Comparative Literature Courses
Fall 2007

Any literature course in any language, including English, at the 300 level or above
counts towards the Comparative Literature major or minor.

COURSES OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDENTS

CPLT 201 (3) History of European Literature I
Mr. Braden, Instructor
1230-1345 TR
CAB 138

IMPORTANT: Students in this course must register both for the lecture & for a discussion section, which will meet once a week. Discussion sections will be closed for registration until the first scheduled meeting of the course; at that meeting students will fill out section request forms, and on that basis will then be assigned to a discussion section.

We will read some of the major works of European literature from the time of classical Greece & Rome up through the end of the seventeenth century. Readings will cover a range of literary types (epic, romance, tragedy, comedy, lyric) & of different languages (Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Icelandic); they will include Homer’s Odyssey, the Oedipus plays of Sophocles, Vergil’s Aeneid, Dante’s Inferno, Njal’s Saga, Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Rabelais’s Gargantua, and numerous short poems from a variety of authors (including a few contemporary song lyrics). Course texts will be in English translation, but repeated reference will be made to the original language. The aims will be both appreciation of the individual works—all of which have been found worth rereading over the centuries by many different readers in many different cultures--& a general understanding of the overall history of European literature.

This course is required of all Comparative Literature majors, but all interested students are welcome. It also may be counted toward the English major as three hours of “Literature in Translation.” This course will satisfy the Second Writing Requirement.

CPLT 313 (3) Narratives Of Childhood
Ms. Martens, Instructor
1000-1050 MWF
CAB 424

Restricted to permission of instructor

Cross-listed with GETR 348

How is childhood remembered? This course examines writers’ representations of their childhood memories. Whether for the sheer pleasure of revisiting their childhood, or because they believed that childhood experiences are constitutive of identity, many modern writers have turned to childhood autobiography, which has flourished as a genre over the course of the past two hundred years. We will begin by writing some of our own childhood memories, as an exercise. Then we will read representative works—autobiographies of childhood, the childhood parts of longer autobiographies, and fiction involving childhood memories—by William Wordsworth, Marcel Proust, Rainer Maria Rilke, Walter Benjamin, Nathalie Sarraute, Richard Wright, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others. We will consider the factors that the authors regard as formative influences: parents, social class, racial or ethnic identity, sex, places, books. Childhood autobiography raises issues of memory. While writers have listened to psychologists, notably Freud, they have also theorized the subject of memory themselves. Thus, what triggers remembrance? What kinds of events are remembered? Is the memory of childhood events trustworthy? Can we speak of fixed memories, or are we constantly rewriting memories in our imagination? Moreover, authors can treat their raw material in different ways, e.g. by changing or embellishing fact or even writing “fiction,” by substituting stories told by other people for the classic first-person narrative, or by addressing a fictive listener. In particular, we will examine the adult narrator’s attitude toward his or her past (sympathetic? critical? learning and discovering? authoritative?), the point of view he or she adopts (the child’s? the adult’s?), and the stylistic and formal devices he or she uses to achieve these effects. Students should be actively interested in the subject of childhood memory and willing to contribute to discussion. Requirements: regular attendance and lively participation in class discussion; portfolio of email responses; autobiographical writing; two 5-page papers; final examination. Fulfills second writing requirement.

CPLT 341 (3) History of Drama
Ms. Löfgren, instructor
1230-1345 TR
AST 265

Cross-listed with ENGN 340

This is the first of a two-semester survey of the history of Western drama from the fifth century B.C. to the present; the first semester will take us through the nineteenth century. Aside from investigating, through a close reading of the texts, what makes for ageless drama, we will also examine the texts from several contextual perspectives. For example: How do the political, religious, and physical environments in which the plays were first performed inform our texts? How do changes in those environments affect our interpretation of those texts? Why are so many societies suspicious of the theater and of actors? How do gender issues influence text and performance? Who was the intended audience? We will travel widely throughout the Western world in the course of the semester, reading plays by Sophocles, Aristophanes, Hrotswitha, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Molière, Sheridan, Ibsen, and others. Requirements: Two shorter papers and a longer paper or a project (one option is to write your own play); a final exam.

CPLT 341 Reading Nietzsche
Mr. Kaiser, Instructor
1530-1800 M
CAB 245

Cross-listed with GETR 341

This course will introduce students to the exciting work of one of the outstanding writers and thinkers in the German philosophical, aesthetic and literary tradition, namely Friedrich Nietzsche. In the first half of the seminar we will read the most and influential significant texts of Nietzsche’s oeuvre, from The Birth of Tragedy via Thus spoke Zarathustra to The Genealogy of Morals and, ultimately, to the aphorisms entitled The UWill to Power. Special attention will be given to the central concepts of Nietzsche’s thought, i.e. the eternal recurrence of the same and the so-called Űbermensch and their relation to each other. Another area of interest is Nietzsche’s relation to the Greeks, to Christianity and to the philosophy, culture and literature of the 19 th century, especially to Schopenhauer. In short, we will also look at Nietzsche as a reader of these traditions. Following that task, we will look at the traces which Nietzsche left in the literature and philosophy of the 20 th century, including the German, modernist (Thomas Mann, Rilke, Brecht, Kafka, Benjamin, Benn et. al.) and the French, postmodernist (Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, de Man, Kofman, Irigaray et. al.) reception.

