Comparative Literature (CMLIT)

Bibliography, research methods, and studies in comparative literature.

Issues in literary criticism from Plato and Aristotle to the mid-eighteenth century.

Principles and theories of literary criticism from eighteenth- and nineteenth- century beginnings to twentieth-century expansion and application.

The concept of genre and the evolution of genre theory; application to a specific genre, e.g., the lyric or the novel.

Comparative approaches to cohesive units within literary history, e.g., the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Surrealism.

Comparative approaches to recurrent literary themes and motifs; application to a specific example, e.g., literary Utopias or the Faust theme.

Theoretical and practical concepts in the comparative, global history of poetry and/or poetics. CMLIT 507 Comparative Poetics (3 per semester/maximum of 6) This course explores theoretical and practical concepts in the history of poetry and/or poetics. Like all comparative literature courses, it pursues its task through discussions of texts from a wide variety of national or linguistic origins and ranges widely across historical period, medium, and social form, where appropriate. Students will develop a broad array of interpretive skills appropriate to poetry and poetics; they will acquire a knowledge of a wide variety of poetic forms; they will undertake comparative analyses of poems and poetic structures; they will learn how to think about poetics outside poetry.

Comparative study of transnational forms of visual cultural production; e.g. new media, cinema, television, public culture.

Aesthetic and historical development of Modernism in diverse cultures.

Theories of translation and interpretation; importance of translation in literary transmission; application of theoretical concepts to individual translation projects.

This course is a professional development seminar that prepares graduate students to contribute professionally to the advancement of teaching global and world literature courses at the college and university level. We will investigate the range of global literatures and consider the term "world literature" in two senses: (a) discerning the theories and meanings inherent in the concept and (b) charting the scope of a world of literature that can fit into one semester within specific institutional expectations. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent in teaching works that are written in a variety of languages, come from a wide range of temporal periods and diverse cultural settings, reflect or provide alternatives to international canons, rely upon varying assumptions and ideologies, and demonstrate different relations to translation, literacy, visuality, orality, and performance. Students will become acquainted with aspects of learning theory and research questions as well as with professional resources such as conferences and journals in this field. We will theorize and explore concrete matters such as teaching within different institutional settings and delivery modes (including online), determining learning objectives and assessment instruments, crafting a syllabus, designing lesson plans, and selecting instructional materials including OER (Open Educational Resources) and other alternatives to expensive textbooks in relation to issues of equity and access. Throughout, we will focus on student learning, on creating an inclusive instructional environment, and on professional ethics as involved in the ways we teach literature. The course is intended to strengthen graduate students' abilities and confidence as teachers now, and their readiness for professional scholarship and for the academic job market later (most faculty jobs in literature are at teaching-focused institutions). We will also consider career diversity: since professional careers other than faculty appointments can often include forms of teaching, aspects of this course may be useful for other career options too.

Comparative topics presenting literary works of the Americas--North America, South America, and the Caribbean--from early to present times. CMLIT 521 CMLIT 521 Comparative Seminar in Inter-American Literatures (1-12)This course forms one series of three new-course proposals for seminars in comparative literature with a focus on various parts of the world. While existing seminars focus on comparative studies organized according to concepts such as literary theory, period, theme, or genre, through the proposed new seminars the Department of Comparative Literature seeks to provide visibility for the full complement of courses that reflect the department's global perspective. These proposals also respond to the College's policy to avoid repeated use of the 597 number for similar subject-matter. Thus we are proposing three separate comparative courses on Asian, African, and Inter-American literatures. All represent subject-matter previously taught as CMLIT 597 or other less clearly defined CMLIT numbers.Comparative study of Inter-American literatures is an important part of the curriculum of our Comparative Literature Department. It is a field of study identified as one of our specialties in our recent strategic plans. Joining existing graduate seminars in European literatures, and supplementing proposed seminars in African and Asian literatures, this course and the other two new graduate courses now being proposed will make visible the ways in which the departmental curriculum to covers the diverse geographic areas relevant to comparative literary study.Our department has long taught 100-level and 400-level courses on Inter-American Literature. We believe that we were the first U.S. university to have created such courses some twenty-five years ago. Many of our graduate students possess appropriate languages (such as Spanish, Portuguese, and French) necessary for study in this field.The Americas as two joined continents have produced thousands of writers and a highly diverse literature written in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and other languages, including Native American languages. A comparative approach to the study of these literatures provides an appropriately internationalized context for understanding the relations among various literatures of the Americas and for seeing them in the purview of world literature as a whole.In sum, we have long had separate numbers for our undergraduate Inter-American Literature courses and we have previously offered graduate Inter-American courses under general numbers. In addition to complying with College policy and not continuing to use 597 repeatedly, we wish to make this field more visible within our curriculum by giving it a course number of its own.

