Spring 1999 Undergraduate Course Descriptions |
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NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 LTAM 110 The national literatures of Latin America have always been vitally engaged with history and politics. Literature has been a central means through which Latin American societies have explored and debated their realities and their visions for the future. This course examines works from three regions undergoing major social, cultural and political transformations: Mexico, the Southern Cone countries (Argentina and Chile), and Central America. We will read texts to see: a) how they present social realities; b) how they use literary forms and symbolic structures to create sociohistorical understanding; and c) how literature itself functions as an institution determined by social and educational structures. Readings include works by Carlos Fuentes, Angeles Mastretta, Manuel Puig, Alicia Partnoy, Manlio Argueta, and Rigoberta Menchú. LTAM 110XL Students have the option of also attending a foreign language discussion section one hour per week (2nd through 9th weeks) for an additional 1 unit of P/NP credit. The foreign language section offers an opportunity to discuss course readings in Spanish in a small group setting. There is no final exam. The section requires a minimum enrollment of 5 students. NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 (The following courses in Classical
Literature can also be found under their respective Literature
Sub-headings: European and Eurasian, Greek, Latin, and World.)
Having mastered (most of) the morphology of Ancient Greek, we'll turn this quarter to the reading of Homer's Odyssey. Besides translating passages from the poem, we'll discuss and review forms and constructions as they appear in our reading. Midterm, final, some quizzes. Prerequisite: Greek 2 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. LTGK 131 A careful reading of Aristophanes' Lysistrata in Greek, with due attention paid to grammar, meaning, and context in the Athens of 411 B.C. Pertinent technicalities relating to the Athenian stage, dramatic meter, and boisterous laughter will be explicated as they become unignorable. LTLA 3 LTLA 131
This short speech is considered a masterpiece
of Cicero's oratorical genius as well as an important statement of his
conception of literary culture and humanism. We'll read the entire speech
and discuss it in light of Cicero's own rhetorical theory, in terms of
the status of Greek culture in the Roman republic, as a case study in
literary patronage, as an example of the Ciceronian style, and in terms
of what the Roman elite saw in literature. Midterm, final, paper. Who were the Romans, and why are they so important to us? This course will examine the history and culture of ancient Rome from the beginnings to the rise of Christianity within the Roman empire. We will focus on the relation between Rome's literature and the broader context of its history and society. Readings will include comedies by Plautus and Terence (the origin of modern comic forms), Virgil's great epic poem the Aeneid, Petronius' scandalous novel Satyricon, love lyrics of Catullus, filthy epigrams by Martial, Cicero's intimate letters and more. NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 LTCS 120 There is now a vast bibliography of writings on the American war in Southeast Asia. Because the war was fought primarily by poor people and people of color, the focus of the seminar will be on writings by U.S. ethnic minorities. We will read several novels, poetry, and oral histories dealing with the "experience" of the Viet Nam War, including anti-war documents. Short clips from films and documentaries will be included. Readings include Thich Nhat Hanh, A Taste of Earth; Joe Rodriguez, Oddsplayer; Michael Herr, Dispatches; W.D. Myers, Fallen Angels; George Mariscal, ed., Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War. Participants will be expected to read all texts with care and to be prepared to discuss them in class. A midterm exam will cover basic historical information about the period. The final paper may be on a topic of the student's choice in consultation with the instructor. LTCS 150 This course will consider the place of the study of everyday life in cultural studies. How do people map the space in which they move, listen to music, and read at the same time, sort all the information they receive? How do gender, class, and ethnicity "play" themselves out in daily life? How do people resist and/or find pleasure in the routines of the everyday? LTEA 110C This is a survey course of Korean literature from earliest times to the present, emphasizing its changes and development within the context of East Asian and world literature. In this course we will examine selections from different literary eras, noting the influence of culture and history on various literary subjects and written forms. We will discuss Korean poetry and short stories, revealing various religious and socio-political influences affecting the construction of personhood within family and lineage, and gender and age relations. All readings are in English translation. A course reader which is edited by the instructor will be used. In addition to lectures, there will be small group discussions, films, guest speakers, and presentations. LTEN 18 This course is an introduction to Asian American literature, in which we will read a selection of novels, essays, poetry, and drama by immigrant writers of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, and mixed descent -- in terms of their social and historical contexts of production and reception. From 1850 to World War II, Asian immigrants
were permitted to enter the U.S. nation along the economic axis, primarily
