Comparative Literature Program
Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
Phelps Hall 6206
Telephone: (805) 893-2131
Fax: (805) 893-2374
Undergraduate e-mail: gd-complit@complit.ucsb.edu
Graduate e-mail: kmcfadden@gss.ucsb.edu
Website: www.complit.ucsb.edu (will open in a new browser window)
Program Chair: Elisabeth WeberE-mail: weber@gss.ucsb.edu
Contents:
- Comparative Literature Advisory Committee
- Overview
- Senior Honors Program in Comparative Literature
- Undergraduate Program
- Graduate Program
- Comparative Literature Courses
Comparative Literature Advisory Committee
Michael Berry, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies)
Julie Carlson, Ph.D. (English)
Susan Derwin, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Ronald Egan, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies)
Yunte Huang, Ph.D. (English)
Wolf D. Kittler, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Sydney Lévy, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Sara Lindheim, Ph.D. (Classics)
Dwight F. Reynolds, Ph.D. (Religious Studies)
Harvey L. Sharrer, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Jon Snyder, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Elisabeth Weber, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Simon Williams, Ph.D. (Dramatic Art)
Geraldo Aldana, Ph.D. (Chicana and Chicano Studies)
Silvia Bermúdez, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Maurizia Boscagli, Ph.D. (English)
Edward Branigan, Ph.D. (Film Studies)
Leo Cabranes-Grant, Ph.D. (Drama/Spanish and Portuguese)
Joao Camilo dos Santos, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Thomas Carlson, Ph.D. (Religious Studies)
Catherine Cole, Ph.D. (Dramatic Art)
Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook, Ph.D. (English)
Enda Duffy, Ph.D. (English)
Francis Dunn, Ph.D. (Classics)
Jody Enders, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
L.O. Aranye Fradenburg, Ph.D. (English)
Colin Gardner, Ph.D. (Art)
Giles Gunn, Ph.D. (English)
Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Ph.D. (English)
Richard Hecht, Ph.D. (Religious Studies)
Richard Helgerson, Ph.D. (English)
Sara Poot-Herrera, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Jocelyn Holland, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies)
Dolores Hsu, Ph.D. (Music)
Dominique Jullien, Ph.D. (French)
Stephanie LeMenager, Ph.D. (English)
Suzanne Jill Levine, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Didier Maleuvre, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Harold Marcuse, Ph.D. (History)
David Marshall, Ph.D. (English)
Ellen McCracken, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
Catherine Nesci, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Elide Oliver, Ph.D. (Spanish and Portuguese)
William Powell, Ph.D. (Religious Studies)
Eric Prieto, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Laurence Rickels, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Mark Rose, Ph.D. (English)
Katherine Saltzman-Li, Ph.D. (East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies)
Cynthia Skenazi, Ph.D. (French and Italian)
Sven Spieker, Ph.D. (Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies)
Candace Waid, Ph.D. (English)
William Warner, Ph.D. (English)
Kay Young, Ph.D. (English)
Comparative literature, an interdepartmental undergraduate and graduate program, combines the study of national literatures with courses that address the relationship between literature and other disciplines such as anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, philosophy, linguistics, media and technology studies, psychoanalysis, religious studies, and the fine and performing arts.
The Comparative Literature Program offers two undergraduate major tracks leading to the B.A. degree, Comparative Literature with Foreign Language Emphasis and Comparative Literature with Interdisciplinary Emphasis, and M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D. programs at the graduate level.
A degree in comparative literature provides preparation for possible careers as teachers and scholars in literary and cultural studies as well as for careers that require expertise in foreign languages and familiarity with multi-cultural perspectives, such as international journalism, business, law, and diplomacy.
Senior Honors Program in Comparative Literature
To earn departmental senior honors, the student will work with a professor of choice for two quarters to complete a senior thesis, while enrolled in Comparative Literature 199 (Independent Studies). No more than 4 units of 199 credits may be applied to the major requirements. Students who complete departmental honors will receive the notation of “Distinction in the Major” on both official transcripts and their diploma. Students interested in departmental honors should consult with their advisor in Comparative Literature
Bachelor of Arts - Comparative Literature
Preparation for the major. Six quarters (or the equivalent) of a language other than English; three courses from the following: Comparative Literature 30A, 30B, 30C, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35; and one of the following series: History 2A-B-C, 4A-B-C, Art History 6A-B-C, Religious Studies 80A-B-C. Philosophy 20A-B-C.
