Courses

• 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
  Three topics are offered 2014/2015. Students may register for one, two, or three for credit. Topic for Fall 2014: 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 A1. Topics for Spring 2015. Section A1: Russian Literature and Spirituality (in English translation). Explores literary experimentation with concepts of Eastern Christianity (e.g., spirit, soul, heaven, hell, crucifixion, resurrection, kenosis, sin, immortality) in the increasingly anti-religious environment of late imperial and Soviet Russia. Authors include Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Platonov, Tarkovsky. Readings from philosophy/theory. Also offered as CAS LR 383 A1 and as CAS RN 524 A1. Section B1. The Unique Individual in Literature (narrative fiction) and in Religious Thought. Readings from the fiction of Goethe, Melville, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, poetry and short stories of Poe. Comparison between the discursive (religious thought) and non-discursive forms (literature) for apprehending and expressing the mystery, paradox, and fragility of human life. Also offered as CAS RN 524 B1.

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