as labor, and since 1965 as labor and capital, while the state has simultaneously
distinguished "Asians" from "Americans" along racial
and citizenship lines through exclusion laws and bars from citizenship,
distancing Asian Americans from the terrain of national culture. In light
of the importance of American national culture in forming subjects as
citizens of the nation, the distance enforced between Asian immigrants
and the national culture has created the conditions for the emergence
of Asian American culture as an alternative site, and the place where
the contradictions of the nation are read, explored, and critiqued. This
course considers Asian American literary forms as alternatives to traditionally
canonized national literary forms, and as sites for the emergence of subjects
and practices which do not resolve in the narrative integration of the
immigrant into American citizenship. Our topics of focus will be citizenship,
community, and diaspora; we will consider the role of literary representation
in the making of American national culture and its minority subcultures,
the constitution of literary canons, the novel and citizenship, constructions
of masculinity and femininity, orientalisms and counter-orientalisms,
sexualities, and thematic differences in the literatures of various national
origin groups. This course attempts to provide a chronological, a disciplinary, and a theoretical introduction to British literature, 1832-present. While we will certainly trace the conventional chronological history of British literary culture from the nineteenth century to the present, we will simultaneously look at issues of canonicity, disciplinarity and genre. This class will pay careful attention to the construction of English national identity in this period, and we will trace a history of the representation of English masculinity in texts by Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Virginia Woolf, and Kazuo Ishiguro among others. LTEN 24 The first of Chaucer's works we shall address is The Parliament of Fowls. We shall begin at a slow pace, with emphasis upon the literal understanding of each and every word, and with a good deal of reading aloud. The pace will accelerate gradually, sensitively attuned (I promise) to students' growing ability to cope with the apparent strangeness of late Fourteenth Century Middle English, so that by the end of the second week of the quarter (that is, in six class sessions), we shall have read to the end of this 699-line poem. Then, beginning on the Monday of the third week (or thereabouts), we shall commence reading Troilus and Criseyde. This long poem will occupy us for five weeks. The last three weeks of the quarter will be devoted to reading as much of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as we can conveniently manage. At a bare minimum, we shall work our way through Fragment I ("General Prologue", "Knight's Tale ", "Miller's Tale", "Reeve's Tale", and the truncated "Cook's Tale"). It would, of course, be edifying to do more, but we shall see what's possible. The main focus of this course is upon discovering interpretive strategies for the appropriate understanding of texts that are remote in time, distant in cultural orientation, and somewhat unfamiliar in language. That focus can best be realized through the transactions that take place between me, the instructor, and the class of students. Hence, I should like to emphasize that regular and reasonably alert attendance is essential if the course is to be for students the success that I keenly hope it will be. One five-page paper, one ten-page paper, and a final examination will be required. Text: Larry D. Benson, ed. The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn. (Houghton-Mifflen: Boston, 1987). LTEN 115A LTEN 120E A woman picking up a mainstream novel in 18th-century England would see her life choices mapped out in terms of heterosexuality and family: whether she would retain her virtue or be seduced and abandoned, whom she would marry, whether her parents approved, how she would conduct herself through the trials of married life. Given this pervasive literary plot, what options were there for alternatives? What could women do in novels besides be courted, seduced, or married? What would a novel look like if it were not structured along the lines of courtship or seduction? What language, if any, existed for expressing female desires outside the limits of heterosexuality? We will read several novels which imagine other worlds for their heroines. In particular, we will be looking at relationships between women as a powerful yet ambivalent center for a "resistant" novel, how these friendships impact on literary form and language, what new kinds of social and imaginative power they lend to heroines, as well as whether they represent a viable alternative to the romance plot. LTEN 144 The Victorian period ended with a blaze of intellectual fireworks provided by Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling. Their work told the late-Victorian audience that something had gone badly wrong, that the creation of empire and of unimagined wealth and power had by no means solved the problem of "progress". Late-Victorian fiction tells us, in fact, that social life might be worse than ever -- and that the theories governing our beliefs might be entirely inadequate. This course covers fiction in the age of Darwin and Freud, novels which examine the distance between Victorian certainties and realities. LTEN 147 The climber of Mt. Shasta or the skier at Mammoth or the visitor to Yosemite Valley may assume that mountain scenery must always have impressed everyone the same way. But human beings' responses to such scenes are partly products of cultural history: at different times