Literature in Translation (LITTRANS) < University of Wisconsin-Madison

LITTRANS 200 — FOOD CULTURES IN ITALIAN LITERATURE

3 credits.

Investigate the representation of food in Italian literature from the 19th Century to the present and the connection between food and identity in Italy and Italophone culture. Covers novels, short stories and poems and work on methods of literary analysis by focusing on questions of genre, narrative structure, characters, metaphorical and allegorical interpretation, etc. The theme of food (in relation to hunger, class, gender, identity, diaspora, sustainability, etc.) is central in the literary material included.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Understand Italian literature in historical, social, political, and gender context (1850-present).
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Recognize, define, and critique major literary genres and sub-genres of the novel (such as the historical novel, social novel, crime novel).
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Discuss history and characteristics of food cultures of Italy in relation to issues of identity.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Compare past history of Italy to contemporary Italian and Italophone cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Discuss literary texts from a variety of disciplinary approaches.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Develop analytical skills and critical thinking skills.
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Improve academic writing, literary analysis, library and field research skills.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 201 — SURVEY OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION I

3 credits.

Examines the era of 19th-century Russian prose fiction, roughly 1830-1900, from Aleksandr Pushkin to Anton Chekhov.

LITTRANS 202 — SURVEY OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION II

3 credits.

Examines Russian prose fiction, Anton Chekhov to the end of the 20th century.

LITTRANS 203 — SURVEY OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION I

4 credits.

Examines the era of 19th-century Russian prose fiction, roughly 1830-1900, from Aleksandr Pushkin to Anton Chekhov. More writing intensive than LITTRANS 201.

LITTRANS 204 — SURVEY OF 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION II

4 credits.

Examines Russian prose fiction, Anton Chekhov to the end of the 20th century. More writing intensive than LITTRANS 202.

LITTRANS/GEN&WS 205 — WOMEN IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

LITTRANS 207 — SLAVIC SCIENCE FICTION THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM

3 credits.

Explore the rich tradition of Slavic contributions to Science Fiction (SF). Survey early and contemporary works in the Czech, Polish, and Russian contexts, most of which are little known in the US but are nonetheless fundamental to SF as a world genre. Alongside reading these works, discuss and analyze film adaptations that have, in some cases, become more famous than written texts themselves.

LITTRANS 208 — THE WRITINGS OF VACLAV HAVEL: CRTITIQUE OF MODERN SOCIETY

3 credits.

Survey and critical analysis of the writings of Vaclav Havel from the 1960's through the 1990's: plays, philosophical and dissident essays, selected speeches as president.

LITTRANS 209 — MASTERPIECES OF FRENCH LITERATURE AND CULTURE

3-4 credits.

A study of representative masterpieces of French and Francophone literature drawn from at least four different centuries. Emphasis on the interpretation of texts, important themes, and the ways literature expresses psychological and sociocultural realities. May cover topics such as: tragedies by Jean Racine, comedies by Moliere, novels by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Honore de Balzac, Guy de Maupassant and Maryse Conde, and stories by Gustave Flaubert and Albert Camus.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Become familiar with some of the finest works of literature written in French
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Perfect skills in presenting a literary interpretation in a clear and compelling way.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Identify recurrent and meaningful themes in readings and learn to recognize and articulate why they are important to an understanding of life in society.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Explore the various ways literature expresses psychological and sociocultural realities and allows readers to know both themselves and other people with greater depth, understanding, and compassion.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/ASIAN 212 — CLASSICAL SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURES

3 credits.

Surveys the classical literatures of South Asia, from ancient origins to adaptations in the modern world. Includes poetry, prose, and drama translated into English from Persian, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi/Urdu, and other languages. Examines the relationship between literature in theory, in practice, and politics.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify major and minor works of classical South Asian literature
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Analyze works of classical South Asian literature in their historical contexts
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Interpret works of classical South Asian literature using classical and contemporary aesthetic theories
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Articulate the significance of classical literatures to contemporary literary cultures
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Conduct and present original writing and research on classical South Asian literature
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 213 — LOVE AND SEX IN ITALIAN COMEDY

3-4 credits.

Explore Italian comedy and dramatic literature across the centuries through close reading and discussion of selected plays, from its Roman origins to contemporary examples. Read and discuss texts representative of the major comedic modes (e.g. erudite, improvised, etc.), paying close attention to language and structure, genre debates, character typologies, performance history, and the cultural-historical contexts that informed playwrights. Aims are cultivating a deeper understanding of Italian sensibilities and cultural attitudes regarding humor and satire, love and sex, tragedy within comedy, history, gender politics, public/private space, social customs, class, and other issues.

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 215 — LOVE AND DEATH: INTRODUCTION TO POLISH LITERATURE & CULTURE

3 credits.

Examines major traditions, narratives, and ideas that have shaped Polish literature and culture from their beginnings to World War II. Gain broad and contextualized knowledge of Polish civilization by closely reading and analyzing literary and cultural texts in their historical context. Course contents are organized into four major paradigms: Christianity, Sarmatism, Romanticism, and Modernity.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. identify and describe the main characteristics of various literary and cultural texts in Polish (and European) culture;
Audience: Undergraduate

2. define major themes, concepts, events, and ideas that shape Poland’s literary and cultural history;
Audience: Undergraduate

3. analyze literary texts in their historical context using basic tools of literary analysis (genres, critical concepts, etc.)
Audience: Undergraduate

4. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about literary texts and their underlying semantic structures;
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 218 — POLISH LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION: LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

3 credits.

