Fall 2010

Lower Division Courses

COM 1: GREAT BOOKS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: THE ANCIENT WORLD (4 Units)

STAFF (Sec. 1, MW 10:00-11:50, 1020 Wickson) CRN 56559
STAFF (Sec. 2, MW 12:10-2:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 56560
STAFF (Sec. 3, TR 10:00-11:50, 7 Wellman) CRN 56561

Course Description: An introduction, through class discussion and frequent written assignments, to some of the great books of western civilization from The Epic of Gilgamesh to St. Augustine's The Confessions. This course may be counted toward satisfaction of the English Composition Requirement in all three undergraduate colleges.

Limited to 25 students per section; pre-enrollment is strongly advised. Emphasis is on classroom discussion of the readings, supplemented by occasional lectures. Students write frequent short papers and take a final examination.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt (cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously). Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Textbooks (vary from section to section):
The New Oxford Annotated Bible; Homer, The Odyssey; Virgil, The Aeneid; Plato, The SymposiumThe Epic of Gilgamesh;
St. Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions; Sophocles, Antigone; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.


COM 2: GREAT BOOKS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: From THE MIDDLES AGES to THE ENLIGHTENMENT (4 Units)

STAFF (Sec. 1, MW 12:10-2:00, 205 Wellman) CRN 56562
STAFF (Sec. 2, MW 2:10-4:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 56563
STAFF (Sec. 3, TR 10:00-11:50, 229 Wellman) CRN 56564

Course Description: An introduction to some major works from the medieval period to the "Enlightenment"; close readings and discussion, supplemented with short lectures to provide cultural and generic contexts. May be counted toward satisfaction of the English Composition requirement in all three undergraduate colleges.

Limited to 25 students per section; pre-enrollment is strongly advised. Emphasis is on classroom discussion of the readings, supplemented by occasional lectures. Students write frequent short papers and take a final examination.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt (cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously). Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Textbooks (vary from section to section):
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote; Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method; William Shakespeare, OthelloDante, The Inferno of Dante;
Beowulf; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.


COM 3: GREAT BOOKS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION: THE MODERN CRISIS (4 Units)

STAFF (Sec. 1, MW 8:00-9:50, 267 Olson) CRN 56565
STAFF (Sec. 2, MW 10:00-11:50, 7 Wellman) CRN 56566
STAFF (Sec. 3, TR 12:10-2:00, 27 Wellman) CRN 56567
Scott McLean, Lecturer (Sec. 4, TR 2:10-4:00, 207 Wellman) This section is designated for Davis Honors Challenge students

Course Description: An introduction, through class discussion and the writing of short papers, to some of the great books of the modern age, from Goethe's Faust to Beckett's Waiting for Godot. This course may be counted toward satisfaction of the English Composition Requirement in all three undergraduate colleges.

Limited to 25 students per section; pre-enrollment is strongly advised. Emphasis is on classroom discussion of the readings, supplemented by occasional lectures. Students write frequent short papers and take a final examination.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt (cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously). Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Textbooks (vary from section to section):
J.W. von Goethe, Faust (Part 1); Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Franz Kafka, The Trial; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein;
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground; Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.


COM 4: MAJOR BOOKS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD (4 Units)

STAFF (Sec. 1, MW 2:10-4:00, 205 Wellman) CRN 56569
STAFF (Sec. 2, MW 4:10-6:00, 127 Wellman) CRN 56570
STAFF (Sec. 3, TR 8:00-9:50, 267 Olson) CRN 56571
STAFF (Sec. 4, TR 2:10-4:00, 1116 Hart) CRN 56572

Course Description: Comparative study of selected major Western and non-Western texts composed in the period from 1945 to the present. May be counted towards satisfaction of the English Composition requirement in all three undergraduate colleges.

Limited to 25 students per section; pre-enrollment is strongly advised. Emphasis is on classroom discussion of the readings, supplemented by occasional lectures. Students write frequent short papers and take a final examination.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt (cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously). Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Textbooks (vary from section to section):
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Jhumpa Lahari, The Namesake; J.M. Coetzee, Foe: A Novel;
Elfriede Jelinek, Women As Lovers; Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North.