and places mountains have seemed, for example, hideous and melancholy reminders of human sinfulness, or images of authoritarian social and religious powers, or energizing pointers to liberation. The present course will consider some of the literary texts which have had the largest influence in forming modern English and American perceptions of mountains. Among the likely readings will be biblical passages about Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on various mountains; Petrarch's narrative of his ascent of Mt. Ventoux; Milton's treatment of mountains in heaven and on earth; Rousseau's uptopian rethinking of Alpine scenery; the English Romantic poets' experience of mountains in works by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, and P.B. Shelley; the feminist re-evaluation by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein and Jane Harrison in her account of the Mountain Mother; and John Muir's eloquent exposition of the grandeur of California's mountains. Comparisons with mountains in other cultures and media will also be incorporated. The course will seek to identify some continuities, contrasts, and transformations in the encounters between the human imagination and mountains across the centuries and to foster an understanding and appreciation of the literature of mountains. LTEN 148 This course will study American films made in the period between 1944 and 1956, dubbed by French critics, "films noir" for their dark, existential themes and for their relationship to the French Serie Noir hardboiled detective novel series. Film Noir has become a classic American genre, drawing from Grade B gangster and detective films of the 1930s as well as from German expressionism and French surrealism. Films like Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai, and Kiss Me Deadly have been seen as quintessential interpretations of American Cold War alienation and anomie. More recent films such as Breathless, Chinatown, Pulp Fiction, and Bladerunner owe substantial debts to the film noir tradition. For this class we will see nine classic
films noir, including Double Indemnity, The Lady from Shanghai,
Mildred Pierce, Kiss Me Deadly, Out of the Past, Gilda, The Big Sleep,
The Postman Always Rings Twice, and perhaps a later film indebted
to film noir such as The Manchurian Candidate or Chinatown.
Students must be willing to screen each film prior to class at the Playback
Center in the library (or at home via video rentals). Where appropriate
we will read novels upon which films were based as well as selected essays
on film noir history and theory. Weekly writings and quizzes on each film
will constitute a substantial portion of the grade. Evaluation will be
based on these writings and the completion of three short papers. This course will trace the interrelated histories of photography and literature in the nineteenth century. Topics for discussion may include the following: -- Daguerreotypes of the dead; short stories by Edgar Allan Poe -- Brady's Portrait Gallery of Illustrious Americans and Emerson's "Representative Men" -- The cult of celebrity portraiture and the authors who exploited it (Emerson, Poe, Whitman, Fanny Fern, Sojourner Truth) -- Honorific portraiture and Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables -- Ghost and spirit photography; ghost stories by Poe and Edith Wharton -- Early documentary photography, portraits of Lincoln, Whitman's war poetry, Crane's Red Badge of Courage -- Tourism and travel (Yellowstone and Yosemite); post cards; nature writing -- Entertainment, stereoscopes, and melodrama -- Survey photography, the opening of the West, and writing the West -- Surveillance and race, Arnold Genthe's photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown and Sui Sin Far's columns about Los Angeles' Chinatown; Frances Benjamin Johnston's images of Hampton Institute and Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery -- Social work and urban views: How the Other Half Lives -- Family albums and eugenics -- Scientific photography and Galbraith's
Cheaper by the Dozen LTEN 180 In this class we will study fiction and poetry written by Chicanas in the last three decades. The class will focus on the outstanding literary works of Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo, as well as the fiction, poetry, and essays of other lesser known but equally important voices. LTEN 181 In this course we will examine representations of the city in Asian American literature, film, and video. The city as social space and as representation continues to be a central and constitutive component of Asian American experience, not least because Asian immigrant settlement in the U.S. has tended to be an urban phenomenon. From the Chinatowns and later Little Tokyos of late 19th and early 20th century Asian immigrant settlement to the Little Saigons, Little Indias, and Little Manilas built by the growing "new" immigrant communities of today, race and place have always been articulated concepts within American urban space. By focusing on cultural representations of the city within Asian American fiction and film we will explore how Asian American writers and cultural producers have understood 20th century metropolitan experience. Supplementing Asian American literary representations of the city and of urban experience with readings from urban history, cultural anthropology, geography studies, and sociology, we will discuss issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they emerge within urban contexts. Moving from Louis Chu's Eat a Bowl of Tea to Fae Myenne Ng's Bone, we will inquire into how historical and demographic changes in the experience of racialized living in the city are captured by the formal differences between the two novels. How do different experiences of the city affect the mode of writing and creative expression? Displacing representations of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York for representations of Manila and Bombay found in the works of Asian American writers such as Jessica Hagedorn and Vickram Chandra, we will discuss the importance of the post-colonial megalopolis for contemporary Asian American communities and cultural expression. Other topics to be discussed include queer sexuality in urban space, the global city and racial transformation, and gender and cultural style in the metropolis. Writers and film-makers to be discussed include Chu, Hagedorn, Ng, Chandra, Linmark, J. Tan, Rashid, Yamamoto, Wang, and others. LTEN 183 LTEN Upper Division Codes:
