Fall 2013

Lower Division Courses

COM 1. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: THE ANCIENT WORLD (4 units)

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.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

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

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE Credits (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).

Sample 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.

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COM 2. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: FROM THE MIDDLES AGES TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT (4 units)

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.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

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

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE Credits (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).

Sample 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.

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COM 3. MAJOR BOOKS OF WESTERN CULTURE: THE MODERN CRISIS (4 units)

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.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

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

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE Credits (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).

Sample 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.

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COM 4. MAJOR BOOKS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD (4 units)

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.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

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

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

Sample 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.

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COM 5. FAIRY TALES, FABLES, AND PARABLES (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

Lecture: TR 4:40-6:00P, 1003 Giedt

Discussion Sections:

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.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity, and Writing Experience.
GE Credits (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio (NYRB Classics, 2008)
• Maria Tatar, The Classic Fairy Tales (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999)
• J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan: Peter and Wendy and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (Penguin Classics, 2004)
   

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COM 6. MYTHS AND LEGENDS (4 units)
Archana Venkatesan

Lecture: MWF 10:00-10:50A, 100 Hunt

Discussion Sections:

Course Description: This course is an introductory, comparative study of heroic epics and creation mythology from a variety of societies, with attention both to the cultural specificity of each work and to the generic and other features they have in common.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity, and Writing Experience.
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Anonymous, The Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. by Andrew George (Penguin Classics, 2003)
• Anonymous, The Mahabharata, trans. by John D. Smith (Penguin Classics, 2009)
• Carolina López-Ruiz, Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation (Oxford University Press, 2013)
   

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COM 10I. MASTER AUTHORS: HOFFMAN, GOGOL, POE, HAWTHORNE, MAUPASSANT, CHEKHOV, MELVILLE (2 units)  
Myha Do

Section 01.
W 2:10-4:00P, 25 Wellman - CRN 54267

Section 02.
R 2:10-4:00P, 211 Wellman - CRN 54268

Course Description: This course will survey great works from the eighteenth century. Some themes of particular note in our readings will be identity, possessive individualism, and transformation that transgress boundaries of: life/death, natural/supernatural, human/beast and terror/sublime. We will examine a range of works from authors such as Hoffmann, Poe, Hawthorne, Maupassant, and Melville, as well as several others.

This course does not fulfill the university writing requirement; therefore, no essays will be assigned.  Grades are based on participation, quizzes, reading responses and a final exam.

Pass/No Pass grading only.  May be repeated for credit when subject area is different.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 2 hours.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): None.
GE credit (New): None.

Textbooks:

• Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (Dover Publications, 1993)
• Sheridan Le Fanu, In a Glass Darkly (Oxford University Press, 2008)
• Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Vintage, 2009)
   

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Upper Division Courses

COM 100. WORLD CINEMA (4 units)
Sheldon Lu

Lecture: TR 3:10-4:30P, 118 Olson

Film Viewing: R 5:10-8:00P, 118 Olson

CRN 53900

Course Description: This course offers a survey of important developments in world cinema from the silent era to the contemporary period.  It is a cross-cultural, comparative study of film beyond the boundary of a single national and linguistic tradition. Students examine film classics from countries and regions such as France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Africa, Japan, China, and Hong Kong.  Students look at the international evolution of film aesthetics and the emergence of new film styles.  The class also discusses the ways in which filmmakers tackle issues of modernity, capitalism, socialism, religion, national identity, decolonization, and multiculturalism in various countries at different historical moments.  Students analyze and discuss the film art of world-renowned directors such as Fritz Lang, Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, R. W. Fassbinder, Claire Denis, Pedro Almódovar, Ousmane Sembene, Pavel Chukhrai, Yasujiro Ozu, Zhang Yimou, and Wong Kar-wai.  All foreign-language films are subtitled in English.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Film Viewing - 3 hours.

Prerequisite: Upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity, and Writing Experience.
GE Credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Martha P. Nochimson, World on Film: An Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010)
   

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COM 135. WOMEN WRITERS (4 units)
Kari Lokke

TR 9:00-10:20A, 235 Wellman - CRN 53416

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.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite:  None.

