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. 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.
Seminar, three hours. Engagement with current debates and key theoretical texts about film adaptation. Exploration of art of film adaptation in broad sense, including transformation of short stories, plays, novels, historical accounts, biographies, paintings, musical compositions, or philosophical concepts into multilayered medium of cinema. Adaptations addressed include selection of films from range of cultural and linguistic traditions by directors such as Kiarostami, Varda, Kurosawa, Babenco, Rossellini, Hitchcock, Antonioni, Kieslowski, and Taymor. Specific directors, films, and cinematic traditions vary year to year. P/NP or 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.
Seminar, four hours. Designed for upper-division literature majors. Study of specific poets and poetics related to them during first half of 20th century. Texts may include poets such as W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Paul Valéry, R.M. Rilke, Gunnar Ekelöf, and Wallace Stevens. May be concurrently scheduled with course C253. Undergraduate students may read all works in translation. P/NP or letter grading.
Study of fiction, nonfiction, and theory to explore concepts of health and illness. Topics include roles of narrative and storytelling in medicine and health; 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.
(Same as English M191P and Musicology M176.) 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.