Upper-division major, Foreign Language Emphasis: A minimum of five upper-division courses in comparative literature, including Comparative Literature 100 (Introduction to Comparative Literature) and Comparative Literature 195 (Junior/Senior Seminar); and six literature courses (of which a minimum of three must be taught in a language other than English). Students wishing to pursue graduate study in comparative literature should select this emphasis and are strongly advised to select literature courses in two foreign languages rather than a single foreign language and English. Note: By petition, up to 8 units of upper-division College of Creative Studies literature courses may be applied to the upper-division major.
Upper-division major, Interdisciplinary Emphasis: A minimum of five upper-division courses in comparative literature, including Comparative Literature 100 (Introduction to Comparative Literature) and Comparative Literature 195 (Junior/Senior Seminar); three literature courses (of which a minimum of one course must be taught in a language other than English); and three courses in a single ancillary discipline (that must be chosen in consultation with the undergraduate advisor). Note: By petition, up to 8 units of upper-division College of Creative Studies literature courses may be applied to the upper-division major.
Minor - Comparative Literature
All courses to be applied to the minor must be completed on a letter-grade basis. This includes both courses offered in comparative literature and those offered by other departments and applied to the minor.
Preparation for the minor. Six quarters (or the equivalent) of foreign language study; two courses from the following: Comparative Literature 30A, 30B, 30C, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35.
Upper-division minor. Twenty upper-division units, distributed as follows: Comparative Literature 100, and 16 units selected from courses in comparative literature.
Note: Substitutions and waivers are subject to approval by the chair of the department. Please see "Academic Minors" for special conditions governing minors in the College of Letters and Science.
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Graduate Program
Graduate study in this program requires completion of graduate courses in comparative literature in addition to courses offered by other departments and programs. These include graduate courses in literature offered by the departments of Classics, Dramatic Art, East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, English, French and Italian, Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. Graduate course work can also be done in related departments such as Anthropology, Communication, Film Studies, History, History of Art and Architecture, Linguistics, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, and Women's Studies. The M.A./Ph.D. is normally a six-year program. The Ph.D. for students who enter with an M.A. should take no more than four years. Applicants to the Comparative Literature Program should confirm that appropriate resources are available for their desired course of study.
In addition to meeting program requirements, candidates for graduate degrees must meet university degree requirements found in the section "Graduate Education at UCSB.”
Admission
In addition to fulfilling all university requirements for admission to graduate status, described in the section "Graduate Education at UCSB,” applicants to the M.A./Ph.D. program will normally have completed an undergraduate major in comparative literature or a related field. For admission to the Ph.D. program, applicants must have completed an M.A. in comparative literature or a closely related field. Application packets for both programs should consist of the following: (1) two official sets of transcripts from all postsecondary institutions; (2) three letters of recommendation; (3) official scores on the GRE general test (sent electronically by ETS) and, if the applicant is not from an English-speaking country, official TOEFL scores (sent electronically by ETS); (4) one writing sample of no more than 25 pages in length; (5) two copies of the statement of purpose; and (6) competence in a foreign language. The writing samples should be substantial papers written in an upper-division or graduate literature course. Foreign language proficiency can be demonstrated by (a) submission of a writing sample in a foreign language, (b) submission of an academic transcript providing a record of classes taken in a foreign language, or (c) evidence that the applicant is a native speaker of a foreign language. The program’s admission policy is based on intellectual potential and promise, academic records, and programmatic fit. The application fee is $60 and can be paid by credit card.
Master of Arts - Comparative Literature
Degree Requirements
The M.A. requires a minimum of 36 units of graduate-level course work in either (a) three national literatures, or, (b) two national literatures and one related discipline chosen in consultation with the graduate advisor. The 36 units of graduate-level course work must include a minimum of 8 graduate units in each of two national literatures and 4 graduate units in the student’s third national literature or the related discipline. Eight additional graduate units must be taken in comparative literature. A maximum of 4 units of 596 course work can be counted toward the master’s degree. By the end of the second year of study, students must pass a written qualifying field examination or successfully complete a thesis in a national literature other than the literature of their native language. The written field examination or thesis will be followed by an oral examination, which must be successfully completed to pass the field examination. Students are invited to join the Ph.D. program by the Graduate Studies Committee. The invitation is contingent upon the student’s performance meeting the standards of excellence needed for Ph.D. study in Comparative Literature at UCSB in graduate course work and on the first qualifying examination, as well as upon the positive recommendations by the student’s exam committee and the faculty with whom the student has worked.
