Comparative Literature

COMPLIT 10N. Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context. 3 Units.

Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.

COMPLIT 11Q. Shakespeare, Playing, Gender. 3 Units.

Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.

COMPLIT 36A. Dangerous Ideas. 1 Unit.

Ideas matter. Concepts such as race, progress, and evil have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like religious tolerance, voting rights, and wilderness preservation play an important role in contemporary debates in the United States. All of these ideas are contested, and they have a real power to change lives, for better and for worse. In this one-unit class we will examine these dangerous ideas. Each week, a faculty member from a different department in the humanities and arts will explore a concept that has shaped human experience across time and space. Some weeks will have short reading assignments, but you are not required to purchase any materials.
Same as: ARTHIST 36, EALC 36, ENGLISH 71, FRENCH 36, HISTORY 3D, MUSIC 36H, PHIL 36, RELIGST 21X, SLAVIC 36

COMPLIT 37Q. Zionism and the Novel. 3 Units.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Zionism emerged as a political movement to establish a national homeland for the Jews, eventually leading to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This seminar uses novels to explore the changes in Zionism, the roots of the conflict in the Middle East, and the potentials for the future. We will take a close look at novels by Israelis, both Jewish and Arab, in order to understand multiple perspectives, and we will also consider works by authors from the North America and from Europe. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Same as: JEWISHST 37Q

COMPLIT 51Q. Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity. 4 Units.

We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: AMSTUD 51Q, CSRE 51Q

COMPLIT 55N. Batman, Hamilton, Díaz, and Other Wondrous Lives. 3-5 Units.

This seminar concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narratives and media such as films, comics, and literary texts. The seminar's primary goal is to help participants understand the creation of better imaginary worlds - ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose. Some of the things we will consider when taking on the analysis of a new world include: What are its primary features - spatial, cultural, biological, fantastic, cosmological? What is the world's ethos (the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize the world)? What are the precise strategies that are used by the artist to convey the world to us and us to the world? How are our characters connected to the world? And how are we - the viewer or reader or player - connected to the world? Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Same as: CSRE 55N

COMPLIT 57. Human Rights and World Literature. 5 Units.

Human rights may be universal, but each appeal comes from a specific location with its own historical, social, and cultural context. This summer we will turn to literary narratives and films from a wide number of global locations to help us understand human rights; each story taps into fundamental beliefs about justice and ethics, from an eminently human and personal point of view. What does it mean not to have access to water, education, free speech, for example?nnThis course has two components. The first will be a set of readings on the history and ethos of modern human rights. These readings will come from philosophy, history, political theory. The second, and major component is comprised of novels and films that come from different locations in the world, each telling a compelling story. nnWe will come away from this class with a good introduction to human rights history and philosophy and a set of insights into a variety of imaginative perspectives on human rights issues from different global locations.nnReadings include:nAmnesty International, <em>Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights</em>nAndrew Clapman, <em>Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction</em>nJames Dawes, <em>That the World May Know</em>nWalter Echo-Hawk, <em>In the Light of Justice</em>nAmitav Ghosh, <em>The Hungry Tide</em>nBessie Head, <em>Maru</em>nUrsula LeGuin, <em>The Word for World is Forest</em>.

COMPLIT 70N. Animal Planet and the Romance of the Species. 3-4 Units.

Preference to freshmen.This course considers a variety of animal characters in Chinese and Western literatures as potent symbols of cultural values and dynamic sites of ethical reasoning. What does pervasive animal imagery tell us about how we relate to the world and our neighbors? How do animals define the frontiers of humanity and mediate notions of civilization and culture? How do culture, institutions, and political economy shape concepts of human rights and animal welfare? And, above all, what does it mean to be human in the pluralistic and planetary 21st century? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: CHINA 70N

COMPLIT 71N. Islamic Identities. 3 Units.

What is Islamic identity? Who decides? This course looks at four moments in time: Arabic judges and politicians in Golden Age Iraq; activists in modern Indonesia; Black Americans in the early twenty-first century; the Stanford community in Fall Quarter 2017. This course will include an introduction to Islam, questions about the Quran and violence, and some literature.

COMPLIT 82. Making Palestine Visible. 3-5 Units.

Israel-Palestine is one of the most difficult subjects to talk about, in large part because we in the United States do not have much exposure to Palestinian history, culture, and politics in their own terms. This course aims to humanize Palestinians and asks why Palestinian claims to rights are illegible for much of the American public. We begin to answer this question by examining a broad sampling of history, structures of power and law, culture, and contemporary political issues.
Same as: COMPLIT 182, CSRE 82G, HISTORY 82G, HISTORY 182G

COMPLIT 100. CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People. 3-5 Units.

This course takes students on a trip to eight capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin, Modernist Vienna, and bustling Buenos Aires. While exploring each place in a particular historical moment, we will also consider the relations between culture, power, and social life. How does the cultural life of a country intersect with the political activity of a capital? How do large cities shape our everyday experience, our aesthetic preferences, and our sense of history? Why do some cities become cultural capitals? Primary materials for this course will consist of literary, visual, sociological, and historical documents (in translation); authors we will read include Boccaccio, Lope de Vega, Sor Juana, Montesquieu, Baudelaire, Dostoyevsky, Irmgard Keun, Freud, and Borges. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a minimum of 3 Units and a Letter Grade.
Same as: DLCL 100, FRENCH 175, GERMAN 175, HISTORY 206E, ILAC 175, ITALIAN 175, URBANST 153

COMPLIT 101. What Is Comparative Literature?. 5 Units.

