Evolution of Literary Archetypes

V29.0104  Given every one to two years. 4 points.

Investigates ancient literary archetypes as developed by modern authors from the 17th century to the present. While the course emphasizes the more recent adaptations of such archetypes as Prometheus, Orestes, and Hippolytus, it includes the Greco-Roman origin and transformation of different archetypes through succeeding epochs of Western civilization. Authors include Shakespeare, Racine, Alfieri, Shelley, Sartre, O’Neill, Gide, Giraudoux, and Eliot.

Tragedy

V29.0110  Identical to V11.0110, V30.0200, and V41.0720. Given every other year. 4 points.

Historical and critical study of the idea and practice of tragedy from Greek times to the present.

Comedy

V29.0111  Identical to V41.0725 and V30.0205. Given every other year. 4 points.

Historical and critical study of comic forms, themes, and traditions in a number of Western cultures from Aristophanes and earlier classical writing to absurdist and postmodern notions of comic forms. Provides an opportunity to study the 20th-century mingling of tragedy and comedy into the tragicomedy. The aim is to evolve a critical perspective on comedy for our time. Complements Department of Classics offerings in Greek and Roman comedy.

Modernist Fiction

V29.0115  Given every other year. 4 points.

Focuses on both formal and thematic aspects of important innovative works of fiction from approximately the first half of the 20th century in Western Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Authors include Joyce, Woolf, Gide, Sartre, Mann, Faulkner, Carpentier, Sábato, and Rulfo.

Introduction to Comparative Literature

V29.0116  Given every semester. 4 points.

Required for all majors in comparative literature. Explores the theory of comparative literature from its inception as a discipline to the present. Readings vary according to professor.

Studies in Prose Genres

V29.0125  Given every year. 4 points.

Focuses on prose genres that have traditionally been relegated to a marginal position in the literary canon but the status of which is now being reassessed: the travel account, autobiography, and fantastic fiction. Examining a different genre each time it is offered, the course also provides students with the opportunity to question what constitutes literature or a literary genre.

Topics in Caribbean Literature

V29.0132  Identical to V11.0132 and V41.0704. Given every semester. 4 points.

Study of the literature and society of the Caribbean. Emphasizes Anglophone Caribbean within a comparative framework of French/Haitian, Spanish, Dutch, and Surinamese Caribbean modes. Topics vary yearly, from a concentration on Caribbean poetry to other cultural forms and presentations. Readings of literature, history, and political theory supplemented with performance, music, film, and video. Subjects include women writers, orality, novels of childhood, and pioneer literary figures.

Topics in Popular Culture

V29.0136  Given every one to two years. 4 points.

Addresses topics in modern and contemporary popular culture. Topics vary yearly and may include the detective novel, television, popular music, folklore, visual culture, and romantic fiction.

Literatures, Tricksters, and Cultural Exchange

V29.0137  Identical to V11.0137. Given every other year. 4 points.

The history and functioning of the trickster figure in texts and oral tales of various cultures. The trickster’s presentation of a tension between different norms of rationality. Relations of languages, reasons, and hegemonies. Cultural crossovers, usings, and borrowings. Texts from contemporary Native America (Blue Cloud, Silko, and Vizenor); ancient Greece and Rome (Plato, Euripides, and Plautus); European Renaissance (pícaro, Tirso, Grimmelshausen, and Molière); China (Journey to the West); India (Ramayana); and other moderns (e.g., Azaldúa, Brathwaite, Brecht, Grass, Hasek, Kingston, Lorde, Mo, Ngu~g~i   wa Thiong’o, Paz, Soyinka).

Topics in 18th-Century Literature

V29.0175  Given every other year. 2 or 4 points.

Addresses topics in 18th-century literature that are important for comparative study. Offers practical experience in close critical reading and introduces the generic, thematic, and literary historical approaches as methodological and theoretical problems in comparative literature.

Topics in 19th-Century Literature

V29.0180  Given every other year. 2 or 4 points.

Addresses topics in 19th-century literature that are important for comparative study. Topics vary yearly and may include the following: the double, the image of Napoleon, detective fiction as a 19th-century genre, and decadence.

Topics in 20th-Century Literature

V29.0190  Given every semester. 2 or 4 points.

Addresses topics in 20th-century literature that are important for comparative study. Topics vary yearly and may include modernism, comparative postcolonial literature, and contemporary culture.

Junior Theory Seminar: Cultural Theory

V29.0200  Given every year. 4 points.

The most influential 20th-century contributions to theories of cultural analysis are examined. Readings are organized into a series of prominent debates: cultural studies, postmodernism, the male gaze, third world literature, national liberation. Readings in Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Frantz Fanon, Gail Rubin, Laura Mulvey, Fredric Jameson, Aijaz Ahmad, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Topics in Film and Literature

V29.0300  Identical to V11.0302. Given every year. 4 points.

Uses the tools of cultural studies to investigate cultural intersections of the modern period. Focus on the street in literature and film includes questions of cultural space, race, identity politics, gender, and territoriality in the metropolis. Represents cultural studies, film studies, black studies, and women’s studies.

Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature (Honors Thesis course)

V29.0400  Permission of the director of undergraduate studies required. Given every year. 4 points.

The aim of this course is the preparation and the writing of the theses of seniors who qualify for this honor. (Students must have a 3.5 or better GPA in the major.) We examine several critical/theoretical approaches, as many (and more) as are necessary to meet the needs of each student. Each student makes a presentation of his or her thesis proposal along with the critical position to be taken. Each critical position is then studied by the class so as to be able to make a contribution toward one another’s thesis. In addition, we study some practical methods of thesis writing, as well as methods of research.

Readings in Contemporary Literary Theory

V29.0843  Identical to V41.0735. Given every semester. 4 points.

Introduces students already familiar with the immanent methods of practical criticism to the most important movements in contemporary literary theory.Readings are drawn from structuralism, poststructuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, and new historicism.

Colonialism and the Rise of Modern African Literature

V29.0850  Identical to V41.0707. Given every year. 4 points.

With the theme of colonialism as the unifying principle, explores and compares the work of a number of African writers of Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusaphone traditions.

Independent Study

V29.0997  Must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies. 1-4 points.

To write a senior thesis as part of Honors Graduation, if a student cannot take the Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature.

Independent Study

V29.0998  Must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies. 1-4 points.

For special projects, including internships, contributing to the major.