Winter 2012

Lower Division Courses

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

Monica Powers Keane, Instructor (Sec. 1, MW 10:00-11:50, 127 Wellman) CRN 27464
Dr. Linda Matheson, Lecturer (Sec. 2, TR 12:10-2:00, 107 Wellman) CRN 27465
Michael Graziano, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 2:10-4:00, 107 Wellman) CRN 27466

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 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)

Chris Tong, Instructor (Sec. 1, TR 8:00-9:50, 101 Wellman) CRN 27467
Elisabeth Lore, Instructor (Sec. 2, TR 10:00-11:50, 290 Hickey Gym) CRN 27468
Nicholas Sanchez, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 12:10-2:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 27469

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, 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)

Dr. Brian Davisson, Lecturer (Sec. 1, MW 2:10-4:00, 105 Wellman) CRN 27470
Jonathan Dettman, Instructor (Sec. 2, MW 4:10-6:00, 167 Olson) CRN 27471
Sayyeda Razvi, Instructor (Sec. 3, TR 12:10-2:00, 105 Wellman) CRN 27472
Anna Einarsdottir, Instructor (Sec. 4, TR 10:00-11:50, 1020 Wickson) CRN 27473

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)

STAFF (Sec. 1, TR 10:00-11:50, 25 Wellman) CRN 27474
STAFF(Sec. 2, TR 4:10-6:00, 163 Olson) CRN 27475
STAFF(Sec. 3, MW 2:10-4:00, 103 Wellman) CRN 27476
Dr. Brian Davisson, Lecturer (Sec. 4, TR 10:00-11:50, 7 Wellman) CRN 27477

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)
Prof. Juliana Schiesari, jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu


Lecture: TR 12:10-1:30, 100 Hunt

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (F 11:10-12:00, 113 Hoagland) CRN 27477
Sec. 2 (T 4:10-5:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 27478
Sec. 3 (T 5:10-6:00, 235 Wellman) CRN 27479
Sec. 4 (F 12:10-1:00, 113 Hoagland) CRN 27480
Sec. 5 (M 4:10-5:00, 1116 Hart) CRN 27481
Sec. 6 (M 5:10-6:00, 102 Hutchison) CRN 27482

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):

  • (TBA)

COM 7. LITERATURE OF FANTASY AND THE SUPERNATURAL (4 Units)
Prof. Jeff Fort, jpfort@ucdavis.edu (Assistant Professor of French)


Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00, 1309 Surge III

Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 9:00-9:50, 105 Olson) CRN 27483
Sec. 2 (T 6:10-7:00, 70 Social Science and Humanities) CRN 27484
Sec. 3 (W 4:10-5:00, 151 Olson) CRN 27485
Sec. 4 (R 4:10-5:00, 105 Wellman) CRN 27486
Sec. 5 (M 5:10-6:00, 70 Social Science and Humanities) CRN 27487
Sec. 6 (T 12:10-1:00, 207 Wellman) CRN 27488

Course Description: By definition, the literature of fantasy is not restricted to the realistic representation of the objective world. Its possibilities are boundless. At the same time, fantastic literature tends to acknowledge the fact that its stories and scenes are a product of the human mind, in a way that often blurs the border between fantasy and reality. The fact that this blurring is carried out in the realm of literary fiction only complicates matters: for example, in what sense is a ghost seen by a character "real" (or not)? By extension, one can ask: in what sense are fantasies and dreams more real than "reality"? How is reality itself determined by fantasy and the projection of mental states? This course will explore these and other questions through readings of fantastic texts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which we encounter (among other things) threatening spirits, raving madmen, sinister doubles, tormented murderers, ghosts real or imagined, and a man transformed into a gigantic insect for unknown reasons. We will elaborate further on the notion and process of "projection" by watching two films in which reality is directly determined by fantasy, with disastrous consequences.

Required course work will include two 4-5 page papers; midterm and final exams; attendance and participation in discussion sections.

Reading and Viewing list (All texts will be available in PDF form on SmartSite)

  • Théophile Gautier, "The Coffee Pot" ! (1831)
  • 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 Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Mask of the Red Death" (1835-1843)
  • Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)
  • Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" (1915), "A Country Doctor" (1917)
  • Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel" (1941), "Funes the Memorious" (1941), "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" (1941), "The Aleph" (1945)
  • Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (film) (1958)
  • Chris Marker, La jetée (film) (1962)

 

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

Readings:

  • All reading will be available on SmartSite

COM 10M. MASTER AUTHORS IN WORLD LITERATURE (2 Units)
Cancelled as of October 25, 2011


COM 10B. MASTER AUTHORS IN WORLD LITERATURE (2 Units) - New Course
Victoria White, Instructor

Lecture/Discussion Sections:
Sec. 1 (M 12:10-2:00, 205 Wellman) CRN 54728
Sec. 2 (W 10:00-11:50, 151 Olson) CRN 54729 New Schedule/Room Location

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:

  • Ovid, Metamorphoses (039332642X)
  • Boccaccio, Decameron (0140449302)
  • Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (0199535620)
  • Arabian Nights (0393332462)

COM 13. DRAMATIC LITERATURE (3 Units)
Prof. Seth Schein, slschein@ucdavis.edu

(TR 1:40-3:00, 25 Wellman) CRN 53902

Course Description: In this version of COM 13, we will read and discuss selected Greek and Shakespearean tragedies and Athol Fugard's The Island, an adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone. The main focus will be on the different ways in which these plays are meaningful in performance and when read, with particular attention to representations of gender and generational conflict, political and social institutions and values, and relationships between divinity and humanity.