The course, open to all undergraduates, is for anyone serious about literature. After first asking what "literature" is and what cultural roles it may fulfil, the course continues by exploring what, then, may be the cultural, political, historical and institutional needs to which "comparative literature" responds. A short story by Jorge Luis Borges and an accompanying essay serve as an introduction to both sets of questions. We will then look at a few texts of the western tradition from Aristotle through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, taken as standard for later ideas and practices of literature, eventually, too, at one or two that clearly acknowledge possibilities of quite different traditions for the role played by what may be called the "fictive imagination." A series of texts, two plays, two (possibly three) novels, some poems, some critical writings, will then show other traditions interacting transculturally with and/or against western ones. Students will be able to choose their readings among several.

COMPLIT 102. Film Series: Understanding Turkey Through Film. 1 Unit.

Join us in our quest to understand the recent developments in Turkey and their impact on its people through cinematic production. Set against the backdrop of Turkey's cultural, political and social transformation in the last decade, the movies in this series tell the uneasy stories of individuals whose lives are affected by this disruptive change. By examining the link between individual troubles and public issues, the films confront issues such as globalization, gender and racial hierarchy, neo-liberal urban transformation, male domination, state oppression, and women's oppression in Turkey. Each screening will be followed by a discussion lead by invited scholars of Turkey or film directors. At each screening we will look closely at a film and discuss how the directors and script writers responded to larger scale cultural and social dynamics to present them as personal stories. All screenings are free and open to the public. All attendees are encouraged to participate in the post-screening discussions. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Same as: COMPLIT 302

COMPLIT 106. Public Writing for Human Rights. 1-3 Unit.

One of the most important aspects of human rights work is of course advocacy. Thanks in large part to the development of the Internet, more and more people now have the ability to study, analyze, and write on human rights issues and disseminate their ideas widely. The course will involve learning how to write effectively about human rights for the wider public. We will study and learn from successful examples of such writing from around the world. Students are strongly encouraged to explore this genre of writing in different languages. The course will both study contemporary human rights issues and use the TeachingHumanRights.org website as a platform for our blogs.

COMPLIT 108. Contemporary Hebrew and English Poetry in Translation. 2-4 Units.

A workshop in literary translation, focusing on Hebrew and English poetry and/or short prose. Together the class will engage in creating a bilingual anthology of contemporary works and discussing problems of literary translation such as preserving ambiguities, translating cultural context, literary conventions and poetic forms. Special focus on issues related to understanding and transferring the concept of "The Contemporary" between cultures. With guest translators. Advanced knowledge of Hebrew and English is required. Readings include: (Hebrew) Avot Yeshurun, Natan Zach, David Avidan, Haim Gouri, Sigal Ben-Yair, Almog Behar, Aharon Shabtai; (English) Marilyn Hacker, Annie Finch, Charles Bernstein, Ann Carson, Derek Walcott, David Whyte, Lyn Hejinian, Billy Collins,Mary Oliver, Kay Ryan. NOTE: Taught in Hebrew and English. At least some knowledge of Hebrew required. "This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.".

COMPLIT 110. Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 310, FEMGEN 110X, FEMGEN 310X

COMPLIT 113. Feminist Poetry in the U.S., 1973-2017. 3-5 Units.

Traces the development of feminist poetry in the United States from second wave feminists like Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Alicia Ostriker to contemporary poetry of Anne Boyer, Steph Burt, and Eileen Myles, among others. We will think broadly about the relationship between politics and poetry, and focus specifically on the influences of second- and third- wave feminism on poetry produced by women in the U.S. from the 1970s until today.
Same as: FEMGEN 113X

COMPLIT 114. Masterpieces: Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.
Same as: COMPLIT 350, GERMAN 150, GERMAN 350, JEWISHST 145

COMPLIT 115. Vladimir Nabokov: Displacement and the Liberated Eye. 1-5 Unit.

How did the triumphant author of "the great American novel" <em>Lolita</em> evolve from the young author writing at white heat for the tiny sad Russian emigration in Berlin? We will read his short stories and the novels <em>The Luzhin Defense, Invitation to a Beheading, Lolita, Lolita</em> the film, and <em>Pale Fire</em>, to see how Nabokov generated his sinister-playful forms as a buoyant answer to the "hypermodern" visual and film culture of pre-WWII Berlin, and then to America's all-pervading postwar "normalcy" in his pathological comic masterpieces <em>Lolita</em> and <em>Pale Fire</em>. Buy texts in translation at the Bookstore; Slavic grad students will supplement with reading and extra sessions in original Russian.
Same as: COMPLIT 315, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356

COMPLIT 119. The Turkish Novel. 1-5 Unit.

Designed as a survey, this course will examine the modern Turkish novel from the early days of the Republic to the present day. We will examine the aesthetic, political, and social aspects of the Turkish novel by reading major samples of national, historical, philosophical, village, and modernist novels. Discussions will be conducted in English. Students will have an option to read the primary sources in Turkish or in English. Contact Burcu Karahan for meeting time and place.
Same as: COMPLIT 319

COMPLIT 121. Poems, Poetry, Worlds. 5 Units.