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity, and Writing Experience.
GE Credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary (Picador, 2006)
• Colette, My Mother's House and Sido (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2002)
• Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Penguin Classics, 1996)
• Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (Rutgers University Press, 2001)
• Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman (W.W. Norton & Company, 1994)
• Madame de Lafayette, The Princess of Cleves (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993)
   

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COM 151. COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL EXPERIENCE IN LITERATURE (4 units)
Noha Radwan

MWF 1:10-2:00P, 147 Olson - CRN 53901

Course Description: It has long been understood that colonial domination was achieved through the deployment of more than brute force. It was not only power, but also colonialist knowledge and epistemology that became the foundations of European hegemony over the colonial world. It has also become a matter of little debate that "independent" nations still grapple with the colonialist legacies long after the colonialist armies have packed and left.

This course offers a selection of novels from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa that represent, interrogate and challenge the colonialist and post-independence history of their nations and regions. The course examines the complex processes by which the writers of these novels suffer, negotiate, or try to extricate their cultures and societies from, the legacy of colonialism. Short selections of relevant critical and historical works will also be offered to supplement the readings of the novels.

Novels in both English and English translations will constitute the primary reading material for this course. They will be supplemented by a selection of theoretical and critical readings. Students will be required to write short weekly book responses, a short midterm paper (4-6 pages) and a longer final paper (10-12 pages).

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite: Completion of Entry-Level Writing (formerly Subject A) Requirement and at least one course in literature.

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities, Diversity, and Writing Experience.
GE Credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• S. Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh (Ibis Editions, 2008)
• Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996)
• Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006)
• Ghassan Kanafani, et al., Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000)
• Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, The House of Jasmine (Interlink Publishing Group, 2012)
   

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COM 158. THE DETECTIVE STORY IN LITERATURE (4 units)
Brenda Deen Schildgen

TR 1:40-3:00P, 147 Olson - CRN 53418

Course Description: We might consider Oedipus Rex a detective story. After all a murder has happened, and the king, Oedipus vows to discover the perpetrator and it’s not until the end of the play that we find out “who done it.” In fact, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word detective did not appear in the English language until 1842, so we can consider the detective novel a genre of the modern era. What we will do in this course is examine detective fiction, beginning with the first example, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” From there, we shall look at some short mysteries by canonical mystery writers—Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) and Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. With a few essays to support our adventure in the genre, we will move to the global detective story, going from Japan to Mexico City, to Havana, to Sicily, Paris, Botswana, Stockholm, and Shanghai, and along the way, exploring the dark recesses of the modern city and the human personality. What fascinates about detective fiction is that as dark as it gets, it still persists in the idea that justice is possible, at least some of the time!

Requirements: 3 five page papers (90%), one of which is a take-home final exam due on the day of the final. You may submit the final paper on line at bdschildgen@ucdavis.edu (by attachment). I will expect you to participate in class discussion, so participation is a significant part of the grade (10%), and you are expected to come to class ready to discuss the works assigned.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE Credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, The Laughing Policeman (Vintage, 2009)
• Qiu Xiaolong, Don't Cry Tai Lake (Minotaur Books, 2012)
• Leonardo Padura, Havana Red (Bitter Lemon Press, 2005)
• Michael Stanley, Death of the Mantis (Harper Perennial, 2011)
• Jean-Patrick Manchette, Fatale (NYRB Classics, 2011)
• Andrea Camilleri, The Paper Moon (Penguin Books, 2008)
• Paco Ignacio Taibo II, An Easy Thing (Poisoned Pen Press, 2002)
• Leonardo Sciascia, The Day of the Owl (NYRB Classics, 2003)
• Edogawa Ramp, The Black Lizard (Kurodahan Press, 2006)
• Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (Vintage, 1989)
   

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COM 164A. THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES (4 units)
Brenda Deen Schildgen

TR 4:40-6:00P, 151 Olson - CRN 53419

Course Description: Focusing on the formal development of medieval literary genres as the foundation for “modern” literary forms, this course discusses the major topics, themes, and conventions (love, God, vision, nature, history and politics, sign theory) of the period. The course will explore the question of cultural hybridization in the medieval mixture of philosophical, religious, and literary traditions, particularly the intermingling of Islamic, ancient Greco-Roman, Hellenistic-Hebraic roots and medieval Christian civilization.

Requirements: 3 five page papers (90%), one of which is a take-home final exam due on the day of the final. You may submit the final paper on line at bdschildgen@ucdavis.edu (by attachment). Since I want to conduct this class more like a seminar than a lecture course, classroom participation is a significant part of the grade (10%), so you are expected to come to class ready to discuss the works assigned.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

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

GE Credits (Old): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
GE Credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures, and Writing Experience.