A survey of the main currents in Polish literature since 1863.

LITTRANS 220 — CHEKHOV: THE DRAMA OF MODERN LIFE

3 credits.

Russian culture is one where literature has always played a central role in the nation's self-definitions, but Chekhov's enduring popularity around the globe is evidence of his universal appeal and relevance.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Become familiar with the major works of Anton Chekhov, one of the most influential writers in world literature.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Demonstrate knowledge with the history, culture, and politics of pre-1917 Russia, and show the relevance of Chekhov’s works to our time.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Cultivate various critical approaches to the study of literature and read, analyze, and write about complex literary works.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 221 — RUSSIA'S GREATEST ENIGMA: NIKOLAI GOGOL

3 credits.

Despite the comparisons to Poe and Kafka or Gogol's undeniable influence on Dostoevsky and Bulgakov, one thing is certain - his world of laughter and tears is unlike that of any other writer.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyze and interpret most of Gogol’s masterpieces to gain a better sense of what literature is and why it is important to read literary texts.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Distinguish features of the major literary movements of the 19th century, Romanticism and Realism, through some of its most fascinating and problematic texts.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Examine the literariness of literary works and the complex relationships between author, the literary work, and society.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Develop skills in critical thinking and writing in order to better analyze difficult literary texts.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 222 — DOSTOEVSKY IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

Dostoevsky's works are direct encounters with the "accursed questions" of life, love, evil, violence, sex, death and the other usual suspects; main focus will be on the individual reader's close encounter with the aesthetics and ethics of these works.

LITTRANS/ENGL 223 — VLADIMIR NABOKOV: RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN WRITINGS

3 credits.

The major novels of Vladimir Nabokov studied in the context of Russian and American literatures. Nabokov as a quintessential artist in exile, whose work explores loss of language, country and home.

LITTRANS 224 — TOLSTOY IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

What were Tolstoy's objections to sexuality and political reform? What is moral and beautiful? How does civilization and education relate to nature? What does death say about life? Discussion of Tolstoy's masterpieces alongside some of his nonfictional manifestoes.

LITTRANS 226 — INTRODUCTION TO LUSO-AFRO-BRAZILIAN LITERATURE

3 credits.

Introduction to the cultural and literary practices of the Portuguese-speaking world. Readings include novels, short stories, and poetry from Portugal, Brazil, and Lusophone Africa.

LITTRANS/CLASSICS/JEWISH/RELIG ST 227 — INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL LITERATURE (IN ENGLISH)

4 credits.

Introduction to the text, development, history, and social context of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Covers the Torah (Pentateuch), Neviim (Former and Latter Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings), and provides a brief introduction to early Jewish literature (Pseudepigrapha/Apocrypha). Discusses various methods of analysis and theories of composition. Addresses major theological claims made of the text by Jewish and Christian communities. Explores contextualized interpretations in the ancient and modern day.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate knowledge of ancient Near Eastern societies and cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Examine, analyze, and interpret ancient texts in translation.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Critique ancient Greek, Roman, and/or Near Eastern societies and cultures and compare them to other societies and cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Articulate a self-critical understanding of one’s own approach to the biblical text.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 229 — REPRESENTATION OF THE JEW IN EASTERN EUROPEAN CULTURES

3 credits.

The image and representation of the "Jew" and Jews in the literatures and cultures of the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe, including Russia, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Both pre- and post-Holocaust texts will be read and critically examined.

LITTRANS 231 — MANGA

3 credits.

Surveys the manga (Japanese comicbook) from precursors in premodern woodblock-printed booklets to contemporary manifestations in subgenres like gekiga, mecha, shonen, and shojo. Draws on critical writings on literature, popular culture, and visual culture.

LITTRANS 232 — ANIME

3 credits.

Surveys anime (Japanese animation) from 1930s shorts through contemporary feature-length, experimental, and televised serial-form productions. Draws on critical writings on postmodernism, digital cinema, and visual culture.

LITTRANS 233 — RUSSIAN LIFE AND CULTURE THROUGH LITERATURE AND ART (TO 1917)

3-4 credits.

Prerevolutionary Russian visual arts, architecture, music and cinema; provides an inside view of life in prerevolutionary Russia with the help of selected readings in Russian literature.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and summarize important features of Russian cultural history from its origins to 1917, with an emphasis on the interaction between culture and the development of Russian politics and society.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify and summarize significant works of Russian “high art” (e.g., painting, literature) as well as mass culture or popular culture (folklore and the culture of the everyday) and to think about the connections between them.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Demonstrate knowledge about Russian culture in writing and discussion.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Think critically about the “functions” (artistic, social, and political) of Russian culture through discussions and writing assignments.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Develop skills in critical reading, logical thinking, and the use of evidence (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Develop skills in the use of style and disciplinary conventions in writing and speaking (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Develop skills in the productive use of core library resources specific to the discipline (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 234 — SOVIET LIFE AND CULTURE THROUGH LITERATURE AND ART (FROM 1917)

3-4 credits.