What is poetry? How does it speak in many voices to questions of history, society, and personal experience? Why does it matter? The reading and interpretation of poetry in crosscultural comparison as experience, invention, form, sound, knowledge, and part of the world. The readings address poetry of several cultures (Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Occitania, Peru) in comparative relation to that of the English-speaking world, and in light of classic and recent theories of poetry.
Same as: DLCL 141

COMPLIT 122. Literature as Performance. 5 Units.

Theater as performance and as literature. Historical tension between text and spectacle, thought and embodiment in western and other traditions since Greek antiquity. Dramas read in tandem with theory, live performances, and audiovisuals.
Same as: DLCL 142

COMPLIT 123. The Novel and the World. 5 Units.

<b>Before the Digital Era: the European Design of the Novel</b> The course will trace the development of the modern literary genre par excellence through some of its great milestones from the 17th century to the present. Works by Austen, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Queiròs, Mann, Roth, Woolf, Lampedusa and Rodoreda.<em>Lazarillo de Tormes</em>, Jane Austen: <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>, Flaubert: <em>Madame Bovary</em>, Dostoevsky: <em>Crime and Punishment</em>, Eça de Queirós: <em>The City and the Mountains</em>, Thomas Mann: <em>Death in Venice</em>, Joseph Roth: <em>Radietskymarsh</em>, Virginia Woolf: <em>Mrs. Dalloway</em>, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, <em>The Leopard</em>, Mercé Rodoreda: <em>The Time of the Doves</em>.
Same as: DLCL 143

COMPLIT 124. The (Un)American Renaissance. 3-5 Units.

The period between the 1820s and the 1860s has traditionally been called the "American Renaissance": a time when the U.S. nation, and its literature, flourished. The nineteenth century witnessed the publication of a number of important American texts that gave rise to a new national literary tradition, including familiar titles like The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, and Leaves of Grass. Yet, as the nation stretched its geographical coordinates, writers from outside of this predominantly white, male literary heritage issued their own responses to the vision of a "New World Democracy." This course surveys and contextualizes these responses. Reading authors from Native American, Latino/a, African American, and French creole cultures, we'll expand our study of American literature to include writers who interrogate the project of American Democracy from both within and outside of the nation. While analyzing autobiographies, poems, short stories, and speeches we will also learn to read paintings, Native American sign systems, and newspaper sketches, in an exploration of what it meant to be "American" and what counted as "Literature" in the golden era of American Letters.
Same as: ENGLISH 120

COMPLIT 125. The Art of Authoritarianism. 3-5 Units.

Hitler. Stalin. Che Guevara. Eva Perón. Darth Vader. Whether they make you tremble with fear or with excitement, some leaders lead by charisma as much as by their policies. This course explores representations of authority and authoritarianism to interrogate the charms and dangers of charismatic leadership. Focusing on single-leader societies, primarily from the twentieth century, we consider examples from visual culture, literature, film, and propaganda, along with readings from political science. In analyzing power through aesthetic and political frames, students will develop a critical understanding of the intersections between governments, rulers, and art in recent history and today.

COMPLIT 127B. The Hebrew and Jewish Short Story. 3-5 Units.

Short stories from Israel, the US and Europe including works by Agnon, Kafka, Keret, Castel-Bloom, Kashua, Singer, Benjamin, Freud, biblical myths and more. The class will engage with questions related to the short story as a literary form and the history of the short story. Reading and discussion in English. Optional: special section with readings and discussions in Hebrew. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: JEWISHST 147B

COMPLIT 130. Fin-de-siècle Literature and Culture. 3-5 Units.

Literature and culture of the 1860's to 1900's in Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna. Aestheticism, Symbolism, Decadence; the new social drama; art nouveau; the dandy and the New Woman; sexology; degeneration. Works by Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Wilde, Huysmans, Hofmannsthal, Ibsen, Shaw, and various New Woman writers; historical and social contexts.

COMPLIT 132. The Grandeur of Epic: Poetry, Narrative, and World from Homer to Evolutionary Biology. 3-5 Units.

Explores the mystery and power of epic. This ancient word, which at its root means "what is spoken," first classified certain traditions of archaic Greek poetry, especially Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It now appears everywhere from slang to contemporary scientific discourse. Though some might dismiss its proliferation as an accident of everyday speech, the course will take the phenomenon of "epic" seriously, asking what it is about this oldest of genres that continues to inspire our collective imagination.

COMPLIT 136. Refugees, Politics and Culture in Contemporary Germany. 1-5 Unit.

Responses to refugees and immigration to Germany against the backdrop of German history and in the context of domestic and European politics. Topics include: cultural difference and integration processes, gender roles, religious traditions, populism and neo-nationalism. Reading knowledge of German, another European language, or an immigrant language will be useful for research projects, but not required.nNOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: COMPLIT 336A, GERMAN 136, GERMAN 336

COMPLIT 145. Reflection on the Other: The Jew and the Arab in Literature. 3-5 Units.

How literary works outside the realm of Western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the Other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature, film and music and how the Jew is viewed in Palestinian works in Hebrew or Arabic (in translation to English). Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of these writers' views. Guest lectures about the Jew in Palestinian literature and music. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: AMELANG 126, JEWISHST 106

COMPLIT 145B. The African Atlantic. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman). Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take COMPLIT 145B for a minimum of 3 Units and a Letter Grade.
Same as: AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B

COMPLIT 149. The Laboring of Diaspora & Border Literary Cultures. 3-5 Units.

