University Bulletin (2022-2023)

• Minor
• Major (BA)

The program in Comparative Literature and Culture engages the study of literatures and cultures within and across national boundaries. It comprises the comparative analysis of literary and cultural texts not only in relation to genres, forms, and movements, but within the larger context of social discourse and cultural practices. Because cultural practices are not static but continually changing, the comparative approach is sensitive not only to historical context, but also to how cultural forms adapt to new conditions. Analysis of cultural differences, diversities, and similarities will promote a greater knowledge of the rapidly changing globe we inhabit, and also deepen students' critical understanding of their own cultures.

Comparative study explores literature and other art forms beyond and across the boundaries of single nations, languages and cultures, often in conjunction with the historical, political and social realities that lend life and variety to any art form. It represents a way of approaching creative works, rather than a specific body of knowledge about them. Because the comparative approach takes a global perspective, embracing all of world literature and culture in all periods of history, no one person could possibly embody the field. As a result, the comparative field is a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary and collaborative endeavor, which is reflected in the diverse interests of our students and faculty.

The Comparative Literature and Culture core course, COML 100a, Introduction to Global Literature, introduces students to the diversity of approaches to comparing literatures and cultures possible within the field and serves as a jumping-off point for students' individualized exploration of literary and other works from across the globe, from a wide variety of perspectives. Beyond the core course, the major also emphasizes the study of literature and culture in languages other than English. Courses are taught by distinguished faculty from across the Humanities at Brandeis.

Comparative studies are inherently multicultural and dynamic. We are constantly shaping our curriculum to fit the interests and needs of the changing student body and encourage student input at all levels of program planning.

Knowledge

Students completing the major in Comparative Literature and Culture will:

Core Skills

Majors will develop the capacity to:

Social Justice

Cultural forms and ideas move across borders, now perhaps more than ever; the Comparative Literature and Culture program emphasizes the importance of cultural literacy and sensitivity to cultural difference both within individual societies and in the global context. The curriculum provides graduates with knowledge and perspectives needed to appreciate and respect the diversity of creative expression around the world, as well as the shared human urge toward artistic expression in language, whether oral or written. Majors will be prepared to participate in multicultural and global conversations by asking questions, listening closely and responding productively, in the collaborative spirit of the field.

Upon Graduating

A Brandeis student with a Comparative Literature and Culture major will be prepared to use the knowledge and skills gained from the sustained comparative study of literatures and cultures to pursue professional training and a range of careers that demand a global perspective or a knowledge of and appreciation for diverse cultures, including those in academics, government, non-governmental organizations and non-profits, and international business.

All students are welcome to enroll in any course in the program unless prerequisites are stipulated. Students interested in learning more about the Comparative Literature and Culture major or minor are encouraged to speak with the Undergraduate Advising Head. Keep in mind that two literature or cultural courses must be taken in a language other than English. Students are strongly encouraged to spend at least one semester abroad, preferably in a country whose primary language is not English.

Pu Wang, Chair and Undergraduate Advising Head for Spring 2023 (on leave Fall 2022)
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)

Matthew Fraleigh
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)

David Powelstock
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)

Stephen Dowden, Interim Chair and Undergraduate Advising Head for Fall 2022
(German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)

Michael Randall
(French and Francophone Studies)

Fernando Rosenberg
(Hispanic Studies)

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Joel Christensen (Classical Studies)
Jonathan Decter (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)
Stephen Dowden (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
William Flesch (English)
Matthew Fraleigh (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Caitlin Gillespie (Classical Studies)
James Mandrell (Romance Studies
Robin Feuer Miller (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
David Powelstock (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)
Laura Quinney (English)
Michael Randall (Romance Studies)
Fernando Rosenberg (Romance Studies)
David Sherman (English)
Harleen Singh (German, Russian, and Asian Languages and Literature)

The minor in Comparative Literature and Culture requires five courses, distributed as follows:

1. COML 100a, to be taken as early as possible in the student's academic career.
2. One upper-level course taught in a language other than English, involving work with texts and/or films in a language other than English. Normally such courses are numbered 100 and above, exclusive of language skills courses. Coursework in literature and culture focused upon original-language texts can be pursued both at Brandeis and through approved Study Abroad programs.
3. Two upper-level courses COML-designated courses. These courses will bridge more than one national tradition and engage in cross-cultural examination.
4. One additional upper-level elective course in literature or a related field as approved by the Undergraduate Advising Head. Students are encouraged to select a course that takes a comparative approach.
5. No more than two classes taken toward the minor can double count toward any other major or minor.
6. No course with a grade below a C- may count toward the minor nor any course taken pass/fail.

