Spring 2013

Lower Division Courses

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

Sec. 01.  MW 12:10-2:00P, 107 Wellman - CRN 37469
Sec. 02.  TR 10:00-11:50A, 103 Wellman - CRN 37470

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): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp
(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 SymposiumThe 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)

Sec. 01.  MW 2:10-4:00P, 105 Wellman - CRN 37472
Sec. 02.  TR 12:00-2:00P, 103 Wellman - CRN 37473

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): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp
(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, OthelloDante, 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)

Sec. 01.  MW 10:00-11:50A, 103 Wellman - CRN 37475
Sec. 02.  MW 12:10-2:00P, 105 Wellman - CRN 37476
Sec. 03.  TR 12:10-2:00P, 101 Wellman - CRN 37477
Sec. 04.  TR 2:10-4:00P, 103 Wellman - CRN 37478

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): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp
(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)

Sec. 01.  MW 8:00-9:50A, 103 Wellman - CRN 37479
Sec. 02.  MW 4:10-6:00P, 227 Olson - CRN 37480
Sec. 03.  TR 8:00-9:50A, 125 Wellman - CRN 37481
Sec. 04.  TR 4:10-6:00P, 167 Olson - CRN 62636

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): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and WrtExp
(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 6. MYTHS AND LEGENDS (4 units)
Jocelyn Sharlet, jcsharlet@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: TR 3:10-4:30P, 1001 Giedt

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 01.  T 5:10-6:00P, 1007 Giedt - CRN 37482
Sec. 02.  T 6:10-7:00P, 1007 Giedt - CRN 37483
Sec. 03.  W 4:10-5:00P, 1007 Giedt - CRN 37484
Sec. 04.  W 5:10-6:00P, 1007 Giedt - CRN 37485
Sec. 05.  R 8:00-8:50A, 209 Wellman - CRN 37486
Sec. 06.  R 9:00-9:50A, 209 Wellman - CRN 37487

Course Description: This course explores how communities have used myth and legend in folklore that became major works of literature. We will investigate the role of myth and legend in articulating different perspectives on communal identity and ethical values. Myth and legend in these literary works express ideas about conflicting obligations, insiders and outsiders, and humankind as it relates to the natural world and the supernatural. We will analyze how these issues are inflected by gender and the family in conjunction with politics, as well as the role of negotiation and violence in responding to competition within and between communities.

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

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credits (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • The Song of the Cid, trans. by Raffel (Penguin Classics, 2009)
  • Abolgasem Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, trans. by Davis (Penguin Classics, 2007)
  • Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, trans. by Niane (Pearson, 2006)
  • The Book of Dede Korkut: A Turkish Epic, trans. by Sumer, Uysal and Walker (University of Texas Press, 1991)

Texts available in a reader that will be posted on the course site:
David of Sassoun: Armenian Folk Epic, trans. by Artin K. Shalian (English translation, New York, 1964)
Bani Hilal: The Birth of Abu Zayd, Arabic folk epic recorded and translated by Dwight Reynolds


COM 7. FANTASY AND THE SUPERNATURAL (4 units)
Daphne Potts, dapotts@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: TR 12:10-1:30P, 66 Roessler

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 01.  M 4:10-5:00P, 159 Olson - CRN 37488
Sec. 02.  M 5:10-6:00P, 159 Olson - CRN 37489
Sec. 03.  R 4:10-5:00P, 244 Olson - CRN 37490
Sec. 04.  R 5:10-6:00P, 227 Olson - CRN 37491
Sec. 05.  F 9:00-9:50A, 205 Wellman - CRN 37492
Sec. 06.  F 10:00-10:50A, 205 Wellman - CRN 37493

Course Description: The literature of fantasy and the supernatural, although often transporting the reader into another world or a distant past, is a product of modern, urban society. In its Western variations, it dates from not much earlier than the 19th century. The urge for fantasy assumes the existence of a dominant literary realism, and the taste for the supernatural rests on the broad, secular disbelief in its existence. This course will explore this historical and cultural dynamic through a variety of literary texts and films, including works by E.T.A. Hoffmann; Sigmund Freud; Edgar Allen Poe; Lewis Carroll; Henry James; Franz Kafka; Jorge Luis Borges; and Ryunosoke Akutagawa. Comparative Literature 7 is an Introductory General Education course in Civilization and Culture.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion 1 hour.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (Old): ArtHum, Div and Wrt
GE credit (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • Carlos Fuentes, Aura: Bilingual Edition (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986)
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest (Tor Books, 2010)
  • Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics, 2006)
  • Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies (Atria/Emily Bestler Books, 2012)
     