Postrevolutionary Russian and Soviet visual arts, architecture, music and cinema; provides an inside view of life under socialism with the help of selected readings in Soviet literature.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Gen Ed - Communication Part B
Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and summarize important features of Russian cultural history of the Soviet period, with an emphasis on the interaction between politics and culture between 1917 and 1991.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify and summarize significant works of Russian “high art” (e.g., painting, literature, film) as well as mass culture or popular culture (the culture of the everyday) and to think about the connections between them.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Demonstrate knowledge about Russian Soviet culture in writing and discussion.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Students will be able to think more critically about the “functions” (artistic, social, and political) of Russian Soviet culture through discussions and writing assignments.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Develop skills in critical reading, logical thinking, and the use of evidence (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Develop skills in the use of style and disciplinary conventions in writing and speaking (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Develop skills in the productive use of core library resources specific to the discipline (4 credit)
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 236 — BASCOM COURSE-IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Develop skills in critical reading, logical thinking, use of evidence, and use of library resources. Emphasis on writing in the conventions of specific fields.

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 238 — LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION

3 credits.

Take a literary journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, following the shifting cultural and political currents in Russia from the years preceding the 1917 Revolution to the rise of Stalinism in the 1930s. Topics in translation will include: revolutionary violence and terror, civil war and emigration, Futurism and the birth of Russian avant-garde art, Soviet feminism and the engineering of the "New Man," technological utopias and totalitarian dystopias, literature and early Soviet economic policy.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Conduct close readings of literary texts that take into consideration both form and content.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Acquire a greater awareness of another culture and become more adept at engaging with perspectives and ways of thinking that are different from the student's own.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Develop a sensitivity to the way texts and ideas are rooted in their unique historical and political contexts, while having a life span that stretches far beyond them.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 240 — SOVIET LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

A selection of novels, essays, poems, and stories dealing with the Bolshevik Revolution, the Russian Civil War, the Stalin Terror, the Thaw, Perestroika, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

LITTRANS 241 — LITERATURES AND CULTURES OF EASTERN EUROPE

3 credits.

Introduction to the literature, culture, and art of Eastern Europe.

LITTRANS 245 — TOPICS IN SPANISH AMERICAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Beginning with the arrival of Spanish colonists in the fifteenth century, Spanish American literature has a rich history of over five centuries, and Spanish American authors were awarded six Nobel prizes between 1945 and 2010. An introduction to key problems, topics, authors, genres, and periods in the history of Spanish American literary practice providing insight into the vast diversity of Spanish American cultures and societies through readings offered in English translation, as well as familiarity with the current critical and theoretical debates on Spanish American literature.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement

Course Designation: Gen Ed - Communication Part B
Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Fall 2022

Learning Outcomes: 1. Improve general skills in written and oral communication, including the abilities to summarize, analyze, interpret and argue with efficiency and clarity.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Read critically by applying logical analysis and argumentation to the interpretation of literary texts and by marshalling textual evidence in support of their arguments.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Converse, read and write critically about contemporary Spanish American literary texts using specialized narratological vocabulary and complying with the Modern Language Association’s standards for citation and style.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Identify and assess the cultural, economic and political factors that differentiate Spanish American literary production from that of other regions.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Recognize, define and critique major genres of contemporary narrative fiction, both international (e.g. autofiction) and locally Spanish American (e.g. the narco-novel).
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Understand and reflect on the advantages and limitations of literary expression in the context of postmodern cultural economies dominated by audiovisual electronic media, and on specific literary responses to the contemporary media ecology.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 247 — TOPICS IN SLAVIC LITERATURES IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Exploration of periods, genres, individual writers, themes, problems, ect. in Russian and Eastern European literature.

LITTRANS 248 — NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE GLOBAL WORLD: THE ITALIAN CASE

3 credits.

What is a national identity in the context of the fluid globalized world in which we live? How are identities affected by big migratory waves within the same country and, more importantly, from one country or continent to another? The Italian case is one of the many in the so-called Western world that can help us to monitor the possible answers to these questions. Through readings and discussions of novels, avant-garde manifestoes, poems, two main tasks will be accomplished. The first task of analyzing literary texts in a variety of genres (epistolary novel, historical novel, avant-garde rhetoric, poetry) to familiarize ourselves with textual analysis and some theoretical tools supporting the interpretative tasks of literary criticism. And the second task of appreciating the rhetorical devices that those texts adopt at different times of Italian modern and contemporary history.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Recognize and identify different literary genres (novel and different subgenres within that genre; poetry and different forms, from closed forms such as a sonnet to free verse; avant-garde manifestoes and their innovative rhetoric).
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Recognize and identify literature of the different periods considered in the course, from Romanticism to modernism, from avant-garde to post-modernism, while reading Italian literature written in a variety of literary genres (especially novels, but also poems and short stories).
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Reflect on major themes and issues related to national identity through literary forms, while focusing on the Italian situation since Risorgimento and until today, with a necessary observation of what historically happens in those two centuries.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Reflect on the necessary intersections of several disciplines in the humanities such as history, political science, international studies, while the focus remains on the Italian context and the situations in that country are inserted in a larger and global perspective.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Understand the exchange among several disciplines (arts, history, philosophy, political science) and the relevance they have in their autonomy and in relation to one another in the several historical and literary contexts that Italy lived through in the context of Europe and even in the global context, as we approach World War II and our contemporary times.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 249 — LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION: NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH MASTERPIECES

3 credits.