The major in Comparative Literature and Culture requires a minimum of nine courses, distributed as follows:

1. COML 100a, to be taken as early as possible in the student's academic career.
2. Two upper-level courses taught in a language other than English, involving work with texts and/or films. Normally such courses are numbered 100 and above, exclusive of language skills courses. The two courses need not be drawn from a single language tradition. Coursework in literature and culture focused upon original-language texts can be pursued both at Brandeis and through approved Study Abroad programs.
3. Three upper-level COML-designated courses. These courses will bridge more than one national tradition and engage in cross-cultural examination.
4. Three additional upper-level elective courses in literature or a related field as approved by the Undergraduate Advising Head. Students are encouraged to select courses that take a comparative approach. No more than two elective courses may be used towards the elective requirement for the Film, Television, and Interactive Media major. No more than one of these elective courses may be counted toward another major.
5. Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the Comparative Literature and Culture major, students must:
   • Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: Any COML cross-listed course approved for WI or COML/ENG 148a.
   • Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing: COML 100a.
   • Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing: COML 100a.
6. No course with a grade below a C- will count toward the major nor any course taken pass/fail.

Honors

Students who wish to pursue honors must enroll in COML 99d, normally in the senior year, and complete a thesis. One semester of thesis research may substitute for an upper-level comparative course. A senior project is required only of students pursuing honors.

COML 97a Senior Essay

Offers students an opportunity to produce a senior essay under the direction of an individual instructor. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

COML 98a Independent Study

May be taken only by majors, with the written permission of the advising head and the chair of the department.

Readings and reports under faculty supervision. Offered as needed.
Staff

COML 98b Independent Study

May be taken only by majors, with the written permission of the advising head and the chair of the department.

Reading and reports under faculty supervision. Offered as needed.
Staff

COML 99d Senior Thesis

May be taken only with the permission of the Undergraduate Advising Head.

This is a full-year course that must be taken by all senior majors in Comparative Literature and Culture who wish to undertake honors work. Usually offered every year.
Staff

COML/ENG 16b Puppets, Robots, and Other Automata
[ hum ]

Explores literary representations of artificial life. Puppets, dolls, clockwork creatures, golems, robots, supercomputers, and A.I.s radically repose the question of what it means to be alive – and, in the process, apply pressure to commonsense notions of what is exclusively human. We will trace a line of thinking from Pinocchio and Frankenstein’s Monster to Battlestar Galactica and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Artificial Friends. How does fear of – and longing for – the more-than-human figure of the automaton illuminate our political and social world? Special one-time offering, spring 2022.

COML/ENG 21a The Literature of Walking
[ hum oc ]

Explores genres of pedestrianism—rambles, strolls, promenades, treks, pilgrimages, marches. Students will take and design walks as well as read major works on the subject. Usually offered every fourth year.

Caren Irr

COML/ENG 70b Environmental Film, Environmental Justice
[ djw hum ]

Examines films that address nature, environmental crisis, and green activism. Asks how world cinema can best advance the goals of social and environmental justice. Includes films by major directors and festival award winners. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

COML/HUM 21a Renaissance Literary Masterpieces
[ hum ]

Introduces students to some of the greatest works written in Europe during the Renaissance. Readings will include works by Dante, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Luther, Erasmus, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Rabelais, and Cervantes. All readings will be in English. Usually taught every third year.
Ramie Targoff

COML 100a Introduction to Global Literature
[ dl hum oc ]

Core course for COML major and minor.

What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

COML 105a World Culture and Marxism
[ djw hum ]

Exploring the linkage between Marxism and global modernity, this course emphasizes the deep entanglement of Marxism with twentieth-century literature and culture in both the so-called 'advanced West' and the vast world of 'underdevelopment' (such as China, Africa, and Latin America). In this course, students will see how Marxism has evolved as a revolutionary praxis in the crisis-fraught capitalist world system, and how it has inspired international literary movements and cultural debates aimed to subvert that system. With case studies drawn from across the world and readings selected from Marx's century all the way to our own, we will study the development of the international cultural left. We will also try to decenter (deprovincialize or de-Westernize) Marxism and understand it as an integral part of the translingual/transnational search for a different world'a world of common good and cultural equality. Usually offered every second year.
Pu Wang

COML 116b Nietzsche: An Introduction
[ hum ]

COML 117a Magical Realism and Modern Myth
[ hum ]

An exploration of magical realism, as well as the enduring importance of myth, in twentieth and twenty-first century fiction and film from Columbia, India, Nigeria, the United States, England, and elsewhere. Authors include Ben Okri, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Salman Rushdie; films include Pan's Labyrinth and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Usually offered every second year.
David Sherman

COML 120a Disordered Loves and Howling Passion: European Romanticism
[ hum ]

Introduces European Romanticism from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. This course integrates literature, painting, music, and philosophy. Works by Beethoven, Hölderlin, Schubert, Delacroix, Wordsworth, Mary Shelly, Verdi, Schlegel, Kant, Claude David and others. Usually offered every second year.
Stephen Dowden

COML 122b Writing Home and Abroad: Literature by Women of Color
[ hum nw ]

Examines literature (prose, poetry, and memoirs) written by women of color across a wide spectrum of geographical and cultural sites. Literature written within the confines of the "home country" in the vernacular, as well as in English in immigrant locales, is read. The intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and class as contained by the larger institutions of government, religion, nationalism, and sectarian politics are examined. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

COML 123a Perfect Love?
[ hum ]

