CMLT-C 205 #14969
Comparative Literary Analysis: Human/Nature

MW 1:00-2:15 ~ Professor Losensky

Above section COLL Intensive Writing & satisfies A & H Requirement

This course provides an introduction to methods of literary analysis
and interpretation from a comparative perspective. It is required of
Comparative Literature majors and recommended for other students
interested in the study of world literature. The course fulfills the
Intensive Writing requirement of the College of Arts and Sciences.

For a thematic focus this semester, we will examine how human beings
attempt to create culture, meaning, and self-identity out of the
seemingly chaotic and uncontrollable forces of biology and nature.
We will study this dynamic as it plays itself out in a variety of
literary genres from throughout the history of world literature. We
will read essays, a wide range of lyric poetry, and myths and short
stories.

Longer works will include The Epic of Gilgamesh, Shakespeare’s
Midsummer Night’s Dream and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, and Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, Amos Tutuola’s Palm-Wine Drunkard, and William Faulkner’s
Go Down, Moses. All students will be asked to attend a screening of
the film Princess Mononoke during the first week of class.
Requirements include two short quizzes, informal response papers,
and three formal essays on assigned topics.