printer friendly pageCOMPLIT 199: Senior Seminar: J.R.R. Tolkien and Junot Diaz's Speculative Narratives
Major terms of speculative narratology; how different literary, cinematic, and popular culture narratives by (and about) Tolkien and Diaz raise issues of coloniality, power and race, stir public debates and contribute to understanding planetary literature. Readings include texts by Tolkien and Diaz, Frye, Fanon, Quijano, Mignolo, Jameson, Badiou, Butler, Moya, and Perez. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. CL Senior majors only and minors with permission.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Saldivar, J. (PI)
COMPLIT 222A: Wrestling with Modernity: German Literature and Thought from 1900 to the Present (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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5-8
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Eshel, A. (PI)
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).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Dierkes, P. (PI)
COMPLIT 229: Literature of Global Health (FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234)
This course examines the ways literary and medical writers 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 -- modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, which are meant to have helped readers develop a modern public health conscience. We will study global health ethics as a field initially rooted in philosophy and policy that address questions raised by practice in resource-constrained communities abroad. And we will spend the quarter understanding how colonial and world literatures may deepen and even alter these questions. Readings will be selected from Albert Schweitzer, Aime Cesaire, Albert Camus, Frantz Fanon, Antonio Olinto, Ben Okri, Amitav Ghosh, Anne Fadiman, and Paul Farmer.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-GlobalCom, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
Instructors:
Ikoku, A. (PI)
COMPLIT 236: Literature and Transgression (FEMGEN 236)
Close reading and analysis of erotic-sexual and aesthetic-stylistic transgression in selected works by Wilde, Schnitzler, Joyce, Barnes, Bataille, Burroughs, Thomas Mann, Guenter Grass, Kathy Acker, Junot Diaz and others. 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 by Foucault, Blanchot, and contemporary queer and feminist writers.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Dierkes, P. (PI)
COMPLIT 247: Bollywood and Beyond: An Introduction to Indian Film (FILMSTUD 250B, ICA 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
Instructors:
Mediratta, S. (PI)
COMPLIT 252A: An Introduction to Classical Arabic Poetry: the Shakespeare of the Arabs (al-Mutanabbi)
Study, memorize, and criticize the work of al-Mutanabbi, a poet who in his twenties led a failed desert revolution. The mature and cynical poet he became was embarrassed by the claims he made in his youth to be a prophet who received new Quran from God. How did he get away with this? Engage with a literary and political society wholly unlike our own. Readings in Arabic, discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent.
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
COMPLIT 252B: An Introduction to Classical Arabic Prose: the Shakespeare of the Arabs (al-Jahiz)
Learn how to read the Arabic of Iraq in the 800s. Discover how close it is to Modern Standard Arabic. Engage with the politician, philosopher, theologian, and satirist who is still acknowledged today as the master of Arabic prose writing. Readings in Arabic, discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent.
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
COMPLIT 271A: Futurity: Why the Past Matters (GERMAN 271)
Drawing on literature, the arts, political discourse, museums, and new media, this course asks why and how we take interest in the watershed events of the modern era; how does contemporary culture engages with modern, made-made disasters such as the World Wars or 9/11? Readings and viewings include the literature of G. Grass, W. G. Sebald, Ian McEwan, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy; the cinema of Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg; speeches by Barak Obama; and the theoretical writing of Walter Benjamin, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, among others. Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Eshel, A. (PI)
;
Johnsrud, B. (PI)
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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Eshel, A. (PI)
;
Shemtov, V. (PI)
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