Focus is given to emergent theories of culture and on comparative literary and cultural studies. How do we treat culture as a social force? How do we go about reading the presence of social contexts within cultural texts? How do ethno-racial writers re-imagine the nation as a site with many "cognitive maps" in which the nation-state is not congruent with cultural identity? How do diaspora and border narratives/texts strive for comparative theoretical scope while remaining rooted in specific local histories. Note: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: CSRE 149, ILAC 149

COMPLIT 170. Theodor W. Adorno: History, Aesthetics, Catastrophe. 3-5 Units.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was one of the most influential German thinkers of the 20th century. This seminar aims to introduce students to Adorno's varied oeuvre, from his contributions to the critique of culture, his theory of history, his re-thinking of Hegelianism and Marxism, to his contributions to aesthetics. We will also consider Adorno's various intellectual forebears, collaborators and interlocutors (Hegel, Marx, Lukács, Horkheimer, Habermas). All texts and discussions are in English. Undergraduates welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 370, GERMAN 170, GERMAN 370

COMPLIT 181. Philosophy and Literature. 5 Units.

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track. Majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature, with particular focus on the question of value: what, if anything, does engagement with literary works do for our lives? Issues include aesthetic self-fashioning, the paradox of tragedy, the paradox of caring, the truth-value of fiction, metaphor, authorship, irony, make-believe, expression, edification, clarification, and training. Readings are drawn from literature and film, philosophical theories of art, and stylistically interesting works of philosophy. Authors may include Sophocles, Chaucer, Dickinson, Proust, Woolf, Borges, Beckett, Kundera, Charlie Kaufman; Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas; Plato, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Sartre. Taught in English.
Same as: CLASSICS 42, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181

COMPLIT 182. Making Palestine Visible. 3-5 Units.

Israel-Palestine is one of the most difficult subjects to talk about, in large part because we in the United States do not have much exposure to Palestinian history, culture, and politics in their own terms. This course aims to humanize Palestinians and asks why Palestinian claims to rights are illegible for much of the American public. We begin to answer this question by examining a broad sampling of history, structures of power and law, culture, and contemporary political issues.
Same as: COMPLIT 82, CSRE 82G, HISTORY 82G, HISTORY 182G

COMPLIT 183. Self-Impersonation: Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir. 5 Units.

Course will examine the intersecting genres of fiction, autobiography, and memoir. Topics will include the literary construction of selfhood and its constituent categories (gender, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.); the role of language in the development of the self; the relational nature of the self (vis-à-vis the family, "society," God); the cultural status of "individuality"; the concept of childhood; and the role of individual testimony in our understanding of family, religious and national history. In addition to short theoretical works, authors will include Knausgaard, Nabokov, Hoffman, Winterson, Said, Levi, Barthes, and Duras.
Same as: ENGLISH 183E

COMPLIT 194. Independent Research. 1-5 Unit.

(Staff).

COMPLIT 199. Senior Seminar. 5 Units.

What is criticism? When we interpret literature today, are we fulfilling the critical vocation? What are the alternatives? We consider the origins of the idea of the critic in nineteenth-century culture, its development in the twentieth century, and its current exponents, revisionists, and dissenters. Senior seminar for Comparative Literature Senior majors only.

COMPLIT 200. War and the Modern Novel. 3-5 Units.

From the turn of the 19th century to well into the 20th century, novelists developed the theme of alienation and the decline of civilization. Along with the fall of centuries-old empires, World War I brought about the collapse of traditional European values and the dissociation of the subject. The aestheticizing of violence and the ensuing insecurity inaugurated the society of totally administered life, based on universal suspicion and pervasive guilt. The seminar will study narrative responses to these developments in some of the foremost authors of the 20th century from several European literatures: Knut Hamsun, Joseph Roth, Ernst Jünger, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, Curzio Malaparte, Thomas Mann, Mercè Rodoreda, Antonio Lobo Antunes, and Jaume Cabré. Taught in English.
Same as: ILAC 200E

COMPLIT 204. Indigenous Poetics and the Politics of Resistance. 3 Units.

In 1969 a group of university students and Native activists calling themselves the Indians of All Tribes gathered on Alcatraz Island in an act of political protest that would turn out to be the longest occupation of U.S. lands in the nation's history. Claiming title to the territory under a nineteenth-century treaty, the Indians of All Tribes broadcasted their protest through an independent radio show and newsletter that included important political and poetic writings by the activists. This course builds outward from the Occupation of Alcatraz to understand the deep historical relationship between political resistance and poetic expression in Indigenous communities. We will read broadly on poetics and Indigenous political theory, beginning with non-alphabetic writings and Indigenous understandings of communal and political life, and concluding with formally innovative collections by Indigenous poets working on issues like climate justice and language revitalization.
Same as: NATIVEAM 204

COMPLIT 208. The Cosmopolitan Introvert: Modern Greek Poetry and its Itinerants. 3 Units.

Overview of the last century of Greek poetry with emphasis on modernism. Approximately 20 modern Greek poets (starting with Cavafy and Nobel laureates Seferis and Elytis and moving to more modern writers) are read and compared to other major European and American writers. The themes of the cosmopolitan itinerant and of the introvert, often co-existing in the same poet, connect these idiosyncratic voices. The course uses translations and requires no knowledge of Greek but original texts can also be shared with interested students. Note: The course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

COMPLIT 215. Literature and Bliss. 1-5 Unit.

