UCLA
The Department of Comparative Literature
A modern play upon Dante, “Devil May Cry” (2015). Faculty Dante expert: Massimo Ciavolella.
Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 1B or 4BW. Study of selected texts from Middle Ages to 17th century, with emphasis on literary analysis and expository writing. Texts may include works by authors such as Chaucer, Dante, Cervantes, Marguerite de Navarre, Shakespeare, Calderón, Molière, and Racine. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 1D or 4DW. Study of major literary texts usually overlooked in courses that focus only on canon of Western literature, with emphasis on literary analysis and expository writing. Texts from at least three of following areas read in any given term: African, Caribbean, East Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern literature. 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.
Seminar, four hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 1D or 2DW. Study and discussion of major literary texts usually overlooked in courses that focus only on canon of Western literature, with emphasis on literary analysis and expository writing. Texts from at least three of following areas read in any given term: African, Caribbean, East Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern literature. Texts may include works by authors such as Achebe, Can Xue, Desai, Emecheta, Kincaid, Neruda, Ngugi, Pak, Rushdie, and El Saadawi. 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.
Seminar, three hours. Exploration of poetics of hip-hop within tradition of comparative literature. Examination of rhythm, rhymes, flow, wordplay, traditions of signifying, beats, samples, production, and hermeneutics of music videos within historical framework. Historical and current hip-hop criticism and scholarship from comparative perspective, with goal of developing methods, approaches, and strategies for interpreting and writing about hip-hop. P/NP or letter grading.
Lecture, three hours. Requisite: one course from 1A, 1B, 1C, 2AW, 2BW, 2CW, or English Composition 3 or 3H. Introduction to new set of African authors and attempt to discern similarities or differences they may have with major authors such as Achebe, Ngugi, Armath, Soyinka, etc. P/NP or letter grading.
(Same as Asian American Studies M165.) Seminar, three hours. Theoretical and literary readings combined to explore three main aspects of social and cultural experience (race, gender, class) as separate but interconnected spheres affecting both minority and majority populations in U.S. Examination of these issues from comparative perspectives. P/NP or letter grading.
Survey of literature from Israel and Palestine, and from wider Israeli and Palestinian diasporas, over past century. Texts grapple with most compelling issues in Israeli and Palestinian life today, including impact of political violence. Students read groundbreaking texts that reflect growth of these two national cultures. Consideration of impact of war, trauma, and postwar trauma; ongoing crisis of Palestinian statelessness; ethnic diversity of Israel's Jewish immigrants; long shadow of Holocaust; place of religion in Israel and Palestine; and changing roles of gender, sexuality, and protest across these two societies. Focus on ways that literature has shaped collective consciousness around these and other formative issues.
What is difference between América Latina and Abiayala? These are both names for overlapping geographic spaces in North and South America, labeled and identified through differing criteria of shared histories, peoples, cultures, and governments. Study looks at how literary culture and creative media have impacted and continue to shape conceptions of North and South America. Consideration of how Latin American and indigenous conceptions of these cultural legacies--especially their literary and creative canons--suggest different histories, cultures, communities, and futures for that those that call these continents home. Primary sources include poetry, novels, textiles, and visual art that highlight various ways of knowing and their forms.