Comparative Literature Department
Undergraduate Courses
Undergraduate Advisor, Matthew Colglazier
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General, Methods, and Theory Courses
Genre Courses
Period Courses
Themes in Literature; Literature and Ideas
Literature and the Other Arts
Literature Across Cultures
Film Courses
Individual Readings
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General, Methods, and Theory Courses
C100 Freshman Seminar (3 cr.)
Analysis and discussion of selected major works of literature and art illustrating historical and stylistic problems related to specific themes, artists, or genres.
C155 Culture and the Modern Experience: an Interdisciplinary and International Approach (3 cr.)
This course, which is interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, introduces students to an inclusive study of major cultural parallels, contrasts, and developments across the arts and beyond national and continental divides. Syllabi and selections of course materials will reflect the specialty of individual instructors.
C200 Honors Seminar (3 cr.)
Selected authors and topics, ranging from traditional to modern; for example, Athens and Jerusalem: The Origins of Western Literature. Traditional or current debates and issues of a critical, theoretical, or historical nature. Comparative methodology, interdisciplinary approach. May be repeated once for credit with a different topic.
C205 Comparative Literary Analysis (3 cr.)
Proceeds from a close examination of individual texts to comparative examination of different texts, using plays, poems, and short fiction from various literatures.
C305 Comparative Approaches to Literature: Theory and Method (3 cr.)
Examination of such problems as reception, influence, theme, genre, period, and translation, based on the study of literary texts and scholarly papers.
C400 Studies in Comparative Literature (3 cr.)
Specific problems concerning the relationship of two or more literatures or of literature and another area in the humanities. May be repeated twice.
C405 Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature (3 cr., 6 cr. max.)
Selected topics treated in seminar fashion. Recommended for majors. May be repeated once with different topic.
Genre Courses
C216 Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Western Tradition (3 cr.)
Historical and comparative survey of science fiction and fantasy narrative from antiquity to the present. The origin of scientific narrative in ancient Greek literature, its relation to ancient myths, and its history and development within the Western tradition. Emphasis on philosophical, cognitive, and scientific aspects of the genre.
C217 Detective, Mystery, and Horror Literature (3 cr.)
Origins, evolution, conventions, criticism, and theory of the detective and mystery story; history of the Gothic novel; later development of the tale of terror; major works of this type in Western fiction, drama, and film.
C219 Romance and the Western Tradition (3 cr.)
Origins, evolution, conventions, criticism, and theory of the romance, from antiquity to the present; representative texts from Apuleius to modern pulp fiction.
C311 Drama (3 cr.)
Analytical and historical study of various forms of dramatic literature in the Western tradition, emphasizing differences between drama and other literary genres. Survey of periods and dramatic conventions, close reading of selected plays, some concern with theoretical problems.
C313 Narrative (3 cr.)
Historical and analytical study of various forms of narrative literature in the Western tradition. Discussion of narrative as a primary literary genre and analysis of such diverse forms as myth, folktale, epic, romance, gospel, saint's life, saga, allegory, confession, and novel.
C315 The Lyric Poem (3 cr.)
Study of the lyric poem emphasizing free verse tradition of Song of Songs, Whitman, Rimbaud; traditional forms of Greek and Latin lyrics and later rhyming forms such as sonnet and ballad; and experiments of contemporary poetry.
C318 Introduction to Satire (3 cr.)
(A & H) 6 credit hours of literature. R: CMLT-C 205 or ENG-L 202. Historical and analytical stuy of forms, techniques, and scope of satire from antiquity to the internet. Consideration of the role of ridicule in defending or attaking institutions, values, and beliefs. (previously listed under 218. Credits given for only one of 218 or 318.
C415 Medieval Lyric (3 cr.)
Medieval religious and secular lyric. Cultural contexts and formal concerns, such as the influence of medieval rhetorical theory and the continuation and transformation of classical poetic conventions.
C417 Medieval Narrative (3 cr.)
Medieval literary theory (as it applies to narrative forms) and comparative analysis of works within their cultural contexts. Topics and works vary, but they may include the allegorical narrative, shorter narrative forms, the romance, fabliaux, saint's life, and pulpit literature.
Period Courses
C320 World Literature Before 1500 (3 cr.)
(A & H and IW) Survey of selected genres of literature from earliest written texts through the end of the Middle Ages, covering the major centers of world civilization - the Mediterranean, India, the East and West Asia.
C321 Medieval Literature (3 cr.)
Secular directions in philosophy, scholarship, history, epic, romance, and lyric poetry within medieval Christian tradition. Rise of humanism during Dark Ages; its manifestation in Carolingian and twelfth century renaissances.
C325 The Renaissance (3 cr.)
Prose fiction, long narrative poems, Lyric poems, essays, tracts, and plays written between 1350 and 1650 in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and England. Such authors as Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Machiavelli, More, Castiglione, Rabelais, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Hobbes.
C329 The Eighteenth Century (3 cr.)
The dominant literary and intellectual trends of the century, such as neoclassicism, rococo, Enlightenment, and preromanticism. Authors such as Pope, Swift, Montesquieu, Richardson, Voltaire, Diderot, Kant, Rousseau, Lessing, Sterne.
