Spring 2024

A broad introduction to the great works of Western culture from antiquity to 1800.

A comparative study of the Asian aesthetic heritage of poetry, painting, music, and drama; of literary themes, trends, and myths.

Introduction to general forms of reflection on literary discourse.

Study of the Modernist aesthetic in narrative texts by Gide, Joyce, Kafka, Woolf and others; possible focus on related trends in other literary traditions.

Study of mass-reproduced verbal and visual art forms, such as graphic novels, comics, animation, popular music, video, graffiti, advertising.

Study of health, the body and medicine through literature and culture in comparative fashion. Taught in English.

Literary representations and theories of gender difference. Examines questions of gendered voice in writing and the cultural construction of gender in various periods and cultures.

Studies of the presence and influence of Zen Buddhism and Daoism in Asian literature, with a focus on China and Japan.

Examination of literary and autobiographical texts that raise questions of justice in multicultural societies; links to theories of justice in historical, political, or philosophical contexts.

Analysis of European texts -- literary, musical, philosophical, visual -- that focus on other cultures, as well as of non-European texts dealing with Europe or European cultural forms.

Analysis of the Divina Commedia and other works. Conducted in English. (Duplicates credit in former ITAL 450)

The reciprocal, ideological relations between modes of listening, sounds, music; and literature, film, culture. Examines a range of issues in auditory culture across a broad historical span.

Individual research and readings. Not available for graduate credit.

Writing of an honors thesis under individual faculty supervision.

Workshop in translation; capstone to graduate certificate in Translation Studies.

Intensive study of a theoretical tradition or critical movement, or of an individual topic or thinker, in literary criticism or theory.