Comparative Literature

• CAS XL 222: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Western Literature (in English Translation)
  Introduces basic methods of comparative literary study through close readings of influential texts of the Western tradition from antiquity to present. Topics include genre, translation, appropriation, interpretation, theories of literary production and effect. All works read in English; no prerequisites. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS XL 223: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Middle Eastern Literature (in English Translation)
  Introduces basic methods of comparative literary study through close readings of some of the most influential texts of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew literature. Readings may include The Arabian Nights, Shahnameh, lyric poetry, and novels from the twentieth century. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS XL 224: Introduction to Comparative Literature: East Asian Literature (in English Translation)
  Introduces basic methods of comparative literary study through close readings of some of the most influential texts of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature. Readings may include The Tale of the Genji, Dream of the Red Chamber, and Nine-Cloud Dream. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS XL 225: Introduction to Comparative Literature: South Asian Literature (in English translation)
  Introduces basic methods of comparative literary study through close readings of some of the most influential texts of South Asia from the classical, medieval, and modern traditions. Readings may include the Ramayana, Gitagovinda, devotional poetry, and novels from the twentieth century. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
• CAS XL 342: Travel Writing and the Muslim World
  How have Muslim travelers past and present written about places and people they saw abroad, and how have Western travelers in the Muslim lands described their travels in "the East"? Readings include Nasir Khusraw, Ibn Battuta, Eliza Fay, and Robert Byron.
• CAS XL 382: Topics in Gender and Film (in English translation)
  Topic for Fall 2012: Gender in East Asian Film. How have East Asian films constructed or challenged gender norms in ever-changing historical contexts? Films from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and North and South Korea.
• CAS XL 401: Sr Indep Work
  
• CAS XL 402: Sr Indep Work
  
• CAS XL 441: 1001 Nights in the World Literary Imagination
  What is The Thousand and One Nights? How has this ever-expanding collection appealed to its diverse audiences? Focus on Nights structure and themes, notable translations and offshoots in western literature and art, and later appropriations by Arab and Muslim writers.
• CAS XL 470: Topics in Comparative Literature
  Topic for Fall 2012: Queer Theory and the Literary. An introduction to queer theory in its literary dimensions. Works by Marcel Proust, Djuna Barnes, and Willa Cather alongside theorists including Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, D. A. Miller, Leo Bersani, and Valerie Rohy.
• CAS XL 491: Ds Comp Lit
  
• CAS XL 492: Ds Comp Lit
  
• CAS XL 520: Theory of the Novel
  Introduction to the theory of the novel in a comparative context. Readings may include Watt, Lukács, Bakhtin, Barthes and others on topics such as narrative voice, narrative closure, characterization, description, and desire in narrative. Novels by Austen, Flaubert, and Melville.
• CAS XL 540: Theory and Practice of Literary Translation
  Weekly series of presentations by translators from Boston and elsewhere, open to registered students and to the public. Registered students complete special projects and attend workshops.
• CAS XL 560: Topics in Religion and Literature
  Topic for Spring 2013: Apocalypse and Literature. Literary responses to the biblical book of Revelation, from ancient to modern times. Systematic analysis of the biblical text. Readings from Dante, Langland, Rabelais, Blake, Hölderlin, Dostoevsky, García Lorca, Samuel Beckett, and Flannery O'Connor. Reference to artistic and musical representations of apocalypse. Also offered as CAS RN 524.

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