Graduate Courses Fall 2008

Comparative Literature 466/Meets with Lit. Trans 410 (French & Italian) - Literatures and The Other Arts
Lecture: TR 1:00-2:15 - 6224 Social Science
Disc: R 2:25 - 53 Bascom
Professor Ernesto Livorni

El, D'Annunzio and Pirandello: Novels and Plays

The course will focus on some novels and plays by the two Italian writers Gabriele D'Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello. Their works will be considered in the context of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European literature. Some issues that will be discussed are: the cultural shift from an objective to a symbolic representation of reality; the notion of decadence; the struggle between life and art; the resistance to relativity.

Comparative Literature 475 / Poetics and Literary Theory - Existentialism & Literature
Professor Max Statkiewicz -
Ph (608) 262-7862 - 958 Van Hise

Lecture 001 (3 credits): MW 2:30-3:45 / 599 Van Hise
Disc 301 (4th credit): M 4:00 - 486 Van Hise
Note: When registering for the Lecture for 3 credits: Pick Opt Section for 3 credits. When registering for lecture & discussion for 4 credits, Opt Sec. for 4 credits, you must enroll in the disc. section as well when registering for 4 credits.

"Existentialism" is a somewhat imprecise and yet intriguing term under which various philosophical, religious, and literary texts are often grouped. There is hardly a common agreement between the teachers and the editors of anthologies as to the choice of texts; there is no existentialist canon. An attempt to constitute such a canon, to formulate a coherent series of principles that would define a way of thought conspicuously hostile to any system, might in fact be inappropriate. We will thus begin our study from the assumption that it is important to present the debates and controversies surrounding the term "existentialism," to re-apprise the legacy of existentialism (Schrift), to study the texts that programmatically reject the security of systematic knowledge and question Western metaphysics, essential humanism, and nihilism. Our own discussion will focus on such "existential" notions as "dread," "authenticity," "alienation," "being toward death," "facticity," "the absurd," "choice and responsibility," "freedom." One of the consequences of these considerations is that they force us to reconsider the apparently clear borders between various disciplines and in particular between philosophy and literature. Thus our texts will often flout the traditional generic divisions. Texts (required and recommended):

Adorno, The Jargon of Authenticity
Camus, The Fall, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Possessed (adaptation), Caligula
Dostoevsky, The Possessed, Notes from Underground
Duras, The Malady of Death
Heidegger, Being and Time (excerpts), "What is Metaphysics?," "Letter on Humanism"
Jaspers, Reason and Existenz: Five Lectures
Kafka, "A Hunger Artist," The Trial
Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling, The Sickness unto Death
Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Antichrist, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols
Pascal, Pensées (excerpts)
Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
Sartre, Nausea, "Existentialism is a Humanism," No Exit, The Flies, "The Wall"

Photocopies of literary texts and theoretical essays

Comparative Literature 475 / Meets with German 741 - Poetics and Literary Theory
Professor Hans Adler-
Ph (608) 262-9863 - 870 Van Hise
Lecture: 002 (3 credits): R 3:30-6:00 - 209 Van Hise

A hedonist understanding starts from the assumption that consumers of literature do not have to make any efforts when reading: all they have to do is enjoy. If, however, we want to know why and how texts--read, performed, presented, 'evented'--affect us in an inimitable way, we have to reflect on literature and its particular qualities. In short: we look at the specifics of literature and its functions within their respective contexts. What is exclusively specific for literature (as opposed to, e.g., the visual arts, historiography, philosophy, etc.)? How, precisely, do we leap from enjoying to analyzing, and then to enjoying more "deeply" after the analysis of literary texts? What are functions of literature for the psychological economy of human beings? for societies? cultures? Does literature serve a purpose? What, then, is the purpose of literature that declares explicitly to not serve any purpose?

In this course, we will start from discussing some generic concepts that pertain to the field of literature as a subfield of human culture. Then, we will devote some of our time to very close readings of literary texts from different languages, authors, and times. Based on our reading experience, we will develop sets of questions that relate to the fundament of literary scholarship. We will start from our own set of questions and develop strategies (methods, i.e., controlled approaches) to find satisfying answers to our questions. Finally, we will seek support from authors who already invested energy and talent in this type of investigation. From close reading to reflecting to reflecting on (already existing) reflections leads us from simple stages of theorizing to complex levels of literary theory and poetics. Our goal is to better understand literary theory and poetics as 'windows on literature.'

The dominant form of this course will be in-class discussion. Participants will give short presentations on limited topics in class . A final research paper will be written in consultation with the instructor. Among the author we will read are Gustave Flaubert, Robert Musil, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Hölderlin, Theodor W. Adorno, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Roland Barthes, Barbara Johnson, Terry Eagleton, Hayden White, Clifford Geertz, and others.

Comparative Literature 777: Literary Periods - Medieval & Early Modern Lit.
Professor Chris Livanos -
950 Van Hise - 263-3851
M 4:00-6:30 - 951 Van Hise

This course will begin with Dante's Divine Comedy as the high point of medieval literature, and to gain an understanding of certain points of medieval thought that Renaissance writers inherited and questioned. We will then turn to Rabelais' larger-than-life heroes, and discuss why Rabelais would focus on characters who are almost monstrous in order to show us what is quintessentially human. In our study of Gargantua and Pantagruel, we will read Mikhail Bakhtin's important work on elements of the carnival and popular culture in Rabelais, situating him at the crossroads of medieval and Renaissance thought. We will also discuss responses to Bakhtin as well as a selection of other readings of Rabelais.

In our reading of Don Quijote, in addition to having a good laugh, we will examine the Moorish presence that permeates the novel even though the Moors had long since been expelled from Spain . As we turn to Shakespeare, our laughter will turn to tears, and Stephen Greenblatt's Hamlet in Purgatory will help us explore what happened to the idea of Purgatory in the three centuries since Dante.

All texts will be available in translation, but students working in Spanish, French, or Italian are encouraged to read the appropriate texts in the original languages.

Comparative Literature 974 - Gender, Modernity, and the Novel
Professor Mary Layoun -
938 Van Hise - 262-9767
Lecture: T 4:00-6:30
355 Van Hise

Gender, Modernity, and the Novel will examine selected origins and developments of the modern novel as an expansively global narrative genre. From the putative origins of the novel in England and Europe – origins inextricably linked to empire and nation – we’ll turn to strategic, selected developments in the novel as a global form in an attempt to think critically about the novel, gender, modernity – and ‘global relations’ – in the early 21st century.

Readings will include work by the following authors:
Nancy Armstrong
Mikhail Bakhtin
Josephine Donovan
Rita Felski
Susan Friedman
Paul Gilroy
Terry Lovell
Georg Lukács
Michael McKeon

Denis Diderot
Ralph Ellison
Yahya Haqqi
Fumiko Hayashi
Abdel-Rahman Munif
Alexandros Papdiamandis
Natsumi Soseki
Laurence Sterne
Alki Zei