Doctor of Philosophy - Comparative Literature
Degree Requirements
The Ph.D. degree in comparative literature requires the study of three fields consisting of either (a) three national literatures, or, (b) two national literatures and one related discipline. One of the literatures may be English. The other(s) must be studied in the original language. Two fields are considered major and the third minor. The selection of fields must be approved by the graduate advisor.
Students entering the program with an M.A. in comparative literature or a closely related field need a minimum of 24 units of additional graduate-level course work to be distributed in consultation with the graduate advisor. Additional course work may be required to make up for deficiencies. Students must pass three field exams in three national literatures or two national literatures and in a related field. The first field examination should be taken in the first quarter of their second year at UCSB.
For students entering the program with a B.A., a minimum of 60 units of graduate-level course work including work done at the M.A. level is required leading to the Ph.D. A minimum of 12 units of graduate-level course work must be completed in each of the student’s three fields, plus at least 12 additional units of graduate-level course work from the offerings in the Comparative Literature Program, with the remaining 12 units to be distributed among the student’s fields in consultation with the Graduate Advisor. The field exam written at the M.A. level counts as the first field exam for the Ph.D. The other two qualifying field examinations and the remaining 24 units of course work should be completed by the end of the first quarter of the fourth year of study.Students may retake each field exam only one time.
Upon completion of the three field exams, students prepare an oral exam, administered by the dissertation committee, in which they present a dissertation prospectus on the propsed dissertation topic. Students who pass this examination and demonstrate a proficiency in a second foreign language. will be advanced to candidacy. The final requirement is the successful completion of a doctoral dissertation including an oral defense.
Optional Ph.D. Emphasis in East Asian Literatures
The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies offers a doctoral emphasis to students previously admitted to the Ph.D. program in comparative literature. Students pursuing the emphasis in East Asian Literatures must complete four graduate-level courses: a pro-seminar on bibliography and research methodology (Chinese 211 or Japanese 211) and three other approved seminars or reading courses in the student’s field. In addition, students of Chinese literature are expected to have completed at least three years of modern Chinese and three quarters of Classical Chinese (Chinese 101A-B-C) or the equivalent. Students of Japanese are expected to have completed at least four years of modern Japanese and one quarter each of Classical Japanese and Kanbun (Japanese 101A-B).
There are a total of 16 units of coursework required for the emphasis in East Asian literatures, which may also be counted to satisfy the 12 to 24 units of graduate coursework in a national literature necessary for the Ph.D. in comparative literature. The doctoral committee must include a faculty member from the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department, either as committee chair or as one of the three participating members. The dissertation for the emphasis must rely in some significant measure on primary sources in Chinese or Japanese. Contact the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies for additional information on faculty research interests and course offerings.
Optional Ph.D. Emphasis in Women's Studies
The Women’s Studies Program, with over 30 core and affiliated faculty members in over eleven disciplines, serves as a mode of interdisciplinary work and scholarly collaboration at UCSB. Women’s studies doctoral emphasis students are required to complete successfully four seminars that will enhance their understanding of feminist pedagogy, feminist theory, and topics relevant to the study of women, gender, and/or sexuality. Using an interdepartmental set of conversations and intellectual questions, women’s studies support a multifaceted undergraduate curriculum at UCSB. Graduate emphasis students are encouraged to apply to teach women’s studies courses as teaching assistants and associates as part of their women’s studies training.
Applicants must first be admitted to, or currently enrolled in, a UCSB Ph.D. program participating in the women’s studies graduate emphasis: Anthropology; Comparative Literature; Dramatic Art and Dance; English; French and Italian; Germanic, Slavic, and Semitic Studies; History; History of Art and Architecture; Religious Studies; Sociology; or Spanish and Portuguese. Candidates complete four graduate courses and select a member of the women’s studies faculty or affiliated faculty to serve on their Ph.D. exam and dissertation committees. Applications to the Women’s Studies Doctoral Emphasis may be submitted at any stage of Ph.D. work; and applications deadlines are November 1, 2007 and May 1, 2008.
