Academic Calendar 2007 (old)» UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION» Comparative Literature and Culture
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Comparative Literature and Culture

Comparative Literature and Culture Courses
 
020021E023100101110F/G115F/G
120F/G130F/G140F/G150F/G188F/G191F/G-194F/G204F/G
205F/G210E211F/G-212F/G218F/G219F/G236F/G240F/G
250F/G260F/G270F/G271F/G272F/G273F/G275F/G
280F/G285F/G290E291F/G-294F/G295F/G296F/G333F/G
334F/G335F/G370F/G380F/G391F/G-394F/G410E411F/G
470F/G471F/G491F/G-492F/G493F/G494F/G-495F/G

Comparative Literature and Culture 020, Western Culture across the Ages
Description: A multi-media overview of the major writers, artists, thinkers, and composers that have shaped Western culture from ancient times to the twenty-first century. Figures studied include Homer, Dante, Michelangelo, Cervantes, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Picasso, Kafka, Borges.
2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour, 1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 021E, African and Asian Cultures Across the Ages
Description: Through the study of literary texts, visual arts, philosophy, music and film, this introductory survey course will cover major developments in the literatures and civilizations of Africa, the Near East, India, China and Japan.
3 hours, 1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 023, Sex and Culture
Description: Drawing on literature, philosophy, art, and cinema, this introductory course will explore fundamental questions about human sexuality (e.g. What is the origin of sex?). Major works of the erotic imagination will be studied in relation to the cultures represented in them.
3 lecture hours, 1.0 course.
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CLC 100, The Capitals of Italian Culture
Description: An overview of Italian culture from antiquity to the present day; designed as a tour through Rome, Florence, Urbino, Siena, Trieste, Venice, etc. Each cultural capital will be explored with reference to architecture and city planning, finance and technology, cuisine, literature, music, opera, film, and visual arts. Taught in English.
Antirequisite(s): Italian 100
3 hours, 1.0 course.
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CLC 101, The Hispanic Experience
Description: An interdisciplinary survey of Spanish and Latin-American societies, oriented toward trans-Atlantic contacts and conflicts. Topics covered include history, religion, politics, philosophy, literature, visual arts, and popular culture. Taught in English.
Antirequisite(s): Spanish 101
3 hours, 1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 110F/G, Utopias and Visions of the Future
Description: The course will deal with visions of "the good place" from Genesis to Orwell's 1984.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 115F/G, The Irrational in 20th-Century Literature and Art
Description: An interdisciplinary study of surrealism in European literature and art, and of magic realism in Latin American fiction. Special emphasis will be placed on their relationship with contemporary psychological and anthropological thought. Readings will include Freud, Jung, Breton and García Márquez. Examples of surrealism in art will be shown.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 120F/G, The Grotesque
Description: The reading will concentrate on absurd and irrational views of human existence. The role of black humour and supernatural elements in Poe, Gogol, Kafka and others will be studied. Examples of the grotesque in art will also be shown.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 130F/G, International Children's Literature
Description: This course surveys the children's novel of the 19th and 20th centuries. Works of pure fantasy as well as realistic novels are read. Novels for young readers and teenagers from a variety of non-English-speaking countries are covered. All works are read in English translation.
Antirequisite(s): CLC 191G if taken in 2002/03.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 140F/G, Seven Great Myths of Western Desire
Description: A study of the philosophical, theological, and poetic extensions of seven great myths of desire: Semele, Narcissus, Flora, Mars and Venus, Orpheus, Cupid and Psyche, Ganymede. Each myth will be studied in four versions (classical, medieval, Renaissance, and modern), along with theories of myth and theories of desire.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 150F/G, The Languages of Europe
Description: A linguistic survey of Western and Eastern Europe with emphasis on the principal structural features of the contemporary languages and the main lines of their historical and cultural development. Among the issues discussed: language vs dialect, language classification and typology, the development of writing systems. No previous training in linguistics required.