COM 5: FAIRY TALES, FABLES, AND PARABLES (4 Units)
Brenda Deen Schildgen, Professor

Lecture: TR 3:10-4:30, 176 Everson

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 6:10-7:00, 267 Olson) CRN 56579
Sec. 2 (T 5:10-6:00, 217 Olson) CRN 56580
Sec. 3 (W 6:10-7:00, 267 Olson) CRN 56581
Sec. 4 (R 5:10-6:00, 217 Olson) CRN 56582
Sec. 5 (F 12:10-1:00, 1020 Wickson) CRN 56583
Sec. 6 (F 2:10-3:00, 125 Olson) CRN 56584

Course Description: This course investigates the genres of fables, fairy tales, and parables from the ancient to the modern world. Traversing the globe, this course is a "genre" course that discusses the origin and development of the popular (or folk) genres of fables, fairy tales, and parables, and follows their development and evolution into their modern forms. The class surveys the social, political, anthropological, psychological, and literary elements of these genres in their various incarnations throughout time and space primarily as literature that would result in the modern novel.

You will have two exams, which comprise a midterm and one final, plus two four-page papers. The first paper is a revision of the essay on the first exam. The first exam is worth 15% of your grade, the first paper is worth 20%, the second 30%, and the final is worth 25%. The remaining 10% will be awarded for your participation during discussion sessions that you are required to attend.

GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.

Textbooks:

  • G. Basile, Pentamerone
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Haddawy, The Arabian Nights: Sinbad and Other Popular Stories
  • Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio
  • S. Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories
  • L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
  • B. Schildgen and G. Van den Abbeele (eds.), A World of Fables

COM 6: MYTH AND LEGENDS (4 Units)
Archana Venkatesan, Assistant Professor

Lecture: MWF 12:10-1:00, 100 Hunt

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 4:10-5:00, 244 Olson) CRN 83178
Sec. 2 (M 5:10-6:00, 244 Olson) CRN 83179
Sec. 3 (T 4:10-5:00, 117 Olson) CRN 83180
Sec. 4 (W 4:10-5:00, 244 Olson) CRN 83181
Sec. 5 (R 5:10-6:00, 141 Olson) CRN 83182
Sec. 6 (F 10:00-10:50, 1132 Bainer) CRN 83183

Course Description: This is an introduction course to the comparative study of myths and legends, excluding those of Greece and Rome, with readings from Near Eastern, Teutonic, Celtic, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, African and Central American literary sources.

GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.

Textbooks:

  • Heinrich Zimmer, The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil
  • Dundescal, Sacred Narrative
  • A Course Reader

COM 10K: MASTER AUTHORS IN WORLD LITERATURE (2 Units)
Zoya Stanchits Popova, Instructor

Lecture/Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (T 4:10-6:00, 293 Kerr) CRN 82740
Sec. 2 (R 2:10-4:00, 151 Olson) CRN 82742

Course Description: This course is designed primarily to acquaint the non-literature major with a cross-section of writings by the world’s most important authors; readings in English translation. Authors that will be studied, but not limited to: Rilke/Yeats, Joyce/Woolf, Mann/Céline, Bulgakov/Tanizaki, O’Neill/Brecht, Lorca/Pirandello.

Textbooks:

  • Dostoevsky, Double and Gambler
  • Shaw, Pygmalion
  • Ibsen, A Doll's House

COM 14: INTRODUCTION TO POETRY (4 Units)
Scott McLean, Lecturer
(TR 12:10-1:30, 130 Physics) CRN 83148

Course Description: This course focuses on comparative study of poetry in a variety of lyric and other poetic forms from different historical periods and different linguistic, national, and cultural traditions.

GE Credit: ArtHum and Wrt. Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Kaminsky, Ecco Anthology of International Poetry
  • Lorca, In Search of Duende
  • Borges, This Craft of Verse
  • Rothenberg, Poems for the Millenium: Volume Three
  • Bugeja, Art and Craft of Poetry (OPTIONAL)

 


Upper Division Courses

COM 110: HONG KING CINEMA (4 Units)
Sheldon Lu, Professor
CRN 83185

Lecture/Discussion: TR 1:40-3:00, 202 Wellman
Film Viewing: R 6:10-9:00PM, 206 Olson

Course Description: This course is a study of the cinema of Hong Kong, a cultural crossroads between East and West. Students examine the history, genres, styles, stars, and major directors of Hong Kong cinema in reference to the city's multi-linguistic, colonial, and postcolonial environment. The course pays special attention to Hong Kong cinema's interactions with and influences on other filmic traditions such as Hollywood and Asian cinema. Topics will include: characteristics of Hong Kong cinema as a local, regional, and global cinema; historical evolution of film genres and styles; major directors and stars; film adaption of literary works about Hong Kong; Hong Kong cinema's international influence. For grading, two papers, 45%; midterm exam, 20%; final exam, 35%.