Students pursuing the emphasis in women’s studies will successfully complete four graduate courses. Only one may be taken in the student’s home department.
1. Issues in Feminist Epistemology and Pedagogy (Women’s Studies 270/Fall). A one-quarter seminar that considers women’s studies as a distinct field. It offers an interdisciplinary exploration of feminist theories of knowledge production and teaching practices. Readings cover past and present critical debates and provide theoretical approaches through which to analyze interdisciplinary epistemological and pedagogical issues
2. Special Topics in Women’s Studies (594 AA-ZZ) A one-quarter seminar offered by a women’s studies faculty member on topics of central concern to the field of Women’s Studies.
Or
Research Practicum (Women’s Studies 280). A cross-disciplinary seminar in which fundamental questions in contemporary feminist research practice are considered in light of students’ own graduate projects. Students may fulfill the Area 2 requirement by taking either a Special Topics Seminar or the Research Practicum.
3. Feminist Theories. A one-quarter graduate seminar in feminist theory offered by any department, including women’s studies.
4. Topical Seminar. A one-quarter graduate seminar, outside the student’s home department, that addresses topics relevant to the study of women, gender, and/or sexuality.
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Comparative Literature Courses
30A-B-C. Major Works of European Literature
(4-4-4) Staff
A survey of European literature.
A. Classical and medieval literature from Homer to Dante.
B. Renaissance and Neoclassical literature from Petrarch to Diderot.
C. Romantic and modern literature from Rousseau to Solzhenitsyn.
31. Major Works of Asian Literatures
(4) Egan
An introduction to the diverse literary traditions of Asia through an examination of selected works. Regional focus on East, South, and Southeast Asia varies.
32. Major Works of Middle Eastern Literatures
(4) Staff
An introduction to the diverse literary traditions of the Middle East through an examination of selected works. Regional focus on North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia varies.
33. Major Works of African Literatures
(4) Strongman, Akudinobi
Same course as Black Studies 33.
An introduction to the diverse literary traditions of Africa through an examination of selected works. Regional focus on North, West, East, Central, and South Africa varies.
34. Literature of the Americas
(4) McCracken, Oliver, Gutierrez-Jones
An introduction to the diverse literary traditions of the Americas through an examination of selected works. Regional focus on North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America varies.
35. The Making of the Modern World
(4) Lévy
Description and analysis of decisive events contributing to the world we are inhabiting. Various themes presented: city planning, war and industrial warfare, technology and media-technology, ideologies of modernity, and modern master theories.
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100. Introduction to Comparative Literature
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Addresses questions of methodology and also development and debates in the history of literary and critical theory.
103. Going Postal: Epistolary Narratives
(4) Cook
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Investigates reappearance of the letter-novel at particular historical moments, and paradoxes built into the letter-form itself. Range of works emphasizing the eighteenth- and later twentieth-century novels, likely including works by Austen, Goethe, Hoffman, James, Montesquieu, Choderlos de Laclos, Lydia Davis, Pynchon.
107. Voyages to the Unknown
(4) Skenazi
Prerequisites: Writing 2 and 50.
Same course as French 146X.
The impact of the voyages of discovery on late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe. Readings on real and imaginary voyages: Columbus, Cartier, Lery, More, Rabelais, Montaigne.
109. Game and Literature
(4) Maurseth
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
An interdisciplinary inquiry into the motive of game in 18th-20th century literature. Focus is on the moral, psychological and epistemological dimensions of game according to both form and function. Considerations of the stylistic, narrative and rhetorical components of texts.
111. Dreaming in Cultural Contexts
(4) Plane
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Explores dreams and dreaming in multiple historical and cultural contexts and pays particular attention to dreams and dream reports as unconscious and intra-psychic as well as social and cultural communications. A variety of historical, ethnographics, psychoanalytic, and literary texts are considered.
113. Trauma, Memory, Historiography
(4) Derwin, Weber
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units with consent of department chair.
How do individuals, communities, cultures, nations remember and/or forget, preserve and/or erase, traumatic events?
115. Introduction to Folk Tales
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: English 10 or Writing 50 or upper-division standing.
Not open for credit to students who have completed Interdisciplinary 115.
