Comparative Literature Program - Course Descriptions

Term: F25W25S25F24W24S24F23W23S23Y23Z23F22W22S22Y22Z22F21W21S21Y21Z21F20W20S20Y20Z20F19W19S19F18W18S18Y18Z18F17S17Y17Z17 

Winter Quarter

Dept	Course No and Title	Instructor
COM LIT (W25)	9  MONSTRS&MONSTROSITY	ALFAILAKAWI, D.
CL 9: Monsters and Monstrosity The monster, in its many forms and contexts, is a powerful cultural tool for the expression of social tensions, a lens for deciphering a society’s greatest hopes and darkest fears. It is a creature that crosses boundaries, a creature of fragments, never behaving exactly as expected, and always returning to trouble our dreams again. In this course, we ask: what is a monster? Why are monsters so prevalent in literature, television, and film? What can monsters reflect about the people and the societies that they haunt? This course involves the in-depth analysis of literary and visual texts using the lenses of critical race theory, gender theory, queer of color critique, disability studies, psychoanalysis, and ecocriticism. Theorists to be discussed include Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, C. Riley Snorton, Barbara Creed, and Melissa K. Nelson, while authors and filmmakers include Marlon Jenkins, Danez Smith, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Ahmed Saadawi, Bong Joon-ho, Guillermo del Toro, Yeon Sang-ho, and William Friedkin.
COM LIT (W25)	10  MEMOIR AS RESISTANCE	CHAHINIAN, T.
CL 10/Winter 2025 Chahinian Memoir as Resistance: In Defense of the Fragmented Self In a 2011 interview, CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg argued that in the digital age, our negotiations of the self demand a singular identity, claiming that “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” (NYTimes 5/14/11). This class surveys contemporary memoirs and autobiographies to examine how the literary form of self-writing challenges emergent ideas of unified identity that online personas perpetuate. The class explores how in emergent multicultural societies, the memoir has gained popularity as a genre that celebrates notions of community, multiple belonging, and hybrid identities. In looking at the genre’s common themes of transgenerational memory, family narratives, and social responsibility, our readings will examine the intersection of power, privilege and bias inherent in the process of representing culture and expressing the self.
COM LIT (W25)	60B  READING WITH THEORY	AMIRAN, E.
This course is a broad introduction to literary theory.  We will read theory from Afro-pessimism, critical race studies, deconstruction, feminism, Marxism, media theory, psychoanalysis, and theory of war, and use these theories to read literary and cultural texts like Fredrick Douglass’s Autobiography, video poetry by Ghayath Almadhoun, short fiction by Franz Kafka and Italo Calvino, and Batman.  What does media theory say about guns, and why does that change how we think about drone footage?  What is the connection between advertising and Disneyland?  How can we think about domestic labor in a global context?  We’ll ask these kinds of questions and develop our own strategies for engaging them.  No previous theory experience required.
COM LIT (W25)	102W  CREATIVE TRANSLATN	WOLPE, S.
Literary translation is not the transparent inter-lingual transfer of ideas out of one language into another. Rather, it is always conditioned by assumptions, values and codes proper to both the source- and the target-language, and often relies upon the hierarchies of power and prestige that structure both the discourses and realities of gender, race, class, sexuality, and national identity. This course will: 1. Introduce the students to various forms of translations as well as theories and practice of literary translation and the challenges that contemporary translators face today in a variety of cultural and political context. 2. Guide the students towards exploring their own creative writing through translation, culminating in a group  project, as well as individual creative projects. Working knowledge of a language other than English is required. Assessment: Students will be assessed through: Reading and writing assignments (45%), attendance (15%), participation (15%), and final projects (25%). Required Texts Required readings are available as PDF files through Canvas.
COM LIT (W25)	105  ENVIRNMENTAL RACISM	CARROLL, A.
Winter 2025 Professor Alicia Carroll COM LIT 105, “Environmental Racism” How might the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples, philosophies, and ways of life in decision-making processes regarding the environment lead not only to the restoration of Indigenous stewardship and repatriation of stolen Indigenous lands but also to more equitable living conditions for all beings? This course examines settler colonial government policies and socioeconomic practices of environmental racism, a form of systemic racism that disproportionately exposes communities with dense populations of people of color to environmental hazards that lead to increased health risks, including cancer, respiratory diseases, and birth defects. Although the intentional placement of polluting facilities, toxic waste dumps, sewage works, landfills, etc. in communities of color affects people of various marginalized identities, this class focuses on environmental racism in the United States as experienced by Native Americans. One of the earliest examples of environmental racism in the US was the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which led to the displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homes in the southeast to lands in the west that were unsuitable for sustaining their lives and cultures. Today, Native people living in Indian reservations continue to suffer from the fallout of nuclear military weapons testing; the pollution of extractive economies such as oil drilling, gas fracking, mining, and hydroelectric damming; and corporations’ dumping of nuclear, toxic, medical, and otherwise hazardous waste that poisons their land, air, water, and plant and animal relatives. Students will explore examples of environmental racism through the theoretical lenses and conceptual frameworks of Indigenous ecocriticism, ecology, and cosmology and alongside examples of Indigenous-led activist movements for environmental justice. Course materials include documentary films and works of fiction, theory, criticism, and philosophy by Acjachemen/Tongva, Anishinaabe, Laguna Pueblo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Lakota, Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen, Potawatomie, and Tewa authors.
COM LIT (W25)	121  NRRTVE, PTTRN, TXT	DIMENDBERG, E.
Stories surround us and are essential to making sense of the world.  This class will explore ideas of narrative and genre through close readings of literary theory and texts. We will consider beginnings and endings, point of view, causation, character, masterplots, traits of fictional worlds, and distinctions between fiction and non-fiction. Theorists to be discussed include Hayden White, Northrop Frye, Roland Barthes, Peter Brooks, Umberto Eco, Sigmund Freud, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Their ideas will inform our discussions of works by Virginia Woolfe, Italo Calvino, Annie Ernaux, Raymond Queneau, Uwe Johnson, Martin Amis, and  Risa Wataya. Assignments include weekly reading questions, a take-home midterm, and a final research paper.  Instructor: Edward Dimendberg.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	AMIRAN, E.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	CARROLL, A.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	COLMENARES GON, D.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	JOHNSON, A.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	MOR, L.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	RAHIMIEH, N.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	SCHWAB, G.
No detailed description available.
COM LIT (W25)	199  INDPT STDY COMP LIT	TERADA, R.
No detailed description available.