Winter 2016

Lower Division Courses

Comparative Literature 001. Major Books of Western Culture: The Ancient World (4 units)

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

D Dayton

TR 8:00-9:50A

267 Olson Hall

17768

02

Sayyeda Razvi

TR 2:10-4:00P

141 Olson Hall

17769

03 Anna Einarsdottir MW 2:10-4:00P 105 Olson Hall

17770

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 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 - 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.


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

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Jeff Weiner

MW 10:00-11:50A

7 Wellman Hall

17771

02

Cordelia Ross TR 12:10-2:00P 233 Wellman Hall 17772

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 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 - 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.


Comparative Literature 002. (Honors) Major Books of Western Culture: From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment (4 units)
Cheri Ross

TR 2:10-4:00P
This is an Honors course, the CRN is available through the Honors Program.

Course Description: TBA

Prerequisite: TBA

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

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 4 hours.

Textbooks:

  • TBA
     

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

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Sean Sell

MW 2:10-4:00P

80 Social Sciences Building

17774

02

Celine Piser

MW 10:00-11:50A

192 Young Hall

17775

03 James Straub TR 12:10-2:00P 1342 Storer Hall

17776

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 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 - 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.


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

Section

Instructor

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Pat Cabell

MW 10:00-11:50A

227 Olson Hall

17777

02

Deb Young

MW 2:10-4:00P

107 Wellman Hall

17778

03

Amy Riddle TR 12:10-2:00P 167 Olson Hall 17779
04 Linda Matheson TR 2:10-4:00P 107 Wellman Hall

43487

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


Comparative Literature 006. Myths and Legends (4 units)
Jocelyn Sharlet


Lecture:
TR 3:10-4:30P
176 Everson Hall

Discussion Sections:

Disc. Section

Discussion Leader

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Zhen Zhang

T 5:10-6:00P

207 Wellman Hall

17786

02

Zhen Zhang

T 6:10-7:00P

207 Wellman Hall

17787

03

Corrie Hendricks

R 5:10-6:00P

205 Wellman Hall

17788

04

Corrie Hendricks

R 6:10-7:00P 205 Wellman Hall

17789

05

Jeremy Konick-Seese

F 10:00-10:50A 101 Wellman Hall

17790

06

Jeremy Konick-Seese

F 11:00-11:50A 101 Wellman Hall

17791

Course Description: This course explores how communities have used myth and legend to explore different perspectives on identity and ethical values. Myth and legend express ideas about conflicting obligations, insiders and outsiders, and humankind in relation to the non-human natural world and the supernatural. We will also analyze how myth and legend contribute to the articulation of ideas about history, storytelling, social hierarchy and social mobility, justice, economic development, and gender and the family. Evaluation will be based on a response paper, a short essay, a midterm and a final exam.

Short selections from the following texts will be posted on the course site:
Stories of Anansi the Spider and Coyote
Sindbad and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights, translated by Husain Haddawy
The Journey to the West, translated by Anthony Yu

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:

  • Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Rostam: Tales of Love and War from the Shahnameh, translated by Dick Davis  (Penguin Classics, 2009)
  • D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali [Revised Edition]  (Pearson, 2006)
  • Homer, Odyssey, translated by Stanley Lombardo  (Hackett Publishing, 2000)
  • The Book of Dede Korkut: A Turkish Epic, translated by Faruk Sumer, Ahmet E. Uysal and Warren S. Walker  (University of Texas Press, 1991)
     

Comparative Literature 007. Literature of Fantasy and the Supernatural (4 units)
Stefan Uhlig


Lecture:
TR 10:30-11:50A
1002 Giedt Hall

Discussion Sections:

Disc. Section

Discussion Leader

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

Tianya Wang

T 5:10-6:00P

205 Wellman Hall

43488

02

Tianya Wang

T 6:10-7:00P

205 Wellman Hall

43489

03

Magnus Snaebjoernsson

F 10:00-10:50A

148 Physics Building

43490

04

Magnus Snaebjoernsson

F 11:00-11:50A

148 Physics Building

43491

05

Nicholas Talbott

R 5:10-6:00P

107 Wellman Hall

43492

06

Nicholas Talbott

R 6:10-7:00P

107 Wellman Hall

43493

Course Description: This course explores how literary and other artworks get us to engage with subjects or experiences too strange to fit into conventional storylines. We focus on a few exceptionally imaginative texts alongside works in other media they have inspired (movies, opera, or dance). These works don’t reassure us with their sense of what is real, or even plausible – instead, they ask us to rethink our ways of mapping and experiencing the world. The set texts are:

Shakespare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1600)
Goethe, Faust: Part One (1808)
E. T. A. Hoffmann, The Sandman (1817)
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (1915)

Excerpts from works in other media will include:
John Neumeier, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1977) / Diether Dorn, Faust (1988) / Jacques Offenbach, The Tales of Hoffmann (1881) / Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958) / Walt Disney, Alice in Wonderland (1951) / Richard Wagner, Tannhäuser (1845) / F. W. Murnau, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) / Peter Capaldi, Franz Kafka’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” (1993).

