Winter 2015

Lower Division Courses

COMP LIT 001. Major Books of Western Culture: The Ancient World (4 units)

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Tori White

TR 8:00-9:50A

205 Wellman

67506

02

Cloe Legall-Scoville

TR 2:10-4:00P

117 Olson

67507

03

Linda Matheson

TR 2:10-4:00P

105 Wellman

67508

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): 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).

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Sample 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.


COMP LIT 002. Major Books of Western Culture: From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (4 units)

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

David Dayton

TR 12:10-2:00P

129 Wellman

67509

02

Kristen Bergman Waha

MW 12:10-2:00P

105 Wellman

67510

03

Navid Saberi-Najafi

MW 2:10-4:00P

129 Wellman

67511

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): 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).

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Sample Readings (vary from section to section):
Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote; Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method; William Shakespeare, Othello; Dante, The InfernoBeowulf ; Salvatore Alloso, A Short Handbook for Writing Essays about Literature.


COMP LIT 003. Major Books of Western Culture: The Modern Crisis (4 units)

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Deb Young

MW 2:10-4:00P    

105 Wellman

67512

02

Pat Cabell

MW 4:10-6:00P

125 Olson

67513

03

Kevin Smith

TR 12:10-2:00P

105 Wellman

67514

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): 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).

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Sample Readings (vary from section to section):
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (Part One); Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Franz Kafka, The Trial; Samuel 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.


COMP LIT 004. Major Books of the Contemporary World (4 units)

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Sayyeda Razvi

TR 10:00-11:50A

108 Hoagland

67515

03

Megan Ammirati

MW 2:10-4:00P

103 Wellman

67517

04

Ted Geier

TR 10:00-11:50A

235 Wellman

67518

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): 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).

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

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; Jose Saramago, The Cave; Alice Notley, Descent of Alette.


COMP LIT 005. Fairy Tales, Fables, and Parables (4 units)
Noha Radwan


Lecture:
TR 4:40-6:00P
176 Everson

Discussion Sections:

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

James Straub

M 3:10-4:00P      

159 Olson

67519

02

James Straub

M 4:10-5:00P

159 Olson

67520

03

Young Hui

W  4:10-5:00P

7 Wellman

67521

04

Young Hui

W 5:10-6:00P

7 Wellman

67522

05

Nicholas Malone

F 10:00-10:50A

209 Wellman

67523

06

Nicholas Malone

F 11:00-11:50A

209 Wellman

67524

Course Description:  Traversing the globe, this course is a "genre" course that discusses the origin and development of the popular (or folk) genre of the fairy tale and follows its development and evolution into modern forms. The class surveys the social, political, anthropological, psychological, and literary elements of this genre in its various incarnations throughout time and space.

Class will be conducted through both lectures and discussion sections. Class participation will be 20% of the grade. The rest of the grade will be based on written assignments (4 single page responses 20%, 2 short 3-5 page papers 40%) and a final in-class exam 20%.

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • 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)
     

COMP LIT 006. Myths and Legends (4 units)
Archana Venkatesan


Lecture:
TR 3:10-4:30P
1322 Storer

Discussion Sections:

Section 

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Michelle Westbrook

T 5:10-6:00P 

27 Wellman

93314

02

Michelle Westbrook

T 6:10-7:00P

27 Wellman

93315

03

Deepa Mahadevan

R 9:00-9:50A

101 Olson

93316

04

Deepa Mahadevan

R 10:00-10:50A

163 Olson

93317

05

Robert Saper

F 10:00-10:50A

1128 Hart

93318

06

Robert Saper

F 11:00-11:50A

1128 Hart

93319

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.

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • R.K. Narayan, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic  (Penguin Classics, 2006)
  • Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology, translated by Jesse Byock  (Penguin Classics, 2006)
  • Anonymous, The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George  (Penguin Classics, 2003)
  • A Course Reader
     

COMP LIT 010B. Sakuntala, Tristan and Isolde, Arthurian Romance, Gawain and the Green Knight (2 units)
Leonardo Giorgetti

Section 01.
M 2:10-4:00P
101 Wellman
CRN 94493

Section 02.    
W 2:10-4:00P
101 Wellman
CRN 94494

Course Description: In this course, we will read selections from ancient and medieval texts, focusing our attention on the tradition of romance and courtly love. We will examine how these texts represent topics such as gender, culture, sexuality, social relationships, as well as supernatural and religion. Since this is a Comparative Literature course, we will compare and contrast the transmission of stories into different cultural and temporal contexts, and consider how their narratives may have impacted the consciousness of ancient and medieval audiences. All the readings will be in modern English translation. This is a reading course primarily designed to acquaint the non-literature major with a cross-section of writings by the world’s most important authors. This course does not fulfill the university writing requirement; therefore, no essays will be assigned.

Grading: PASS/NO PASS (P/NP) ONLY.