Reguirements: There are no prerequisites. Students are expected to attend regularly, to present readings for subsequent discussions in the form of group presentations, and to present and discuss their paper topics to the class at two weekend seminars in the second half of the semester. (We will set up these weekend seminars in order to make up for lost time, because we will meet for only 2 hours on Mondays, i.e. from 4-6pm). Undergraduates will submit two 7-8 page papers in the course of the semester or a 15 page paper at the end of the semester. Graduate students are expected to submit a 20-25 page term-paper (all papers double spaced). Cooperation between graduates and undergraduates in group work is encouraged.

CPLT 345 (3) Critical Approaches to Children's Literature
Ms. Bach, Instructor
1400-1515 TR
CAB 234

Cross-listed with GERM 345

This comparative inquiry into children’s and young adult literature explores topics such as the construction of the child reader, the world of fantasy, gender and race relations, and the changing role of children’s literature in the age of globalization and consumerism. Drawing from different approaches such as literary theory, sociology and psychology, we will discuss selected works in their specific historic contexts and analyze their underlying cultural values and assumptions. We will also examine the usefulness of studying children’s and young adult books in an academic setting and explore such questions as: What do we gain when we expose these readings to critical thought? How does “knowledge” affect the “inspirational value” of an intensely private reading experience? Investigating the tension between the naïve and the educated reader, students are asked to develop their personal vocabulary to articulate the connection between their persuasions and scholarly pursuits.

This discussion based, reading-intensive seminar is cross-listed in the Comparative Literature Program and German Department and most texts come from the Western tradition. The sessions will be held in English. German majors are encouraged to read German texts in the original and to write their papers in German. All students must be prepared to participate actively in discussion, critically engage the readings and each other, to write regularly, to develop their independent thoughts, and to work together on a team project. Students from a variety of backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.

Readings will range from fairy tales and poetry, to didactic tales such as Struwwelpeter, to multi-cultural children’s literature including Nappy Hair and All of a Kind Family, to fantasy such The Golden Compass and the most recent blockbuster Harry Potter.

Secondary works include: Philippe Ariès, Centuries of Childhood; Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantments; Gilbert and Gubar, Snow White and her Wicked Stepmother; Kleist, The Puppet Theater.

Writing requirements include: reading journal, reading responses, two 5-page papers, a team project, and a learning portfolio. N.B. This course fulfills the Second Writing Requirement. For more information about the course see http://faculty.virginia.edu/doro/childrens_lit/index.htm

CPLT 351 (3) Introduction to Literary Theory
Mr. Pellon, Instructor
1400-1450 MWF
MIN 130

This course introduces students of Comparative Literature to the basic methods, techniques and premises of interpretation on the contemporary scene of literary criticism. The last forty years have witnessed a veritable explosion of literary theory. As each new school of thought has arisen, it has challenged previous conceptions of the object and practice of literary studies. The course will undertake an examination of how the developments in literary theory have altered the definition of criticism. We will consider the major critical tendencies of the twentieth century, among them: formalism, myth criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, reader-response criticism, feminist criticism, Marxism, new historicism, and post-colonial theory.

Written work will consist of a short paper (5 pages) on a theoretical text (50%), and a longer paper (15 pages) where the student will apply a particular theoretical approach to the study of a literary text (50%). Everyone will write a 250 word commentary on some aspect of the reading assignment for each class. These commentaries will be used for class discussion.

CPLT 493 (3) Comparative Literature Seminar: The Literature of Modernity
Ms. Felski, Instructor
1530-1645 TR
BRN 334

What do we mean by “modernity”? How do literary works represent, reimagine or respond to those aspects of life that we tend to think of as distinctively modern? And how have our notions of the modern been challenged or changed in recent years? In this course we will take a capacious approach to the question of modern literature that includes, but also goes beyond, the usual focus on modernism and the avant-garde.

(All students in the Comparative Literature Distinguished Majors program are automatically admitted. Other students welcome up to a maximum of 15 places.)

COURSES IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

CLASSICS 304 (3) Women & Gender in Greece and Rome
Ms. Myers, Instructor
1400-1450 MWF
CAB 338

CLASSICS 321 (3) Tragedy and Comedy
Mr. Kovacs, Instructor
1100-1150 MWF
COC 115

CLASSICS 380 (3) The Symposium
Ms. Clay, Instructor
1200-1250 MWF
CAB 324

ENCR 300 (3) Contemporary Literary Theory
Ms. Felski, Instructor
1230-1345 TR
MRY 104

This course provides an introduction to recent ideas and frameworks in literary and cultural theory. It assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. We will probably cover the following topics: structuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, African-American and postcolonial theory, queer theory and cultural studies. Because this is a survey course, we will cover a large, diverse and often difficult body of material at a relatively high speed. To help you understand and to make use of the concepts you encounter, the course will combine lectures with class discussion and with applications of specific theories to literary texts.