Textbooks:

• Peter Abelard, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Books, 2004)
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (Signet Classics, 2010)
• Marie de France, The Lais of Marie de France (Penguin Classics, 1999)
• Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (Penguin Classics, 1991)
• Fernando de Rojas, The Celestina (University of California Press, 2007)
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Bantam Classics, 1982)
• Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (Persea, 1998)
• Dante, Vita Nuova (Penguin Books, 2004)
   

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Graduate Courses

COM 210. BAKHTIN AND HIS DIALOGIC WORLD (4 units) 
Olga Stuchebrukhov

R 2:10-5:00P, 822 Sproul - CRN 54163

Course Description: Bakhtin’s dialogics (as opposed to dialectics) goes beyond the proverbial subject/object matrix and instead embraces the allness and simultaneity of existence. This seminar will focus on the Bakhtinian notions of polyphony, carnival, and chronotope. These concepts incorporate the binary matrix, but also destabilize and render the binary-bound approaches to literature and culture inadequate because they integrate the opposites into each other (I into the Other; language into culture; official culture into popular culture; time into space). They also reveal how language and culture connect as one undivided Macrocosm, with the novel as its literary microcosm.

The seminal texts we shall read, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics and Rabelais and His World, will also be examined complementarily since Dostoevsky’s poetics address the issues of mind and soul whereas Rabelais’s poetics deal with the body. In addition to Bakhtin’s writings, we shall read the authors who embody his philosophy: Dostoevsky and Tolstoy exemplify polyphony/dialogism vs. monologism; Dostoevsky and Goethe illustrate simultaneity vs. linearity; Rabelais and Gogol provide examples of the carnivalesque tradition through time.

Assignments include oral presentations on assigned texts, brief weekly response papers and a final seminar paper of approximately 6,000 words.

Format: Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite:  Graduate standing in Comparative Literature, English, or a foreign-language literature, or consent of instructor.

Textbooks:

• M.M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays (University of Texas, 1982)
• M.M. Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (University of Minnesota Press, 1984)
• M.M. Bakhtin, Rabelais and his World (Indiana University Press, 2009)
   

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COM 220. THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES (4 units)
Brenda Deen Schildgen

TR 4:40-6:00P, 151 Olson - CRN 54484

Course Description: Focusing on the formal development of medieval literary genres as the foundation for “modern” literary forms, this course discusses the major topics, themes, and conventions (love, God, vision, nature, history and politics, sign theory) of the period. The course will explore the question of cultural hybridization in the medieval mixture of philosophical, religious, and literary traditions, particularly the intermingling of Islamic, ancient Greco-Roman, Hellenistic-Hebraic roots and medieval Christian civilization.Requirements: 3 five page papers (90%), one of which is a take-home final exam due on the day of the final. You may submit the final paper on line at bdschildgen@ucdavis.edu (by attachment). Since I want to conduct this class more like a seminar than a lecture course, classroom participation is a significant part of the grade (10%), so you are expected to come to class ready to discuss the works assigned.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite:  Graduate standing in Comparative Literature, English, or a foreign-language literature, or consent of instructor.

Textbooks:

• Peter Abelard, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (Penguin Books, 2004)
• Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (Signet Classics, 2010)
• Marie de France, The Lais of Marie de France (Penguin Classics, 1999)
• Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances (Penguin Classics, 1991)
• Fernando de Rojas, The Celestina (University of California Press, 2007)
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (Bantam Classics, 1982)
• Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies (Persea, 1998)
• Dante, Vita Nuova (Penguin Books, 2004)
   

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COM 390. TEACHING COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN COLLEGE (3 units)
Noha Radwan

Day/Time TBA, 822 Sproul - CRN 27540
 

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COM 392. TEACHING INTERNSHIP IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (1 unit)
Sarah Perrault

The course will ONLY be held on these FRIDAYS: October 4, October 18, November 1, November 15, December 06
F 2:00-3:30P, 822 Sproul - CRN 27541
 

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COM 396. TEACHING ASSISTANT TRAINING PRACTICUM (Variable units)

Noha Radwan (CRN ***)
Archana Venkatesan (CRN ***)
Juliana Schiesari (CRN ***)

(Note: Contact Falicia Savala, fsavala@ucdavis.edu, for the CRNs for COM 396.)