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:

  • Sophocles, Antigone, translated by D. Rayor (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
  • Sophocles, Philoktetes, translated by Seth L. Schein (Focus Classical Library/R. Pullins Publishing Co., 2003)
  • Euripides, Bacchae, in Euripides 5: Electra, The Phoenician WomenThe Bacchae, ed. Lattimore and Grene, The Complete Greek Tragedies (University of Chicago Press, 1969 or later)
  • W. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, ed. D. Bevington (Oxford World's Classics, 2008)
  • W. Shakespeare, The Tempest, ed. Stephen Orgel (Oxford World's Classics, 2008)
  • W. Shakespeare, Macbeth, ed. N. Brooke (Oxford World's Classics, 2008)
  • A. Fugard, J. Kani, W. Ntshona, The Island, in Statements (Theater Communications, Group, 1993)

Upper Division Courses

COM 120. WRITING NATURE: 1750 TO THE PRESENT (4 Units)
Prof. Scott McLean, wsmclean@ucdavis.edu

(TR 12:10-1:30, 90 Social Science & Humanities Bldg) CRN 27496

Course Description: This course is ...

Prerequisite: (TBA)

GE Credits (Old): (TBA)
GE Credit (New): (TBA)

Readings:

  • (TBA)

COM 151. COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL EXPERIENCE IN LITERATURE (4 Units)
Prof. Noha Radwan, nmradwan@ucdavis.edu

(TR 3:10-4:30, 105 Olson) CRN 53593

Course Description: "The Fiction of Post Colonialism: Are we living in the poco world?"

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 Africa and the Middle East 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).

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

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

Readings:

  • South Africa: J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians (Penguin, 2010 reprint)
  • Sudan: Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (New York Review Books Classics, 2009)
  • Israel: S. Yizhar, Khirbet Khizeh (1949)
  • Palestine: Sahar Khalifeh, Wild Thorns (Interlink, 1999)
  • Zimbabwe: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (Lynne Rienner, 2004)

COM 152. LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS (4 Units)
Prof. Leo Bernucci, lmbernucci@ucdavis.edu (Professor of Spanish and Portuguese)

(TR 4:40-6:00, 251 Olson) CRN 53594

Course Description: A close reading of major works by 19th and 20th century American and South-American writers with focus on narrative form as it engages issues of social critique, conventions of genre, autobiography, political, and literary authority. Consideration of the importance of plots as both a novelistic and political device in the contexts of narrative strategy and history. Students will have an opportunity to explore how American critics have read South-American authors and vice versa. Readings include Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Edgar A. Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum," Machado de Assis's Dom Casmurro, Jorge L. Borges's "The Secret Miracle," John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, Jose Eustasio Rivera's The Vortex, and Graciliano Ramos's Barren Lives. Texts read in English with option for Spanish and Comparative Literature majors to read them in the original.

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

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

Readings:

  • Jose Eustasio Rivera, The Vortex (photocopy)
  • John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics, 2002 - centennial edition)
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Penguin Classics, 2002)
  • Graciliano Ramos, Barren Lives (Univ. of Texas Press, 1971)

COM 166A. THE EPIC (4 Units)
Prof. Seth Schein, slschein@ucdavis.edu

(TR 10:30-11:50, 105 Olson) CRN 53597

Course Description: In this course we shall study representations of heroism, history, relationships between divinity and humanity, conflicts between individuals and society, gender roles, and social and cultural identity and authority in three epics: Homer's Iliad, Vergil's Aeneid, and Milton's Paradise Lost. We also will pay particular attention to the distinctive features of traditional oral epics and written epics, and to tensions in the poems between traditional and new ideas and values.

Prerequisite: None.

GE Credits (Old): ArtHum, Wrt.
GE Credit (New): (TBA)

Readings:

  • Homer, Iliad. Translated by S. Lombardo (Hackett, 1997)
  • Homer, Vergil. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald (Vintage, 1983)
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost. Edited by Gordon Teskey (W.W. Norton, 2005)

COM 167. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAJOR AUTHORS: "Goethe" (4 Units)
Prof. Scott McLean, wsmclean@ucdavis.edu

(TR 9:00-10:20, 105 Olson) CRN 53813

Course Description: The special study on Goethe will take Goethe as the center of that literature and thought that was written during the turn from the 18th to the 19th centuries. The course will not only be on Goethe, but will also include readings by the German poets Hoelderlin and Novalis, the French poet and short story writer Nerval, the English poets Coleridge and Keats.

Prerequisite: Consent of Instructor

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

Readings:

  • (TBA)

 


Graduate Courses

COM 210. SEMINAR TOPIC: "European and American Narrative, 1740-1940: Theory and Practice (4 Units)
----CANCELLED---- Prof. Gail Finney, gefinney{C}@ucdavis.edu

(T 3:10-6:00, 822 Sproul) CRN 27535

Course Description:This seminar aims to provide students with the following:

  • Close familiarity with eight celebrated European and American novels from the eighteenth through the late twentieth centuries
  • A knowledge of the major elements of narrative theory/narratology, such as voice, perspective, character, story, discourse, narrative situations, dialogism, focalization, mood, narrativity, plot, narrative world-making, psychonarration
  • The opportunity to use this narrative apparatus to illuminate the novels studied
  • Some competence in methods of teaching narrative theory

Novels studied are listed below:

  • Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774)
  • Emily Brontё, Wuthering Heights (1847)
  • Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1856)
  • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899)
  • Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
  • Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
  • Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985)

 

In conjunction, we will read Teaching Narrative Theory, ed. David Herman, Brian McHale, and James Phelan, as well as other theoretical works.

Readings:

  • 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. --, CRN ***)
Juliana Schiesari, Professor (Sec. --, CRN ***)
Jeff Fort, Professor (Sec. --, CRN ***)
Neil Larsen, Professor (Sec. --, CRN ***)

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