Comparative topics presenting literary works of Asia, from the origins of literature in Asia to the present time. CMLIT 522 CMLIT 522 Comparative Seminar in Asian Literatures (1-12)This course forms one of a series of three new-course proposals for seminars in comparative literature with a focus on various parts of the world. While existing seminars focus on comparative studies organized according to concepts such as literary theory, period, theme, or genre, through the proposed new seminars the Department of Comparative Literature seeks to provide visibility for the full complement of courses that reflect the department's global perspective. These proposals also respond to the College's policy to avoid repeated use of the 597 number for similar subject-matter. Thus we are proposing three separate comparative courses on Asian, African, and Inter-American literatures. All represent subject-matter previously taught as CMLIT 597 or other less clearly defined CMLIT numbers.Comparative study of Asian literatures is an important part of the curriculum of our Comparative Literature Department. It is a field of study identified as one of our specialties in our recent strategic plans. Joining existing graduate seminars in European literatures, this course and the other two new graduate courses now being proposed will make visible the ways in which the departmental curriculum to covers the diverse geographic areas relevant to comparative literary study.Our Department offers instruction in three Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), has long taught 100- and 400-level courses in Asian literatures (Comp Lit 004 and Comp Lit 404), has linkages with universities in China and Japan, and has attracted a steady stream of graduate students who work in Asian literatures and languages. Interest in the literatures of Asia is strong. As a further indication of our Departments globalization, we are establishing a new undergraduate major in Japanese (this proposal is presently in the Senate).In sum, we have long had separate numbers for our undergraduate Asian language and literature courses and we have previously offered graduate Asian literature courses under general numbers. In addition to complying with College policy and not continuing to use 597 repeatedly, we wish to make this field more visible within our curriculum by giving it a course number of its own.

Comparative topics presenting literary works of Africa, from the origins of literature in Africa to the present time. CMLIT 523 CMLIT 523 Comparative Seminar in African Literature (1-12)This course forms one of a series of three new-course proposals for seminars in comparative literature with a focus on various parts of the world. While existing seminars focus on comparative studies organized according to concepts such as literary theory, period, theme, or genre, through the proposed new seminars the Department of Comparative Literature seeks to provide visibility for the full complement of courses that reflect the department's global perspective. These proposals also respond to the College's policy to avoid repeated use of the 597 number for similar subject-matter. Thus we are proposing three separate comparative courses on Asian, African, and Inter-American literatures. All represent subject-matter previously taught as CMLIT 597 or other less clearly defined CMLIT numbers.Comparative study of African literatures is an increasingly important part of the curriculum of our Comparative Literature Department. It is a field of study identified as one of our specialties in our recent strategic plans. Joining existing graduate seminars in European literatures, this course and the other two new graduate courses now being proposed (on Asian and Inter-American literatures) will make visible the ways in which the departmental curriculum covers the diverse geographical areas relevant to comparative literary study.Our Department offers language instruction in Swahili and Arabic, has long taught 100-level and 400-level courses on African literature, has developed linkages with several African universities, and has attracted a steady stream of graduate students to work in African literature during the last two decades. Interest in the literatures of Africa is strong.Africa as a continent has produced thousands of writers and a highly diverse body of literature written in English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and over 50 African languages. It is also a rich source of literature recorded from oral traditions maintained in the more than 1,000 languages spoken on the continent. A comparative approach to the study of these literatures provides an appropriately internationalized context for understanding African literatures and for seeing them in the purview of world literature as a whole.In sum, we have long had separate numbers for our undergraduate African languages and literature courses and we have previously offered graduate courses on African literatures under general numbers. In addition to complying with College policy and not continuing to use 597 repeatedly, we wish to make this field more visible within our curriculum by giving it a course number of its own.