Broad survey of folk tales from all over the world. Types, motifs, research, and history.
117A-B. European Romanticism(s)
(4-4) Holland
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Roots: Romantic tendencies as they emerge against the backdrop of the eighteenth-century, the Middle Ages, and antiquity.
Cultivation: Romantic literature and science in their manifold relation to nature.
119. Psychoanalytic Theory
(4) Derwin, Weber, Fradenburg
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 8 units with consent of department chair.
Topics to be addresses each quarter will be chosen from the following: origins of psychoanalysis; sado-masochism; the death-drive; psychoanalysis and the law; group-psychology; psychoanalysis and the media; literature and psychoanalysis.
120. Adventures of Chivalry, Courtship and War: Arthurian Romance and the Chivalric Novel
(4) Sharrer
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Arthurian and chivalric fiction from the medieval period to the time of Cervantes. The evolution of the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and the rise of new chivalric heroes and modes of fiction.
121. What is a Hero?
(4) Jullien
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Focus on the idea of heroes and heroism in the Western tradition through readings of the three major epics of Greek and Latin Antiquity (the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid), along with selections from modern variations on these old stories.
122A. Representations of the Holocaust
(4) Derwin
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as German 116A. Not open for credit to students who have completed German 116A.
Close reading of post-Holocaust literature. Taught in English.
122B. Holocaust in France
(4) Derwin, Nesci
Same course as French 122X.
Through analysis of testimonies, memoirs, fiction, and film, this course focuses on France under the Nazi occupation. Topics include the Vichy Regime (1940-1945), The Resistance Movement, the Church under Vichy, anit-Semitism, deportations and concentration camp imprisonment, and national memory after World War II.
124. Old Comedy/New Comedy
(4) Young
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
What is comedy? Is it what prompts laughter? Is it a particular structural form? Study of theories of comedy and comic forms across cultures and times under the headings of “Old” and “New” to work through the nature of comedy.
126. Comparative Black Literatures
(4) Strongman
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as Black Studies 126.
Using a social constructist approach to race, this course examines the multiple ways in which racial discourses operate in global literary cultures. Emphasizes that blackness need not be a homogenous concept in order to continue to be a powerful agent in our postmodern world.
128A. Children’s Literature
(4) Snyder
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Classic texts and theories of children’s literature, from Perrault and Wilde to Freud and Propp. Examination of narrative and ideological strategies for constructing and representing “childhood” in modernity, with emphasis on their relationship to the family and the marketplace.
128B. Representing Childhood
(4) Derwin
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Course examines European and American representations of childhood in works of fiction, painting, photography, psychoanalysis, and pedagogy from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Topics include religious views of the child, sexuality and childhood, discipline, play , and children in media.
129. Theory and Text: Petrarch and Shakespeare’s Sonnets
(4) Corum
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
An opportunity to bring several powerful theoretical discourses to bear on the two most exceptional sonnet sequences of early modern cultures - Petrarch’s at the beginning, Shakespeare’s at the end.
137. Mind Games
(4) Levy
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Exploration of works challenging our intellectual and cognitive faculties with paradoxes, manipulations of space and time, logical abberations and the like. Authors may include Poe, Stevenson, Maupassant, Balzac, Melville,Borges, Kafka, Bioy-Casares, Nabokov, Cortazar, Barth, Calvino, Pynchon, Vonnegut, Queneau, Perec.
146. Robots
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
From eighteenth-century clockwork automata to Turing’s universal machine, investigation of the function and representation of machines in literature,philosophy, film and animation. Texts by Kant, Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Kafka, Wiener, and Alan Turing, SciFi films and computer games.
148. Creative Chaos
(4) Holland
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Chaos: is it primordial mayhem and confusion? Or does chaos permit the possibility of form and creativity? Course explores the order and disorder of chaos within literary, scientific, and philosophical narratives. From Hesiod and Ovid through Diderot, Wordsworth, and Pynchon.
149. Rhetoric of Crime
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Focusing on the interrelations between law and literature this course examines American and European representations of crime and punishment in the lawcourts, theater, cinema, and television from Euripides to the Court-Television network. Readings and screenings from writers, judges, andjurists. In English.
150. Contemporary Literary Criticism
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
May be repeated for credit.
