Whereas the influence of Italian-Neorealism on world cinema is undeniable, the literary origins of Neo-Realism are less well-known. The notion of Neo-Realism was in fact first used in Italy to describe trends world literature, and the development of a specifically Italian Ne0-Realist style emerged from a close collaboration between the writers and filmmakers of this period.  Just as Italian Neo-Realist cinema became a cultural phenomenon in China in the 1950s, the Italian literature that Chinese readers were consuming was also dominated by Neo-Realist writers.

In this course, we will examine found documents as a literary device, i.e., stories that are told through an accumulation of texts, often “found” and assembled by the author or narrator.  Our readings will include examples of epistolary literature as well as experimental tales told through pieces of poetry, critical reviews, footnotes, and gallery labels.  We will also consider horror writers’ particular fondness for found documents, and cases when the mysterious sources of certain materials — and the gaps between texts — represent encounters with the unknown.  Many of our texts will feel r

This course approaches the North and Central American landscapes as cultural and geographical spaces that are crisscrossed with borders, both seen and unseen. Focusing on Latinx border crossings and the U.S.-Mexico border(lands), we’ll explore a tangle of themes and questions: How do borders function as physical and ideological boundaries that construct and reinforce difference, prompting us to view the Americas in terms like insiders vs. outsiders, citizens vs. immigrants, here vs. there, place vs. non-place, or humans vs. migrants, laborers, or refugees?

Do you need to be at least a little crazy to be a great writer? Is going insane just a natural reaction to the world around us? To what extent should mental health crises be medicalized, and to what extent should they be accommodated as uncomfortable parts of most people's life experiences? These are just some of the questions that we will explore together over the course of the semester.
 

Writing strategies and expectations vary among cultures. English writers, for instance, may discover that their concise and clear expression can sound naïve to Spanish ears, or that their use of irony and witticisms can be taken as a sign of levity. Conversely, Spanish writers may find that their thoughtful attempts at emphasizing an idea are seen by English readers as unnecessary repetitions, or that a general reflection, intended to highlight the argument’s complexity, is felt instead as a digression.

“Tell me, how does it feel with my teeth in your heart?”

• Medea, Euripides

“There’s always a part in every [episode] where the narrator goes, And that’s when she snapped.”

In this course, we will examine found documents as a literary device, i.e., stories that are told through an accumulation of texts, often “found” and assembled by the author or narrator.  Our readings will include examples of epistolary literature as well as experimental tales told through pieces of poetry, critical reviews, footnotes, and gallery labels.  We will also consider horror writers’ particular fondness for found documents, and cases when the mysterious sources of certain materials — and the gaps between texts — represent encounters with the unknown.  Many of our texts will feel r

In this R1B course we will explore fictional (and often fantastical) depictions of and engagements with real events of the past - that is, with history. Over the semester, we will examine and discuss films and literature which incorporate descriptions, references, personal recollections, and even richly imagined accounts of historical events or periods into the fictional(ized) stories they tell and worlds they construct.

“Fallor ergo sum.” (“I err, therefore I am.”)

            —St. Augustine, 5th century

“C’est plus qu’un crime, c’est une faute.” (“It’s more than a crime, it’s a mistake.”)

            — Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe, 1804

To say that ‘to love is to live’ is nothing less than to affirm the proximity between these two actions, where, if nothing else, only a meager vowel separates the two. Love attests to a paradoxical type of freedom: we must be free to love; yet, when we are in love, we are unable to freely choose who or what it is that we love. Once ensnared in its warm embrace, love encircles us like a python, squeezing gently (sometimes not) until it completely surrounds us. But love can swallow and transform our world as quickly as it departs from it, leaving us only with malady.