Summer Sessions 2019: Expanded Course Descriptions

Summer Session I 2019  [June 24 - August 2]

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Comparative Literature 001. Major Books of Western Culture: Ancient Storytelling (4 units)
Nicholas Talbott

TWR 11:00A-1:15P
1128 Bainer Hall
CRN 53865

Course Description: Beginning with Homer’s portrayal of the Trojan War in the Iliad, this course will look to introduce students to some captivating examples of ancient storytelling. In doing so, it will aim to provide some understanding and critical engagement of some of the deeper roots of narration, as well as the connections between our modern stories and those from thousands of years before us. This course will spend some time concentrating on more traditional literary elements such as form, style, and genre, but we will also engage with other more indeterminate factors: How do these stories begin? Where do they leave us when they end? What kind of readership or viewership do these stories require to be successful? Other texts for the course include: Euripides’ Medea, Julius Caesar’s The Gallic Wars, and selections from the Old Testament, Sima Qian’s Shiji, and Herodotus’ The Histories.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).

Format: Lecture/Discussion.

Textbooks:

  • Homer, The Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles  (Penguin Classics, 1991)
  • Julius Caesar, The Gallic War, translated by Carolyn Hammond  (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Summer Session II 2019  [August 5 - September 13]

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Comparative Literature 003. Major Books of Western Culture: The Modern Crisis (4 units)
Dorothee Hou

TWR 2:10-4:25P
125 Olson Hall
CRN 74133

Course Description: This course surveys a selection of Western literature and thoughts from the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, including works by Dostoevsky, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joseph Conrad, Virgina Woolf, and Sigmund Freud. This course will address topics of central importance in modern Western culture, such as: crises of religion and morality, the unconscious and the irrational, class conflicts, gender roles, imperialism, colonialism, etc. Great emphasis will be placed on interpreting the works in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. The course also introduces students to critical thinking, analytical and comparative reading, as well as seminar discussion leading skills. It also aims to provide training in writing and fulfills the university composition as well as the GE course requirements.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing Requirement (formerly Subject A Requirement).

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).

Format: Lecture/Discussion.

Textbooks:

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment [Norton Critical Editions - Third Edition], translated by Jessie Senior Coulson  (W.W. Norton & Company, 1989)
  • Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway  (Mariner Books, 1990)
  • Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, translated by James Strachey  (W.W. Norton & Company, 2010)