Undergraduate Courses

A modern play upon Dante, “Devil May Cry” (2015). Faculty Dante expert: Massimo Ciavolella.

  • For information about specific section times and locations please view the UCLA Schedule of Classes.
  • For a complete listing of department courses visit the UCLA General Catalog.

Fall 2021

  • COM LIT 2CW - Survey of Literature: Age of Enlightenment to 20th Century

    Instructor(s): Brandon Archambault, Rebecca Smith, Kathleen Komar, Matthew Johnson, Syed Haider Shahbaz, Sophia Lencioni, Jennifer Noji, Jessie Stoolman, Andrew Fleshman, Gina Lorenz, Isabella Gallagher, Georgi Kyorlenski, Jacob Wilder-smith, Tamara Levitz

    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.

  • COM LIT 191 - Variable Topics in Comparative Literature: Films of Peter Weir in Their Literary and Cultural Contexts

    Instructor(s): Romy Sutherland Kristal

    Comparative examination of Peter Weir's oeuvre in transnational context, and in relation to other art forms such as literature, painting, and music. Students learn technical vocabulary necessary for close filmic analysis: types of shots, camera movements, lighting, etc. Study of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which marked beginning of New Wave of Australian cinema. Survey of other Weir films: Gallipoli (1981), disputable rendition of Australia's participation in World War I; Dead Poets Society (1989), 1950s coming-of-age tale set in private New England boys school; Fearless (1994), portrayal of two individuals from different ethnic and social backgrounds as they recover from trauma of airplane accident; The Truman Show (1998), work that anticipated American reality television while exploring philosophical issues of authenticity and inauthenticity; and The Way Back (2011), which examines struggles to maintain one's humanity in Soviet labor camp.

  • COM LIT 191 - Variable Topics in Comparative Literature: Health and Illness

    Instructor(s): Whitney Arnold

    Study of fiction, nonfiction, and theory to explore concepts of health and illness. Topics include roles of narrative and storytelling in medicine and health; societal and cultural interpretations of normality and difference; and literary and theoretical representations of embodiment, wellness, illness, and health care. Includes readings from literature, history, philosophy, sociology, and medicine to explore health and illness from variety of disciplinary approaches.

  • COM LIT M191P - Careers in Humanities

    Instructor(s): David Macfadyen

    (Same as English M191P.) Seminar, three hours. Challenges misassumptions regarding humanities majors and their practical applications to life after graduation. Exploration of wide range of careers, with hands-on practice in crafting professional narrative. Guest lectures from UCLA professionals and alumni--all experts in career planning and local industry. Students engage with workplace leaders, and simultaneously build professional dossier--on paper or online--in preparation for life after UCLA with a humanities degree. P/NP or letter grading.

  • COM LIT M162 - Israel Seen through Its Literature

    Instructor(s): Ethan Pack

    (Same as Jewish Studies M162.) Lecture, three hours. Attempt to impart profound understanding of Israel as seen through its literature. Examination of variety of literary texts--stories, novels, and poems--and reading of them in context of their historical backgrounds. P/NP or letter grading.

  • COM LIT 100 - Introduction to Literary and Critical Theory

    Instructor(s): Kenneth Reinhard

    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.

  • COM LIT 4DW - Literature and Writing: Great Books from World at Large

    Instructor(s): Jason Araujo

    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.