ENRN 483 (3) Metamorphic Poetics: Renaissance Transformations of Classical Myth
Ms. Clare Kinney
1400-1515 TR
MIN 130

Restricted to 3rd and 4th Year Students

This seminar will examine the ways in which Renaissance (and some medieval) writers appropriated, revised and subverted the fascinating narratives of pagan antiquity. Modern readers sometimes declare that 16th and 17th century poets are "just showing off their classical education" when they make allusions to mythological material; in this course I hope to complicate that point of view. We'll explore the finer nuances of the dialogue between Renaissance poets and some of their epic predecessors, and discuss the ways in which pagan myth is variously "kidnapped" and refashioned to serve different poetic agendas. We will start by reading (in translation) Virgil's imperial epic, the Aeneid, as well as Ovid's influential and bewitching tapestry of mythic narratives, the Metamorphoses. After a glance at some medieval mythography (including that of Christine de Pisan) and some Chaucerian myth-making, the second half of the course will focus on transformations of Virgilian and Ovidian material in works by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, John Milton and their contemporaries.

Course requirements: regular attendance and energetic participation in discussion. Four or five e-mail responses to the readings from Virgil and Ovid. A 7 page paper, a 15 page term paper, final examination.

ENMC/AM 482 (3) Asian American Drama
Ms. Löfgren
1530-1645 TR
MIN 130

This course will survey contemporary Asian American drama, examining plays from as broad a representation of playwrights as possible; we will read some plays by inter-ethnic authors. We will examine how these playwrights blend cultural and theatrical influences from both their countries of origin and America, exploring how they counter existing
social and drama tic stereotypes and redefine and enrich our traditional Western definitions of theater. We will read plays by, among others, David Henry Hwang, Wakako Yamauchi, Velina Hasu Houston, Ping Chong, Philip Kan Gotanda, Jessica Hagedorn, and Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl.

Requirements: Enthusiastic class participation, several short responses to the readings, a research paper, a final exam.

ENNC/ENMC491  (3) Romanticism and Post-Romanticism
Mr. McGann
1530-1645 MW
CAB 423

Restricted to instructor permission

Beginning with Blake’s visionary satire The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the course will read a series of works, prose and verse, that track the forms and transforms of Romantic expression to the present day.  The focus will be on Euro-American cultural phenomena, with works chosen from key authors in England, France, Germany, Russia, South America, Spain, and the United States.  Among others, we will study works by  E. T. A. Hoffmann, Mary Shelley, Walter Scott, Byron, Mikhail Lermontov , Lewis Carroll, A. C. Swinburne, Lautreamont, Alfred Jarry, Miguel de Unamuno, Jean Genet, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

FREN 411 (3) Francophone Literatures of Africa
Ms. Drame, Instructor
1530-1645 TR
CAB 216

Course meets Non-Western Perspectives Requirement

Introduction to the Francophone literature of Africa; survey, with special emphasis on post- World War II poets, novelists, and playwrights of Africa. The role of cultural and literary reviews (Légitime Défense, L'Etudiant noir, and Présence Africaine) in the historical and ideological development of this literature will be examined. Special reference will be made to Caribbean writers of the Negritude movement. Documentary videos on African history and cultures will be shown and important audio-tapes will also be played regularly. Supplementary texts will be assigned occasionally. Students will be expected to present response papers on a regular basis. 

In addition to the required reading material, 2 essays (60%), regular class attendance, and contribution to discussions (10%), and a final exam (30%) constitute the course requirements. Papers are due on the dates indicated on the syllabus.
 
Required reading
Diop, Birago. Les contes d’Amadou Koumba.
Chevrier, J.  Anthologie Africaine: Poésie
Bâ, Mariama. Une si longue lettre
Assia Djebar. Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement (Toolkit).
Boudjedra, Rachid. L'escargot entêté

ITTR 526 (3) Dante's Purgatory in Translation.
Ms. Parker, Instructor
1500-1700 W
WIL216

Close reading of Dante's masterpiece, the Inferno. Lectures focus on Dante's social, political, and cultural world. Incorporates The World of Dante: A Hypermedia Archive for the Study of the Inferno, a pedagogical and research website, www.iath.virginia.edu/dante/ that offers a wide range of visual material related to the Inferno

RUTR 335 (3) 19th Century Russian Literature in English Translation: Doubles and Devils in 19th Century Russian Literature
Ms. Connolly, Instructor
TR 1112-15
CAB 338

This course will examine many of the most famous works of nineteenth-century Russian literature, with a particular focus on the way Russia's writers have used character doubles and images of the demonic to illustrate their exploration of issues of class, gender, and identity, both personal and national. Works to be read include selected short stories by Nikolay Gogol ("The Nose," "The Overcoat"), The Tales of Belkin by Alexander Pushkin, A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, The Double and The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky, "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev, A Double Life by Karolina Pavlova, "The Devil" by Leo Tolstoy, and The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.

ALL READINGS IN ENGLISH