Prerequisite: None.

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

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 2 hours.

Textbooks:

  • Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, translated by William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll  (Penguin Classics, 1991)
  • Peter Abelard and Heloise, The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, translated by Betty Radice  (Penguin Classics, 2004)
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Keith Harrison  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  • Joseph Bedier, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, translated by Hillaire Belloc  (Vintage Classics, 1994)
  • Kalidasa, The Recognition of Sakuntala, translated by W.J. Johnson  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
     

COMP LIT 053C. Literatures of the Islamic World (3 units)
Jocelyn Sharlet

TR 10:30-11:50A
90 SocSci
CRN 93307

Course Description: This course will explore major works of literature in translation from the Islamic World, mainly Arabic and Persian and also Urdu, Ottoman Turkish and other languages. We will read stories and poetry from diverse genres on themes of the individual, the family, the journey, spirituality, desire, politics, ethics, gender, myth and magic. Our work will address the social, historical, literary, religious and cross-cultural context of the works that we read. We will also investigate the arts of the book and the relationship between text and performance. Students will make one three-minute presentation and write one four-page essay and the final exam.

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • Nizami, The Story of Layla and Majnun, translated by Rudolf Gelpke  (Omega Publications, 1996)
  • Farid ud-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds, translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis  (Penguin Classics, 1984)
  • Anonymous, Sindbad: And Other Stories from the Arabian Nights [New Deluxe Edition], translated by Husain Haddawy and edited by Muhsin Mahdi (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008)
  • Reading on SmartSite:
    • Selections from The Arabian NightsShahnameh: The Persian Book of KingsThe Fables of Kalilah and DimnahOttoman Lyric PoetryAn Anthology of Classical Urdu Love LyricsClassical Arabic Literature, and The Golden Tradition.
       

Upper Division Courses

COMP LIT 120. Writing Nature: 1750 to the Present (4 units)
Stefan Uhlig

TR 3:10-4:30P
251 Olson
CRN 93438

Course Description: Poetic writing has in various ways explored the cultivation and experience of the natural world since ancient times. But since the later eighteenth century, nature writing has branched out into self-consciously imaginative, argumentative, and philosophically incisive forms. This course explores how this tradition charts conflicting attitudes to the non-human world in times of drastic intellectual and socio-economic change. The literary engagement with the natural world has ranged from celebratory aesthetic pleasure or nostalgia to an effort to confront the exploitation and, potentially, downright destruction of a liveable environment. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts and authors we will read include the poetry of William Wordsworth, Henry Thoreau’s Walden, Walt Whitman’s poetry, John Muir’s writings about the Sierra and Yosemite, as well as Alexander von Humboldt’s influential Cosmos – which relates the state of nineteenth-century science to the history of nature writing and philosophy. These formative, historical perspectives will then lead us to the forms and points of view developed by more recent nature writers and environmentalists like Rachel Carson, Peter Mathiessen, or Bill McKibben.

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

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

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

Textbooks:

  • Henry D. Thoreau, Walden, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer  (Yale University Press, 2006)
  • The Norton Book of Nature Writing [College Edition], edited by Robert Finch and John Elder  (W.W. Norton & Company, 2002)
  • American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau  (Library of America, 2008)
     

COMP LIT 141. Introduction to Comparative Critical Theory (4 units)   Cross-listed with CRI 101
Joshua Clover


TR 1:40-3:00P
107 Cruess
CRN 93308

Course Description: This course introduces students to the basic concepts and methods of critical and literary theory. Drawing on Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, the class will explore the theoretical ramifications of a small group of literary and cultural texts, including Nanni Balestrini's The Unseen; Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat; and Toni Morrison's Beloved. Students will be asked to write a series of guided essays, culminating in a final project of theoretical analysis.

Prerequisite: One upper division literature course or consent of instructor.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction  (Oxford University Press, 2011)
  • Toni Morrison, Beloved  (Vintage Books, 2004)
  • Nanni Balestrini, The Unseen [2nd Edition], translated by Liz Heron  (Verso Books, 2012)
  • Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat [2nd Edition], translated by Louise Varése  (New Directions, 2011)
     

COMP LIT 147. Modern Jewish Writers: Introduction to Israeli Literature and Film (4 units)
Kfir Cohen

TR 10:30-11:50A
101 Olson
CRN 93309

Course Description: In the last thirty years Israeli society has gone through tremendous social, economic, political and cultural transformations. Like many third world countries entering into global networks of capital flows, Israel sees dramatic shifts in economic inequality, new forms of governance, cultural production and consumption, and new ways of feeling and thinking about the present. Although Zionist-Jewish nationalism is very much at the center of Israeli public life it is today contested and rivaled by a privatized, commercially oriented, cultural production whose literary and cinematic forms no longer arise out of the historic forms of Zionism but rather from a new capitalist culture.