The conflict between "perfect' and carnal love has inspired artistic works from the Middle Ages through the present. This course studies how perfect love runs afoul of more human desires in works by authors, composers, and film makers like Chrétien de Troye, Marguerite de Navarre, Hawthorne, Monteverdi, di Sica, and Wong Karwai. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

COML 132b Poetry and Philosophy
[ hum ]

Plato called the relationship between poetry and philosophy an "ancient quarrel." But within the last century some thinkers have attempted to effect a rapprochement. After considering the Platonic argument and its legacy, this course will explore the marriage of poetry and philosophy in later times, looking particularly at the experiments of German romantic aesthetics and its legacy in 20th-century Continental literary philosophy. What is the nature of the "ancient quarrel" between poetry and philosophy? In what sense do they compete for the same space? Can poetry be a kind of philosophy, or vice versa? Can philosophy help us to understand the nature of poetry, and vice versa? Usually offered every third year.
Laura Quinney

COML 146b Classical East Asian Poetics
[ hum nw ]

An introduction to the classical poetic forms of China, Japan, and Korea. Special consideration is paid to issues of canonization, classical theories of literature, and the development of multilingual literary traditions. All readings are in English. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh

COML 150b Critique of Erotic Reason
[ hum ]

Explores transformations in erotic sensibilities in the novel from the early nineteenth century to the present. Works by Goethe, Austen, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Schopenhauer, Bronte, Chekhov, Garcia-Marquez, Kundera, and Cormac McCarthy. Usually offered every third year.
Stephen Dowden

COML 160a East European Literature and Film: Art and Life in the Throes of History
[ hum ]

All texts, films, and instruction in English. No prerequisites.

Examines major East European films and literary works from the Ukrainian, Polish,  Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, (former) Yugoslavian, Bosnian, and other traditions. With an eye toward the unique historical, political, and ideological currents of the region and its constituent nationalities, we will focus on both artistic expression and engagement with larger issues.  Usually offered every second year.
David Powelstock

COML 171a Literary Translation in Theory and in Practice
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Excellent reading knowledge of any language other than English. Students will be asked to demonstrate proficiency before receiving consent to enroll in the course.

Approaching literary translation from several angles at once, this course combines readings in the history and theory of translation with a practical translation workshop. Students will experience first-hand the challenges of literary translation and, with the help of the theoretical readings, reflect on what the process teaches us about linguistic, literary, and cultural difference. Usually offered every second year.
David Powelstock or Staff

COML 178a Cult Books
[ hum ]

Explores novels on the fringe of literary respectability, books that have won passionate, if not necessarily large followings (hence the ambivalent praise implied in the term 'cult book'). Works by Renate Adler, J. G. Ballard, Thomas Bernhard, Osamu Dazai, Wei Hui, Chester Himes, Fleur Jaeggy, Anna Kavan, William Kotzwinkle, Eileen Myles, Maggie Nelson, Georges Perec, Hunter Thompson, Robert Walser, Shuo Wang and others. Usually offered every third year.
Stephen Dowden

COML/ENG 140b Children's Literature and Constructions of Childhood
[ hum ]

Explores whether children's literature has sought to civilize or to subvert, to moralize or to enchant, forming a bedrock for adult sensibility. Childhood reading reflects the unresolved complexity of the experience of childhood itself as well as larger cultural shifts around the globe in values and beliefs. Usually offered every third year.
Robin Feuer Miller

COML/ENG 141b Literature and Time
[ hum ]

Explores the human experience of temporality and reflection upon it. Themes covered by this course include: memory, nostalgia, anxiety, ethics, eternity, and time travel. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Quinney

COML/ENG 148a Fiction of the Second World War
[ hum wi ]

Studies novels of the Second World War from Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan (all readings in English). Usually offered every fourth year.
John Burt

COML/ENG 149a Dante's Hell and Its Legacy
[ hum ]

Studies the Classical underworld and its reworking in English verse. Topics include the descent to the underworld, the ambiguous Satan, the myths of Orpheus and Penelope, and the psychological Hells of the modernists. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Quinney

COML/ENG 191a Environmental Aesthetics
[ djw hum oc ]

Explores major schools of thought about nature, ecology, and art. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

COML/REC 136a All in the Family: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and the English Novel
[ hum ]

Selected novels and writings of Austen, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Woolf will be read to trace both the evolution of the novel and the meanings, contexts and depictions of the family. The family novel encompasses such larger questions as how we regard the pain of others and how we define community. Usually offered every second year.
Robin Feuer Miller

COML 100a Introduction to Global Literature
[ dl hum oc ]

Core course for COML major and minor.

What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

COML 100a Introduction to Global Literature
[ dl hum oc ]

Core course for COML major and minor.

What is common and what is different in literatures of different cultures and times? How do literary ideas move from one culture to another? In this course students read theoretical texts, as well as literary works from around the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ARBC 103a Lower Advanced Arabic
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 40b or the equivalent. Four class-hours per week.

