Studies in Medieval Literature

The course will begin with an introduction to the troubadours, including instruction in their language, Medieval Occitan. After reading a representative selection of troubadour poems, the class will move to consideration of major lyric traditions that take their inspiration from, or are cognate with, the troubadours: the trouvères, Minnesang, the Sicilian School, the Dolce Stil Nuovo, the Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amor, and strophic poetry in Arabic depending on the interests of the students.

Those Who Can, Teach

The purpose of this course is to introduce new GSIs to the theory and practice of teaching Comparative Literature 1A and 1B (and other courses taught by Comp Lit GSI’s). More generally, the course will help you prepare for a career as a college teacher of literature and for the teaching component of job applications. This course is a 4-unit, S/U class.

Nationalism, Colonialism, and Culture

This seminar is devoted to an investigation of the concept of “South” in the imagination of colonizers, explorers, and creative writers beginning in the 19th century, stretching through the fantasies of high modernists and social realists, and reaching today’s novelists and poets.  To approach the idea of “South,” we’ll focus in particular on the representation of that southernmost frontier known as the Patagonia. .

Gender, Sexuality, and Culture

The focus of this seminar is the cultural topos of the land as woman and its rearticulations in diverse poetic traditions.

Studies in the Relations Between Literature and the Other Arts

This course will explore the writings of Walter Benjamin and his interlocutors. We will consider selections from Benjamin’s writings and correspondence.  Benjamin’s own modes of reading will provide a guide to understanding topics such as: paradoxical temporalities, Surrealism, translation, urban space, visual cultures and the image, Marxism and psychoanalysis, messianism, and chance encounters.

Knowledge of German or French is welcome (and will be incorporated into discussion) but is not required.

Texts

Walter Benjamin, Reflections

Studies in Near Eastern-Western Literary Relations

Despite the fact that three shadow plays written in Egypt by the Iraqi author, Ibn Daniyal (d.710/1310) have been known for some time, first in manuscript, and then in a woefully inadequate edition from which two-thirds of the text was expurgated, it has become accepted wisdom that there is no theater in medieval Arabic literature.  A more recent edition of the shadow plays now makes it possible to rectify this negative judgment and to assess the value and significance of the surviving texts.

Studies in Contemporary Literature

In this course we will read a selection of literary texts produced within the past thirty years, all of which foreground the movement of individuals or communities across national borders.   Reading this literature alongside theoretical texts, we will discuss a number of interrelated questions, including but not limited to the following: how do contemporary immigrant writers attempt to come to terms with the profound historical ruptures and geographic displacements brought about by the experience of transnational movement?

Studies in Symbolist and Modern Literature

Although a number of important studies have reopened the question of the German-Jewish dialogue (such as those by Klaus Berghahn, George Mosse, Paul Mendes-Flohr, and, most recently, Jonathan Hess), the “place” of Jews and Jewish thought within German modernism is still contested ground.  This is partly due to Gershom Scholem’s famous critique that the German-Jewish dialogue never took place. This course will begin by reassessing and, ultimately, rejecting Scholem’s position in favor of alternative models for studying the cultural histories and geographies of German/Jewish modernism.

Comparative Literature Proseminar

This course is designed to give all new graduate students a broad view of the department’s faculty, the courses they teach, and their fields of research. In addition, it will introduce students to some practical aspects of the graduate career, issues that pertain to specific fields of research, and questions currently being debated across the profession. The readings for the course will consist of copies of materials by the department’s faculty.

Proseminar

This course is designed to give all new graduate students a broad view of the department’s faculty, the courses they teach, and their fields of research. In addition, it will introduce students to some practical aspects of the graduate career, issues that pertain to specific fields of research, and questions currently being debated across the profession. The readings for the course will consist of copies of materials by the department’s faculty.

Pages