Read a series of extraordinary narrative texts from nineteenth-and early twentieth-century France.

LITTRANS 252 — SPANISH LITERARY MASTERPIECES IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Major works of Spanish Peninsular literature in prose, drama and poetry.

LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL/RELIG ST 253 — OF DEMONS AND ANGELS. DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY

3 credits.

Have you ever wondered about human nature? What is our place in this world? Through readings, videos, and original images, explore and discuss Dante's answers from one of the greatest world literary classics, his Divine Comedy. From Hell, through Purgatory to Paradise, we will travel together with Dante in a universal tale of the journey of the human soul. Along the way, learn about Dante, his life and his works, development of literary history, historical and socio-political context of medieval Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Make connections that cross today's geographic and cultural lines in an exploration of literary topics, the history of ideas, and shared history, pondering universal concepts and patterns in the development of civilization that can still be observed today.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Learn about Dante Alighieri, his life, and works
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Understand medieval civilization and its human culture(s)
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Describe literary, historical, cultural concepts and phenomena
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Analyze from multiple perspectives a text, a situation, a context
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Synthesize information acquired from primary and secondary sources
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Learn the dangers of anachronism
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 254 — IN TRANSLATION: LIT OF MODERN ITALY-EXISTENTIALISM, FASCISM, RESISTANCE

3 credits.

Covers Italian history and culture from the Unification (1860) to the 21st century.

LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 255 — BLACK DEATH AND MEDIEVAL LIFE THROUGH BOCCACCIO'S DECAMERON

3 credits.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live during the Black Death? Were our medieval and early-modern ancestors different from us, or are we challenged with similar problems? What can we learn from their lives? And, if we could, what could we teach each other? Discuss these topics while reading one of the world's greatest literary classics, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, a text that will make us both laugh and cry. Through reading the Decameron, investigate medicine, art, culture, music, politics, religion, interpersonal and transcultural relations, warfare, fashion, gender and gender roles, as well as everyday life in the Middle Ages and early modernity. Also examines medieval written documents, twentieth-century feminist responses to the Decameron and filmic renditions of it, medieval frescoes, historical descriptions of the plague, and modern descriptions of, and reactions to, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Learn about Giovanni Boccaccio and his Decameron, medieval civilization and its human culture(s)
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Acquire intercultural knowledge and competence and apply them to past and current issues
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Analyze a text, a situation, a context
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Synthesize information acquired from primary and secondary sources
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Learn the dangers of anachronism
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Engage in problem solving
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Develop critical and creative thinking skills
Audience: Undergraduate

8. Engage in effective teamwork
Audience: Undergraduate

9. Design and construct new content based on skills acquired throughout the semester
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 259 — ADVENTURE IN LITERATURE AND FILM

3 credits.

How do we define adventure? Who gets to experience it and on what terms? What role has it played in ancient and modern cultures? What do its ever-changing definitions, heroes, and genres tell us about our evolving values? Address these and similar questions on our intellectual journey through some of the most iconic adventures in Western cultural tradition, from Homer's The Odyssey to Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, and beyond.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Learning Outcomes: 1. identify the conventions of adventure narratives across different periods, traditions, and genres
Audience: Undergraduate

2. apply basic methods of literary, cinematic, and cultural analysis to close readings of cultural texts, be they epics, romances, novels, or films
Audience: Undergraduate

3. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about cultural texts and their underlying semantic structures
Audience: Undergraduate

4. discuss how adventure tropes evolve to reflect and often mediate social and cultural changes
Audience: Undergraduate

5. explain the function of adventure as a social construct, both historically and in the context of today’s globalized world.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 260 — ITALY AND THE INVENTION OF AMERICA: FROM COLUMBUS TO WORLD WAR II

3 credits.

Focuses on the central role played by Italy in the European vision of America between Columbus's voyages and the Second World War.

LITTRANS 261 — SURVEY OF CHINESE LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

A critical survey of premodern Chinese literature spanning from the earliest times to the 18th century. Covers representative works of prose, fiction, drama and poetry.

LITTRANS 263 — SURVEY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

A historical introduction to the important literary works of Japan. Focus on literary tradition before the restoration of 1868.

LITTRANS 264 — SURVEY OF JAPANESE LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Survey of Japanese Literature from 1868 to present, including novels and short stories by significant authors.

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 266 — ELEMENTARY SPECIAL TOPICS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE & CULTURE

1-3 credits.

Exploration of various topics - periods, genres, individual writers, themes, problems, etc. in Russian and Eastern European literature.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Gain basic knowledge of Russia’s history, literature, performance arts, and films.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Develop an ability to interpret politics through a cultural lens
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Improve academic writing skills beyond the elementary level
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Place works of literature in their social, historical, and political context
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Analyze literary texts in their historical and cultural context
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Integrate information from primary and secondary sources
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 268 — FRENCH WOMEN WRITERS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

3 credits.

Representative texts of French women writers from Marie de France, the women troubadours, and Christine de Pizan to Madame de Stael and George Sand, in historical, social, and cultural context.

LITTRANS/GERMAN/JEWISH 269 — YIDDISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN EUROPE

3 credits.