Prerequisite: Upper-Division Standing or Consent of Instructor. GE Credit: ArtHum and Wrt. Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Film Viewing - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Poshek Fu and David Desser, The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity
  • A Course Reader

COM 135: WOMEN WRITER (4 Units)
Kari Lokke, Professor
(TR 9:00-10:30, 207 Olson) CRN 82795

Course Description: This course examines writings by outstanding women authors from a variety of cultures and historical periods. It explores the relationship between gender and culture and deals with such controversial questions as the nature of desires and aspirations, the role of women authors in the traditional literary canon, the specificity of "female" writing, and the relationships of gender, social class, nationality and ethnicity.

This class will be conducted by lecture and discussion. Requirements include a short midterm paper (3-4 pages), a long term paper (7-10 pages) and a final exam. Class attendance and participation in discussion will also be important factors in determining the final grade.

Prerequisite: course 1, 2, 3, or 4 recommended. GE Credit: ArtHum and Wrt. Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Anonymous, Woman in Berlin
  • Wollstonecraft, Maria or The Wrongs of Women
  • De Lafayette, Princess of Cleves
  • Colette, My Mother's House and Sido
  • Bronte, Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • Efuru, Nwapa
  • Huong, Spring Essence

COM 141: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE AND CULTURE (4 Units)
Neil Larsen, Professor
(TR 3:10-4:30, 103 Wellman) CRN 57470

Course Description: This course introduces students to the basic concepts and methods of critical and literary theory. Drawing on Eagleton's Literary Theory: an Introduction, selections from primary works by theorists from Marx and Freud to Benjamin and Foucault, and taking up the contributions of areas such as feminist and film theory, the class will explore the theoretical ramifications of a small group of literary and cultural texts, including Shakespeare’s King Lear; Morrison’s Beloved; and a classic film, Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Students will be asked to write a series of guided essays, culminating in a final project of theoretical analysis centered on pre-determined text.

Prerequisite: One upper-division literature course or Consent of Instructor. GE Credit: ArtHum and Wrt. Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear
  • Toni Morrison, Beloved

COM 151: COLONIAL POSTCOLONIAL EXPERIENCE IN LITERATURE (4 Units)
Noha Radwan, Assistant Professor
(MWF 1:10-2:00, 125 Olson) CRN 82798

Course Description: This is a literary introduction to the cultural issues of colonialism and postcolonialism through reading, discussing and writing on narratives which articulate diverse points of view.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement and at least one course in literature. GE Credit: ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.

Textbooks:

  • Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ambiguous Adventure
  • Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North
  • Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions
  • Sembene, Ousmane, God's Bits of Wood
  • J.M. Coetzee, Youth
  • S.Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh
  • A.B. Yehoshua, The Lover
  • Ghassan Kanafani, All That is Left to You
  • Sahar Khalifeh, Wild Thorns

COM 161B: COMEDY (4 Units)
Gail Finney, Professor
(TR 12:10-1:30, 101 Olson) CRN 83151

Course Description: The course explores the aesthetic and sociocritical features of comedy in drama from Aristophanes to Chekhov as well as in the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut and Pam Houston, in feminist humor, and in comic theory.

Prerequisite: None. GE Credit: ArtHum and Wrt.

Textbooks:

  • Barnet, Eight Great Comedies
  • Vonnegut,Cat's Cradle
  • Barreca and Weingarten, I'm With Stupid: One Man, One Woman

 


Graduate Courses

COM 210: WORLD CINEMA (4 Units)
Sheldon Lu, Professor
(W 4:10-7:00, 203 Wellman) CRN 56633

Course Description: This course examines "world cinema" as a concept, as a critical discourse, and above all as the practices of diverse cinematic traditions of the world. We will also tackle related categories of contemporary film studies such as "national cinema," "transnational cinema," "third cinema," and "third-world cinema." Comparative case studies will be drawn from countries and regions from around the world: Africa, Russia, Germany, China, Hong Kong, as well as the postcolonial Francophone world. As we look at some pivotal moments in world film history, we will also raise broad issues in current film studies such as globalization, diaspora, cinematic style, national identity, visual culture, and film industry.

Prerequisite: Graduate Standing. Course Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • A Course Reader

COM 390: TEACHING COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN COLLEGE (4 Units)
Olga Stuchebrukhov, Associate Professor of Russian
CRN **

Course Description: Methods of teaching Comparative Literature with specific application to the introductory courses 1, 2, 3, and 4 in relation to major cultural and social developments. Discussion also of ways to teach analytical writing.


COM 396: TEACHING INTERNSHIP IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN COLLEGE

STAFF, Professor (Sec. 1, CRN **)
STAFF, Professor (Sec. 2, CRN **)
STAFF, Professor (Sec. 3, CRN **)

Course Description: This course is designed for graduate students who are seeking teaching internship-unit credit.