COM 10N. MASTER AUTHORS (2 units)
Elisabeth Lore, emlore@ucdavis.edu

Lecture/Discussion Sections:
Sec. 01.  M 2:10-4:00P, 103 Wellman - CRN 63201
Sec. 02.  T 10:00-11:50A, 101 Wellman - CRN 63202

Course Description: The two world wars of the early 20th century resulted in the fragmentation of communities, not only in the Western nations, but also in their colonies. The financial, social, political and spiritual instability before, during, and after the wars caused people to distrust their families and neighbors, lose their faith in God, and question their identity both as individuals and as members of a nation. In addition, the wars put in motion large waves of migration from the colonies to the Western nations beginning with those who enlisted in the armed forces to fight the wars and continuing with temporary labor forces solicited for rebuilding the European cities. These migrants went through similar interrogations about their identity in which they found themselves less accepted by the European countries than expected and strived to discover who they were apart from their European colonizers. In this course, we will explore such topics as gender, race, culture, language, anti-colonialism, and nationalism, considering in particular how these discourses work towards deconstructing and reconstructing an individual’s identity. This course does not fulfill the university writing requirement, as no essays will be assigned.  Grades are based on participation, in-class writings, reading responses and a final exam.

Grading: PASS/NO PASS (P/NP) ONLY.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 2 hours.

Prerequisite: None.

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

Textbooks:

  • Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006)
  • Jorge Luis Borges, The Aleph and Other Stories (Penguin Classics, 2004)
  • Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography (Mariner Books, 2006)
  • Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (New World Library, 2000)
  • Aime Cesaire, Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Wesleyan University Press, 2001)
  • Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays (Penguin Classics, 1996)
  • Eugene Ionesco, The Bald Soprano and Other Plays (Grove Press, 1982)
     

COM 53A. LITERATURE OF CHINA AND JAPAN (3 units)
Megan Ammirati, meammirati@ucdavis.edu

***New Time and New Location (as of 2/05/13)***
MWF 9:00-9:50A, 209 Wellman - CRN 62639

Course Description: Introduction to representative masterpieces of East Asia.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div and Wrt
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and Writing Experience

Textbooks:

  • Xianzu Tang, The Peony Pavilion (Indiana University Press, 2002)
  • Shikibu Murasaki, The Tale of Genji (Vintage, 1990)
  • Tsao Hsueh Chin, et al., A Dream of Red Mansions (Cheng & Tsui, 1999)
     

Upper Division Courses

COM 100. WORLD CINEMA (4 units)
Sheldon Lu, shlu@ucdavis.edu

Lecture: TR 3:10-4:30P, 217 Art

Film Viewing: R 5:10-8:00P, 1130 Hart

CRN 62641

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): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and WrtExp

Textbooks:

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

COM 140. THEMATIC AND STRUCTURAL STUDY OF LITERATURE - TOPIC: "The Gothic and Supernatural" (4 units)
Kari Lokke, kelokke@ucdavis.edu

MWF 10:00-10:50A, 116 Veihmeyer - CRN 62642

Course Description: Interpretation of selected works illustrating the historical evolution of themes, as well as, of formal and structural elements. May be repeated for credit when substance of course varies.

Topic: "The Gothic and Supernatural"

A survey of literature of the supernatural in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe including such genres as the Gothic novel, the conte fantastique (fantastic tale) and the Kunstmärchen (art fairy tale). We will study recurring figures such as the double, the revenant, and the mermaid, and prominent themes such as transgressive sexuality, feminist challenges to patriarchal structures of the family, the blurring of the boundaries between self and other, and the undermining of hierarchies of the real and unreal.

Format: Lecture/Discussion 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum and Wrt
GE Credit (New): ArtHum and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Ann Radcliffe, A Sicilian Romance (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  • Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Penguin Classics, 2003)
  • Various, Romantic Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics, 2000)
  • E.T.A. Hoffmann, Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann (University of Chicago Press, 1972)
  • James Hogg and Adrian Hunter, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Broadview Press, 2001)
  • George Eliot, The Lifted Veil and Brother Jacob (Oxford University Press, 1999)
     

COM 142. CRITICAL READING AND ANALYSIS (4 units)
William Scott McLean, wsmclean@ucdavis.edu

TR 4:40-6:00P, 261 Olson - CRN 62644

Course Description: This course is a close reading of selected texts; scrutiny of very limited amount of material, with attention to the problems of texts in translation.