Return to top of LTEN section EUROPEAN
AND EURASIAN LITERATURE LTEU 100
Sensational films about ancient Rome were made from the beginnings of cinema through the mid Sixties. Crazy emperors, beautiful slaves, impossibly virtuous Christian martyrs, and tramping legions drew millions of movie-goers to the cinema for decades. Why? How did these films appeal to modern audiences? The purpose of this course is to consider how the past is remade to speak about and to the present. We will examine concepts of heroism, relations between the sexes, politics, privacy, consumerism, and other issues that are dealt with by these films, looking at both the modern context and the realities of the ancient world they depict. How did these films distort or modify the world of ancient Rome to serve modern agenda? Films to be studied include Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Spartacus, Fall of the Roman Empire, and others (they don't make them like that anymore!). LTEU 140 Murder investigations in a medieval
monastery; a mysterious conspiracy in modern-day Italy; a ghost ship floating
between present, past, and future. Umberto Eco's three novels play with
the concepts of reality and truth, creating worlds that need to be dissected
and rebuilt by the readers. Midterm, oral presentation, and take home
final. A survey of major literary texts from Pushkin through early Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Literary readings will be supplemented with readings in social and political history. The course will also focus on Russian religious traditions and their impact on literary culture. DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR LTFR 2A, LTFR 2B AND LTFR 50 IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM 9:00-3:30, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY BEGINNING 2/10, WEDNESDAY. LTFR 2A
Second-year course designed to be taken after LIFR 1C/1CX. We undertake a thorough review of grammar while continuing to develop language skills (oral and written) by studying short stories, cartoons, and a movie from various French-speaking countries. The course is taught entirely in French and may be applied towards a minor in French literature. Prerequisite: LIFR 1C/CX or equivalent or a score of 3 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 2B We continue the review of grammar begun in LTFR 2A. To strengthen language skills, we discuss plays by Rostand and Schwartz-Bart. The movie version of Cyrano de Bergerac is discussed in conjunction with the analysis of the play. The course is taught entirely in French and may be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Prerequisite: LTFR 2A or equivalent or a score of 4 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 2C Second-year course designed for students who wish to improve writing and conversational skills. The course aims to develop written expression in terms of organization of ideas, structure, vocabulary. Major grammatical difficulties are reviewed. Oral skills are practiced through oral presentations and discussions of contemporary novel and film. The course is taught entirely in French and may be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Students having completed 2C can register directly in upper-level courses (115 or 116). Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or equivalent or a score of 5 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 31
A one-unit, one-meeting-a-week course, designed to develop and maintain oral skills at an advanced level by discussing current cultural issues of the francophone world. This course may be taken more than once, alone or in combination with any other literature course. Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or consent of instructor. LTFR 50 This course emphasizes the development of language skills and the practice of textual analysis. Discussions are based on the reading of poems as well as on a novel and a film by Marguerite Duras. The course is taught entirely in French and may be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or equivalent or a score of 5 on the AP French language exam. LTFR 116 Nous étudierons quelques-uns des manifestes littéraires, arts poétiques, préfaces des XIX et XX siècles ainsi que des textes illustrant les idées qu'ils revendiquent. LTFR 143 A partir de la lecture de trois textes
autobiographiques écrits par trois des plus importants écrivains français
du XXe siècle, le cours cherchera à répondre à ces questions: Qu'est-ce
qu'une autobiographie? Qu'est-ce qu'une fiction? Pourquoi écrire sur soi?
Pour qui? Dans quels buts? Que dire? Que taire? LTFR 145 Dans ce cours, nous etudierons quelques
textes de fiction dans lesquels sont decrits des voyages fantastiques
(au centre de la terre, sur la lune, et dans d'autres lieux imaginaires).
Nous examinerons la maniere dont ces textes utilisent les techniques du
recit de voyage conventionnel, pour en faire des metaphores. Nous etudierons
les significations attribuees par ces textes au theme de l'exploration.
