Lower Division Courses
COM 1. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: THE ANCIENT WORLD (4 Units)
Linda Matheson, Instructor (Sec. 1, MW 10:00-11:50, 244 Olson) CRN 57311
Linda Matheson, Instructor (Sec. 2, MW 2:10-4:00, 244 Olson) CRN 57312
Monica Powers Keane, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 10:00-11:50, 244 Olson) CRN 57313
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 papers and take a final examination.
Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).
Readings (vary from section to section):
The New Oxford Annotated Bible; Homer, The Odyssey; Virgil, The Aeneid; Plato, The Symposium; The Epic of Gilgamesh;
St. Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions; Sophocles, Antigone; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.
COM 2. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: From THE MIDDLES AGES to THE ENLIGHTENMENT (4 Units)
Nicholas Sanchez, Instructor (Sec. 1, MW 12:10-2:50, 159 Olson) CRN 53714
STAFF (Sec. 2) CANCELED (as of 5/4/11)
Elisabeth Lore, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 8:00-9:50, 244 Olson) CRN 53716
Prof. W. Scott McLean, Lecturer (Sec. 4, TR 2:10-4:00, 244 Olson) This section is designated for Davis Honors Challenge students.
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 short papers and take a final examination.
Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).
Readings (vary from section to section):
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote; Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method; William Shakespeare, Othello; Dante, The Inferno of Dante;
Beowulf; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.
COM 3. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: THE MODERN CRISIS (4 Units)
Cloe LeGall-Scoville, Instructor (Sec. 1, MW 8:00-9:50, 117 Olson) CRN 53717
Anna Einarsdottir, Instructor (Sec. 2, MW 10:00-11:50, 267 Olson) CRN 53718
Jonathan Dettman, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 12:10-2:00, 207 Olson) CRN 53719
Sayyeda Razvi, Instructor (Sec. 4, TR 2:10-4:00, 159 Olson) CRN 53720
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. 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 short papers and take a final examination.
Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).
Readings (vary from section to section):
J.W. von Goethe, Faust (Part One); Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Franz Kafka, The Trial; Beckett, Waiting for Godot;
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment ; 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)
Chris Tong, Instructor (Sec. 1, TR 4:10-6:00, 103 Wellman) CRN 53721
Kristen Bergman, Instructor (Sec. 2, TR 8:00-9:50, 105 Olson) CRN 53722
Dr.. Brian Davisson, Lecturer (Sec. 3, MW 4:10-6:00, 141 Olson) CRN 53723
Joshua Waggoner, Instructor (Sec. 2, TR 10:00-11:50, 267 Olson) CRN 53724
Course Description: Comparative study of selected major Western and non-Western texts composed in the period from 1945 to the present. 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 short papers and take a final examination.
Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, Visual Literacy, and World Cultures
(Note: This course cannot be used to satisfy a college or university composition requirement and GE writing experience simultaneously).
Readings (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) NEW COURSE
Prof. Brenda Deen Schildgen, bdschildgen@ucdavis.edu
Lecture: TR 3:10-4:30, 1002 Giedt
Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 6:10-7:00, 244 Olson) CRN 84255
Sec. 2 (T 5:10-6:00, 209 Wellman) CRN 84256
Sec. 3 (W 6:10-7:00, 163 Olson) CRN 84257
Sec. 4 (R 5:10-6:00, 251 Olson) CRN 84258
Sec. 5 (F 12:10-1:00, 207 Olson) CRN 84259
Sec. 6 (F 1:10-2:00, 207 Olson) CRN 84260
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 Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings (Tentative):
- Haddawy, The Arabian Nights: Sinbad and Other Popular Stories (Norton)
- G. Basile, Pentamerone
- J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
- L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz (HarperCollins)
- William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer (Bantam Classics)
- Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio (New York Review of Books)
- S. Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Penguin)
COM 6. MYTHS AND LEGENDS (4 Units)
This course has been cancelled (as of 5/6/11).
