Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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CAS XL 224: Introduction to East Asian Literatures
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - 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. 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
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - 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. 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
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120) - Enters deeply into the world of one literary work and explores its reverberations across national and disciplinary boundaries. Topics for Fall 2025 & Spring 2026: TBD. Previous Topics: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Marcel Proust's Swann's Way. Death in Venice. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 236: Jewish Literature
How do changing notions of ethnicity and race, religion, and gender, as well as geographical place define Jewish family and community' Topics include immigration, diaspora, and national culture; patriotism, antisemitism, and multiculturalism; Jewish identities and gender; conversion, assimilation, and acculturation. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. -
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. 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. Effective Fall 2018, 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 284: War in Arab Literature and Film (in English translation)
How do Arab writers and filmmakers depict the region’s defining wars? Comparison to nonfiction and to artworks by Israeli and American artists from the "other side." All readings in English; knowledge of Arabic or Middle Eastern history is welcome, but none is assumed. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings. -
CAS XL 325: Global Modernist Fiction
A comparative study of five modernist authors from different world cultures: Faulkner, Kafka, Chang, Rushdie, and Murakami. Examines experiments in narrative technique as differently situated responses to the major events and legacy of the twentieth century. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking. -
CAS XL 327: Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation'
This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CAS XL 332: Introduction History, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research in the Digital Age: Tools and Methods
Course 1 in two-semester-sequence (Fall: HI 332/XL 332; Spring: HI 333). Introduces principles and tools of digital research in history, the humanities, and social sciences. Through project-based learning, students combine skills in digital literacy, media creation, humanistic and social sciences inquiry. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy, Social Inquiry I. -
CAS XL 335: Around the World in 40 Fairy Tales
Undergraduate prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or 120), or equivalent. - Traces how fairy tales influence each other within and across cultures and time periods and are adapted to changing socio-historical contexts. Students consider and write about a range of interpretational approaches and renderings in literature, the arts, and media. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 341: Medieval Travel Writing and the Muslim World
Undergraduate prerequisites: CASWR 120 or 150. - How did medieval and early modern Muslim travelers describe the places they visited and people they encountered, and how did Western travelers describe their travels in the Middle East and Asia? Readings include Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Evliya Celebi, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS XL 342: Modern Travel Writing and the Muslim World
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - How have modern Muslim travelers 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 Zeyneb Hanoum, Tahtawi, Mark Twain, Malcolm X, Nawal Saadawi. 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. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS XL 343: Alexander the Great in the East
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing (WR 120 or equivalent) - 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. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS XL 344: Global Shakespeare
Why do contemporary writers parrot and parody "Shakespeare," and how much of this activity is about Shakespeare at all? This seminar provides an introduction to reading and writing about Shakespeare's plays. But it also takes a step back to consider Shakespeare as a phenomenon, inspiring adapters around the world. Beyond learning about particular offshoots and adaptations, the deeper point is to explore how playwrights think about their sources, their audiences, and their art. Effective Summer 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS XL 368: Religion and Film
Religions and films are world-building engines. They create -- and re-create -- a visioning of society as a world of justice, of lived myth, of fantasy, of ideology: a world we may long to live in or a world we wish to avoid at all costs. This course explores such worlds by examining the ways in which religious beliefs, practices and people are portrayed in popular film from the 1960s to the present. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS XL 377: Global Asian Literature
Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS WR 120, First-Year Writing Seminar. - This course explores 20th-and 21st-century ethnic Asian writers whose literary works help us question the paradigm of national literature and appreciate the power of border-crossing literature. Main topics include colonialism, racism, post-colonial politics, migration, World War II, and wars in post-1945 Asia. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. -
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)
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (CASWR 120 or equivalent) - Topics vary. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Previous Topics: Gender and Genre in the Works of Natsume Soseki, Courtesans in World Literature. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation.