Differents imaginaires sont presents, imaginaire scientifique, imaginaire
philosophique, et meme imaginaire comique. DEPARTMENT APPROVAL FOR LTGM 2A IS AVAILABLE IN THE LITERATURE UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE FROM 9:00-3:30, MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY, BEGINNING 2/10, WEDNESDAY LTGM 2B This course builds directly on the Intermediate German sequence 2A-2B, and is intended to help students make the transition from language courses to more advanced work in German. Reading different kinds of texts including poetry, book reviews, travel guides, and a one-act play, we work on assembling a mental 'toolbox' of critical vocabularies and skills needed to think, speak, read, and write like an adult. Prerequisite: LTGM 2B or equivalent, or an AP score of 4. All work done in German. LTGM 60B Second part of a two-quarter program designed for students, both undergraduate and graduate, who need German primarily in connection with scholarly research. We will cover the remaining chapters in LTGM 60A, Jannach & Korb, "German for Reading Knowledge" (4th ed). Taught in English. Prior to first meeting of the quarter, students should read "Wiederholung 3" and ch. 16; write out p. 146-48 "Exercises" and at least several paragraphs of p. 139-40 "Paracelsus" (whole passage optional); and prepare p. 148-49 of "Was ist Aufklaerung?" for in-class translation. LTGM 131 We will first read several plays from the classical repertory of the German theater since the 18th century by Lessing, Büchner, and Brecht. With the unprecedented incursion of women into the theatrical institution at the turn of the 20th century, our focus will then shift to contemporary women playwrights, Elfriede Jelinek and Kerstin Specht, and the issues they have brought to the stage. Looking at feminist theatrical practice we will examine the strategies it has developed to challenge traditional dramatic models. Throughout this seminar on German drama we will engage both text and performance with video clips from stage productions and film adaptations of the plays under discussion. LTGK 3 Having mastered (most of) the morphology
of Ancient Greek, we'll turn this quarter to the reading of Homer's Odyssey.
Besides translating passages from the poem, we'll discuss and review forms
and constructions as they appear in our reading. Midterm, final, some
quizzes. Prerequisite: Greek 2 or the equivalent, or permission of the
instructor. A careful reading of Aristophanes' Lysistrata in Greek, with due attention paid to grammar, meaning, and context in the Athens of 411 B.C. Pertinent technicalities relating to the Athenian stage, dramatic meter, and boisterous laughter will be explicated as they become unignorable. NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 LTIT 12C
Continued study of the elements of Italian conversation, syntax, and style through the study of screenplays and fairytales. We will study Fellini's La Strada, and De Sica's Giardino dei Finzi-Contini. This course is designed for students who are interested in Italian; or who love Italian film and culture and want to understand films and literature in the original; or who want to develop their own dramatic flair in life through the imitation and study of Italian language and style. Prerequisites: LTIT 12A-B, LIIT 1A-B
or consent of instructor. LTIT 110 Murder investigations in a medieval monastery; a mysterious conspiracy in modern day Italy; a ghost ship floating between present, past, and future. Umberto Eco's three novels play with the concepts of reality and truth, creating worlds that need to be dissected and be rebuilt by the readers. Midterm, oral presentation, and take home final. LTKO 1C Fundamentals of Korean is the last part of first-year Korean. This course is designed to assist students in their basic grammatical development in speaking, listening, reading, and writing to achieve cultural understanding. Prerequistes are Korean 1A and 1B, which establish a grounding in the Korean writing system and sound system; or consent of instructor. Upon completion of LTKO 1C, students are expected to master the Korean writing system, to read and write simple words, phrases, and sentences as well as to speak simple Korean in everyday survival communicative Korean. LTLA 3 "Completion" of grammar, "reading"
of simple texts, quasi-"discussion" of readings, continued testing
of "progress" in "knowledge". NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 LTRU 1C Continuing exploration of the mechanics
and mystery of Russian language, culture, and people. We will journey
forth into all forms of communication--reading, writing, speaking, and
listening. We will continue acquiring basic vocabulary and grammar skills
and attempt to apply them both mechanically and creatively. Original Russian
materials will supplement the basic text and language lab tapes. This
course meets three days per week for grammar lectures and two days per
week for conversation. Every effort will be made to integrate material
on Russian culture into the language curriculum. Continuing expansion of previous language
acquisitions and introduction to new, unexplored territories. While systematically
reviewing grammar, we will begin focusing on the language for more creative
purposes in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language lab videos
and readings texts will supplement the basic text. This course meets three
days per week for grammar lectures and two days per week for conversation.