COM 7. LITERATURE OF FANTASY AND THE SUPERNATURAL (4 Units)
Prof. Gail Finney, gefinney@ucdavis.edu
Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00, 176 Everson
Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 4:10-5:00, 207 Olson) CRN 83569
Sec. 2 (M 5:10-6:00, 207 Olson) CRN 83570
Sec. 3 (T 4:10-5:00, 251 Olson) CRN 83571
Sec. 4 (W 4:10-5:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 83572
Sec. 5 (R 5:10-6:00, 167 Olson NEW ROOM) CRN 83573
Sec. 6 (F 11:00-11:50, 217 Olson) CRN 83574
Course Description: Although the fantastic tale flourishes in the nineteenth century, fantasy and the supernatural are found throughout literature. Flights of fancy, free-floating psyches, horror and morbidity, otherworldliness, fragmented bodies (disembodied hearts, teeth, or hair, possessing a life of their own) -- all these phenomena have been associated with the fantastic and the supernatural. Yet the fantastic has no meaning without reference to realism, and the fantastic shares with realism a fascination with settings and objects, with the material realm. Indeed, the fantastic mode has been viewed as the "left hand" of realism.
This course will investigate these and other features of fantasy and the supernatural, as well as their relationship to realism, in literature and film from Shakespeare to Gabriel García Márquez. Readings and films will include texts such as the following:
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest (1610-11)
- E.T.A. Hoffmann, “The Sandman” (1816) in conjunction with
- Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny” (1919)
- Edgar Allan Poe, “Berenice,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Black Cat, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1835-1843)
- Guy de Maupassant, “La Chevelure” (1884), “Le Horla” (1887)
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865)
- Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)
- Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” (1915), “A Country Doctor” (1917) The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (film) (1920)
- Jorge Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel” (1941), “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941)
- Yasunari Kawabata, “One Arm” (1964)
- Gabriel García Márquez, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” (1968), “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (1968)
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- Shakespeare and Barbara Mowat (ed.), The Tempest
- Gail Finney (ed.), Literature of Fantasy and the Supernatural (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2011)
COM 10F. MASTER AUTHORS IN WORLD LITERATURE (2 Units)
Victoria White, Instructor
Lecture/Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (T 4:10-6:00, 229 Wellman) CRN 83574
Sec. 2 (R 4:10-6:00, 115 Wellman) CRN 83575
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.
Grading: Pass/No Pass (P/NP) only.
Readings:
- (TBA)
Upper Division Courses
COM 110. HONG KONG CINEMA (4 Units)
Prof. Sheldun Lu, shlu@ucdavis.edu
(Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00, 119 Wellman)
(Film Viewing: R 6:10-9:00, 6 Olson)
CRN 57343
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.
Prerequisite: Upper division standing
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Wrt, Visual Literacy, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- Poshek Fu and David Desser, The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity
- A Course Reader (available at Davis Copy Shop)
COM 146. MYTH IN LITERATURE (4 Units)
Prof. Scott McLean, wsmclean@ucdavis.edu
(TR 12:10-1:30, 90 Social Science & Humanities Bldg) CRN 84047
Course Description: This course is a comparative study of different versions of one or more central myths, with attention to their cultural settings, artistic and literary forms of representation, as well as to their psychological dimensions.
Prerequisite: COM 6 recommended
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt.
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- Heaney, Burial at Thebes
- Euripides, Euripides V: Three Tragedies
- Holderlin, Hyperion and Selected Poems
- Euripides, Bacchae of Euripides: Communion Rite
- Goethe, Faust I and II (Volume 2)
- Homer, Iliad
- Sophocles, Three Theban Plays
COM 164D. THE ENLIGHTENMENT (4 Units)
Prof. Julia Simon, jsimon@ucdavis.edu
(MWF 11:00-11:50, 25 Wellman) CRN 83579
Course Description: This course will explore the emergence of a form of writing in the eighteenth century that sought to express the inner-workings of the self. We will read both fictional and autobiographical accounts in our analysis of the appearance of new discourses of subjectivity that coincide with the rise of the novel and of the middle class.
We will begin with the best known of all eighteenth-century representations of the self, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, which set a new standard for novelistic production both in England and on the continent. The course will explore a variety of works England, France and Germany to ask questions concerning gendered subjectivity, techniques of self-representation and the workings of memory. Texts will include Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Voltaire’s Micromegas, Franklin’s Autobiography, Rousseau’s Confessions, Graffigny’s Letters of a Peruvian Woman and Goethe’s Sorrows of the Young Werther.
