Course Descriptions

Do you know how to read? Faces. Words. Pictures. Bodies. Games. Books. People. What are you really doing when you read the world?  This course teaches comparative methods designed to confront the (mis)understandings and (mis)translations that constitute reading across the world's languages, locations, cultures, historical periods, and expressive forms.  Classwork consists of hands-on exercises that engage ancient and modern myths and materials drawn from various media: text, movies, video games, anime, and digital arts.

Distributive: LIT or INT; WCult: CI
 

Consult special listings

The Odyssey and Odyssean Spin-Offs

This course is organized around the subject of traveling and homecoming.  We will read the epic attributed to "Homer"; Joyce's Ulysses, Wolf's Cassandra, and Walcott's Omeros, in additional to excerpts from Dante's Inferno and from Kazantzakis's The Odyssey:  A Modern Sequel; and poems by Tennyson, Cavafy, Pound, and Seferis.  Questions we will ask of this material include:  Is there such a thing as a universal theme?  How might genre, author's gender, culture, or historical period inflect a particular theme?  What criteria have been used in specific periods to censor a work or to proclaim it a "classic"?  What criteria are used by our culture and by us as individuals to evaluate the worth of a piece of writing?  Are there works that every educated person should read?  If so, who should decide?  If not, what bases for discussion might there be other than common texts? Skills that we will be working on include close reading, close textual analysis in written form, and comparative analysis

This is a course on contemporary film focused on the boundaries of "family."  The course studies how "classic" films in different cultural contexts expose the ways the concept of family is deeply rooted in societal norms regarding gender roles, gender identity, race, and class configurations and how these intersect with normative configurations of love and care (and their opposites). These earlier films will serve as our starting point for critiquing societal values and traditions that can very often become oppressive and violent.  Students will compare earlier filmmaking to more experimental and contemporary films that turn the concept of the traditional family structure on its head.  These films will demonstrate a wider range of emotional territories, of alternative understandings of identity (queerness and trans-identity), and to thinking about care outside of the patriarchal family structure and more in terms of community.  What kinds of new families do these films reveal?

Translation is both a basic and highly complicated aspect of our engagement with literature. We often take it for granted; yet the idea of meanings "lost in translation" is commonplace. In this course we work intensively on the craft of translation while exploring its practical, cultural and philosophical implications through readings in theoretical and literary texts. All students will complete a variety of translation exercises, and a substantial final project, in their chosen language.

Cross Listed Courses: CLST 40 only when Classical material is covered.
Prerequisites:Good reading knowledge of a foreign language (usually equivalent to fulfilling the Dartmouth language requirement). Students unsure of their linguistic preparation should consult the instructor.
Distributive: LIT or INT; WCult: W
 

(Identical to ENGL 54.15). This course examines the book as a material and cultural object. We’ll consider various practical and theoretical models for understanding the book form and investigating the materials, technologies, institutions, and practices of its production, dissemination, and reception. We’ll focus primarily on the printed book in Western Europe and North America, but we’ll also discuss the emergence of the codex (book), medieval manuscript books, twentieth and twenty-first century artist’s books and the challenges posed by digitality to the book form. The readings for the course will be balanced by frequent use of exemplars drawn from Rauner Library and practical experience setting type in the Book Arts workshop.

Distributive: LIT; WCult: W
 

“Multilingualism” and “monolingualism” are notions that appear clear-cut, uncontested, and normative. But are they? In this course, we will examine the rise (and fall) of multilingualism and its others—especially monolingualism—to sharpen our understanding of these terms’ use and implications. Where and when did they emerge historically? Whom do they benefit or harm socially? What do they mean theoretically? What challenges to they pose to writing, translation, the global traffic of texts, and language-learning advocacy? Readings will draw on several disciplines, with research projects reflecting each student’s investment in the topic.

Distribute: SOC

(Identical to AAAS 51 and ENGL 53.16). This course is designed to provide students with a specific and global view of the diversity of literatures from the African continent. We will read texts written in English or translated from French, Portuguese, Arabic and African languages. Through novels, short stories, poetry, and drama, we will explore such topics as the colonial encounter, the conflict between tradition and modernity, the negotiation of African identities, post-independence disillusion, gender issues, apartheid and post-apartheid. In discussing this variety of literatures from a comparative context, we will assess the similarities and the differences apparent in the cultures and historical contexts from which they emerge. Readings include Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley, Calixthe Beyala's The Sun Hath Looked Upon Me, Camara Laye's The African Child, and Luandino Vieira's Luanda.

Cross Listed Courses: AAAS 51, ENGL 53.16
Distributive: LIT or INT; WCult: NW
 

This course examines the relationship between politics and the novel in Africa. I have selected novels from different parts of Africa. We will approach the selected novels as instruments of political interest and products of political contexts. We will then proceed to put these novels in a triangular conversation with political theorists of Africa and the political philosophies of African leaders Topics include democracy and governance, clientelism and patrimonialism, failed states, gender, and grassroots activism.

With over 50 million displaced people today, migration is one of the most compelling problems of our time. Filmic and literary representations of migration focus on borders, different types of migrants, and their border crossing experiences. We will study migration from Latin America to the U.S.; from Africa and Eastern Europe to Western Europe; and internal migration within these countries. We will also analyze how Hollywood cinema itself creates images and values that drive migration.

Distributive:Int

Comparative Literature entails conscious engagements with theories of literature, language, and culture from throughout the world. This course ranges across some of the ideas that have been influential in shaping scholarly questions in a variety of languages. It also addresses the global dimensions of theory: rhetorics and ethics of comparison, world literature, and indigenous knowledges.
Recommended for Juniors and Seniors in any area of literary and cultural studies; required for majors in Comparative Literature.

Distributive: LIT; CI
 

A tutorial course designed by the student with the assistance of a member of the Comparative Literature faculty who is willing to supervise it. Offers the student an opportunity to pursue a subject of special interest through a distinctive program of readings and reports. During the term prior to the course, applicants must submit a course outline to the Chair for written approval.

Permission of the Chair is required.