Lower-Division

Survey of the relation of theater to cinema from 1905 to the 1960s. Theater-positive tendencies include Melies, Eisenstein, and German Expressionists. Examines cinematic resistance to theater in the opposition to sound film in France and the Soviet Union, Vertov's kino-eye, and Bresson's barring actors from film.

A critical overview of detective fiction (and selected films) from Arthur Conan Doyle to contemporary and postmodern reappropriations. Lectures provide historical background and introduction to genre theory, psychoanalysis, and cultural critique.

Introduction to the Western theatrical tradition through the study of dramatic form in social context.

An introduction to the study of ethnic literatures, addressing issues of voice, political agency, and the construction of subjectivity across racial, ethnic, and cultural boundaries in the U.S. Topic: Slavery and the literary imagination.

An introduction to women writers from a variety of cultures and historical eras.

Study of the Renaissance in Italy as concept and educational/artistic revolution with special attention to literary works and to the dialogue among the arts and sciences. Authors vary but may include Boccaccio, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Michelangelo.

Critical examination of medieval texts that represent and comment upon social changes in Europe and Asia from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Readings include such texts as Crusade narratives, the Inferno, Piers Plowman, and the Book of Margery Kemp.(Formerly course 66A.)

Presents an interdisciplinary overview of writing in and about Ireland from the 1801 Act of Union to the 1980s, with special attention to historical events and conditions; colonial discourse and English nationalism; ethnographic and literary representation; gender, sexuality, and nationalism; and the problem of violence. (Formerly course 63A.)

A study of novels, short stories, and fairy tales by authors from America, England, France, and Germany. Readings include works by Poe, Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Goethe, Hoffman, Rousseau, and Merimee. (Formerly course 80M.)

Examines literature's relationship to the past and to the experience of history. Considers diverse modes of understanding the past: myth, tradition, chronicle, novel-writing, and scientific history.

No book has so decisively influenced the development of the Western world as the Bible. Traces the Bible's influence on narrative, themes, and ideas in Western literature. Explores major Biblical stories and themes in a comparative context and traces their reappearance in Western literature and imaginative works.

A survey of ancient novels from the first to the fourth centuries B.C.E. as tales of adventure and romance. Discussions of the meaning of romance, the history of the erotic novel, the history of texts, ancient sexuality, ancient literary production, and the contemporary romance novel.

This introductory course explores literature and culture of the first half of the 20th century. Course materials may include literary texts, films, philosophy, visual arts, and critical essays.

Examines the ideological functions of the representation of the Middle Ages in literature and film from the 19th century to the present, with special attention to issues of cultural contact, the formation of nationalisms, and the uses of history and fiction.

Through films, literary texts, historical, sociological, and anthropological writings, explores topics pertaining to Latin American culture and society. Course topic changes; please see the Schedule of Classes for current topic.

An introduction to modern Italian literature from the 19th century to the present, with emphasis on social, political, and gender issues, and the development of narrative prose from realism to myth.

Close reading and analysis of Aristotle's Poetics,with special attention to the subsequent fate and influence of the notions advanced in the book.