In his final on-campus seminar at Stanford, the Instructor proposes to think through from a historical and systematic angle, the capacity of literary texts to make us imagine ecstatic situations of intensity and happiness rather than focusing on the description of such moments, we will try to understand how literary forms, under certain conditions, can temporarily transform the relation of our minds to the material world and to other human beings. **Grading: Seminar Participation and 10-15 page final paper**.

COMPLIT 216. Jazz and Literature. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the special connection between jazz and literature. In texts that range from American novels to the poetry of African independence movements, jazz emerges at once as a structuring principle (as in Toni Morrison's Jazz and James Baldwin's The Amen Corner) and a unifying theme (for example, Noémia de Sousa's "A Billie Holiday, Cantora"). It is also part of a larger philosophical discussion on rhythm that connects to deep questions of selfhood, ethics, democracy, listening, and vital force. If you love jazz and want to dig deeper into its possibilities or want to find new ways to express literature's power, this class provides the venue. The rest is, as Sonny Rollins put it, "creation and surprise.".
Same as: AFRICAAM 216

COMPLIT 222A. Myth and Modernity. 1-5 Unit.

Masters of German 20th- and 21st-Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take GERMAN 222 or COMPLIT 222A for a minimum of 3 Units and a letter grade.
Same as: GERMAN 222, GERMAN 322

COMPLIT 223. Literature and Human Experimentation. 3-5 Units.

This course introduces students to the ways literature has been used to think through the ethics of human subjects research and experimental medicine. We will focus primarily on readings that imaginatively revisit experiments conducted on vulnerable populations: namely groups placed at risk by their classification according to perceived human and cultural differences. We will begin with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), and continue our study via later works of fiction, drama and literary journalism, including Toni Morrison's Beloved, David Feldshuh's Miss Evers Boys, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann and Vivien Spitz's Doctors from Hell, Rebecca Skloot's Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical and policy writings of the period; and our ultimate goal will be to understand modes of ethics deliberation that are possible via creative uses of the imagination, and literature's place in a history of ethical thinking about humane research and care. Note: This course must be taken for a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.
Same as: AFRICAAM 223, CSRE 123B, HUMBIO 175H, MED 220

COMPLIT 228D. Literature and Technology: An Introduction to Digital Humanities. 1-5 Unit.

What do computers have to do with the study of literature? Can programming help us learn more about texts? Students in this course will explore these and similar questions through project-based learning. By developing their own digital research project, either in collaboration or solo, students will gain an understanding of the methods and challenges of the field known as "digital humanities". Students will also read and discuss scholarship about the use of computers for the study of literature using Lacuna, an online reading and annotation environment developed at Stanford. Class time will be divided between theory and practice: we will discuss readings that contextualize and question the tools and methods commonly used, then we will use those tools and methods in project work.
Same as: COMPLIT 338D, DLCL 228

COMPLIT 229. Literature and Global Health. 3-5 Units.

This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
Same as: AFRICAAM 229, AFRICAST 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234

COMPLIT 235E. Dante's "Inferno". 3-5 Units.

Intensive reading of Dante's "Inferno" (the first canticle of his three canticle poem The Divine Comedy). Main objective: to learn how to read the Inferno in detail and in depth, which entails both close textual analysis as well as a systematic reconstruction of the Christian doctrines that subtend the poem. The other main objective is to understand how Dante's civic and political identity as a Florentine, and especially his exile from Florence, determined his literary career and turned him into the author of the poem. Special emphasis on Dante's moral world view and his representation of character. Taught in English. nNOTE: Enrollment requires Professor Harrison's approval. Please contact him directly at harrison@stanford.edu.
Same as: ITALIAN 235E

COMPLIT 236E. Dante's "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso". 4-5 Units.

Reading the second and third canticles of Dante's <em>Divine Comedy.</em> Prerequisite: students must have read Dante's <em>Inferno</em> in a course or on their own. Taught in English. Recommended: reading knowledge of Italian.
Same as: ITALIAN 236E

COMPLIT 245. Introductory Ottoman Turkish. 1-3 Unit.

This course is an introduction to basic orthographic conventions and grammatical characteristics of Ottoman Turkish through readings in printed material from the 19th and 20th centuries. Selected readings will range from poetry to prose, from state documents, newspaper and journal articles to reference works. Course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Prior knowledge of modern Turkish is required (Completion of COMPLIT 248A, COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish I&II and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish OR AMELANG 184 & 185 First & Second Year Turkish OR a solid knowledge of Turkish grammar.) Please contact the instructor for more information.

COMPLIT 247. Bollywood and Beyond: An Introduction to Indian Film. 3-5 Units.

A broad engagement with Indian cinema: its relationship with Indian politics, history, and economics; its key thematic concerns and forms; and its adaptation of and response to global cinematic themes, genres, and audiences. Locating the films within key critical and theoretical debates and scholarship on Indian and world cinemas. Goal is to open up what is often seen as a dauntingly complex region, especially for those who are interested in but unfamiliar with its histories and cultural forms.
Same as: GLOBAL 250

COMPLIT 248A. Reading Turkish I. 2-4 Units.