Every effort will be made to integrate material on Russian culture into
the language curriculum. LTRU 110B A survey of major literary texts from Pushkin through early Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Literary readings will be supplemented with readings in social and political history. The course will also focus on Russian religious traditions and their impact on literary culture. LTSP 2A This 5-unit intermediate course meets
4 days per week and is taught entirely in Spanish. LTSP 2A emphasizes
the development of reading ability, listening comprehension, and writing
skills. It includes grammar review, short readings, lab work, class discussions,
and working with Spanish- language materials available on the Internet.
This course is designed to prepare students for LTSP 2B. A diagnostic
test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisites: Completion
of LlSP 1C/CX or its equivalent. LTSP 2B This intermediate course is designed
for students who wish to improve their ability to speak, read, and write
Spanish. It is a continuation of LTSP 2A with special emphasis on problems
in writing and interpretation. Students meet with the instructor 4 days
per week. Work for this 5-unit course includes grammar review, lab and
writing assignments, class discussions on the readings, and accessing
Spanish-language materials on the Internet. A diagnostic test will be
administered on the first day. Prerequisites: Completion of LTSP 2A or
its equivalent. This intermediate course is a continuation
of the LTSP second-year sequence with special emphasis on problems in
writing and translation. It includes class discussions of cultural topics
as well as grammar review and composition assignments. The course will
further develop the ability to read articles, essays, and longer pieces
of fictional and non-fictional texts as well as to access Spanish-language
materials on the Internet. A diagnostic test will be administered on the
first day. Prerequisite: Completion of LTSP 2B or its equivalent. This
course satisfies the third course requirement of the college-required
language sequence. LTSP 2D Designed for bilingual students seeking
to become biliterate. Reading and writing skills stressed with special
emphasis on improvement of written expression, vocabulary development,
and problems of grammar and orthography. Prepares native-speakers with
little or no formal training in Spanish for more advanced courses. A diagnostic
test will be administered on the first day. Prerequisite: Native speaking
ability and/or recommendation of instructor. The one-unit workshop format of this course will allow students to attain a stronger command of skills in matters of conversation, pronunciation, spelling, punctuation, and accent rules. Focus will be on vocabulary development, use of idiomatic expressions and advancing oral and written proficiency in Spanish. Pre-requisites: LISP 1C/CX or consent of the instructor. Notes: This conversation/discussion class meets once a week. May be taken as an adjunct to lower-division and upper-division LTSP courses. Recommended for students planning to study abroad. May be taken 3 times for credit as topics vary. May be taken P/NP or for a letter grade. LTSP 50C This course introduces students to literary
analysis through the close textual reading of a selection of Latin American
texts including novels, plays, short fiction, and poetry. Coursework includes
reading of texts, participation in class discussions, and written assignments.
LTSP 50C prepares literature majors and minors for upper-division work.
LTSP 50A and either 50B or 50C are required for Spanish Literature majors.