Antirequisite(s): Linguistics 250F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 188F/G, The Comic in European Literature
Description: A survey of the comic, satiric, grotesque, and carnivalesque in European literature. Emphasis will be placed on the sociopolitical context of literature and the use of the comic as a subversive device.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 191F/G-194F/G, Special Topic in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Please consult department for current offering.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 204F/G, Research Methods
Description: Mandatory for students in CLC Honors Specialization, Major and Specialization modules. This course will consider how to do research and write academic papers in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
Antirequisite(s): German 204F/G and Spanish 204F/G
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 205F/G, Introduction to Literary Theory
Description: Mandatory for students in CLC Honors Specialization, Major, and Specialization modules. Students will study different methods of literary interpretation with emphasis on 20th century critical theory and engage in literary analysis.
Antirequisite(s): The former French 132a/b and Spanish 205F/G, German 205F/G and French 312F/G.
3 hours, 0.5 course
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Comparative Literature and Culture 210E, Mediterranean Studies
Description: An introduction to the interactions among the diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political communities of the Mediterranean world. Topics covered will be drawn from textual and material culture (literature, thought, art, architecture, science, clothing, cuisine, etc.).
Prerequisite(s): CLC 020, 021E, the former CLC 021, or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 211F/G-212F/G, Mediterranean Cultures: Special Topics
Description: A study of cultural, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political communities in the Mediterranean Basin, and of the interactions brought about by contact, conflict, and geographic mobility.
Prerequisite(s): CLC 020, 021E, the former CLC 021, or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 218F/G, Spanish Civilization
Description: An introduction to the historical evolution of Spain accompanied by selected political and philosophical texts, artistic products, and other materials.
Antirequisite(s): Spanish 218F/G
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020, or permission of the department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 219F/G, Spanish American Civilization
Description: An introduction to the cultural evolution of Spanish America accompanied by selected literary, political, and philosophical texts, artistic products, and other materials.
Antirequisite(s): Spanish 219F/G
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020, or permission of the department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 236F/G, Literature and Culture of the Middle Ages
Description: Medieval European literature from its heroic beginnings to its first great coming of age in the works of chivalry and romantic love is examined in its cultural context. All works are read in modern English translation.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 240F/G, Culture of the Renaissance in Europe
Description: A survey of major works of literature and art by men and women in the social and political context of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 250F/G, Reality and Illusion: Baroque Culture in 17th Century Europe
Description: The dynamics of a period of crisis are revealed in its literature, art and philosophy. Among the figures studied are Bernini, Calderon, Velazquez, Descartes and Galileo.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 260F/G, Culture of the Enlightenment
Description: A survey of artistic and literary manifestations of 18th century European culture. Works by Goldoni, Voltaire and Lessing are among the texts studied.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 270F/G, The Romantic Period
Description: A study of the literature, art, and music of the period 1770-1850 in Europe. Major themes include individualism, Romantic heroism, revolution, and the revival of interest in medievalism, folklore, childhood and nature.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 271F/G, Nineteenth-century Culture
Description: The development of Western literature, philosophy, and aesthetics during the second half of the nineteenth century, in the context of music, painting, and social movements. Authors studied may include: Leopardi, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Marx, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Dostoevsky, Strindberg, Freud.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 272F/G, Modernism
Description: A study of the literary, artistic, cinematic, and intellectual dimensions of Western modernism, and of their importance as a response to radical changes in human experience occurring between ca.1890 and 1930. The poetry, cinema, prose, and painting of such figures as Pirandello, Joyce, Marinetti, Lang, Kafka, Pessoa, Rilke, Proust, Klee, and Woolf will be studied.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 273F/G, Postmodernism
Description: An approach to the most significant developments in late modern and postmodern Western culture. Authors studied may include Cortázar, Butor, Foucault, Pynchon, Borges, García Márquez, Bacon, Vonnegut.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 275F/G, Dostoevsky
Description: The course involves reading most of Dostoevsky's major fiction, and traces his intellectual and artistic development from his literary debut in 1846, through his Siberian imprisonment, to the publication of Brothers Karamazov in 1880.
