printer friendly pageCOMPLIT 36A: Dangerous Ideas (ARTHIST 36, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, ETHICSOC 36X, FRENCH 36, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, POLISCI 70, RELIGST 36X, SLAVIC 36, TAPS 36)
Ideas matter. Concepts such as equality, tradition, and Hell have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like race and urban renewal, play an important role in contemporary debates in the United States. All of these ideas are contested, and they have a real power to change lives, for better and for worse. In this one-unit class we will examine these "dangerous" ideas. Each week, a faculty member from a different department in the humanities and arts will explore a concept that has shaped human experience across time and space.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Safran, G. (PI)
COMPLIT 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 43: Modernity and Novels in the Middle East (HUMCORE 131)
This course will investigate cultural and literary responses to modernity in the Middle East. The intense modernization process that started in mid 19th century and lingers to this day in the region caused Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literary cultures to encounter rapid changes; borders dissolved, new societies and nations were formed, daily life westernized, and new literary forms took over the former models. In order to understand how writers and individuals negotiated between tradition and modernity and how they adapted their traditions into the modern life we will read both canonical and graphic novels comparatively from each language group and focus on the themes of nation, identity, and gender. All readings will be in English translation. This course is part of the Humanities Core:
https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Karahan, B. (PI)
COMPLIT 44: Humanities Core: How to be Modern in East Asia (CHINA 24, HUMCORE 133, JAPAN 24, KOREA 24)
Modern East Asia was almost continuously convulsed by war and revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. But the everyday experience of modernity was structured more profoundly by the widening gulf between the country and the city, economically, politically, and culturally. This course examines literary and cinematic works from China and Japan that respond to and reflect on the city/country divide, framing it against issues of class, gender, national identity, and ethnicity. It also explores changing ideas about home/hometown, native soil, the folk, roots, migration, enlightenment, civilization, progress, modernization, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and sustainability. All materials are in English. This course is part of the Humanities Core:
https://humanitiescore.stanford.edu/
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Gilkison, A. (PI)
;
Reichert, J. (PI)
COMPLIT 51Q: Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
Explorations of how literature can represent in complex and compelling ways issues of difference--how they appear, are debated, or silenced. Specific attention on learning how to read critically in ways that lead one to appreciate the power of literary texts, and learning to formulate your ideas into arguments. Course is a Sophomore Seminar and satisfies Write2. By application only
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, Writing 2, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI)
COMPLIT 104: Reading In Depth: Deep Time in Theory, Literature and Visual Art
What can the humanities teach us about deep time? Can human beings even conceive of the vast and unfathomable timescales presupposed by geology? The challenge that deep time poses to the human imagination - a challenge that has grown all the more urgent to address in light of our current environmental crisis - will be approached in this course 1. By considering how artists and writers create their own scales of measure in relation to deep time 2. By taking seriously claims of non-human animism in diverse cultural traditions 3. By examining how rhythms of human and non-human life are inscribed in specific literary and artistic works. Assignments in this seminar/arts practicum course will be creative and multimedia in kind. The course includes field trips to the Redwood forest and to the Hopkins Marine Station.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Robalino, M. (PI)
COMPLIT 123: The Novel (DLCL 143)
This course will trace the global development of the modern literary genre par excellence through some of its great milestones from the 18th century to the present. Includes works by Flaubert, Bulgakov, Baldwin, and Bâ.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Resina, J. (PI)
COMPLIT 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. This course will help students improve their ability to speak and write in French by introducing students to linguistic and conceptual tools to conduct literary and visual analysis. While analyzing novels and films, students will be exposed to a diverse number of 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, Ousmane Sembène, Leïla Sebbar, Mariama Bâ, Maryse Condé, Dany Laferrière, Mati Diop, and special guest Léonora Miano. Taught in French. Students are encouraged to complete
FRENLANG 124 or successfully test above this level through the Language Center.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Seck, F. (PI)
COMPLIT 156: Stories at the Border (ENGLISH 155, GLOBAL 120)
How authors and filmmakers represent the process of border-making as a social experience? How do the genres in which they work shape our understandings of the issues themselves? We will explore several different genres of visual and textual representation from around the world that bear witness to border conflict ¿ including writing by China Miéville, Carmen Boullosa, Joe Sacco, and Agha Shahid Ali¿ many of which also trouble the borders according to which genres are typically separated and defined.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Kantor, R. (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. nEnglish 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)
;
Cohen, M. (PI)
;
Saldivar, R. (PI)
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more instructors for COMPLIT 161E »
Instructors:
Bronstein, M. (PI)
;
Cohen, M. (PI)
;
Saldivar, R. (PI)
;
Bailey, C. (TA)
;
Coduto, S. (TA)
;
Howse, R. (TA)
;
Livingston, K. (TA)
;
Molefe, M. (TA)
;
Xiong, C. (TA)
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