UCLA
The Department of Comparative Literature
A modern play upon Dante, “Devil May Cry” (2015). Faculty Dante expert: Massimo Ciavolella.
Lecture, two hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing requirement. Introduction to health humanities, including literary and cultural examinations of health, illness, embodiment, medicine, and health care. Focus on the diversity of individual, cultural, and societal experiences. Study of literary texts in dialogue with other disciplines in the social sciences, life sciences, health sciences, humanities, and arts. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 1C or 4CW. Study of selected texts from Age of Enlightenment to 20th century, with emphasis on literary analysis and expository writing. Diderot, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Goethe, Ibsen, James Joyce, Kafka, Jamaica Kincaid, Garcia Marquez, Rousseau, M. Shelley, Strindberg, Swift, Voltaire. Analysis of texts includes focus on structures, processes, and practices that generate inter-group inequities or conflicts as well as those that support fairness and inclusiveness. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
Lecture, four hours. Preparation: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing and College Writing requirements. Requisites: two courses from Comparative Literature 1 or 2 series or English 10 series or Spanish 60 series, etc. Seminar-style introduction to discipline of comparative literature presented through series of texts illustrative of its formation and practice. Letter grading.
(Same as Arabic M148.) Seminar, three hours. Exploration of conjunctions between contemporary Arab film and song and between popular cultures and cultures of commitment (Iltizam), with possible focus on specific genres such as realist/neorealist Arab film; feminist Arab film or popular Arab film and song; topics such as nation, gender, and representation or democracy and human rights or censorship, reception, and resistance. Possible examination of various national cinemas such as Tunisian, Egyptian, Moroccan, Algerian, and Palestinian. Various musical genres such as Rai, Mizoued, and Hip-hop also examined in relation to emergence not only of national cinemas, national music industries, and iconic singers but also of video clip, satellite TV, star academy, and reality shows--all products of transnational and pan-Arab mass media. P/NP or letter grading.
Exploration of Australian and American contexts of Peter Weir's trajectory: from seminal figure in new wave of Australian cinema, exploring issues of coloniality and nation-building in features such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli; to influential art-house and Hollywood director exploring psychological and philosophical themes in films such as Fearless and The Truman Show. Students undertake close, comparative analysis of Weir's filmic engagement with history, literature, painting, and music in his creative processes; and of motifs and cinematic traits across his oeuvre.
Examination of representations of technology in literature and the impact of technology on literature, from oral to digital forms. Discussion of relationship between technology and changing ideas of race, class, gender, national identity, and subjectivity.
Tutorial (supervised research or other scholarly work), three hours per week per unit. Entry-level research for lower-division students under guidance of faculty mentor. Students must be in good academic standing and enrolled in minimum of 12 units (excluding this course). Individual contract required; consult Undergraduate Research Center. May be repeated. P/NP grading.