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:

  • Bram Stoker, Dracula  (Oxford University Press, 2011)
  • Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass  (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis, translated by Stanley Corngold  (Modern Library, 2013)
  • Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray  (Dover Publications, 1993)
  • E.T.A. Hoffman, The Golden Pot and Other Tales, translated by Ritchie Robertson  (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (Part One), translated by David Luke  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
     

Comparative Literature 010L. Master Authors in World Literature - Imagination versus Reality (2 units)
Young Hui

Section

Day / Time

Room

CRN

01

M 2:10-4:00P      

125 Olson Hall

43494

02

T 8:00-9:50A

1038 Wickson Hall

43495

Course Description: In this course, we will explore the literature from around the world. We will examine in particular to what extent these texts deal with topics such as cannibalism, colonialism, imagination, reality, politics, and religions, in order to understand how their formulation according to different cultural and historical contexts reshaped the very notion of literature and its social function. All the readings will be in modern English translation.

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:

  • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness and Other Tales  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  • Juan Jose Sauer, The Witness, translated by Margaret Jull Costa  (Serpent's Tail, 2009)
  • Yann Martel, The Life of Pi  (Mariner Books, 2003)
     

Comparative Literature 053C. Literatures of the Islamic World (4 units)
Navid Saberi-Najafi

MWF 10:00-10:50A
129 Wellman Hall
CRN 17794

Course Description: This course will explore major works of classical Arabic and Persian literature in translation. We will read prose and poetry from diverse genres on the following themes: the individual, the family, the journey of the soul to God, desire, politics, ethics, gender, myth and magic. Our analyses will address the social, historical, literary, religious and cross-cultural context of the works that we read. In addition to our close reading of the texts, we will focus on developing critical thinking and writing skills through discussion and writing assignments.

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:

  • Arabian Nights' Entertainments, edited by Robert L. Mack  (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • Nizami, The Story of Layla and Majnun, translated by Rudolf Gelpke  (Omega Publications, 1996)
  • Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Rostam: Tales of Love and War from the Shahnameh, translated by Dick Davis  (Penguin Classics, 2009)
  • Faridu'd-Din 'Attar, The Speech of the Birds, translated by Peter Avery  (Islamic Texts Society, 1998)
     

Upper Division Courses

Comparative Literature 110. Hong Kong Cinema (4 units)
Sheldon Lu

Lecture: TR 1:40-3:00P
Film Viewing: R 5:10-8:00P

55 Roessler Hall
CRN 43497

Course Description: This course is a study of the cinema of Hong Kong, a cultural crossroads between East and West. Students examine the history, genres, styles, stars, and major directors of Hong Kong cinema in reference to the city's multi-linguistic, colonial, and postcolonial environment. The course pays special attention to Hong Kong cinema's interactions with and influences on other filmic traditions such as Hollywood and Asian cinema. Topics will include: characteristics of Hong Kong cinema as a local, regional, and global cinema; historical evolution of film genres and styles; major directors and stars; film adaption of literary works about Hong Kong; Hong Kong cinema's international influence.

Prerequisite: Upper division standing or consent of instructor (shlu@ucdavis.edu).

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

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Film Viewing - 3 hours.

Textbooks:

There are two required reading materials, each of which has their method of access listed beneath them:

  1. David Bordwell, Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment [2nd Edition]  (Irvington Way Institute Press, 2011)
            The Bordwell text is available only as an Adobe PDF file at http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/planethongkong.php.

  2. Blackwell Companion to Hong Kong Cinema, edited by Esther Cheung, Gina Marchetti and Esther Yau  (Wiley Blackwell Books, 2015)
            The Blackwell Companion is available as an e-book in the UC Davis library system.


Comparative Literature 141. Introduction to Comparative Critical Theory (4 units)
Stefan Uhlig

TR 1:40-3:00P
244 Olson Hall
CRN 17798

Course Description: This course provides an introduction to some basic intellectual challenges of complex texts and works in other media. With Jonathan Culler’s Literary Theory as our guide, each week will feature primary works in dialogue with readings drawn from influential theorists. Students will write a set of short responses and a final project paper. Our primary examples will be drawn from the works of Marina Abramović, Samuel Beckett, Alfred Hitchock, Franz Kafka, and William Wordsworth.