Antirequisite(s): Russian 158F/G and Russian 258F/G
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 280F/G, The Great Age of the Novel
Description: Masterpieces of European fiction during the period 1830-1900 and their context within the art and history of the times. Each year a specific topic will be examined in the light of selected readings. Past topics include: Love and Politics, the Adulterous Wife, the Pastoral, the Family, and the Historical Novel.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 285F/G, The Sagas of the Vikings
Description: This early European literary tradition will be approached primarily through the Family Sagas (c. 1225-1325). Among the issues investigated are the heroic ethic, the role of women, the outlawed hero, pagan vs Christian elements.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 290E, Alienation, Protest and Rebellion in Modern European Culture
Description: A study of selected works by some major European writers and artists, expressing criticism of modern life and society, and often pointing to alternative values. Readings will include works by Dostoevsky, Camus, Sartre, and others.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 lecture hours, 1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 291F/G-294F/G, Special Topic in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Please consult Department for current offering.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 295F/G, The Modern Short Story
Description: The course will concentrate on selected masterpieces of 19th- and 20th-century short fiction. The genre will be illustrated in such authors as Kleist, Chekhov, Conrad, Mansfield, Hemingway, Cortázar, and will be examined as a relatively stable genre within the framework of changing literary trends, including Romanticism, Realism, Modernism.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 296F/G, Special Topic in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Please consult department for current offering.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course
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Comparative Literature and Culture 333F/G, Dante's Inferno
Description: A study of Dante's Inferno, along with background topics such as medieval theology, cosmology, poetics, and politics.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 334F/G, Dante's Purgatorio
Description: A study of Dante's Purgatorio, along with background topics such as medieval theology, cosmology, poetics, and politics.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 335F/G, Dante's Paradiso
Description: A study of Dante's Paradiso, along with background topics such as medieval theology, cosmology, poetics, and politics.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 370F/G, Documents of German Intellectual History
Description: Texts selected from the intellectual canon of the period from the Reformation to the twentieth century, by such authors as Luther, Kant, Goethe, Schiller, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, and Arendt. The course examines the historical meanings and contexts of these texts.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 380F/G, Medieval Literature and Modern Cinema
Description: The course studies medieval writings in tandem with films based on them, while also examining other cinematic attempts to recreate a 'real' Middle Ages. Included are the Story of the Grail, Death of King Arthur, Tristan, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales; and films by Dreyer, Cocteau, Pasolini, Rohmer, and Bresson.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 or permission of the Department.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 391F/G-394F/G, Special Topic in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Please consult Department for current offering.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 410E, Undergraduate Honors Thesis in Comparative Literature and Culture.
Description: The thesis will be written in the fourth year and will be directed by a member of the Modern Languages and Literatures faculty.
Prerequisite(s): 80% average in preceding year and permission of the Department
1.0 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 411F/G, Mediterranean Cultures: Advanced Topics
Description: Advanced study of cultural, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political communities in the Mediterranean Basin, and of the interactions brought about by contact, conflict, and geographic mobility.
Prerequisite(s): CLC 210E or permission of the Department.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 470F/G, Author, Authorship, Autobiography in the Middle Ages
Description: Beginning with a study of St. Augustine's Confessions, this course explores the first-person textualization of the authorial self in writings up to 1300. Specific attention will be given to both medieval and modern theories of the author and autobiography.
Prerequisite(s): Restricted to fourth year students in the CLC Honors Specialization or Major module.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 471F/G, Autobiography and Pseudo-autobiography of the Late Middle Ages
Description: This course explores the autobiographical "literature of the self" by men and women writing in the late Middle Ages. Texts will be read in light of both medieval and modern theories of autobiography, authorship, pseudo-autobiography and 'autofiction'.
Prerequisite(s): Restricted to fourth year students in the CLC Honors Specialization or Major module.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 491F/G-492F/G, Advanced Topic in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Seminar course; please consult Department for current offering.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 and one other Comparative Literature and Culture course.
3 seminar hours, 0.5 course.
Limited Enrolment.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 493F/G, Directed Studies in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: The subject will be selected by students in consultation with an instructor.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 and at least one honors level CLC course.
0.5 course.
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Comparative Literature and Culture 494F/G-495F/G, Advanced Topics in Comparative Literature and Culture
Description: Seminar course: please consult Department for current offerings.
Prerequisite(s): Comparative Literature and Culture 020 and one other Comparative Literature and Culture course.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
Limited enrolment.
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Academic Calendar 2007 (old)» UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION» Comparative Literature and Culture