Exploration of European Yiddish fiction, poetry, folklore, and cinema, with a focus on works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

LITTRANS/GEN&WS 270 — GERMAN WOMEN WRITERS IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

LITTRANS 271 — IN TRANSLATION:MASTERPIECES OF SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE, MIDDLE AGES-1900

3-4 credits.

An introduction to Scandinavian literary and intellectual history, placed in a European context, from Old Norse sagas to end of 19th century.

LITTRANS 272 — FRENCH POP CULTURE

3 credits.

Through the exploration of landmark and popular French (and few international) texts, seeks to narrow the perceived gap between low/high art and contextualizes historically and aesthetically French pop culture (as literature, film, graphic novel, music etc.).

LITTRANS 274 — IN TRANSLATION: MASTERPIECES OF SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE-THE 20TH CENTURY

3-4 credits.

An introduction to Scandinavian literary and intellectual history, placed in a European context, from 1900 to present day.

LITTRANS 275 — IN TRANSLATION: THE TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

3-4 credits.

The works of Hans Christian Andersen, with an emphasis on his best-known fairytales, but also texts from some of the other genres he mastered, focusing on the biographical traits of his stories and his mastery of the genre and complex narrative method.

LITTRANS/GERMAN 276 — SPECIAL TOPICS IN GERMAN AND WORLD LITERATURE/S

3 credits.

Exploration of diverse world literary traditions with an emphasis on German and German speaking cultures.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Engage with world literature as a lens for the human experience
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Read and discuss literature of German speaking countries and the world in translation
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Recognize and explain general themes common to different cultures
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Write about the topics and texts covered in the course
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 277 — TOPICS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY GERMAN LITERATURE (IN TRANSLATION)

3 credits.

Discussion of major twentieth-century literary texts from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria by such authors as Franz Kafka, Bertolt Brecht, Anna Seghers, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Gunter Grass, Christa Wolf. Possible areas of emphasis: identity formation; technology and culture; literary representations of fascism.

LITTRANS/GERMAN/JEWISH 279 — YIDDISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN AMERICA

3 credits.

Exploration of American Yiddish poetry, fiction, theater, and cinema created by European Jews in the United States.

Requisites: None

Course Designation: Ethnic St - Counts toward Ethnic Studies requirement
Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Elementary
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Prepare students for life and careers in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual US environment
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Develop critical thinking skills through sustained discussion with one’s peers and foster a constructive climate in which to engage with questions concerning cultural, racial, religious, and linguistic difference
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Acquire a critical vocabulary to speak about historical and present-day issues concerning migration, ethnic identity, and religious difference
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Engage in reflective writing practices, respond critically to feedback, and assess one’s own communicative strengths
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Identify the major themes of American Yiddish literature and culture from the early-twentieth century until today. These themes include: the politics of language use; the negotiation of a minoritized status; regional vs. national American Jewish identity; inter-generational conflict; Jews and the question of race
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/GERMAN 280 — FROM GRIMM TO GRYFFINDOR: GERMAN FAIRYTALES (RE)IMAGINED

3 credits.

From Rumpelstiltskin to Rapunzel, the rich fairy-tale tradition of the German-speaking world is filled with familiar themes and subversive morals. With an eye to depictions of gender, gender roles, sexuality, and race, we critically engage with these tales and contextualize them within the social and political landscapes that shaped them.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Critically engage with German fairytales from different time periods and contextualize them within the social and political landscapes that shaped them
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Explore fairytales through a variety of analytical lenses, including feminist and queer theories, ecocriticism, and psychoanalytic perspectives
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Recognize and analyze the fairytale’s transcultural influences in literature, art, music, poetry, and pop culture
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 302 — WHAT IS LIFE? BIOLOGICAL LIFE IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

3-4 credits.

Explores representations of biological life in literature, scientific discourse, film, and art. The symbolic representations (metaphors and similes used by scientists, fictions narrated by writers, and pictorial forms imagined by artists) allow students to analyze diverse conceptualizations of biological life: life as mechanism, rhythmic movement, balance of energy, inherent force, resistance to death, death's complementary cycle. The exploration of biological life's attributes, such as plasticity, limitedness, and self-consciousness, fosters interdisciplinary thinking bridging the humanities and life sciences. The symbolic representations of life are studied through different genres of texts and different media, and at different moments of cultural history. The texts and media will be from around the world (with a particular emphasis on French, francophone and Italian sources), but studied in English translation.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2022

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify problems that transcend disciplinary divides and learn how to think across disciplines of learning, namely life sciences, humanities and literature.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Identify key thinkers and artists associated with the course topic.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Recall facts and concepts pertaining to the cultural representations of biological.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Compare literary and artistic representations with scientific illustrations of concepts pertaining to biological life.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Interpret literary texts, films and artistic works in relation to the problem of organic life, through close reading and conceptual analysis.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Develop argumentation skills by discussing fundamental questions pertaining to organic life, based on an informed dialogue with thinkers and writers of the past and present.
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Distinguish cultural premises of scientific problems through the critique of their literary, artistic and rhetorical formulations.
Audience: Undergraduate

8. Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental conceptions of biological life in Western cultural tradition by writing a research paper (for Comm-B students: two research papers and three response papers).
Audience: Undergraduate

9. Comm-B students: Create oral presentations and a creative project synthesizing knowledge about the course topic.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 303 — TOPICS IN FRENCH LITERATURE AND CULTURE

3-4 credits.