Reading Turkish I is an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; since the goal is advanced reading level, the focus is mainly on grammar, reading comprehension, and translation. With full concentration on reading, we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time. The course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class. nnCOMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I is followed by COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II in the Winter and COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring.".

COMPLIT 248B. Reading Turkish II. 2-4 Units.

This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I, which served as an introduction to the structures of the Turkish language necessary for reading. It is designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students. Undergraduates should consult the instructor before enrolling for the course. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. This is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; it focuses only on reading, and as a result we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time. This course is conducted in English, but students will be exposed to the sounds of Turkish, and will have the opportunity to practice pronunciation in class. COMPLIT 248B is followed by COMPLIT 248C Advanced Turkish for Research in the Spring.

COMPLIT 248C. Advanced Turkish-English Translation. 2-4 Units.

This course is the continuation of COMPLIT 248A Reading Turkish I and COMPLIT 248B Reading Turkish II. Refining advanced grammar, reading, and translation skills in modern Turkish through intensive reading and translation from a variety of source texts. Emphasis on Turkish cultural, historical, literary, and political texts depending on students' academic interests. Prerequisites COMPLIT 248A & B or prior knowledge of Turkish and consultation with the instructor is necessary.

COMPLIT 249A. The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning. 1-3 Unit.

This course will focus on the analysis of ten Iranian films with the view of placing them in discourse on the semiotics of Iranian art and culture. The course will also look at the influence of a wide array of cinematic traditions from European, American, and Asian masters on Iranian cinema. Note: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: GLOBAL 249A

COMPLIT 249B. Iranian Cinema in Diaspora. 1-3 Unit.

Despite enormous obstacles, immigrant Iranian filmmakers, within a few decades (after the Iranian Revolution), have created a slow but steady stream of films outside Iran. They were originally started by individual spontaneous attempts from different corners of the world and by now we can identify common lines of interest amongst them. There are also major differences between them. These films have never been allowed to be screened inside Iran, and without any support from the global system of production and distribution, as independent and individual attempts, they have enjoyed little attention. Despite all this, Iranian cinema in exile is in no sense any less important than Iranian cinema inside Iran. In this course we will view one such film, made outside Iran, in each class meeting and expect to reach a common consensus in identifying the general patterns within these works and this movement. Questions such as the ones listed below will be addressed in our meetings each week: What changes in aesthetics and point of view of the filmmaker are caused by the change in his or her work environment? Though unwantedly these films are made outside Iran, how related are they to the known (recognized) cinema within Iran? And in fact, to what extent do these films express things that are left unsaid by the cinema within Iran? NOTE:This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: GLOBAL 249B

COMPLIT 249C. Contemporary Iranian Theater. 1-3 Unit.

Today, Iranian plays both in traditional and contemporary styles are staged in theater festivals throughout the world and play their role in forming a universal language of theater which combine the heritages from countries in all five continents. Despite many obstacles, some Iranian plays have been translated into English and some prominent Iranian figures are successful stage directors outside Iran. Forty-six years ago when "Theater in Iran" (a monograph on the history of Iranian plays) by Bahram Beyzaie was first published, it put the then contemporary Iranian theater movement "which was altogether westernizing itself blindly" face to face with a new kind of self-awareness. Hence, today's generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. In this course we will spend some class sessions on the history of theater in Iran and some class meetings will be concentrating on contemporary movements and present day playwrights. Given the dearth of visual documents, an attempt will be made to present a picture of Iranian theater to the student. Students are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions. Note: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: GLOBAL 249C

COMPLIT 252A. Great Arabic Poetry. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the canon of Arabic poetry from the sixth to the twenty-first century. Imru' al-Qays, al-Mutanabbi, Mahmud Darwish, and more. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor.

COMPLIT 252B. Great Arabic Prose. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the best Arabic Literature from the 790s to 2016. Al-Jahiz, Naguib Mahfouz, and much more. Readings in Arabic. Two years of Arabic at Stanford or equivalent required. Counts for the Arabic Track in the MELLAC Minor. Note: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for WAYS credit.

COMPLIT 301. Baroque and Neobaroque. 3-5 Units.

The literary, cultural, and political implications of the 17th-century phenomenon formed in response to the conditions of the 16th century including humanism, absolutism, and early capitalism, and dispersed through Europe, the Americas, and Asia. If the Baroque is a universal code of this period, how do its vehicles, such as tragic drama, Ciceronian prose, and metaphysical poetry, converse with one another? The neobaroque as a complex reaction to the remains of the baroque in Latin American cultures, with attention to the mode in recent Brazilian literary theory and Mexican poetry.
Same as: ENGLISH 233, ILAC 293E

COMPLIT 302. Film Series: Understanding Turkey Through Film. 1 Unit.

Join us in our quest to understand the recent developments in Turkey and their impact on its people through cinematic production. Set against the backdrop of Turkey's cultural, political and social transformation in the last decade, the movies in this series tell the uneasy stories of individuals whose lives are affected by this disruptive change. By examining the link between individual troubles and public issues, the films confront issues such as globalization, gender and racial hierarchy, neo-liberal urban transformation, male domination, state oppression, and women's oppression in Turkey. Each screening will be followed by a discussion lead by invited scholars of Turkey or film directors. At each screening we will look closely at a film and discuss how the directors and script writers responded to larger scale cultural and social dynamics to present them as personal stories. All screenings are free and open to the public. All attendees are encouraged to participate in the post-screening discussions. All films are in Turkish with English subtitles.
Same as: COMPLIT 102

COMPLIT 303. Early Modern Prose Fictions. 3-5 Units.

