstream and independent productions, we discuss the work of Asian American actors, audience members, media producers, consumers, and activists. Possible films and TV shows to be discussed include The Cheat (1915), Shanghai Express (1932), Flower Drum Song (1961), Chan is Missing (1983) Who Killed Vincent Chin? (1989), Sa-I-Gu, (1992), aka Don Bonus (1995), Saving Face (2004), Crazy Rich Asians (2018) TV episodes of the Mindy Project, and work by early Asian American YouTube stars including Michelle Phan, HappySlip, and KevJumba. nn nnStudents will be accepted to the course by application. Please fill out the google form to apply: https://bit.ly/37Cb00d
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Gow, W. (PI)
;
Wang, E. (TA)
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