Prerequisites: Completion of LTSP 2B or 2C or 2 years of college level
Spanish. LTSP 125 We shall look into the social and political conditions at the end of the 19th Century in Spain that were the central concern of the early radical writings of the members of the so-called Generation of '98 (Unamuno, Azorín, Baroja, Blasco Ibanez, and Antonio Machado) and into their later evolution towards conservative social positons. We will do detailed textual readings of the following works: Unamuno's "Niebla", Azorin's "La voluntad", Baroja's "El arbol de la ciencia" and A. Machado's "Soledades" and "Campos de Castilla". LTSP 129 Over the last 25 years -- since the death of dictator Francisco Franco --, Spaniards have been split between the desire to turn their backs on a traumatic past and the need to re-examine their history for its present meaning. In this course we will analyze a series of recent novels and films that attempt to work out that divided legacy at the same time as they offer a challenge to conventional ways of narrating history and to traditional notions of historical subject matter (the question of what events and whose experience count as history). Texts to be studied include novels by Carmen Martín Gaite and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and films by Josefina Molina and Fernando Trueba. LTSP 130B In this course we will read 1) selections from Spanish as well as indigenous chronicles of the Conquest and early Colonial period; 2) essays, poetry, and short stories from the Independence period and the process of national consolidation which followed it; and 3) two short novels of the Mexican Revolution from the early 20th century. We will examine these texts in their historical context, looking at how they express and intervene in social and cultural conflicts, with particular attention to the role of and changes in literary form. Readings include selections from Cristóbal Colón, Bartolomé de Las Casas, and Guaman Poma de Ayala; essays, poetry, and short stories by Simón Bolívar, Andrés Bello, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Esteban Echeverría, Juana Manuela Gorriti, and José Martí; as well as short novels by Mariano Azuela and Nellie Campobello. LTSP 135 Reading of major works of the Literature of the Revolution in the context of the political and cultural changes taking place in Mexico in the first half of the 20th century. Course readings include works by Mariano Azuela, Francisco Rojas González, Nellie Campobello, Martín Luis Guzmán, and Rafael F. Muñoz. Requirements: midterm and final exam, one final paper. LTSP 141 The course will deal with key representatives of Latin American poetry after Dario (so, Dario is excluded). We will begin with the Uruguayan poet, Delmira Agustini, reaching to very recent poets, such as the Argentine Juan Gelman, the Chilean Enrique Lihn, and several others. At least four women are included: Olga Orozco, Peri Rossi, etc. One intermediate exam, one final paper or exam, and a brief oral presentation. LTSP 152 The course will deal with 19th century testimonios, and 20th century novels about the 19th and 20th centuries in the Southwest. LTSP 190 The seminar will be devoted to Pablo Neruda's central work, Canto General (1950), an impressive poetic book encompassing 15 major sections. The Chilean poet wrote Canto General from the late 30s to the late 40s, and there is a complex chronology of previous partial publications that we will explore. The course will consist mainly of textual analysis. Two grades: one intermediate exam, and a final paper, plus the continuing participation in class. NO COURSES OFFERED SPRING 1999 LTWL 4M In this course we will look at the advent of Italian Neorealist films in the 1940s and explore their influence on later, Latin American filmmakers. The title of this course refers to the ways in which a collective response was formulated, in the neorealist films of the 40s, to an atmosphere of radical uncertainty and rapidly changing conditions among the social, political, and religious institutions in post-Fascist, post-WWII Italy. Far from simply providing "Hollywood-style" entertainment, Neorealist classics like Roberto Rossellini's Rome Open City and Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief emphasized an articulation of the social contradictions of national life in economically trying times, in a style of film production that stood in opposition to mainstream Hollywood filmmaking at the time. We will explore ways in which Italian Neorealism was an important genre for the internationally acclaimed Cinema Novo movement that arose in Brazil in the early 1960s and was committed to an investigation of socioeconomic, historical, and political realities in Brazil; focusing in particular on underdevelopment. We will consider neorealism's influence on Latin American authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Clarice Lispector as well as cinematic offshoots of the Cinema Novo movement with films such as Suzana Amaral's The Hour of the Star (1977), Hector Babenco's Pixotic (1981), and Victor Gaviria's Rodrigo D: No Future (1990), among others. LTWL 19C Who were the Romans, and why are they so important to us? This course will examine the history and culture of ancient Rome from the beginnings to the rise of Christianity within the Roman empire. We will focus on the relation between Rome's literature and the broader context of its history and society. Readings will include comedies by Plautus and Terence (the origin of modern comic forms), Virgil's great epic poem the Aeneid, Petronius' scandalous novel Satyricon, love lyrics of Catullus, filthy epigrams by Martial, Cicero's intimate letters and more. LTWL 90 Intersections of gender, race, class,
and national identity in films such as "The Little Mermaid"
and "Dumbo". LTWL 107 Fantasy, suspense, and science fiction narratives were developed in the nineteenth century, in conjunction with theories then prevalent about science and human perfectability and contrasting fears concerning the dangers of human "devolution." Some of the Western world's most prominent story tellers explored the implications of the clash between nature and culture. Many of their stories dealt with scientists who tried to bypass nature to "create" the perfect woman, but who in the process only succeeded in bringing out the beast in themselves. In this course we shall explore the historical context of the search for perfection and humanity's attempts to escape from emotion. We shall read such texts as Matthew Gregory Lewis' The Monk, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman," Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades," Dostoyevski's The Double, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Villiers de l'Isle Adam's Future Eve, and Kafka's "In the Penal Colony." LTWL 116 In the half-century since World War
II, America's youth culture has been a driving force in the culture at
large. The postwar emphasis on higher education has created a new extended
class of young people--senior adolescents, so to speak, of college age--unable
to take on the full rights and responsibilities of adulthood, but with
enough economic and social power as a group to have an impact on society.