Prerequisite: One upper division literature course or consent of instructor (shuhlig@ucdavis.edu).

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

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

Textbook:

  • Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction [2nd Edition]  (Oxford University Press, 2011)
     

Comparative Literature 152. Literature of the Americas (4 units)
Neil Larsen

TR 12:10-1:30P
102 Hutchison Hall
CRN 43577

Course Description: Study of the various stylistic, historical, social and cultural factors that contribute to a hemispheric vision of American literature, encompassing works by Canadian, United States, Caribbean, Brazilian, and Spanish-American writers.

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

GE credit (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:

  • Instructor will send out announcement about obtaining reading materials before quarter begins
     

Comparative Literature 157. War and Peace in Literature (4 units)
Brenda Deen Schildgen

MWF 12:10-1:00P
1116 Hart Hall
CRN 44261

Course Description: Through study of a few major works from Western and non-Western literature the course seeks to illuminate the way in which literature from antiquity to the present has dealt with the antinomy peace/war through the ages.

Prerequisite: Comparative Literature 001, 002, or 003 or consent of instructor (bdschildgen@ucdavis.edu).

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

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

Textbooks:

  • Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five  (Dell/Bantam Books, 1991)
  • Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima mon Amour, translated by Richard Seaver  (Grove Press, 1993)
  • Nadeem Aslam, The Blind Man's Garden  (Vintage Books, 2014)
  • Michio Takeyama, Harp of Burma, translated by Howard Hibbett  (Tuttle Publishing, 1989)
     

Comparative Literature 160A. The Modern Novel (4 units)
Gail Finney

TR 10:30-11:50A
129 Wellman Hall
CRN 43499

Course Description: Studies major themes and stylistic characteristics of high modernist fiction, such as the subjectivity of perception, moral relativism and decadence, the questioning of traditional gender roles, a preoccupation with time and mortality, the exploration of the psyche, the role of art as both redemptive and alienating, linguistic skepticism, lyricism, the use of myth, and narrative experimentation.

Texts will include:

Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain  (1924)

Marcel Proust, Combray, from Swann’s Way  (1913)

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse  (1927)

James Joyce, Ulysses (selections) (1922)

Prerequisite: None.

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

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

Textbooks:

  • Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain, translated by John E. Woods  (Vintage International Books, 1995)
  • Marcel Proust, Swann's Way [Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition], translated by Lydia Davis  (Penguin Books, 2004)
  • Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse  (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989)
  • James Joyce, Ulysses, edited by Hans Gabler  (Vintage Books, 1986)
     

Graduate Courses

Comparative Literature 210. Introduction to Chinese Literary, Cultural, and Film Studies (4 units)
Sheldon Lu

W 2:10-5:00P
111 Wellman Hall
CRN 17838

Course Description: This seminar introduces students to the major theories, approaches, and topics in the study of Chinese literature and cinema.  The course covers, but is not limited to, the following topics:

  • Traditional Chinese literary system, aesthetics, hermeneutics.
  • Reconstruction of China, Chineseness, and Chinese studies in the modern era.  
  • Discourses of Chinese modernity (early, late, cosmopolitan, alternative, sustainable, and so on).
  • The revolutionary tradition, Chinese Marxism, global Maoism.
  • “Post-ism:” postmodernism, postcolonialism, and postsocialism in the Chinese context.  
  • The concept of Sinophone.
  • Theories of Chinese cinema; its local, national, transnational, and global contexts.

Students will read selected critical writings by Pauline Yu, Stephen Owen, Haun Haussy, Zhang Longxi, Andrew Plaks, and others on premodern aesthetics.  The class will discuss the writings by Arif Dirlik, Tu Wei-ming, Ackbar Abbas, Rey Chow, Ban Wang, Kang Liu, Xudong Zhang, Aihwa Ong, Shu-mei Shih, Zhen Zhang, and others on modern Chinese literature, film, and culture.  In addition to reading secondary critical works, students will also look at primary texts such as the films of Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yimou.

Each student is expected to participate in class discussion, make a presentation in class, and write a research paper on a topic of her/his choice at the end of the course.  

Prerequisite: Graduate standing in Comparative Literature, English, or a foreign-language literature, or consent of instructor (shlu@ucdavis.edu).

Format: Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • None. Students will read journal articles available in the UCD library system, and will be given PDF files and handouts.