The course considers the English and European prose fictions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--romances, picaresques, pastorals, narratives of social class, and other genres--in the context of Renaissance and present-day theories of fiction. How is narrative form conditioned by social reality, and in turn how does it provide a zone for reflection on that reality in terms different from those of the more codified genres of drama and poetry?.
Same as: ENGLISH 302

COMPLIT 310. Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1880s to today: Oscar Wilde, Rachilde, Radclyffe Hall, Djuna Barnes, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Audre Lorde, Cherrie Moraga, Jeanette Winterson, Alison Bechdel and others, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 110, FEMGEN 110X, FEMGEN 310X

COMPLIT 315. Vladimir Nabokov: Displacement and the Liberated Eye. 1-5 Unit.

How did the triumphant author of "the great American novel" <em>Lolita</em> evolve from the young author writing at white heat for the tiny sad Russian emigration in Berlin? We will read his short stories and the novels <em>The Luzhin Defense, Invitation to a Beheading, Lolita, Lolita</em> the film, and <em>Pale Fire</em>, to see how Nabokov generated his sinister-playful forms as a buoyant answer to the "hypermodern" visual and film culture of pre-WWII Berlin, and then to America's all-pervading postwar "normalcy" in his pathological comic masterpieces <em>Lolita</em> and <em>Pale Fire</em>. Buy texts in translation at the Bookstore; Slavic grad students will supplement with reading and extra sessions in original Russian.
Same as: COMPLIT 115, SLAVIC 156, SLAVIC 356

COMPLIT 319. The Turkish Novel. 1-5 Unit.

Designed as a survey, this course will examine the modern Turkish novel from the early days of the Republic to the present day. We will examine the aesthetic, political, and social aspects of the Turkish novel by reading major samples of national, historical, philosophical, village, and modernist novels. Discussions will be conducted in English. Students will have an option to read the primary sources in Turkish or in English. Contact Burcu Karahan for meeting time and place.
Same as: COMPLIT 119

COMPLIT 320A. Epic and Empire. 5 Units.

Focus is on Virgil's Aeneid and its influence, tracing the European epic tradition (Ariosto, Tasso, Camoes, Spenser, and Milton) to New World discovery and mercantile expansion in the early modern period.
Same as: ENGLISH 314

COMPLIT 323. The Renaissance Atlantic. 3-5 Units.

The seminar questions common ideas about early-modern Europe and the "modernity" then established. It looks at Africa, the Americas and Europe as equal partners in making what is now called the Renaissance. Among these ideas are those of the "subject" and the "other," of "history," fiction, "science," "literature," etc. We will discuss issues of cultural exchange; colonialism and postcolonialism; history and orature; the "fictive imagination" and the politics of "literature"; formations of "methodical" knowledge; and the very idea of Renaissance and all it entails for people's still-normative understanding of Euro-modernity. We will do this chiefly through texts from Africa and the Americas, as well as Spanish, English and French Europe. We look at invasion, cultural imposition, indigenous cultures and back-formation of European culture, and the aforementioned concepts and issues as they set certain kinds of cultural creations in place whose continuing dominance and supposed "universality" needs querying.

COMPLIT 334A. Concepts of Modernity I: Philosophical Foundations. 5 Units.

In the late eighteenth century Immanuel Kant proclaimed his age to be "the genuine age of criticism." He went on to develop the critique of reason, which set the stage for many of the themes and problems that have preoccupied Western thinkers for the last two centuries. This fall quarter course is intended as an introduction to these themes and problems. We begin this course with an examination of Kant's philosophy before approaching a number of texts that extend and further interrogate the critique of reason. In addition to Kant, we will read texts by Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Freud, Lukács, and Heidegger.nThis course is the first of a two-course sequence. Priority to graduate students in MTL and English. The course will be capped at 12 students.
Same as: MTL 334A

COMPLIT 336A. Refugees, Politics and Culture in Contemporary Germany. 1-5 Unit.

Responses to refugees and immigration to Germany against the backdrop of German history and in the context of domestic and European politics. Topics include: cultural difference and integration processes, gender roles, religious traditions, populism and neo-nationalism. Reading knowledge of German, another European language, or an immigrant language will be useful for research projects, but not required.nNOTE: This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.
Same as: COMPLIT 136, GERMAN 136, GERMAN 336

COMPLIT 338D. Literature and Technology: An Introduction to Digital Humanities. 1-5 Unit.

What do computers have to do with the study of literature? Can programming help us learn more about texts? Students in this course will explore these and similar questions through project-based learning. By developing their own digital research project, either in collaboration or solo, students will gain an understanding of the methods and challenges of the field known as "digital humanities". Students will also read and discuss scholarship about the use of computers for the study of literature using Lacuna, an online reading and annotation environment developed at Stanford. Class time will be divided between theory and practice: we will discuss readings that contextualize and question the tools and methods commonly used, then we will use those tools and methods in project work.
Same as: COMPLIT 228D, DLCL 228

COMPLIT 345B. The African Atlantic. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration, and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman). Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take COMPLIT 145B for a minimum of 3 Units and a Letter Grade.
Same as: AFRICAAM 148, AFRICAST 145B, COMPLIT 145B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B

COMPLIT 348. US-Mexico Border Fictions: Writing La Frontera, Tearing Down the Wall. 3-5 Units.

