Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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- African American Studies
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CAS XL 100: Leaving Home: Explorations in World Literature
Growing up. Moving to the big city. Wisdom quest. Immigration. Tourism. How have the world's great literatures portrayed and shaped these experiences? How have literary works themselves found new worlds through translation and adaptation? Counts for credit toward all WLL majors. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS XL 222: Introduction to Western Literatures
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. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 223: Introduction to Middle Eastern Literatures
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. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- intensive Course. -
CAS XL 224: Introduction to East Asian Literatures
Explores why and how to compare literatures and cultures and envisions the place of East Asia's traditions in World Literature. Embarks on theoretical reflection and close reading of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean texts from three millennia. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 225: Introduction to South Asian Literatures
Introduces basic methods of comparative literary study through close readings of some of the most influential texts of Indian and other South Asian literatures. Readings may include Shakuntala, The Ramayana, bhakti and Sufi literatures. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 230: Topics in Big Fat Books
Enters deeply into the world of one literary work and explores its reverberations across national and disciplinary boundaries. Topic for Spring 2018: Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. Close, careful study of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, with eye to philosophical, theological, cultural, and literary significance. Also offered as CAS LG 283. Effective Spring 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 244: Greek Drama in Translation
The history and development of ancient Greek theater; study of important plays in the genres of tragedy, comedy, and satyr drama by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. Cannot be taken for credit in addition to CAS CL 324. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Ethical Reasoning, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS XL 260: Gateway to Asian Cultures
Panoramic introduction to the cultures of East and South Asia in comparative perspective (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India). Examines shared foundations, transformative inflection points, sites, peoples, and ideologies over the past two millennia through primary texts and media. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS XL 281: Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and Film
How can we understand the impact of the Holocaust and its ongoing legacies? Holocaust representation in literature, film and memorials, including discussions of bystander complicity and societal responsibilities, testimonial and fictive works by Wiesel and Levi, documentaries and feature films. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning. -
CAS XL 315: Film and Identity in the Islamic World
Introduction to film history in the Islamic world, correlated with literary history. Topic for Fall 2015: From Page to Screen: Film Adaptations of Persian and Arabic Literature. In this course we explore film, and other media, adaptations of Arabic and Persian literature. Students examine competing theories of adaptation and the historical changes that have occurred in film production in the Arab world and Iran. Also offered as CAS CI 390 A1 and CAS LY 470 A1. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
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. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 343: Alexander the Great in the East
Study of the various narratives about Alexander the Great, also known as Sikandar or Iskandar, as conqueror, philosopher-king, and hero, in medieval Middle Eastern and Asian literatures. Modern filmic representations of the historical figure are also compared. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS XL 351: The Faust Tradition
Comparative study of the Faust theme, 1500 to present: Marlowe, Goethe, Mann, Gertrude Stein, Jan Svankmajer, others. Transmission and adaptation of literary themes within and between national traditions. Emphasis on close reading and research, use of theory and criticism. Meets with CAS LG 283. -
CAS XL 370: Topics in Comparative Literature
Topics vary. May be repeated for credit it topic is different. Topic for Fall 2019: Spiritual Autobiography. Spiritual autobiographies, classical through modern. Focus on diverse paths of religious seekers; the crises, epiphanies, turning points, and the challenge of representing the inner life. Authors include Augustine, Teresa of Avila, Defoe, Tolstoy, Booker T. Washington, Elie Wiesel, Elaine Pagels. -
CAS XL 380: Gender and Identity in Contemporary Middle Eastern Film
An exploration of representations of gender and identity in contemporary Middle Eastern films by male and female directors reflecting on the impact of modernization, globalization, war and trauma through different visual genres. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression. -
CAS XL 381: Topics in Gender and Literature (in English translation)
Topic for Fall 2018: Change and Continuity on the Silk Road. Focused on the Central Asian portion of the Silk Road from the border of China to Istanbul students explore written and visual texts to understand shifts in gender dynamics in societies caught between Islam, communism, and globalization. Also offered as CAS WS 304 B1. -
CAS XL 382: Topics in Gender and Film (in English translation)
Topic for Fall 2019: TBA. -
CAS XL 383: Dante's Hell (in English translation)
A close reading of one text, Dante Alighieri's Inferno, with attention to its medieval contexts: philosophical, theological, and historical. Analysis of the poetic means by which Dante represents both human evil and human hope. Bilingual text. Lectures and discussions in English. Also offered as CAS LI 555 and CAS RN 555. -
CAS XL 384: Arthurian Literature
Topic for Fall 2016: Arthurian Traditions. Tradition and innovation in works of literature, paintings, and films inspired by King Arthur's court (6th-21st centuries). Themes include spiritual and erotic love; history and imagination; conquest and nationalism; memory and forgetting; tropes of quest; sin and redemption. Conducted in English. Also offered as CAS EN 390 B1 and CAS LF 430 A1. -
CAS XL 385: Dante: The Divine Comedy II: Purgatorio and Paradiso
Focus on the literary, philosophical, and theological ideas Dante uses to represent his experience of himself and of human nature. Bi-lingual texts. Lectures and discussions in English. Also offered as CAS LI 556 and CAS RN 556.