College of Arts & Sciences: Comparative Literature

The listing below reflects the Hub units fulfilled by courses in the 2019/2020 academic year.

View courses in

  • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • 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.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
  • CAS XL 387: The Holocaust Through Film
    An examination of film using the Holocaust as its central topic. What are the political and cultural effects when genocide is represented through film? Can feature films portray history, and if so, what are the consequences for an informed society? This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-intensive Course.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • 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. Also offered as CAS LY 441. 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.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS XL 479: WLL Senior Seminar
    Through discussions of intercultural reading and translation, bibliographic assignments, student presentations, workshops, and work with a faculty language mentor, seniors majoring in WLL use this course to develop their final project: a substantial scholarly paper, translation, or creative work in a foreign language. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course

Back to full list of Courses