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

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

GE Credits (Old): None
GE Credit (New): ArtHum and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • Novalis, The Novices of Sais (Archipelago Books, 2005)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust I & II (Princeton University Press, 1994)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012)
     

COM 154. AFRICAN LITERATURE (4 units)   [Cross-listed with AAS 153]
Moradewun Adejunmobi, madejunmobi@ucdavis.edu

TR 12:10-1:30P, 1 Wellman - CRN 62643

Course Description: This course focuses on famous African authors responding to questions about colonialism, independence, gender, war, and social change among others. Works by the following authors will be studied: Chinua Achebe, Sembene Ousmane, Patrice Nganang, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zakes Mda, and Chimamanda Adichie.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

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

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Anchor, 1994)
  • Sembene Ousmane, God's Bits of Wood (Longman, 2008)
  • Zakes Mda, Ways of Dying: A Novel (Picador, 2002)
  • Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004)
  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun (Anchor, 2007)
  • Patrice Nganang, Dog Days: An Animal Chronicle (University of Virginia Press, 2006)
     

COM 156. THE RAMAYANA (4 units)
Archana Venkatesan, avenkatesan@ucdavis.edu

MWF 12:10-1:00P, 102 Hutchison - CRN 63334

Course Description: This course examines Ramayana story traditions with a primary focus on its many literary and oral variants.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Div, and Wrt
GE Credit (New): ArtHum, World Cultures and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia (University of California Press, 1991)
  • The Ramayana Revisited (Oxford University Press, 2004)
  • Pudumaipithan, Narada Ramayanam: An Allegory of Indian History from Rama to Gandhi (iUniverse, Inc., 2007)
  • Valmiki, Ramayana (Penguin Global, 2003)
     

COM 195. SEMINAR: "ANIMALS AND LITERATURE" (4 units) 
Juliana Schiesari, jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu

M 2:10-5:00P, 1342 Storer - CRN 37517

Course Description: We will examine the representation of animals in literature from different authors and periods. What does it mean to represent animals in literature? Are they mere projections of human characteristics or do their representation also define them as subjects in their own right? We will consider the differences between anthropomorphic and anthropocentric points of view in regards to animals as well as study some theoretical essays that frame the question of the animal through the lens of animal studies.

Authors to be read include: JM Coetzee, JR Ackerley, Colette, Jann Martel.

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

Prerequisite: Senior standing as a Comparative Literature major or minor or consent of instructor.

GE Credits (Old): None
GE Credit (New): ArtHum and WrtExp

Textbooks:

  • J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace: A Novel (Penguin Books, 2008)
  • J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals (Princeton University Press, 2001)
  • Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel (Spiegel & Grau, 2011)
  • J.R. Ackerley, We Think the World of You (NYRB Classics, 2011)
  • Colette, Gigi and the Cat (Penguin Classics, 1995)
  • James Serpell, In the Company of Animals: A Study of Human-Animal Relationships (Cambridge University Press, 1996)
  • J.R. Ackerley, My Dog Tulip (NYRB Classics, 2010)
  • Animals and the Human Imagination: A Companion to Animal Studies (Columbia University Press, 2012)
     

Graduate Courses

COM 210. SEMINAR: "ANIMALS AND LITERATURE" (4 units) 
Juliana Schiesari, jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu

M 2:10-5:00P, 1342 Storer - CRN 37541

Course Description: We will examine the representation of animals in literature from different authors and periods. What does it mean to represent animals in literature? Are they mere projections of human characteristics or do their representation also define them as subjects in their own right? We will consider the differences between anthropomorphic and anthropocentric points of view in regards to animals as well as study some theoretical essays that frame the question of the animal through the lens of animal studies.

Authors to be read include: JM Coetzee, JR Ackerley, Colette, Jann Martel.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace: A Novel (Penguin Books, 2008)
  • J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals (Princeton University Press, 2001)
  • Yann Martel, Beatrice and Virgil: A Novel (Spiegel & Grau, 2011)
  • J.R. Ackerley, We Think the World of You (NYRB Classics, 2011)
  • Colette, Gigi and the Cat (Penguin Classics, 1995)
  • James Serpell, In the Company of Animals: A Study of Human-Animal Relationships (Cambridge University Press, 1996)
  • J.R. Ackerley, My Dog Tulip (NYRB Classics, 2010)
  • Animals and the Human Imagination: A Companion to Animal Studies (Columbia University Press, 2012)
     

COM 396. TEACHING ASSISTANT TRAINING PRACTICUM (Variable units)

Noha Radwan (CRN ***)
Neil Larsen (CRN ***)
Jocelyn Sharlet (CRN ***)

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