We will start by introducing key cultural, social, economic and political features of Israeli statist society as they were reflected in novels from the 1950s to the 1980s. After this short introduction we will move on to explore new literary works and films post-1990 that reflect what sociologist Uri Ram calls the globalization of Israeli society.

Our literary readings of the first period (1950s-1980s) will include Yizhar Smilanski’s short war novella Midnight Convoy, and Aharon Megged’s comical novel, The Living on the Dead. Our literary and cinematic texts of the second period (1985-  ) will include Batya Gur’s detective novel, The Saturday Morning Murder, Assaf Gavron’s dark humor novel about terrorists and capitalists, Almost Dead, Ari Folman’s animated documentary about the 1982 Lebanon war, Waltz with Bashir, and finally Assaf Sudri and Amir Tauzinger’s documentary about neoliberal privatizations, Strike.

All texts are in English translation, or with English subtitles. Students will be asked to write five 2/3-page weekly response papers and a 5-page final paper. The grade will be comprised of participation, the short responses and the final paper. 

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

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

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

Textbooks:

  • S. Yizhar, Midnight Convoy and Other Stories [2nd Revised Edition]  (Toby Press, 2007)
  • Assaf Gavron, Almost Dead: A Novel  (HarperPerennial, 2010)
  • Aharon Megged, The Living on the Dead [2nd English Edition], translated by Misha Louvish  (Toby Press, 2005)
     

COMP LIT 168A. Romanticism (4 units)
Kari Lokke

TR 9:00-10:20A
103 Wellman
CRN 93310

Course Description: This is an introduction to the Romantic movement with emphasis upon Romantic concepts of the self, irony, love, the imagination, artistic genius, and the relationship of the individual to nature and society.We will read works that portray the price paid by Europeans for the rise of urbanization and industrialization at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Romanticism as a historical movement began in Germany and England and then spread to France, Italy, Spain, Russia and the USA. Romanticism is a quintessentially international movement that came into being as an almost worldwide response to such cultural and sociopolitical events as the French Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the stirrings of first wave feminism and ecological awareness, as  well as the colonialist enterprises of the major European powers.

Prerequisite:  Any introductory course in literature.

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

Format: Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings, translated by Catherine Hutter  (Signet Classics, 2005)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria, or The Wrongs of Women [2nd Edition]  (W.W. Norton & Company, 1994)
  • The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 4: The Age of Romanticism [2nd Edition], edited by Joseph Black, et al.  (Broadview Press, 2010)
  • Claire de Duras, Ourika: An English Translation, translated by John Fowles  (The Modern Language Association of America, 1995)
  • E.T.A. Hoffman, Tales of E.T.A. Hoffman, translated by Elizabeth C. Knight  (The University of Chicago Press, 1972)
     

COMP LIT 175. The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings (4 units)   Cross-listed with MSA 121A
Jocelyn Sharlet

TR 1:40-3:00P
1342 Storer
CRN 94512

Course Description: This course explores the dynamics of political power and the tension between individual and communal priorities in Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Ferdowsi (d. 1020 CE). Students will analyze Ferdowsi’s depiction of ethics, politics, economic development, rulers and war, as well as the warriors, women and advisers who support, resist or rebel against their kings. We will explore the position of this work in the development of Persian literature and Ferdowsi’s portrayal of legend and history, the rise and fall of the Sasanian Empire, Zoroastrianism and Christianity, Persians and Turks in Central Asia, and their interaction with Arabia, Africa, India and China. We will also consider the place of this work in world literature, including epic and romance, perspectives on Alexander the Great, the intersection of performance, text and image, and the emergence of Islam as a world religion. Students will write one two-page response paper and one seven-page essay, make one short presentation based on their written work, and take several reading quizzes and a final exam.

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbook:

  • Abolqasem Ferdowsi, The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, translated by Dick Davis  (Penguin Classics, 2007)
  • Reading on SmartSite:
    • Selections from The Oral Background of Persian Epics: Storytelling and PoetryThe Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp: The Persian Book of KingsSasanian Persia: The Rise and Fall of an EmpireThe New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory and ConversionHaft PaykarThe Book of Government or Rules for KingsThe Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam, Latin, Hebrew and Ethiopian versions of the Alexander Romance, and The Shahnameh (in Persian).
       

COMP LIT 195. Seminar: "Animals and Literature" (4 units)
Juliana Schiesari

M 2:10-5:00P
201 Wellman
CRN 93311

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.

Prerequisite: Senior standing as a Comparative Literature major or minor or consent of instructor (jkschiesari@ucdavis.edu).

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

Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.

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)
  • J.R. Ackerley, My Dog Tulip  (NYRB Classics, 2010)
  • Kari Weil, Thinking Animals: Why Animal Studies Now  (Columbia University Press, 2012)
  • Marc Bekoff, The Animal Manifesto  (New World Library, 2010)
     

COMP LIT 396. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (Variable units)


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

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