Many departments in the Division of Literature and Languages offer courses in which the texts are read in translation. Literature courses are described under particular cross-listed departments within the division, with the exception of Literature 400, which is intended to serve all majors in the division. When courses are cross-listed under the sponsoring department, the texts in these courses are often read in the original language, usually in a separate conference; students with appropriate language skills should, for example, register for German 330 rather than Literature 330.
All literature courses fulfill Group A requirements. One unit of a literature course (or one unit in creative writing) may be applied toward the English major. For other majors in the division, literature courses at the 300 level will fulfill the division requirement of two units in a literature outside of the major.
Literature 309 - Introduction to Film Theory
Full course for one semester. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the main ideas and debates on film theory and criticism, from the early days of silent film to the most recent approaches to digital cinema. The discussion will focus on the most significant movements and film schools in Europe, the U.S., Latin America, and other parts of the world: realism, formalism, apparatus theory, psychoanalysis, feminism, auteurism, genre criticism, theories of spectatorship and reception, postmodernism, and third world and postcolonial cinema, among others. In addition to theoretical approaches, students will become familiar with cinematic language, including mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. The course will explore the work of directors such as D.W. Griffith, Sergei M. Eisenstein, F.W. Murnau, Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Vittorio De Sica, Jean-Luc Godard, Octavio Getino and Fernando Solanas, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Ousmane Sembene, Pedro Almodóvar, Agnès Varda, Wong Kar-wai, and Asghar Farhadi. Course includes weekly film screenings. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or consent of the instructor. Conference.
Literature 310 - African Literature and the Problem of Language
Full course for one semester. In this course we will study a diverse range of African literary contexts through the lens of language and translation. The question of what language to write in, and the implications of that choice, was one of the foundational issues of not only African, but also Francophone and Anglophone literary studies. The decision to write in French or English, colonial languages which have dominated literary writing in Africa over the last century, implies both a particular audience and a certain ideological baggage which must be dealt with. After identifying how these questions play out for several individual authors, we will examine alternatives to European languages. These include writing in other languages, such as Arabic or a vernacular, as well as aesthetic practices that challenge narrow understandings of the literary: oral performance, film, rap, and other uses of recording technology. Critical readings in African studies and translation theory will guide our analyses. All readings and discussions conducted in English. Conference.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature 336 - Animal Fables through the Ages: Subversion and Critique
Full course for one semester. Animal fables—like “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper”—are an enduring tradition within world literature and folklore. In this course, we will uncover the textual and visual mechanisms at work beneath the ostensibly simple façades that they present to readers and listeners. We will evaluate the array of devious purposes that these narratives serve in both contemporary and historical French and Francophone cultures, from advertising to entertainment to education, and from the Middle Ages to the globalized world. Primary texts will include many examples of verse poetry and novels as well as bandes dessinées (graphic novels) and contemporary cinema. Discussion in English. Conference.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature 400 - Introduction to Literary Theory
Full course for one semester. This course is a historical and analytical introduction to the major theoretical movements of the last 50 years in Western Europe and America. We will trace the philosophical origins and conceptual affiliations of the major developments in these movements. We will unpack the central concepts or master tropes of these theories to think about their function in literary criticism and learn how to use them purposefully. The course will cover structuralism and semiotics, poststructuralism and deconstruction, psychoanalytic theory, poststructuralist Marxist theory, Foucauldian theory and new historicism, postcolonial studies, and gender and feminist studies. The course will be taught as a seminar, with each student responsible for organizing the discussion of a reading or topic. It is designed for literature majors, but non–literature majors with adequate preparation may be admitted at the discretion of the instructors. Prerequisite: junior standing or at least two literature courses. Conference. Cross-listed solely as English 400 in 2016–17.
Literature (Chinese) 281 - Self, Stage, and Society: An Excursion into Chinese Drama
See Chinese 281 for description.
Literature (Chinese) 324 - Genres of Memory in Medieval China
See Chinese 324 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 325 - Songs to Lost Music: Readings in Ci-Poetry
See Chinese 325 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 326 - The Knight-Errant Tradition in Chinese Literature and Film
See Chinese 326 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 328 - The Aesthetics of Medieval Chinese Poetry
See Chinese 328 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 333 - The Powerful Women of Early and Medieval China in History, Fiction, and Modern Media
See Chinese 333 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 334 - The Yijing: Text and Tradition of the Book of Changes
See Chinese 334 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 346 - Post-Mao Chinese Fiction and Film
See Chinese 346 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 348 - Reading for Translation
See Chinese 348 for description.
Literature (Chinese) 355 - Early Chinese Philosophical Texts
See Chinese 355 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 360 - The Social Life of Poetry in the Tang Dynasty (618–907)
See Chinese 360 for description.
Literature (Chinese) 369 - Modernizing Sentiments, Sentimentalizing Modernity
See Chinese 369 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Chinese) 380 - Chinese Narrative Traditions
See Chinese 380 for description.
Literature (Classics) 360 - Special Topics: Animals in Greek and Roman Literature
See Classics 360 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Classics) 362 - Classical Mythology
See Classics 362 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (German) 330 - Gender and Sexuality in German Literature
See German 330 for description.
Literature (German) 332 - Classical and Avant-Garde Theatre in Postwar Germany
See German 332 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (German) 334 - German Landscapes, New World Horizons
See German 334 for description.
Literature (German) 355 - Modern German Jewish Writers
See German 355 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (German) 358 - The Holocaust in Film and Literature
See German 358 for description.
Literature (German) 365 - City, Space, Memory
See German 365 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (German) 392 - German Theory II
Introduction to Critical Theory
See German 392 for description. Not offered 2016–17.
Revolutions in Poetic Language
See German 392 for description. Not offered 2016–17.
Literature (German) 462 - Seminar:
Goethe
See German 462 for description. Not offered 2016–17.
Literature (Russian) 266 - Russian Short Fiction
See Russian 266 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 340 - Jewish Modernisms: Eastern Europe and Beyond
See Russian 340 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 362 - Red Sci-Fi: Science Fiction in Soviet Literature and Film
See Russian 362 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 371 - Russian Literature from its Beginnings through Gogol
See Russian 371 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 372 - Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction
See Russian 372 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 373 - Modern Russian Literature from Chekhov to the Present
See Russian 373 for description.
Literature (Russian) 382 - Tarkovsky and Others: Russian Auteur Cinema
See Russian 382 for description.
Literature (Russian) 383 - Special Topics in Russian Literature: Russian Romanticism in the Western European Context
See Russian 383 for description.
Literature (Russian) 388 - The Soviet Experience
See Russian 388 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 404 - Tolstoy’s Great Novels
See Russian 404 for description.
Literature (Russian) 405 - Special Topics in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature: Gogol and Dostoevsky
See Russian 405 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 409 - Late Tolstoy: From Anna Karenina to a Religious Teaching
See Russian 409 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 411 - Special Topics: Russian Émigré Literature
See Russian 411 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 413 - Russian Formalism, Structuralism, and Semiotics
See Russian 413 for description.
Literature (Russian) 424 - The Holocaust in Soviet Contexts
See Russian 424 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Russian) 436 - Sergei Eisenstein’s Film Art: Decadence, Revolution, and the Mechanics of Ecstasy
See Russian 436 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.
Literature (Spanish) 343 - Don Quixote and Narrative Theory
See Spanish 343 for description.
Literature (Spanish) 378 - Space and Power
See Spanish 378 for description.
Literature (Spanish) 384 - Latin America's Revolutionary Century
See Spanish 384 for description.
Not offered 2016—17.