Prerequisite: Completion of Entry Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement.
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt.
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Penguin, 2005)
- Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Penguin, 2003)
- Rousseau, Confessions (Penguin, 1953)
- Graffigny, Letters of a Peruvian Woman (MLA, 1993)
- Goethe, Sorrows of the Young Werther (Penguin Classics, 1989)
COM 165. CARIBBEAN LITERATURES (4 Units)
Dr. Brian Davisson, bmdavisson@ucdavis.edu
(TR 9:00-10:20, 101 Olson) CRN 83920
Course Description:
"Like a Man without a Name": Caliban's Caribbean
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Caliban appears as the deformed servant to Prospero, and one of the inhabitants of the island prior to Prospero's arrival. In the subsequent four centuries, Caliban has appeared as both a representation of the subordination of Caribbean peoples through European eyes, and a figure used by Caribbean writers to write both for and against a collective colonial or postcolonial identity. This course will explore the origins of the Caliban figure in European texts from the 15th and 16th centuries, and how it has subsequently been understood as a point of resistance to dominant cultural forms relating to colonization, race, gender, and sexuality on the part of English-, Spanish-, and French-speaking Caribbean writers in the 20th century. We will read texts by William Shakespeare, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, George Lamming, Jean Rhys, and V.S. Naipaul, among others. All texts will be available in English, but students are encouraged to read texts in the original if possible.
Prerequisite: Upper Division Standing
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt.
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- (TBA)
COM 168A. ROMANTICISM (4 Units)
Prof. Kari Lokke, kelokke@ucdavis.edu
(TR 10:30-11:50, 101 Olson) CRN 83580
Course Description: This is an introduction to the Romantic movement with emphasis upon Romantic concepts of the self, irony, love, the imagination and artistic creativity, and the relationship of the individual to nature and society. Romanticism as a historical movement began in Germany and England and then spread to France, Italy, Spain, Russia and the USA. Romanticism is a quintessentially international movement that came into being as an almost worldwide response to such cultural and sociopolitical events as the French Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the stirrings of first wave feminism and the colonialist enterprises of the major European powers. This course will expose students to the work of Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther that portray the price paid by Europeans for the rise of urbanization and industrialization at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
Prerequisite: Upper Division Standing
GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt.
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Wrt, and World Cultures.
Readings:
- Goethe, The Sorrow of Young Werther (Penguin)
- Claire de Duras, Ourika (Modern Language Press)
- ETA Hoffmann, Tales of ETA Hoffmann (Univ. of Chicago Press)
- Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 4: The Age of Romanticism (Broadview Press)
- Jane Austen, Persuasion (Norton)
Graduate Courses
COM 255. COLLOQUIUM (2 Units)
Prof. Sheldon Lu, shlu@ucdavis.edu
(W 12:10-2:00, 822 Sproul) CRN 83582 NEW TIME
Course Description: History, theory, and methodology of Comparative Literature; issues of national literature, world literature, and comparative literature; relation between Comparative Literature and other disciplines and mediums; oral presentation and critique of research papers; discussion of current problems in teaching and research in Comparative Literature. May be repeated for credit. Required for all entering Comparative Literature students.
Readings:
- Haun Saussy (ed.), Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization
- A Course Reader
COM 390. TEACHING COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN COLLEGE (3 Units)
Prof. Neil Larsen, nalarsen@ucdavis.edu
CRN 57496
COM 392. TEACHING INTERNSHIP IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (1 Units)
STAFF
CRN 57497
COM 396. TEACHING ASSISTANT TRAINING PRACTICUM (Variable Units)
Noha Radwan (Sec. 1, CRN ***)
Brenda Schildgen, Professor (Sec. 2, CRN ***)
Gail Finney, Professor (Sec. 3, CRN ***)
Neil Larsen, Professor (Sec. 4, CRN ***)
(Note: Contact Falicia Savala, fsavala@ucdavis.edu, for the CRNs.)