Summer 2018

Summer Session I 2018  [June 25 - August 3, 2018]

 

Comparative Literature 004. Major Books of the Contemporary World (4 units)
Amy Riddle

MTW 11:00A-1:15P
116 Veihmeyer Hall
CRN 
53764

Course Description: This class will examine works generally classified as “horror” or “the supernatural,” with a focus on works from Africa and the Middle East.  Specific topics of interest will be the depiction of capitalism, work, nature, and racialization.  Class is structured around frequent writing assignments and discussion.  This course may be counted toward satisfaction of the English Composition Requirement in all three undergraduate colleges.

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

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

Format: Lecture/Discussion.

Textbooks:

  • Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl  (Anchor Press, 2006)
  • Flora Nwapa, Efuru  (Waveland Press, 2013)
  • Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, House of Jasmine, translated by Noha Radwan  (Interlink Publishing Group, 2012)
  • Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen  (Back Bay Books, 2016) 

Summer Session II 2018  [August 6 - September 14, 2018]

Comparative Literature 003. Major Books of Western Culture: The Modern Crisis (4 units)
Magnus Snaebjoernsson

MTW 11:00A-1:15P
123 Wellman Hall
CRN 
74183

Course Description: This course focuses on the crisis that characterizes modern cultural production. The leading questions of the course concern the changing roles of people in society as well as the peculiar psychology that develops in conjuncture with industrialized production and consumerism. Some of the topics explored include the emerging city and its landscape, new forms of labor and industrialization, technology, consumerism and commodity fetishism, religion, trauma, degeneration and atavism, criminality, cyborgs, vampires, prostitutes, dandies, communism, anarchism, fascism, and fin de siècle pessimism. Through our readings of some of the classics of Western literature, we will explore the tensions at work in modern artwork. Readings include Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys and H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. We will also read excerpts from Freud, Nietzsche, and Marx, as well as study selected paintings, poems, short stories, and films.

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

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

Format: Lecture/Discussion.

Textbooks:

  • TBA