Designed to help the student attain advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding. The syllabus includes selections from modern texts representing a variety of styles and genres, advanced composition, and sustained development of oral-aural proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 103a is required to take ARBC 103b. Usually offered every year.
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

ARBC 103b Middle Advanced Arabic: Contemporary Arab Media
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 103a or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 103a. Intensive honing primarily of oral-aural skills and vocabulary building with concentration on the spoken media of the contemporary Arab world. Review and reinforcement of major grammatical topics as needed. Usually offered every year.
Staff

CHIN 120a Readings in Contemporary Chinese Literature: Advanced Chinese Language
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: CHIN 105a or equivalent.

For advanced students of Chinese, an introduction to contemporary Chinese short stories from the 1990s and later. Focuses on significant expansion of vocabulary and grammar, and on providing students an opportunity to develop and polish both oral and written skills through class discussion, presentations, and writing assignments. Usually offered every fall.
Staff

CHIN 120b Readings in Contemporary Chinese Literature: Advanced Chinese Language II
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: CHIN 120a or equivalent.

Continuation of CHIN 120a. Study of contemporary Chinese short stories from the 1990s and later. These stories not only represent new literary themes and linguistic expressions, but also reflect the modernization, commercialization, and urbanization that is transforming China. The course improves students' knowledge of the language, as well as enhancing their understanding of Chinese society and culture. Usually offered every spring.
Pu Wang

FREN 110a Cultural Representations
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

A foundation course in French and Francophone culture, analyzing texts and other cultural phenomena such as film, painting, music, and politics. Usually offered every year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche, Hollie Harder, or Michael Randall

FREN 111a The Republic
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

The "Republic" analyzes how the republican ideal of the citizen devoid of religious, ethnic, or gender identity has fared in different Francophone political milieux. Course involves understanding how political institutions such as constitutions, parliaments, and court systems interact with reality of modern societies in which religious, ethnic, and gender identities play important roles. Usually offered every year.
Michael Randall

FREN 122b Toads, Salamanders, and Sonnets: Art, Power, and Identity in the French Renaissance
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

This class will look at how forms of cultural expression--from architecture to sonnets and odes--were used to create a sense of national and personal identity in the French Renaissance. We will look at how the poems, novellas, and essays of authors such as Joachim Du Bellay, Pierre de Ronsard, Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, and Michel de Montaigne, the paintings and sculptures of artists like François Clouet and Francesco Primaticcio, and the buildings of architects like Philibert Delorme, were used to produce new forms of national and personal identity in the 16th century. We will also refer to modern authors such as Edouard Glissant to help us understand these developments from a modern point of view. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

FREN 142b City and the Book
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Analyzes the symbolic appearance of the city in French literature and film from the Middle Ages to the present day. The representation of the city in literature and film is contextualized in theoretical writings of urbanists and philosophers. Literary texts include medieval fabliaux, Pantagruel (Rabelais) and Nana (Zola) as well as theoretical texts by Descartes, Ledoux, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, and Paul Virillo. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Randall

FREN 186b Literature and Politics
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

We will be interested in how the literary is political and the political literary. We will organize the class around the relationship of the individual and the community. Texts include: Montaigne's Essais, Corneille's Horace, Genet's Les nègres, Arendt's What is Politics?, Dumont's Essays on Individualism, Fanon's Peau noire, masques blancs. Usually offered every third year.
Michael Randall

GER 121a Der Eros und das Wort: Lyrik, Prosa, Drama
[ fl hum ]

Focuses on the prose, poetry, and drama of love in German literature since Goethe. Workes by Goethe, Kleist, Novalis, Tieck, Rilke, Hofmannsthal, Schnitzler, Treichel, and others. Usually offered every third year.
Stephen Dowden

GRK 115b Ancient Greek Drama and Comedy
[ fl hum ]

The plays of Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles, in Greek. A different playwright is studied each year. See Schedule of Classes for current topic. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

GRK 120b Greek Prose Authors
[ fl hum ]

Selections from Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, and other prose authors, in Greek. See Schedule of Classes for current topic. Usually offered every third year.
Joel Christensen or Staff

HBRW 144a Hebrew through Plays and Drama
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

Focuses on improving Hebrew language skills at the advanced-intermediate level through critical reading and analysis of authentic and contemporary Israeli short plays and studying the comparison between plays in Israel and those in the U.S. The course will examine theories in aspects of drama and implement drama techniques including improvisation, movement, and creative expression. The course readings cover topics such as social diversity and justice as well as human rights and awareness of world identities. The course culminates in the writing of an original scene or one-act play in Hebrew. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 146a The Voices of Jerusalem
[ djw fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance their language proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication through analysis of selected materials covering literature, poetry, history, politics, and art that depict the unique tradition and culture of Jerusalem. Usually offered every fall.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 170a Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced culture course that focuses on strengthening all language skills by studying the various aspects of Israeli society as portrayed in Israeli films and television. In addition to viewing films, the students will be asked to read Hebrew background materials, to participate in class discussions, and to write in Hebrew about the films. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum nw ]

Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.

Examines key Latin American texts of different genres (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) and from different time periods from the conquest to modernity. This class places emphasis on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Identifying major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) we will trace continuities and ruptures throughout Latin American intellectual history. Usually offered every semester.
Lucía Reyes de Deu or Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 160a Culture/Media and Social Change in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.