Explores topics in French and Francophone cultures by examining their conceptualizations throughout history as well as their representations in literature and different media such as film and graphic novels. Understand the specificity of French and Francophone cultures and literatures, their contributions to the world's multicultural heritage, and ponder the cultural traditions they claim their own. Possible topics: gender relations, race and ethnicity, social justice, institutional forms of power, human emotions, immigration, colonization and its literary heritage, aesthetic ideals, everyday forms of human interaction, historical memory and its repression, education and acculturation, social rituals, the cultural and political role of language, etc.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Conceptualize historical, literary, and cultural aspects of a specific topic in French and Francophone cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Understand how artistic imagination and philosophical reasoning creatively intersect.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Know how to discuss fundamental questions pertaining to cultural phenomena, based on an informed dialogue with thinkers and writers of the past and present.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Understand cultural differences and apply this knowledge to the French and Francophone cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Know how to close read and critically analyze literary texts, films, and artistic works in relation to a cultural topic.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Know how to write interpretative analyses of a foreign culture.
Audience: Undergraduate

7. Identify key thinkers and artists associated with the topic of the course.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/JEWISH 318 — MODERN JEWISH LITERATURE

3-4 credits.

Pre-modern Jewish society's breakdown, immigration, the challenges of integration and exclusion, and the establishment of new communities will serve as a backdrop for the analysis and comparison of Jewish literary texts written in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Russian, and English.

LITTRANS/SCAND ST 320 — THE NORDIC CHILD

3 credits.

Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking is an icon of childhood in the Nordic countries and beyond. Pippi has come to symbolize the Nordic "autonomous" child par excellence. Takes up a diverse selection of books and films that represent both the common ideas of the Nordic Child, as well as various elaborations of and exceptions to the idealized norm. Examines a number of the prevalent forms and themes in Nordic children's culture, such as nature, play, school, sexuality, death, loss, and storytelling.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement or graduate/professional standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Grad 50% - Counts toward 50% graduate coursework requirement

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate an informed understanding of diverse Nordic childhoods and how these are represented in a variety of texts.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

2. Build and show skills of creative and critical thinking, historical thinking, and literary and media analysis through class discussion, short writing assignments, and formal papers.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

3. Develop and demonstrate skills of literary analysis by interpreting texts in multiple genres--including novels, tales, and short stories--in class discussion and especially in writing.
Audience: Both Grad & Undergrad

4. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of current scholarship in the fields of children's literature, childhood studies, and Nordic literary studies in class discussion and formal papers.
Audience: Graduate

LITTRANS 324 — TOPICS IN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE

3-4 credits.

An examination of selected topics in Scandinavian literature.

LITTRANS 326 — TOPICS IN DUTCH LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Study of an author or theme in modern Dutch/Flemish literature, presented by the current Dutch/Flemish writer in residence.

LITTRANS/FOLKLORE 327 — VAMPIRES

3 credits.

Explores the development of the vampire legend in folklore, rumor, literature, cinema, television, and popular culture and in relation to topics such as colonization, race, gender, sexuality, and class.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Summer 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Describe the evolving characteristics of vampire traditions from early nineteenth-century European folklore through European and American literature, film, and other media.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Describe the interplay between folklore and authored cultural works over time, with examples drawn from the circulation of vampire concepts between informal and authored products.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Interpret representations of the vampire in relation to historical and cultural situations, with particular reference to colonization, race, gender, sexuality, and class.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/JEWISH/RELIG ST 328 — CLASSICAL RABBINIC LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

Introduction to the literature of the Classical Rabbinic or Talmudic period of Judaism (2nd to 7th centuries CE). Historical and intellectual background; the interrelation of liturgy, legal and non-legal literature.

LITTRANS 331 — IN TRANSLATION: SCANDINAVIAN TOPICS IN DEPTH

1-2 credits.

Penetrating study of an important Scandinavian literary or cultural topic.

LITTRANS/CLASSICS/HEBR-BIB/JEWISH/RELIG ST 332 — PROPHETS OF THE BIBLE

4 credits.

An introduction to the thought, literature, and history of the prophets of ancient Israel (in English).

Requisites: RELIG ST/CLASSICS/JEWISH/LITTRANS 227 or Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2019

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate knowledge of ancient Near Eastern societies and cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Examine, analyze, and interpret ancient texts in translation.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Critique ancient Greek, Roman, and/or Near Eastern societies and cultures and compare them to other societies and cultures.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Compare ancient Near Eastern prophetic voices to modern prophetic voices.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 334 — IN TRANSLATION: THE ART OF ISAK DINESEN/KAREN BLIXEN

3-4 credits.

Blixen's tales and biographical fiction.

LITTRANS/THEATRE 335 — IN TRANSLATION: THE DRAMA OF HENRIK IBSEN

3-4 credits.

Often considered "the father of modern drama," the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is a major figure of world literature whose dramatic works remain fascinating and globally influential, both as texts and through performance and adaptation. Read and discuss Ibsen in English translation, with a focus on Ibsen's historical contexts, dramatic techniques, social and political thought, and the reception and adaptation of his work in modern culture.

LITTRANS/THEATRE 336 — IN TRANSLATION: THE DRAMA OF AUGUST STRINDBERG

3-4 credits.

