Comparative Literature
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- Comparative Literature
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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. 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 222: Introduction to Western 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 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. 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
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 Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew literature. Readings may include The Arabian Nights, Shahnameh, lyric poetry, and novels from the twentieth century. 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 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., WR 100 or WR 120)
Enters deeply into the world of one literary work and explores its reverberations across national and disciplinary boundaries. Topic for Spring 2023: "Story of the Stone / Dream of the Red Chamber." 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 315: Tradition and Modernity in Iranian Film and Literature
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120)
This course examines how competing notions of tradition and modernity are presented in Iranian cinema. Drawing on both classical and modern Persian literary works to draw out underlying connections between the readings and the films. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. -
CAS XL 320: Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice"
Undergraduate Prerequisites: enrollment in the CAS Honors Program.
An in-depth reading of one of the most crafted and allusive short works in modern literature, together with Mann?s diverse sources from Euripides and Plato to Wagner and homoerotic photography; two films and an opera based on Mann?s story. -
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 342: Travel Writing and the Muslim World
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120).
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 Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Gertrude Bell, and Paul Theroux. 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
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. -
CAS XL 344: Global Shakespeares
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 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 (WR 120 or equivalent)
Topics vary. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Topic for Spring 2023: Gender and Modernization Through Turkish Literature. Exploring the interplay of modernization of gender roles and gender performance through Turkish literary texts. The readings include Sabahattin Ali, Orhan Pamuk, Elif Shafak, Gulten Akin, Ayla Kutlu. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS XL 386: Africa on Screen
Discussion of African films in their social and historical contexts and specificities of production practices. Primary topics of interest include traditional values, practices and social change; education; popular culture and urban life; politics; migration; the youth; sexuality and gender relations.