The central topic of this class is the role of the creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, music, film, performance) in their role as fostering political change in Latin America. We will examine key eras of 20th and 21st century cultural production in relation with shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film during and the 1960s guerrillas, artistic resistance to the dictatorship, to the street art accompanying human rights and grass roots identity movements of the 2000s. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
[ fl hum nw ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. Does not fulfill writing intensive beginning fall 2020.

A comparative and critical study of main trends, ideas, and cultural formations in Latin America. Topics vary year to year and have included fiction and history in Latin American literature, nation and narration, Latin American autobiography, art and revolution in Latin America, and humor in Latin America. Usually offered every year.

Julio Ariza

ITAL 120b Modern Italian Literature: From Page to the Screen
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor.

Focuses on the literature of twentieth-century writers such as Sciascia, Lampedusa, and Calvino, as well as contemporary writers, such as Maraini, Baricco, Tamaro, and Ammaniti with emphasis on the theme of historical, individual, and familial identity within the context of traumatic socio-economic upheaval and transformative cultural events in the Italian society. Several films based on these works will also be examined, with emphasis on an analysis of cinematic innovation and interpretation from the examined texts. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino

ITAL 128a Mapping Modern Italian Culture: Inherited Conflicts
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Italian with Italian texts.

Covers a broad and significant range of cultural topics that exemplify creative responses to historical events and social dilemmas that have shaped contemporary Italian culture including economic changes, the new face of immigration in Italy, and the social fight against the Mafia and Camorra through literature and cinema. Usually offered every second year.
Paola Servino

JAPN 120b Readings in Modern Japanese Literature
[ fl hum nw oc wi ]

Prerequisite: JAPN 120a or the equivalent.

Students read, analyze, discuss, and write about Japanese short fiction by a wide range of modern and contemporary authors. Screening of film adaptations and television programs complement class discussion, which is conducted in Japanese. Usually offered every year.
Matthew Fraleigh

LAT 115a Roman Drama
[ fl hum ]

Selected plays of Plautus and Terence, in Latin. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

LAT 116b Roman Satire
[ fl hum ]

The satires of Horace and Juvenal, in Latin. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

LAT 117a Lucretius, De Rerum Natura
[ fl hum ]

Close reading (in Latin) and discussion of poetic and philosophical dimensions of the poem. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

LAT 118a Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry
[ fl hum ]

Selections from Catullus, Horace, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, in Latin. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

LAT 119b Ovid
[ fl hum ]

Selections from Ovid's mythological-poetic history of the universe, in Latin. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

LAT 120a Vergil
[ fl hum ]

Selections from Vergil's Eclogues, Georgics, and the Aeneid in Latin. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

RUS 150b Advanced Russian Language through 20th Century Literature
[ dl fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite (heritage speakers): RUS 29b with a grade of C- or higher, or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Prerequisite (non-heritage speakers): RUS 40b or the equivalent. Taught in Russian. Course may be repeated for credit with instructor's permission.

A seminar for continuing students of Russian who wish to enhance their proficiency and accuracy in speaking, reading and writing. Focusing on the close study of Russian literature in the original Russian and the development of Russian oral and written language skills needed for the close reading and discussion of literature. Usually offered every second year.
Irina Dubinina

RUS 153a Advanced Russian Language through 19th Century Literature
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: RUS 29b or RUS 40b with a grade of C- or higher, or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Taught in Russian.

An undergraduate seminar for heritage and advanced students of Russian. Focus on the study of 19th-century Russian literature in the original and development of Russian oral and written skills needed for the close reading and discussion of literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Irina Dubinina

RUS 160b Russian/Soviet Jews: Dual Identities in Text, Image and Music
[ dl fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: Advanced Russian language skills.

An undergraduate seminar introduces heritage and advanced students of Russian to a number of Russian Jewish artists and writers who created in the Russian language and who made significant contributions to 20th-century Soviet and Russian literature, cinema, theater, and music. Through analyses and discussions of texts, images and music created by Russian-speaking Jews, students will explore the role Russian Jews played in shaping the Soviet and modern Russian culture. Usually offered every fourth year.
Irina Dubinina

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]

Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]

An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

AAAS 134b Novel and Film of the African Diaspora
[ hum nw ]

Writers and filmmakers, who are usually examined separately under national or regional canonical categories such as "(North) American," "Latin American," "African," "British," or "Caribbean," are brought together here to examine transnational identities and investments in "authentic," "African," or "black" identities. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

ANTH 105a Myth and Ritual
[ nw ss ]

Studies myth and ritual as two interlocking modes of cultural symbolism. Evaluates theoretical approaches to myth by looking at creation and political myths. Examines performative, processual, and spatial models of ritual analysis through study of initiation, sacrifice, and funerals. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

CHIN 136b Chinese Modernism in International Context
[ hum nw ]

Taught in English.