Studies in modern and post-modern literary theory. In any one quarter, the course will examine two or three basic orientations such as structuralism, semiotics, hermeneutics, deconstruction, or the esthetics of reception.
153. Border Narratives
(4) Gutierrez-Jones
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Examination of novels, short stories, and films that engage U.S./Mexico border dynamics considering the ways diverse, interactive processes are affecting border culture, and inquiring into the ways cultural products critically respond to these processes.
154. Science Fiction in Eastern Europe
(4) McClain
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as Slavic 164B.
The genre of science fiction and its development in literature and film in the various cultures of Eastern Europe. Topics include utopia, dystopia, technology, the “mad” scientist, etc.
161. Literature of Central Europe
(4) Spieker
Same course as German 151C and Slavic 151C.
Investigation of the prolific literatures of central Europe, one of the culturally and linguistically most diverse regions of the European continent that has produced writers such as Italo Svevo, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Bruno Schulz, and others. Readings in English.
170. Literary Translation: Theory and Practice
(4) Levine
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Examination of translation and the canon, questioning the hierarchical division between translation and original, illustrating the concept of the original as translation and the literary text as “work-in-progress” in which translation forms part of the creative process.
171. Post-Colonial Francophone Narrative
(4) Prieto
Same course as French 192X.
Study of fiction from the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Magreb. Born of the conflict between and hybridization of widely differing cultural traditions, this course provided insights into the vibrancy of contemporary post-colonial societies, the ongoing legacy of colonialism, and the meaning of multiculturalism. In English.
173. Life Stories: Biography and Autobiography in a Comparative Context
(4) Saltzman-Li
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
An exploration of biography and autobiography. Examples to be chosen from Western European, American, Japanese, and Chinese literature with a view towards defining these two terms with comparative and historicized significance.
174. Metamorphosis
(4) Holland
Narratives of metamorphosis challenge our preconceived notions of identity and form. This course investigates metamorphosis as a scientific, social, and philosophical problem, drawing from literature (Ovid, Stevenson, Kafka, Cortazar, etc.) and the visual arts, including film.
179B. Mysticism
(4) Weber
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as German 179B. Not open for credit to students who have completed German 169.
Analysis of German mystical writing, its roots in ancient Greek texts, revolutionary impact, links with other mystical traditions, and influence on secular literature. Texts include Hildegard von Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Mechthild von Magdeburg, Novalis, Rilke, etc. Taught in English.
179C. Mediatechnology
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as German 179C. Not open for credit to students who have completed German 180.
Telegraph, telephone, phonograph, and film are techniques that have engendered new forms of representation, communication, and thinking. Course studies the impact of these transformations in literature and on literature. Taught in English.
180. The European Renaissance
(4) Helgerson
Prerequisites: Writing 2 and 50; or Writing 109AA-ZZ or English 10.
Same course as English 144.
The generic forms and cultural issues characteristic of early modern European poetry, fiction, and drama. Such authors as Petrarch, Boccaccio, More, Rabelais, Ariosto, Montaigne, Camoes, Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Cervantes.
183. The Quest for Narrative in Late Imperial China
(4) Powell
Same course as Religious Studies 183.
An exploration of quest themes, narrative forms and performative modes in the culture of Late Imperial China based on a reading of an English translation for the sixteenth century masterpiece, The Journey to the West (Monkey).
186AA-ZZ. Interdisciplinary Comparative Literature Studies
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units provided letter designations are different.
Interdisciplinary examination of selected topics, theories, disciplinary issues, and/or methodological questions in the combined study of literature and other areas of the humanities and humanistic sciences. Course focus will be determined by the instructor(s).
187. Strauss and Hofmannsthal
(4) Hsu
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Same course as Music 187.
A course in the collaboration between composer and poet. A study in the operas, the correspondence, and related developments in German music in the early twentieth century.
188. Narrative Studies
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Study of various forms, e.g., novel, shorty story, essay, memoir, with a specific focus each quarter. Topics to be addressed may include strategies of narration, the history of particular narrative forms, what is meant by literary style.
191. Fantasy and the Fantastic
(4) LÉvy
Same course as French 196X.
Course explores works that manipulate our conceptions of space and time, undermining our sense of reality. Works by Balzac, Poe, Merimée, Stevenson, James, and Borges.
195. Junior/Senior Seminar
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
Selected methodological issues in comparative literature. Topics vary with each instructor.