A border is a force of containment that inspires dreams of being overcome, crossed, and cursed; motivates bodies to climb over walls; and threatens physical harm. This graduate seminar places into comparative dialogue a variety of perspectives from Chicana/o and Mexican/Latin American literary studies. Our seminar will examine fiction and cultural productions that range widely, from celebrated Mexican and Chicano/a authors such as Carlos Fuentes (<em>La frontera de cristal</em>), Yuri Herrera (<em>Señales que precederan al fin del mundo</em>), Willivaldo Delgaldillo (<em>La Virgen del Barrio Árabe</em>), Américo Paredes (<em>George Washington Gómez: A Mexico-Texan Novel</em>), Gloria Anzaldúa (<em>Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza</em>), and Sandra Cisneros (<em>Carmelo: Puro Cuento</em>), among others, to musicians whose contributions to border thinking and culture have not yet been fully appreciated such as Herb Albert, Ely Guerra, Los Tigres del Norte, and Café Tacvba. Last but not least, we will screen and analyze Orson Welles' iconic border films <em>Touch of Evil</em> and Rodrigo Dorfman's <em>Los Sueños de Angélica</em>.nnProposing a diverse and geographically expansive view of the US-Mexico border literary and cultural studies, this seminar links the work of these authors and musicians to struggles for land and border-crossing rights, anti-imperialist forms of trans-nationalism, and to the decolonial turn in border thinking or pensamineto fronterizo. It forces us to take into account the ways in which shifts in the nature of global relations affect literary production and negative aesthetics especially in our age of (late) post-industrial capitalism.
Same as: ILAC 348

COMPLIT 350. Masterpieces: Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers.
Same as: COMPLIT 114, GERMAN 150, GERMAN 350, JEWISHST 145

COMPLIT 352A. The Novel in Africa. 3-5 Units.

A study of the novel as generic form and site of theorization for African writers and scholars of literature, via close reading of key works of fiction and critical analysis. We will consider the place of historical and cultural context in creative and artistic production, publication, and reception within the continent and beyond it. We will certainly pay close attention to innovation at the level of form, theme, plot, characterization, style or poetics. But we will also attend to questions that arise with the formation of African literature as an autonomous corpus and field, including those critical questions that concern uses of orality, performance, and tradition as indices of authenticity; the challenges and possibilities of language; and the common presumption of the nation as realist or allegorical frame, as well as its complex relationship to class, gender, and ethnic minoritization.
Same as: AFRICAAM 352

COMPLIT 359A. Philosophical Reading Group. 1 Unit.

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with H. U. Gumbrecht is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395

COMPLIT 369. Introduction to the Profession of Literary Studies. 1-2 Unit.

A survey of how literary theory and other methods have been made institutional since the nineteenth century. The readings and conversation are designed for entering Ph.D. students in the national literature departments and comparative literature.
Same as: DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, GERMAN 369, ITALIAN 369

COMPLIT 370. Theodor W. Adorno: History, Aesthetics, Catastrophe. 3-5 Units.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was one of the most influential German thinkers of the 20th century. This seminar aims to introduce students to Adorno's varied oeuvre, from his contributions to the critique of culture, his theory of history, his re-thinking of Hegelianism and Marxism, to his contributions to aesthetics. We will also consider Adorno's various intellectual forebears, collaborators and interlocutors (Hegel, Marx, Lukács, Horkheimer, Habermas). All texts and discussions are in English. Undergraduates welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 170, GERMAN 170, GERMAN 370

COMPLIT 371. Aesthetics, Politics, and Modernity: Critical Theory and China. 2-5 Units.

Environmental degradation and ecological crises have given rise to critiques and cultural reflection. This class will bring together issues of aesthetics, politics, and artworks around environmental concerns. We will study Marxist (Marx, David Harvey, and Eagleton) and Frankfurt School (Adorno and Benjamin) critiques of capitalist production as the source of environment degradation, the alienation of humans from nature, human domination over nature, the colonization and plunder of nature in the third world, and elite domination of working classes. We will study and critique the notion of anthropocentrism as a key ideology for scientific and technological advances at the expense of communities, the environment, and the planet. We will review romantic, feminist and other ecological critiques of industrial modernity and the endless pursuit of economic growth and profit. Taking a global and comparative perspective, we will study Chinese eco-critical literature and films, which include short SF fiction, films Sanxia haoren (Still Life) directed by Jia Zhangke and Kekexili (Mountain patrol) by Lu Chuan.nChinese is not required. PhD students are required to write a term paper of 20-25 pages. MA and undergraduate students will write two short essays of 10 pages in response to the questions from readings and discussion.
Same as: CHINA 371

COMPLIT 398L. Literary Lab. 2-5 Units.

Gathering and analyzing data, constructing hypotheses and designing experiments to test them, writing programs [if needed], preparing visuals and texts for articles or conferences. Requires a year-long participation in the activities of the Lab.
Same as: ENGLISH 398L

COMPLIT 399. Individual Work. 1-15 Unit.

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COMPLIT 680. Curricular Practical Training. 1-3 Unit.

CPT course required for international students completing degree. Prerequisite: Comparative Literature Ph.D. candidate.

COMPLIT 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Units.

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