Examines the origins, recurrences, and metamorphosis of modernistic styles and movements in twentieth-century Chinese literature, film, fine art, and intellectual discourses. Usually offered every second year.
Pu Wang

CLAS 117b Unmasking Cleopatra: Gender, Power, and A Legacy
[ djw hum ]

CLAS 170a Classical Mythology
[ hum ]

An introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. Considers ancient song cultures, and the relationship between myth, drama, and religion. Also explores visual representations of myth. Usually offered every second year.
Joel Christensen

ECS 100a European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Modernism
[ dl hum oc ]

Explores the interrelationship of literature, music, painting, philosophy, and other arts in the era of high modernism. Works by Artaud, Baudelaire, Benjamin, Mann, Mahler, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Schiele, Beckett, Brecht, Adorno, Sartre, Heidegger, and others. Usually offered every fall semester.
Stephen Dowden

ECS 100b European Cultural Studies Proseminar: Making of European Modernity, 1250 to 1650
[ hum ]

Investigates how the paradigm of what we know as modernity came into being. We will look at the works of writers and philosophers such as Descartes, Aquinas, Dante, Ockham, Petrarch, Ficino, Rabelais, and Montaigne. Artwork from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will be used to understand better what "the modern" means. Usually offered every spring semester.
Michael Randall

ECS/ENG 110a Thinking about Infinity
[ hum ]

Explores the attempts of the finite human mind to think about infinity. Readings in mathematics, history of science, philosophy, literature, and art, including Euclid, Plato, Cantor, Poincaré, Einstein, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Wordsworth, Shelley, Joyce, Beckett, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Usually offered every third year.
William Flesch

ENG 66b Contemporary Global Dystopias
[ djw hum wi ]

Explores the sources, moods, and effects of dystopian fiction from around the world. Usually offered every third year.
Caren Irr

ENG 107a Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[ hum ]

About eight novels of the last two decades (by Cliff, Cruz, Danticat, Garcia, Kempadoo, Kincaid, Mittoo, Nunez, Pineau, Powell, or Rosario), drawn from across the region, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of male and female writers of the region. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

ENG 111b Postcolonial Theory
[ djw hum wi ]

Introduces students to key concepts in postcolonial theory. Traces the consequences of European colonialism for politics, culture and literature around the world, situates these within ongoing contemporary debates, and considers the usefulness of postcolonial theory for understanding the world today. Usually offered every third year.
Joshua Williams

ENG 121a Sex and Culture
[ hum ]

An exploration of the virtually unlimited explanatory power attributed to sexuality in the modern world. "Texts" include examples from literature, film, television, pornography, sexology, and theory. Usually offered every second year.
Paul Morrison

ENG 127a The Novel in India
[ djw hum nw ]

Survey of the novel and short story of the Indian subcontinent, their formal experiments in context of nationalism and postcolonial history. Authors may include Tagore, Anand, Manto, Desani, Narayan, Desai, Devi, Rushdie, Roy, Mistry, and Chaudhuri. Usually offered every second year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ djw hum nw ]

Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Faith Smith

ENG 133b Imagining Money: Literature and Economics from Barter to Bitcoin
[ hum ]

Money works because it is socially shared fiction; literature works because it has socially shared value. We will discuss the economics of literary experience: both literature about money (e.g. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Zola) and the picoeconomic game theory literature relies on. Usually offered every third year.
William Flesch

ENG 144b The Body as Text
[ hum wi ]

How are our bodies the material for our presentations of self and our interactions with others? Examines contemporary theories and histories of the body against literary, philosophical, political, and performance texts of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Usually offered every third year.
Thomas King

ENG 152a Indian Love Stories
[ djw dl hum nw ]

Introduces students to writings on love, desire and sexuality from ancient India to the present. Topics include ancient eroticism, love in Urdu poetry, Gandhi's sexual asceticism, colonial regulation of sexuality, Bollywood, queer fiction and more. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria

ENG 152b Arthurian Literature
[ dl hum ]

A survey of (mostly) medieval treatments of the legendary material associated with King Arthur and his court, in several genres: bardic poetry, history, romance, prose narrative. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ENG 171a The History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to Postmodernism
[ hum wi ]

Explores major documents in the history of criticism from Plato to the present. Texts will be read as representative moments in the history of criticism and as documents of self-sufficient literary and intellectual interest. Usually offered every third year.
Paul Morrison or Laura Quinney

ENG 181a Making Sex, Performing Gender
[ hum ]

Recommended preparation: An introductory course in gender/sexuality and/or a course in critical theory.

Gender and sexuality studied as sets of performed traits and cues for interactions among social actors. Readings explore the possibility that differently organized gender and sexual practices are possible for men and women. Usually offered every third year.
Thomas King

FREN 110a Cultural Representations
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

A foundation course in French and Francophone culture, analyzing texts and other cultural phenomena such as film, painting, music, and politics. Usually offered every year.
Clémentine Fauré-Bellaïche, Hollie Harder, or Michael Randall

GECS 130b The Princess and the Golem: Fairy Tales
[ hum wi ]

Conducted in English.

Compares Walt Disney's films with German and other European fairy tales from the nineteenth and twentieth century, focusing on feminist and psychoanalytic readings. Usually offered every second year.
Sabine von Mering

HISP 120b Don Quixote
[ hum ]

Taught in English.