C333 Romanticism (3 cr.)
The rise of romantic tendencies in eighteenth-century Europe; the romantic revolution in early nineteenth-century Western literature. Such authors as Goethe, Chateaubriand, Wordsworth, Byron, Novalis, Hoffmann, Hugo, Pushkin, Poe.
C335 Realism, Naturalism, and Symbolism (3 cr.)
The rise of realism in nineteenth-century fiction and its development into naturalism and impressionism; the symbolist reaction in poetry; the reemergence of the drama as a major genre. Such authors as Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Mallarme, Ibsen, Hauptmann, Strindberg, Chekhov.
C337 The Twentieth Century: Tradition and Change (3 cr.)
Such authors as Thomas Mann, Proust, Rilke, Pirandello, Joyce, Kafka, Pound, Eliot, Valery, Lorca, Brecht, Faulkner, Borges, Beckett, and Robbe-Grillet. The search for new forms and a new language to express the twentieth-century writer's views of art and reality.
Themes in Literature; Literature and Ideas
C145 Major Characters in Literature (3 cr.)
Comparative analysis of characters who reappear in literature from different periods and cultures. These include the quester, the lover, the artist, the trickster, the rebel, and the outsider. Readings come from diverse genres and national traditions. Fulfills half of COAS composition requirement, if taken with English W143 (I cr.). I Sem.
C146 Major Themes in Literature (3 cr.)
Comparative analysis of themes and motifs that reappear in literature from different periods and cultures. These include friendship, madness, self-sacrifice, the relationship of parents and children, the relationship of men and women, and the relationship of individuals and society. Readings come from diverse genres and national traditions. Fulfills half of COAS composition requirement, if taken with English W143 (I cr.). II Sem.
C147 Images of the Self- East and West (3 cr.)
Such considerations as the individual in society, the outcast as hero, and the artistic sensibility examined in selected works of occidental and oriental literature from ancient to modern times.
C340 Women and Literature (3 cr.)
Study of literature by women from different ages and societies. Consideration of such issues as the relationship to literary tradition and cultural context, the creation of an authoritative voice, or the representation of women in literature. Course may focus on one genre or mode (such as drama, Lyric, autobiography, or satire).
C347 Ideas in Literature (3 cr.)
Major philosophical themes, such as Platonism, Stoicism, skepticism, and mysticism, that appear and reappear in Western literature.
C445 Traditions of Christian Literature I (3 cr.)
Imaginative literature of the Christian culture from the second to the twelfth century; relationship to Jewish and classical cultural traditions; emergence of new genres; development of early medieval themes and forms and their transformation in the High Middle Ages.
C446 Traditions of Christian Literature 11 (3 cr.)
Religious literature of the later Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the baroque, and the transformation of its themes and forms in more recent writings. Close reading of individual texts as well as consideration of their cultural and theological contexts.
Literature and the Other Arts
C151 Introduction to Popular Culture (3 cr.)
Explores the scope and methodologies for the serious study of entertainment for mass consumption, including popular theater and vaudeville, best sellers, mass circulation magazines, popular music, phonograph records, and popular aspects of radio, film, and television. Provides the basic background to other popular culture courses in comparative literature.
C251 Lyrics and Popular Song (3 cr.)
Survey of popular songs of Europe and the Americas, including modern ballads, cabaret songs, Spanish flamencos, Mexican rancheras, Argentine tangos, country western, and rock lyrics. Discussion of literary qualities of lyrics in context of musical setting and performance and independently as literature.
C252 Literary and Television Genres (3 cr.)
Comparative study of popular literary and television genres, such as farce, domestic comedy, melodrama, biography, mystery, adventure, western, the picaresque. Theoretical, technical, and ideological contrasts between the literary and television media.
C255 Modern Literature and the Other Arts: An Introduction (3 cr.)
Analyzes the materials of literature, painting, and music and the ways in which meaning is expressed through the organization of the materials. Investigates similarities and differences among the arts. Examples selected from the past 200 years. No previous knowledge of any art required. I Sem.,II Sem.
C256 Literature and the Other Arts: 1870-1950 (3 cr.)
Interaction of the arts in the development of Western literature, painting, and music in movements such as impressionism, symbolism, constructivism, expressionism, dada, and surrealism.
C257 Asian Literature and the Other Arts (3 cr.)
Selected literary texts of China, India, or Japan studied in the context of the art forms and cultures of these countries. Concentration on one culture each time course is offered. May be repeated once with different topic.
C355 Literature, the Arts, and their Interrelationship (3 cr.)
Discussion of theoretical foundations for study of the relationship of the arts; detailed analysis of specific works illustrating interaction of literature with other arts.
C356 Concrete Poetry (3 cr.)
Emphasizes the international character of the concrete poetry movement and its relationship to the literary tradition and to contemporary movements in the other arts.
C357 The Arts Today: From 1950 to the Present (3 cr.)
Shared trends in literature, the visual arts, music, dance, and theatre. The heritage of the grotesque and the absurd, dada and surrealism, and constructivism; the new realism. New materials; mixed media and multimedia; environmental and participatory art; happenings; minimal art, conceptual art, anti-art.