Provides in-depth knowledge of the artistic career of the influential Swedish playwright, August Strindberg (1849-1912), and a general knowledge of the literary, artistic, and intellectual history that shaped his artistic production.

LITTRANS 337 — IN TRANSLATION: 19TH CENTURY SCANDINAVIAN FICTION

3-4 credits.

Begins with Romanticism and looks at Norwegian folktales and Hans Christian Andersen's world-famous stories, moving to the Modern Breakthrough, perhaps the most important period in Scandinavian literary history.

LITTRANS 340 — CONTEMPORARY SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

Twentieth-century literary traditions and experiments, with attention to major movements, genres, and authors.

LITTRANS/FOLKLORE/MEDIEVAL/SCAND ST 345 — THE NORDIC STORYTELLER

3 credits.

Exploring the oral nature and performance traditions of folklore, ethnography, tales and ballads, literature and culture from Nordic areas and Scandinavia.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Recognize, describe and analyze cultural phenomena, specifically Nordic Narrative, and put it into context.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Demonstrate an understanding of the major theories, approaches, concepts and current research findings concerning Nordic Narrative and folklore studies.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Synthesize the written and material information and use insight and creativity to demonstrate an understanding of the knowledge base from the field.
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Communicate effectively through written essays, oral presentations and discussion.
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Retrieve, analyze, and interpret the professional and lay literature providing information to both professionals and public.
Audience: Undergraduate

6. Work in multi-disciplinary teams to analyze the cultural material from various disciplinary points of view.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/FOLKLORE/MEDIEVAL 346 — IN TRANSLATION: THE ICELANDIC SAGAS

3-4 credits.

Gain an understanding of saga literature as a genre and of the cultural history of Iceland in the Viking Era and the Middle Ages, based on the interplay between pagan codes of honor and Christian ethics.

LITTRANS/FOLKLORE 347 — IN TRANSLATION: KALEVALA AND FINNISH FOLK-LORE

3-4 credits.

A look at the Kalevala, the Finnish creation myth and national epic of Finland, and how it affected Finnish national identity and the eventual Finnish independence from Russia.

LITTRANS 350 — SCANDINAVIAN DECADENCE IN ITS EUROPEAN CONTEXT

3-4 credits.

Examines the European context of literary decadence (Baudelaire, Huysmans, Wilde) and how it inspired some of Scandinavia's most important writers (Strindberg, Hamsun, Jacobsen).

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 357 — INTERMEDIATE SPECIAL TOPICS IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

3 credits.

Special topics in Slavic and Central and Eastern European Languages and Literatures.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Define, explain, and contextualize literary periods, genres, individual writers, themes, and problems in Polish, Central European, Slavic, and East-Central European literatures and cultures
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Apply learned knowledge to contemporary issues in cultures and societies of East-Central Europe in their literary and cultural contexts
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Communicate effectively through written reports and essays, oral presentations, classroom discussions, and other
Audience: Undergraduate

4. Demonstrate understanding of the methods, theories, and sources used by scholars of literature and culture
Audience: Undergraduate

5. Develop and learn to utilize techniques, skills, and concepts of literary and cultural criticism in a variety of contexts
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 360 — FRENCH AND ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE ONLINE

3-4 credits.

A virtual journey through Renaissance Italian and French cities; study main literary texts and cultural documents associated with the city or region.

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 361 — LIVING AT THE END OF TIMES: CONTEMPORARY POLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE

3 credits.

The collapse of communism and the posthumous triumph of the Solidarity movement started a new era in Polish culture. However, living in "posthistory" comes with its own set of problems. Examine contemporary Polish literature, film, and other cultural forms as they struggle with the country's turbulent past while trying to forge new collective identities for the future. How does culture mediate our relationship with the past? How does it help us understand the present and prepare for the future?

Requisites: SLAVIC/LITTRANS 215 or SLAVIC 111

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. identify and define major themes, concepts, events, and ideas that shape Poland’s cultural history since 1989
Audience: Undergraduate

2. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about various cultural texts and their underlying semantic structures
Audience: Undergraduate

3. demonstrate an understanding of contemporary cultural, social, and political issues that shape collective identities in Poland and, more broadly, East-Central Europe
Audience: Undergraduate

4. apply the concepts learned in classroom to select contemporary debates in Polish culture and society
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/ILS/ITALIAN/POLI SCI 365 — MACHIAVELLI AND HIS WORLD

3 credits.

Introduces students to the major works of Machiavelli through the close reading of his writings in cultural and historical contexts. Discussion and targeted writing assignments will aim at cultivating in students 1) a broad understanding of Machiavelli's principal intellectual attitudes, 2) a deeper understanding of his literary sensibility, and 3) the ability to articulate controversies and complexities surrounding his thought.

Requisites: Satisfied Communications A requirement

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. Develop a broad understanding of Machiavelli’s principal intellectual attitudes.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Cultivate a deep understanding of Machiavelli's literary sensibility.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Articulate controversies and complexities surrounding Machiavelli's political thought.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 366 — INTERMEDIATE SPECIAL TOPICS IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE & CULTURE

3 credits.