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of modern Arab/ic literature, in dialogue with critical approaches that illuminate these texts within a comparative framework. By examining the critical interventions and debates that have shaped Arabic literature up until our present moment, this course invites students to attend to the manifold ways that this literature engages the major theoretical paradigms of global literary studies. It subsequently de-provincializes these debates beyond the limited purview of ethno-linguistic, philological, or geopolitical divisions of the field. It instead situates this literature as an active agent within world literary debates and criticism, both past and present. In this regard, the course will invite students to critically reframe the (neo)colonial or (neo)orientalist categories of the `Middle East' and `Near East,' and to consider other supra- and transnational exchanges staged across Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean, as well as in the diaspora. In so doing, the course aims to look beyond the exclusive lens of the (post)colonial, or binary models of center/periphery, that dominate discussions of `third-world' literature. In moving away from the siloing of these traditions within Area Studies, the course considers the repercussions of these debates for narrative, aesthetic, geopolitical, theoretical, and pedagogical concerns across the study of Comparative Literature. Students will read a wide variety of literary texts in English translation, spanning a range of genres (prose, poetry, drama, film). Alongside these works, they will engage with critical and philosophical writings from the Arab/ic context, on topics such as aesthetics and the sublime, affects and embodiment, futurity and dystopia, ecocriticism and the Anthropocene, language, modernity/postmodernism, globalization, trauma, and more. After having taken this class, students will have gained a sound grasp of the field, as well as its literary and historical dimensions. They will also have developed a critical understanding of the current challenges and directions of the study of modern Arab/ic literature.

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of global Japanese literature, in dialogue with critical approaches that illuminate these texts. The narrative of ethnic, geographic, and linguistic isomorphism ¿ the notion that a Japanese people speaking a Japanese language live in the Japanese islands ¿ is a carefully crafted and relatively modern fiction in Japan. This course examines the gradual, and still contentious, formation of a "Japanese" literary canon from multiple vantage points. The class combines a survey of key texts composed in the Japanese islands and in Japanese diaspora communities, alongside an examination of the critical paradigms that surround the production, reception, and interpretation of these texts.

This course provides students and overview of key texts and trends in modern Korean literature and culture from a global perspective. It examines the most prominent literary and visual works that articulate the intricacy of modern Korean culture at the intersections of major historical, ideological, and environmental forces and issues in the twentieth century such as colonialism, cultural imperialism, Cold War politics, democratic movement, feminist movement, environmental injustice, etc. Students will also read texts on modern Korean history as well as literary and cultural criticism and theories to improve their analytical ability that will be demonstrated in their writings.

Mutual influences among specific literatures and cultures; for example, German-American, French-American, Inter-American, or East-West literary relations.

Intellectual currents and experimental forms in contemporary world literature.

This course provides students with an overview of the core texts and main critical paradigms of modern Chinese literary studies. This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of the main critical approaches to modern Chinese literature, by placing these paradigms into historical perspective and linking them with key texts that illuminate the authors' arguments and demonstrate exemplary readings that have proven influential in the field, past and present. The particular focus of the course may vary according to the instructor (e.g. themes, genres, regions etc.), but the course will generally cover critical interventions and debates, helping students to understand the emergence of the field in its present form; they will also scrutinize major trends that are providing new directions for the study of modern Chinese literature. In addition to the critical literature, students will read a range of key literary texts, from the late Qing to the twenty-first century, that provide insights into the forces (aesthetic and intellectual, as well as social and historical) that have shaped the canon of modern Chinese literature. Critical analyses and literary texts are chosen in a way so as to illuminate each other. At the end of the class, students will have gained a sound grasp of the field and its literary and historical dimensions, and develop a critical understanding of the current challenges and directions of the study of modern Chinese literature. Cross Listings: CMLIT 577 will be added as a cross-listed course.

Major issues in contemporary literary theory and their significance for criticism, with emphasis on continental European theorists and their influence.

Approaches to the uses and research applications of multimedia and other educational technologies applied to the teaching of foreign languages. (also crosslisted with SPAN 589)

Creative projects, including nonthesis research, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

Formal courses given on a topical or special inerest subject which may be offered infrequently.

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Supervision of teaching; consideration of insturctional aims and objectives, methods of lecturing and leading discussions, evaluation of student work.

Foreign study and/or research constituting progress toward the degree at a foreign university.

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