197. Upper Division Special Topics
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: upper-division standing.
May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units.
Content will vary with each instructor.
199. Independent Studies in Comparative Literature
(1-5) Staff
Prerequisites: upper-division standing; completion of two upper-division courses in comparative literature.
Must have a minimum 3.0 grade-point average for the preceding three quarters. Students are limited to 5 units per quarter and 30 units total in all 98/99/198/199/199AA-ZZ courses combined. Comparative Literature 199 may be repeated for credit to a maximum of 30 units, but only 12 units may be applied toward the major.
Independent studies with any faculty member. To permit study of a subject desired by the student but not covered in course offerings.
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200. Seminar in Comparative Literature
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
Addresses issues of methodology and literary theory. Specific authors and topics vary from class to class.
209. Religion and Politics in Pier Pasolini and Georges Bataille
(4) Wittman
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
Same course as French 209.
Explores how recent interest in the connections between religion and politics has brought to the fore the works of director, poet, and political agitator Pier Paolo Pasolini, and philosopher and founder of the Collège de Sociologie, Georges Bataille.
235. Symbolism, Decadence, and the Origins of Modernism in Italy and France
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
From Mallarmé to Marinetti, this course explores the continuities between the obsessions of decadence (the dandy, the femme fatale, and the “death of God”), and the revolutionary claims of Modernism (asserting artistic autonomy, freeing the unconscious, politicizing the personal).
236. Media History Theory
(4) Warner
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
Interweaves a study of the emergence of several kinds of twentieth century media including radio, film, television, and the internet, with key texts of media theory including Benjamin, Adorno, MdLuhan, Debord, Hall, and others.
237. Literature and the Sacred
(4) Staff
Prerequisite: graduate standing.
Same course as Religious Studies 277.
Explores theories of the sacred, and its radical otherness, in relation to writing and poetics, in twentieth century French and Italian thought. Authors include: Caillois, Bataille, Paulhan, Eco, Ricoeur, Cacciari, Blanchot, Vattimo, Kristiva, Derrida, Lacan, Irigaray. In English.
249. Music and Literature
(4) Prieto
Study of interrelations of music and literature, with emphasis on modernist interest in using principles from one art to guide creation in the other. Literary texts from Symbolists to Beckett and Burgess; theory: Aristotle to Adorno; music: from Wagner to S. Reich.
260. Literary Translation: Theory and Practice
(4) Levine
Examination of translation and the canon, questioning the hierarchical division between translation and original, illustrating the concept of the original as translation and the literary text as “work-in-progress” in which translation forms part of the creative process.
265. Studies in Renaissance Literature: Comparative Study of Early Modern European Literature
(4) Helgerson
Topics and content will vary and may include: the place of the domestic in early modern European drama and painting, Petrarchism and the formation of national literatures in Spain, France, and England, and Renaissance fiction from More to Cervantes.
287. Strauss and Hofmannsthal
(4) Hsu
Same course as Music 287.
A course in the collaboration between composer and poet. A study in the operas, the correspondence, and related developments in German music in the early twentieth century.
591. Teaching Assistant Practicum
(4) Staff
Units earned do not apply toward completion of advanced degrees.
Supervised teaching of lower-division comparative literature courses at UCSB. Participation in occasional workshops related to the field of teaching will be required.
594. Special Topics
(4) Staff
A special seminar on research subjects of current interest.
596. Directed Reading and Research
(2-18) Staff
Minimum of 2 units per quarter. No more than half of units required for M.A. may be taken in 596 series. Letter grade only.
Individual tutorial. A written proposal for each tutorial must be approved by the program chair.
597. Individual Study for M.A. Comprehensive and Ph.D. Examinations
(1-12) Staff
No unit credit allowed toward advanced degree. Enrollment limited to 24 units per examination (12 units maximum in any one examination quarter). S/U grading only.
For individual study with major professor or chair or director of student’s program.
598. Master’s Thesis Research and Preparation
(2-12) Staff
No unit credit allowed toward advanced degree. S/U grading only.
For research and writing of the master’s thesis.
599. Ph.D. Dissertation Research and Preparation
(2-12) Staff
S/U grading only.
For research and writing of the doctoral dissertation. Instructor should be chair of the student’s doctoral committee.