C358 Literature and Music: Opera (3 cr.)
Selected opera libretti from various periods. Comparison of libretti with their literary sources; emphasis on specific problems connected with the adaptation of a literary work to the operatic medium. Evaluation of representative libretti as independent literary works.
C377 Topics in Yiddish Literature (3 cr.)
A & H, CSA Selected topics focusing on Yiddish fiction and drama (1810 – 1914) or 20th c. Yiddish fiction, drama, and poetry. Taught in English. No prior knowledge of Yiddish required. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. Credit given for either C300, C377, or GER Y300 per semester. Taught in English. Credit given for only one of C377 and GER Y300.
C378 Topics in Yiddish Culture (3 cr.) A & H, CSA Selected topics on history of Ashkenazic Jews; Old Yiddish and pre-modern Yiddish folklore and popular culture; history and sociology of Yiddish; modern Yiddish culture; and centers of modern Yiddish culture. Taught in English. No prior knowledge of Yiddish required. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours. Credit given for either C378, or GER Y350 per semester. Credit given for only one of CMLT C378 and GER Y350.
Literature Across Cultures
C261 Introduction to the Literatures of Africa (3 cr.)
Oral and written poetry, epic, fiction, and drama and film from around the continent with reference to historical and cultural contexts, debates on language choice, "authenticity," gender and European representations of Africa.
C262 Cross-Cultural Encounters (3 cr.)
Encounters between different cultures explored in the literature, art, film music resulting from various forms of cultural contact (travel, colonialization, religious diffusion, print and electronic technologies). Topics include transformation of cultural institutions, processes of cross-cultural representation, globalization of the arts and culture, development of intercultural forms. Historical and regional focus may vary. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
C265 Introduction to East Asian Poetry (3 cr.)
The major poetic modes in Far Eastern literature, with consistent concern for their historical development and occasional reference to Western traditions.
C266 Introduction to East Asian Fiction (3 cr.)
Readings in the major novels of the Orient, such as Monkey, Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, and The Tale of Genji, along with studies of the short story, colloquial and literary, as it developed in Far Eastern literature.
C301 Special Topics in Comparative Literature (3 cr.)
A & H Special topics concerning two or more literary traditions or literature and other areas in the humanities. May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
C360 Diasporic Literature (3 cr.)
Study of literature by writers of different regional and religious diasporas, with particular attention to issues relating to cultural identity and location. Consideration of closely related categories and concepts such as immigrant, ethnic minority, hybridity, and deterritorialized cultures.
C361 African Literary Traditions (3 cr.)
Regional, national, or ethnic traditions, including oral and written poetry, theater, fiction, film, or popular culture. Focus varies: literature of Senegal and the Mande; of Nigeria and Ghana; of Cameroon and the Congo; East Africa and Southern Africa. May be repeated for credit.
C365 Japanese-Western Literary Relations(3 cr.)
Japanese influences on Western poets and dramatists: color prints, haiku, and Noh plays. The Western impact on Japanese literature: the Japanese adaptation of such movements as romanticism, realism, naturalism, and symbolism, with special emphasis on the Japanese traits that these movements acquired.
C370 Arabic-Western Literary Relations (3 cr.)
Emphasis on Greek influences on early Arabs and Arab influences on medieval Europe. Impact of modern European and American culture on Arabs.
C375 Chinese-Western Literary Relations(3 cr.)
Familiarity with Chinese recommended but not required. An examination of historical contacts between China and the West; an analysis of translations from the Chinese into Western languages; an exploration of the influences of Chinese on Western literature; and a critique of the images of China and the Chinese in Western cultures. May be repeated once.
C464 French Language Literatures of Africa and the Americas (3 cr.)
Literary texts and films, their poetics and historical contexts. Particular consideration of the tension surrounding the use of French language in Africa and the Caribbean, and the creation of French language literatures, their relationship to local oral traditions and metropolitan French literature. Course will be conducted in French.
Film Courses
C310 Film Adaptations of Literature (3 cr.)
Analysis of the processes and problems involved in turning a literary work (novel, play, or poem) into a screenplay and then into a film. Close study of literary and film techniques and short exercises in adaptation.
C490 Individual Studies in Film and Literature (1-3 cr.)
May be repeated once with a different topic. I Sem., II Sem., SS.
C492 Comedy in Film and Literature (3 cr.)
Evolution, styles, and techniques of film comedy in America and Europe from the beginnings of cinema to the present. Theories of comedy and humor; relationship of film comedy to comedy in fiction, drama, pantomime, circus, and vaudeville. Work of leading film comedians.
Individual Readings; Foreign Study; Honors Courses
C495 Individual Readings in Comparative Literature (2-3 cr., 6 cr. max.)
May be repeated for a total of 6 credit hours. I Sem., II Sem., SS.
C496 Foreign Study in Comparative Literature (3-8 cr.)
May not be repeated for credit.
C499 Studies for Honors (2-6 cr.; 12 cr. max.)
Independent reading and research in conjunction with an advanced course in comparative literature or an honors paper or project. I Sem., II Sem. SS.
