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COMPLIT 32Q: Humanities Core: Middle East II -- Classic (DLCL 32Q, HISTORY 85Q, HUMCORE 32Q)

How should we live? This course explores two ethical pathways: mysticism and rationality. They seem to be opposites, but as we'll see, some important historical figures managed to follow both at once. We will read works by successful judges, bureaucrats, academics, and lovers written between 700 and 1900 C.E. We will ask ourselves whether we agree with their choices and judgments about professional success and politics. What would we do differently today? We certainly organize knowledge differently, but do we think about ethics the same way? N.B. This is the second of three courses in the Middle Eastern track. These courses offer an unparalleled opportunity to study Middle Eastern history and culture, past and present. Take all three to experience a year-long intellectual community dedicated to exploring how ideas have shaped our world and future.

Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER

Instructors: Key, A. (PI) ; Yaycioglu, A. (PI)

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"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.

Terms: Win | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2

Instructors: Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI)

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? This 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. We 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. Readings include: Amnesty International, Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,Andrew Clapham, Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction, James Dawes, That the World May Know, Walter Echo-Hawk, In the Light of Justice, Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide, Bessie Head, The Word for World is Forest, Ursula LeGuin,

Terms: Win, Sum | Units: 5

Instructors: Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI)

COMPLIT 61Q: The Literature of Lost Identity

This course will explore tales of lost identity from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Our stories feature orphans abandoned at birth, young heroes who must hide who they are, even cross-dressed knights on gender-bent adventures. The trials and tribulations of these displaced youths invite us to question what identity means and where it comes from. Are we made in our parents' image? What happens when we are separated from our family, or forced to take up a disguise? Are we defined by our birth and bloodline, or by education and experience? Our readings will include texts by Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, William Shakespeare, Philip Sidney, and Miguel de Cervantes.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-4 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

Instructors: Lee, C. (PI)

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? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-ER

Instructors: Lee, H. (PI)

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 major 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, Dante, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Gogol, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

Instructors: Daub, A. (PI) ; Edelstein, D. (PI) ; Capra, A. (TA) ... more instructors for COMPLIT 100 »

Instructors: Daub, A. (PI) ; Edelstein, D. (PI) ; Capra, A. (TA) ; Hoff, C. (TA) ; Vialle-Giancotti, C. (TA)

COMPLIT 103: The Putin Phenomenon: Culture and Politics in Recent Russian History (SLAVIC 103)

A man who likes to ride horses shirtless. An autocrat who has shaped contemporary Russia and won't let go of the reins. A conniver who interferes in international democratic processes toward his own nefarious ends.nMore than a politician or an individual, "Putin" has become a catch-all that stands in for Russia as a whole. In this course, we'll attempt to separate the man from the myth and to understand the historical and cultural context behind Putin's policies. In the process, we will strive better to grasp contemporary Russian society as a complex and culturally rich environment, not just an oppressed land under the thumb of one man.nIn the course of our analysis, we will examine literary and cultural artifacts and expressive works that engage with political, social, and universal human problems in a Russian and post-Soviet context, interpreting and critiquing those cultural objects with an eye to aesthetic methods and qualities and also how they reflect historical and cultural elements of Russia over a 25-year period. Cultural products to be addressed include literature and film (and one graphic novel) from the Perestroika period through the present day. We will also read President Putin's autobiography, First Person, and several of his speeches, using techniques of literary analysis to parse the particular story about Russia that he aims to convey to Russians. By examining and exploring a range of cultural objects from Russia's recent history, we seek to understand the forces that contributed to social and political change over those years, the effect those changes had on ordinary (and extraordinary) Russians, and how those effects take on meaningful aesthetic form through creative expression.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

Instructors: Underwood, A. (PI)

COMPLIT 109: Masterpieces: Orhan Pamuk (COMPLIT 309)

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: Win | Units: 1-5

Instructors: Karahan, B. (PI)

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 124B: European and North African Visions of the American West (AMSTUD 124B, DLCL 124B)

This course is an interdisciplinary investigation of the rewriting of the American West in the Mediterranean context through the transnational lenses of filmmakers and artists of diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds, through primarily cinema, but also graphic novels, novels, and murals. How do these films and novels adopt and adapt the Western genre? How do these artistic endeavors tell us about the enduring aura and stereotypes of the American West mythology? Films: Jacques Audiard, The Sisters Brothers, Sergio Leone, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, David Oelhoffen, Far From Men, Karl May, Winnetou, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist, Agnès Varda, Mur murs. Special guest: photographer/street artist JR. Readings: Mark Twain, Joan Didion, Romain Gary.

Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

Instructors: Ulloa, M. (PI)

2018-2019 Winter

1 - 10 of 41 results for: COMPLIT

COMPLIT 32Q: Humanities Core: Middle East II -- Classic (DLCL 32Q, HISTORY 85Q, HUMCORE 32Q)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 51Q: Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 57: Human Rights and World Literature

2018-2019 Winter

2018-2019 Summer

COMPLIT 61Q: The Literature of Lost Identity

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 70N: Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species (CHINA 70N)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 100: CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People (DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153)

COMPLIT 103: The Putin Phenomenon: Culture and Politics in Recent Russian History (SLAVIC 103)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 109: Masterpieces: Orhan Pamuk (COMPLIT 309)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 122: Literature as Performance (DLCL 142)

2018-2019 Winter

COMPLIT 124B: European and North African Visions of the American West (AMSTUD 124B, DLCL 124B)

2018-2019 Winter