Don Quixote is: a) a compendium of prior literary genres; b) the first modern novel; c) a funny book; d) a deep meditation on the human condition; e) the best novel ever written; f) all of the above. Usually offered every second year.
James Mandrell

HISP 152b Monsters, Creatures, and Cyborgs in Latin/x American Cinema, Fiction, and BioArt
[ hum nw ]

Taught in English.

Explores posthuman and creaturely life in monster films, science fiction, and bioart created by Latin American and Latinx artists. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which the non- and post-human emerges as a space in which artists wrestle with otherness, identity, racial capitalism, and the rise of new technologies. Usually offered every second year.

Staff

HISP 160a Culture/Media and Social Change in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.

The central topic of this class is the role of the creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, music, film, performance) in their role as fostering political change in Latin America. We will examine key eras of 20th and 21st century cultural production in relation with shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film during and the 1960s guerrillas, artistic resistance to the dictatorship, to the street art accompanying human rights and grass roots identity movements of the 2000s. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 196a Topics in Latinx Literature and Culture
[ hum wi ]

May be repeated for credit. May be taught in English or Spanish.

Offers students the opportunity for in-depth study of a particular aspect of the diverse literary and cultural production of U.S. latinx. Topics will vary from year to year but may include autobiography, detective fiction, or historical fiction. Usually offered every third year.
James Mandrell, María Durán, or Staff

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ dl hum oc ]

May be taught in English or Spanish.

A research seminar in which each student has the opportunity to become an 'expert' in a Hispanic literary or cultural text/topic that captures her or his imagination, inspired by a study abroad experience; an earlier class in Hispanic Studies; community-engaged learning; etc. Instruction in literary/cultural theory, researching a subject, and analytical skills necessary for developing a scholarly argument. Students present research in progress and write a research paper of significant length. Usually offered every year.
Fernando Rosenberg or Staff

HUM 1a Tragedy: Love and Death in the Creative Imagination
[ hum ]

Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows.

How do you turn catastrophe into art - and why? This first-year seminar in the humanities addresses such elemental questions, especially those centering on love and death. How does literature catch hold of catastrophic experiences and make them intelligible or even beautiful? Should misery even be beautiful? By exploring the tragic tradition in literature across many eras, cultures, genres, and languages, this course looks for basic patterns. Usually offered every year.
John Burt and Stephen Dowden

HUM 2a Crime and Punishment: Justice and Criminality from Plato to Serial
[ hum ]

Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows. Formerly offered as COML/HOI 103a.

Examines concepts of criminality, justice, and punishment in Western humanist traditions. We will trace conversations about jurisprudence in literature, philosophy, political theory, and legal studies. Topics include democracy and the origins of justice, narrating criminality, and the aesthetic force mobilized by criminal trials. This course also involves observing local courtroom proceedings and doing research in historical archives about significant criminal prosecutions. Usually offered every year.
Eugene Sheppard and David Sherman

HUM 7a Challenges of Power and the Self: Visual Arts and Literature
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows.
 

Uses visual art and literature to consider how ideas of the "self" and the "other" are reformulated during decolonization, the cold war, and the world order that followed.  Using the breakdown of the British Empire and the consolidation of American reach from World War II onward, the course will examine gender, race, identity, colonization, postcoloniality, and sexuality in/as representation and narrative.  This course will examine the text and image as separate, parallel, and yet conjoined and overlapping threads of cultural production.  How does literature and art create and reflect the image, the moment, the individual or history?  How is art narrative and how does the novel or the poem evoke an image, a scene, or a sequence of events? Usually offered every second year.

Peter Kalb and Harleen Singh

HUM 10a The Western Canon
[ hum ]

May not be taken by students who have taken NEJS 18a in prior years.

Foundational texts of the Western canon: the Bible, Homer, Vergil, and Dante. Thematic emphases and supplementary texts vary from year to year.
Staff

JAPN 130a The Literature of Multicultural Japan
[ djw hum nw ]

"Multicultural" may not be an adjective that many associate with Japan, but as we will find in this class, Japan's modern literary and cinematic tradition is rich with works by and about resident Koreans, Ainu, Okinawans, outcasts, and sexual and other marginalized minorities. Why then does the image of a monocultural Japan remain so resilient? Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh

JAPN 135a Screening National Images: Japanese Film and Anime in Global Context
[ hum nw ]

All films and readings are in English.

An introduction to some major directors and works of postwar Japanese film and anime with special attention to such issues as genre, medium, adaptation, narrative, and the circulation of national images in the global setting. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh

JAPN 165a The Tale of Genji
[ hum nw oc ]

Often called "the world's first novel," The Tale of Genji has captivated readers with its narrative of love, rivalry, friendship, and loss for centuries. This class explores what has given the text its prominent place in Japanese and world literature. Usually offered every third year.
Matthew Fraleigh

NEJS 183b* Global Jewish Literature
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 171a in prior years.

Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature, graphic fiction, and film. Taking a comparative approach, it addresses major themes in contemporary Jewish culture, interrogates the "Jewishness" of the works and considers issues of language, poetics, and culture significant to Jewish identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 129a Gender, Sex, and the Family in Ancient Near East and Beyond
[ hum ]

In the ancient world, the family was a critical site for the construction of gender, sex, and sexuality of its members. In this course, we will explore how identities such as father, mother, and child were constructed in ancient discourse. We will use feminist and queer perspectives to unpack texts from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman world, the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament. Special one-time offering, spring 2020.
Sari Fein

NEJS 140b Gender, Ghettos, and the Geographies of Early Modern Jews
[ hum ]

Examines Jewish history and culture in early modern Europe: mass conversions on the Iberian peninsula, migrations, reconversions back to Judaism, the printing revolution, the Reformation and Counter Reformation, ghettos, gender, family, everyday life, material culture, communal structure, rabbinical culture, mysticism, magic, science, messianic movements, Hasidism, mercantilism, and early modern challenges to Judaism.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 143a Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
[ djw hum ]

Examines interactions among the three religious communities focusing on political and social development, intra-religious conflict, and intellectual and artistic production. We will investigate the degree to which Castilian culture can be described as "Christian" or as "Muslim-Christian-Jewish" in character. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 157b Arab-Jewish Modern Thought and Culture
[ djw hum ]

Against the backdrop of the partition of the 'Jew' from the 'Arab' in the modern national era, this course focuses on the Arab-Jewish borderland cultural world which simultaneously embodies Arab and Jewish histories, traditions, and identities. It traces different manifestations of Arab-Jewish culture from the early 20th century to today and explores the complex relationship between culture and politics in relation to questions of language, identity, nationality, borders, exile and memory. Usually offered every second year.
Yuval Evry

NEJS 177a The Holocaust in Israeli and Jewish Literature
[ hum ]

Taught in English.

A broad survey of Holocaust writings in Modern Jewish literature. Examines the psychological, social, moral, and aesthetic challenges involved in representing the Holocaust in Israeli, American, and European context through literary texts, theoretical research, works of art, and film. Usually offered every third year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 181a Jews on Screen: From "Cohen's Fire Sale" to the Coen Brothers
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Survey course focusing on moving images of Jews and Jewish life in fiction and factual films. Includes early Russian and American silents, home movies of European Jews, Yiddish feature films, Israeli cinema, independent films, and Hollywood classics. Usually offered every second year.
Sharon Rivo

NEJS 193a Pirates, Mystics and Scholars: Travel Literature from the Islamic World
[ hum ]

Studies medieval and early modern travelogues from the Islamic world in English translation. These works provide us with a candid view of the Muslim Mediterranean including things like urban topography, social life, orthodox and subversive religious practices, status of minorities, conditions and limits of hospitality and so on. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS/WGS 110a Sexual Violence in Film and Culture
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Explores the effects of sexualized violence in society. While exploring representations of gender-based sexual violence in documentaries and features, stand-up comedy, memoirs, poetry, and visual art, this course will offer a critical discussion on Rape Culture in the 21st century, with particular attention to the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability in the construction of sexual violence. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

SAS 101a Women Writers from South Asia
[ hum nw ]

Includes literature by South Asian women writers such as Amrita Pritam, Ismat Chugtai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kamila Shamsie, Tahmina Anam, and Chandini Lokuge. Some of the works were originally written in English, while others have been translated from the vernacular. Usually offered every second year.
Harleen Singh

SAS 110b New Nations, New Stories: Postcolonial Literature
[ hum nw ]

Examines the postcolonial novel written in English within the shared history of colonialism, specifically British imperialism, for South Asia. Writers include R.K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Mohsin Hamid, Romesh Gunesekera and Daniyal Mueenudin. Usually offered every second year.
Harleen Singh

SAS 140a We Who Are at Home Everywhere: Narratives from the South Asian Diaspora
[ hum ]

Looks at narratives from various locations of the South Asian Diaspora, while paying close attention to the emergence of an immigrant South Asian public culture. Examines novels, poetry, short stories, film, and music in order to further an understanding of South Asian immigrant culture. Usually offered every third year.
Harleen Singh

THA 133b Acting the Classics
[ ca ]

Explores specific approaches to rehearsing and performing in the heightened world of classical texts, including William Shakespeare. The course is designed to release the actor's creative energies by stimulating an appetite for size, power and extravagant physical/vocal communication, to deepen the actor's analytical skills and free the actor for greater intellectual and emotional engagement. You will develop a respect for and understanding of form while gaining ease and joy in the fully realized expression of heightened language texts. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

THA 185b Advanced Playwriting and Dramatic Structure
[ ca ]

Prerequisites: THA 71a or permission of the instructor.

Students write plays inspired by the dramatic structures of scripts from the Greeks to the present. Texts analyzed include works by Euripides, Seneca, Hegel, Aristotle, Racine, Sarah Kane, Lope de Vega, Shakespeare, Harold Pinter, Richard Greenberg, Caryl Churchill, Arthur Schnitzler, David Hare, Sergi Belbel, and Kuan Han-ch'ing. Usually offered every second year.
Ryan McKittrick