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Course Catalog

WORD & IMAGE: LIT. & THE VISUAL ARTS (CL3002)

Looks at relations between language and visual form in the development of European modernism. Readings include works by Baudelaire, Pound, Joyce, Mallarmé, Woolf, Apollinaire, Lewis, Benjamin. Studies creative innovation as expression of utopian imagination, on a historical spectrum from Romantic synaesthesia, the interchange of sensory and cognitive pathways as desired transcendence, to the productive, open dislocations of modern capitalist society. Examines a wider cultural history of the integration of verbal and visual signs, and parallels in music, painting and theatre.

GREEK & ROMAN KEY TEXTS (CL3017)

In-depth study of Ancient Greek and Latin texts or authors of both literary and philosophical interest. Subjects may include, e.g., the comparison of a Greek and a Roman philosopher; close reading of the oeuvre, or part of an oeuvre, of one author; the literary and philosophical analysis of a collection of thematically and generically connected passages
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PRODUCT'N, TRANSLAT'N, CREAT'N, PUBLICAT'N (CL3020)

Workshops a range of professional writing and presentation skills for the cultural sphere (cultural journalism, reviewing, grant applications, creative pitches, page layout). Students collectively produce and maintain a website of cultural activity in Paris. Practical work is placed in cultural and theoretical contexts, including introduction to the publication industry, legal contexts, and cultural studies.

MEDIEVAL CULTURE: MARGERY KEMPE AND GEOFFREY CHAUCER (CL3023)

Presents the work of Chaucer in the perspective of the European philosophical, humanistic, and poetic developments of his age. The Latin philosophical background includes consideration of the Augustinian ideal of Christian humanism and the traditions of speculation on Divine Providence. Considers the French poetic tradition and multilingual poetic traditions supporting the generic diversity of The Canterbury Tales.

DANTE & MEDIEVAL CULTURE (CL3025)

Offers a detailed investigation of The Divine Comedy. Traces Dante's development in several related areas (love, mysticism, allegory, poetics, politics) and his affinity with other key cultural figures (Virgil, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas, Boccaccio). Includes an overview of medieval history.

EMPIRES OF LANGUAGE: PREMODERN COSMOPOLITANISM (CL3028)

In this course we examine how global languages constituted transnational communities in the premodern world. We will look at texts that illustrate premodern forms of cosmopolitanism wherein the use of a literary language like Sanskrit, Latin, and Arabic signals a local writer’s affiliation to global networks of cultural and political power. This course is cross-listed with linguistics. There are no prerequisites.

CERVANTES & RENAISSANCE COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (CL3029)

Introduces the Renaissance ideal through Petrarca and Cervantes. Examines: lyric origins of the love sonnet and sequence with influence across Europe; narrative, with relations of the novella collection to medieval antecedents and the birth of the novel; drama, in connection to classical and modern comedy and tragedy. Includes: Petrarch, Boccaccio, La Celestina, Machiavelli, picaresque novel, feminist poetry, and Golden Age drama.

Fulfills the Renaissance period requirement for the major in Comparative Literature. Original language option Spanish or Italian.

PHILOSOPHY & THE THEATER (CL3030)

This course develops a philosophical analysis of three major ruptures in the history of theater: first, the initial Greek encounter between philosophy and theater; second the emergence of realism from Diderot to Stanislavsky; and finally modernism, marked by the groundbreaking explorations of Meyerhold, Brecht and Artaud. Four plays will be studied in tandem with theatrical manifestoes and philosophical texts.

THE MONSTROUS AND FABULOUS RENAISSANCE (CL3032)

This course is bilingual in nature and outlines the historical and literary contexts of the Renaissance from a Franco-centric perspective. Students will study texts by a range of Renaissance authors (including Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, Montaigne, Marlowe and Shakespeare) while learning about earlymodern book culture, medicine, cartography, religion, colonization, magic, monsters, witchcraft and plagues. They shall also seek to comprehend how France became dominant in language and literature throughout Europe for centuries to follow.