WORLD LITERATURE courses explore the interrelations among literary cultures throughout the world. They pay special attention to such topics as translation, cultural difference, the emergence of diverse literary systems, and the relations between global sociopolitical issues and literary form.

91782

LIT 2238

Nature, Disaster & EnvironmENt IN JAPANESE LITERATURE

Mika Endo

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLINLC 210

FLLC

Cross-listed: Asian Studies; Japanese; Environmental & Urban Studies This course examines the literary representation of nature and the environment in texts from the Japanese archipelago. It is often asserted that nature is ubiquitous in Japanese literary expression, but how and why did this come to be? How has nature been narrated, harnessed and reimagined at varying moments and locations, and how have the values assigned to it been deployed in the construction of national identity and in the processes of modernity? Exploring the tensions in the environment as an object of aesthetic appreciation as well as a potentially destructive force, our examination will also extend to varying political, social, religious, and ethical dimensions of the human responses to the lived environment, including what the natural environment and disasters can teach us. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we will also be asking how attentions and concerns about environment have been raised and redirected, and will explore the emerging literary responses that have sought to grapple with life in an entirely changed landscape. Readings include a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts from the eighth century to the present, including classical court poetry, Matsuo Basho, Miyazawa Kenji, Kawabata Yasunari, Oe Kenzaburo, Kawakami Hiromi, ecofeminist critics, Okinawan poetry, and an Ainu memoir. Conducted in English with all readings in translation. This course is part of the World Literature offering. Class size: 20

91808

LIT 2670

Women Writing the Caribbean

Donna Grover

M W 11:50 am-1:10 pm

OLINLC 208

D+J

ELIT

DIFF

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies The “creolized” culture of the Caribbean has been a hotbed of women’s writing from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Claudia Mitchell-Kernan describes creolization as “nowhere purely African, but … a mosaic of African, European, and indigenous responses to a truly novel reality.” This course is concerned with how women, through fiction, interpreted that reality. While confronting the often explosive politics of post-colonial island life and at the same time navigating the presence of French, English, and African influence, women saw their role as deeply conflicted. We will begin with The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831) and Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857). Other writers will include Martha Gelhorn, Jean Rhys, Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, and Edwidge Danticat. This course counts as a World Literature offering. Class size: 18

91786

LIT 3105

Readings of the Global South

Dina Ramadan

T 1:30 pm-3:50 pm

OLIN 303

ELIT

Cross-listed: Africana Studies; Human Rights; Middle Eastern Studies This seminar introduces students to recent theories and methodological approaches key to studies of the Global South. The course will be structured around a series of thematic discussions drawing from fields within both the humanities and social sciences. Such themese will include the Limits of Secularism; Interrogating the Archive; the Production of Disciplinary Knowledge; Cities and Spatial Imaginings; (Anti)Colonialism/(Post)Nationalism; Translation and Dislocation. We will be tracing the multiple ways in which recent scholarship uses seminal literary and critical theory to transform our understandings of late and post-colonial realities. Case studies will come from a range of geographical areas, with a specific focus on the Middle East more broadly defined. This course will fulfill the junior seminar requirement for MES students and is a World Literature offering. Class size: 15

91816

LIT 393

Ten Plays that Shook the World

Justus Rosenberg

Th 10:10 am-12:30 pm

OLIN 307

ELIT

A close reading and textual analysis of plays considered milestones in the history of the theater. In this course we isolate and examine the artistic, social and psychological components that made these works become part of the literary canon. Have they lasted because they conjure up fantasies of escape, or make its readers and viewers face dilemmas inherent in certain social conditions or archetypical conflicts? What was it exactly that made them so shocking when first performed? The language, theme, style, staging? We also explore the theatre as a literary genre that goes beyond the writing. For a meaningful and effective performance, all aspects of the play, directing, acting, staging, lighting will be considered. This course is part of the World Literature offering. Class size: 15

91726

CLAS 211

Gender AND Sexuality IN THE Ancient World

Lauren Curtis

T Th 1:30 pm-2:50 pm

OLINLC 115

D+J

FLLC

DIFF

Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies This course explores ancient Greek and Roman ideas about human sexuality and gender difference. Examining the worlds of myth, literature, and art, we will ask how bodies, spaces, and cultural institutions were gendered in the ancient world and try to assess how ancient discourses about normative and transgressive sexual practices and gender identities may be similar or different to our own. Topics will include ancient medical writing about reproduction and childbirth, issues of power, slavery, and prostitution, the relationship between homoeroticism and education, and the performance of gender on the Athenian stage. All readings will be in English. This course is part of the World Literature offering.

Class size: 22