Exploration of various topics - periods, genres, individual writers, themes, problems, etc. in Russian and Eastern European literature at the intermediate level.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Gain a greater awareness of another culture and become more adept at engaging with perspectives and ways of thinking that are different from your own.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Develop a sensitivity to the way texts and ideas are rooted in their unique historical and political contexts, while having a life span that stretches far beyond them.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Be able to conduct a close reading of a literary text that takes into consideration both its form and content.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/JEWISH 367 — ISRAELI FICTION IN TRANSLATION

3-4 credits.

Major writers, trends and themes in Israeli fiction from pre-State period to present.

LITTRANS 368 — MODERN JAPANESE FICTION

3 credits.

Intensive study of novels and stories of one or two writers of the modern period (1868 to present), such as Soseki or Tanizaki.

LITTRANS 373 — TOPICS IN JAPANESE LITERATURE

3 credits.

Focuses on a specific theme in Japanese literary history for in-depth study, such as Contemporary Japanese Novels or Japanese Women Writers.

LITTRANS 374 — TOPICS IN KOREAN LITERATURE

3 credits.

Examines major Korean literary texts with emphasis on their social and political contexts. Possible topics: gender and sexuality, historical trauma, modernization, resistance.

LITTRANS 410 — IN TRANSLATION: SPECIAL TOPICS IN ITALIAN LITERATURE

3 credits.

Treatment of a specific perific period, genre, theme or movement in Italian literature.

LITTRANS/THEATRE 423 — IN TRANSLATION: SLAVIC DRAMA IN CONTEXT

3 credits.

Slavic playwrights and the European tradition of theatre and drama.

LITTRANS/SCAND ST 428 — MEMORY AND LITERATURE FROM PROUST TO KNAUSGARD

3 credits.

Investigates the relations between theories of memory, both individual and collective, and modern literary representations of remembering. Survey seminal conceptions of memory in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies, investigating topics such as nostalgia, trauma, personal and cultural identity, war and Holocaust, sites of memory, and autobiographical narrative. Through the avenues opened up by these theoretical frameworks, consider the narrative forms as well as the ethical and political dimensions of remembering in major novels by Marcel Proust, W. G. Sebald, and Karl Ove Knausgard.

LITTRANS/SCAND ST 435 — THE SAGAS OF ICELANDERS IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

3 credits.

The prose narratives of medieval Iceland. Gain an understanding of saga literature as a genre and of the cultural history of Iceland in the Viking Era and the Middle Ages, based on the interplay between pagan codes of honor and Christian ethics. In addition, gain an understanding of the methodological problems involved in studying sagas as historical documents.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Spring 2022

Learning Outcomes: 1. Demonstrate understanding of approaches, concepts, and current and classical findings in the area of concentration.
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Appropriately apply major theories in terms of analyzing Old Norse-Icelandic texts.
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Analyze Old Norse-Icelandic texts, especially with a view to historical knowledge and jurisprudence.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS/GEN&WS/SCAND ST 438 — SEXUAL POLITICS IN SCANDINAVIA

3 credits.

Read and discuss works by Scandinavian writers of the nineteenth and twentieth century reflecting sexual politics and the roles of women in literature. Course taught in English.

Requisites: Sophomore standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Intermediate
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: No

Last Taught: Fall 2023

Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify and understand the categories depicting sexual politics and the position of women in Scandinavia as portrayed through various works of literature
Audience: Undergraduate

2. Analyze and discuss the important features characterizing sexual politics and the position of women in Scandinavia as portrayed through various works of literature
Audience: Undergraduate

3. Compose and produce writing that applies the concepts introduced to describe, analyze, and differentiate sexual politics and the position of women as portrayed through various works of literature about Scandinavian women.
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 454 — HISTORY OF SERBIAN AND CROATIAN LITERATURE

3 credits.

Major literary movements of Serbian and Croatian literature from the medieval period until the formation of the Yugoslav state in 1919.

LITTRANS 455 — MODERN SERBIAN AND CROATIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION

3 credits.

Study of major twentieth-century writers of Serbia, Croatia, and surrounding areas.

LITTRANS/SLAVIC 467 — ADVANCED SPECIAL TOPICS IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

3 credits.

Special topics in Slavic and Central and Eastern European Languages and Literatures.

Requisites: Junior standing

Course Designation: Breadth - Literature. Counts toward the Humanities req
Level - Advanced
L&S Credit - Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S

Repeatable for Credit: Yes, unlimited number of completions

Last Taught: Spring 2024

Learning Outcomes: 1. list, define, and discuss the main figures, theories, and concepts related to the course's advanced topic
Audience: Undergraduate

2. apply methods of literary, cinematic, and cultural analysis in interpreting a wide range of cultural texts
Audience: Undergraduate

3. develop, compare, and effectively express ideas about cultural texts and their underlying semantic structures, informed by contextual knowledge and literary critical techniques
Audience: Undergraduate

4. hone critical and analytical skills through a close reading of fictional, philosophical, political, and theological texts in connection to social, political, and ethical issues
Audience: Undergraduate

LITTRANS 471 — POLISH LITERATURE (IN TRANSLATION), MIDDLE AGES TO 1863

3 credits.

Intensive study of major writers such as Kochanowski, Krasicki, and Mickiewicz.

LITTRANS 473 — POLISH LITERATURE (IN TRANSLATION) SINCE 1863

3 credits.

A comprehensive survey of Polish literature and its historical background from 1863 to the present.