Fall Quarter 2024

For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF SCHEDULE or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/com

Undergraduate Courses

Lower-Division

COM 001—Major Works of the Ancient World

COM 002—Major Works of the Medieval & Early Modern World

COM 003—Major Works of the Modern World

COM 004—Major Works of the Contemporary World

COM 005—Fairy Tales, Fables, and Parables
Noah Guynn

COM 007—Literature of Fantasy & The Supernatural
Timothy Parrish

COM 053C—Literature of the Islamic World
Jocelyn Sharlet
TR 10:30-11:50 TLC 3213
CRN 49698

In this course, we will investigate how writers and poets explore ideas about the imagination, creativity, the self, society, and devotion within the context of Islamic culture and thought. Readings will include realistic and fantastic stories, epic adventure and mystical romance, and lyric poetry and narrative verse. We will examine how ideas about cultural, economic, and scientific exchange among Asia, Africa, and Europe take shape in these major literary works. Meanwhile, we will analyze new approaches to the cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and ethical experience of literature that develop in this context.

Readings:

Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, “The Lion and the Ox” and “The Investigation of Dimnah” in Kalilah and Dimnah: Fables of virtue and vice tr. Fishbein and Montgomery
“The Story of the Porter and the Three Ladies” in The Arabian Nights (The Thousand and One Nights) tr. Haddawy
Nezami Ganjavi, Layli and Majnun tr. Dick Davis
Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, tr. Van Gelder, selections
Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz, tr. Dick Davis, selections
Ottoman Lyric Poetry, tr. Andrews, Black, and Kalpakli, selections
Mir Taqi Mir, Ghazals: Translations of Classical Urdu Poetry, tr. Faruqi, selections
Ibn Tufayl, “Hayy Ibn Yaqzan,” tr. Lenn Evan Goodman

A flyer for COM 053C, with book art for texts taught in the class

Upper-Division

COM 112—Japanese Cinema
Michiko Suzuki

This class is an introduction to Japanese film from the early silent films to contemporary cinema. While exploring the history of Japanese film and its social and cultural contexts, we examine works by important directors (such as Kurosawa and Ozu), genres (such as avant-garde film and samurai film), themes and techniques. We will also read secondary critical materials on Japanese film and history. Particular areas of focus include gender, war, memory, censorship, visuality and narrative. Watching all films (through links on Canvas site) is mandatory. Lectures, readings and discussions will be in English. No previous knowledge of Japanese language or culture is required. GE: AH, WC, WE, VL

COM 166B—the Novel
Timoth Parirish

Graduate Courses

COM 210—Topics/Themes in Comparative Literature
Cheryl Ross

COM 255—Proseminar: Comparative Literature: Past, Present, Future
Stefan Hoesel-Uhlig

COM 392—Teaching Internship
Cheryl Ross