Especially in the United States, the society has been ambivalent toward
this class, embracing and encouraging its cultural norms in fashion, music,
entertainment, and attitudes, while attacking it as rebellious, irresponsible,
or even dangerous. LTWL 133 This course begins with a careful reading
of three religious classics: the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh,
the early Christian Gospel of John, and Ridley Scott's futuristic
film noir, Blade Runner. Each presents a radically different
vision of the world and of humanity's place in it. Yet, for all their
differences, these stories play with a remarkably similar repertoire of
spatial and temporal myths as they seek to create or maintain order in
the world. A comparative reading of these three texts will direct us to
a set of theoretical questions concerning the nature and importance of
place in religious imagination. For the purposes of this course,
none of these texts is an end in itself; all three invite us to think
about the nature of place by turning the world inside out and upside down.
LTWL 184 Part of our inquiry will address Kubrick's
success in creating a series of unique and yet clearly defined cultural
icons: Hal (the hypersensitive computer); the second degree use of Nabokov's
Lolita; the unforgettable performances of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove;
the fast-paced narrative style of Barry Lyndon, as well as Kubrick's
original perception and statement about the Vietnam war. With Clockwork's
chilling Alex and his 'droogs', Kubrick anticipated many controversial
questions regarding an elusive aesthetics of brutal violence. STUDENTS
MUST HAVE COMPLETED THEIR COLLEGE WRITING REQUIREMENTS PRIOR TO ENROLLMENT
IN LTWR 8A-B-C LTWR 8A LTWR 8C This course welcomes you to the backstage
area of nonfiction writing, broadly defined. Classes will alternate from
workshop, on Thursdays, to lectures and discussions of the readings (and
anything else that arises), on Tuesdays. The workshop format places emphasis
on student writing. The reading load is light to moderate. Required work
includes eight writing or revision assignments, each two pages long, and
several grammar exercises. The course grade is based on a ten-page final
project (50%), on workshop performance (30%), and on class participation
and attendance (20%). Our project is to master the grammatical patterns
that constitute the literature of fact. PRIORITY ENROLLMENT
BEGINS 2/9 FOR SENIOR WRITING MAJORS LTWR 100 This workshop is open to all kinds of fiction, from stable traditional forms of realism to science fiction to various types of experiment. One feature of readings and discussions: emphasis on the theory and terminology related to narrative. LTWR 100 A workshop designed to encourage writing
of short plays and dramatic monologues. There will be discussion of student
work together with analysis and discussion of the finest examples of dramatic
writing from the present and previous ages. Students will complete a number
of short plays by the end of the term. Pre-requisite: LTWR 8A. This course is for students with an
interest in writing, reading, and hearing contemporary poetry. We will
attend a few local readings, and out-of-town poets may visit our class.
While examining the range of techniques available in modern and postmodern
poetry, students will be encouraged to invent their own forms. We will
read the work of established poets such as Dickinson, Plath, Williams,
O'Hara, and Creeley as well as that of contemporary poets such as Rita
Dove, Charles Bernstein, and Ron Silliman. There will be intensive small
group discussion of student poetry. Prerequisite: LTWR 8B. A study of the techniques and structures that make up the craft of the Hollywood screenplay, to include a step-by-step examination of the creating process in which students will gain experience in developing their own projects. The class will teach students how to look at films/scripts from a writer's point of view and to apply their understanding of the craft to their own creative interests. Some attention will be given to the differences and similarities between the Hollywood and so-called "art" film screenplay, as well as certain historical developments and genres. Papers and creative projects will be assigned, culminating in a ten-page treatment for a feature-length script. LTWR 115 Hypertextuality has been a feature of literature at least since the early days of modernism, but only in the last decade has computer technology offered a medium in which its full potential could be realized. This course is designed for writers/creators eager to expand their palettes, or for the computer literate interested in exploring the artistic--not just the technical--boundaries of hypertext. Some experience with HTML or hypertext-writing software is helpful, but as we will be engaged in a collective effort to bring everyone up to speed technically, the most important quality to bring to the class is a sense of adventure. LTWR 120 In this course we will study how writers of personal narrative deploy irony, humor, naivete, fear. All readings focus on childhood and youth. There will be a lot of reading, both short novels and stories. There will be a lot of writing, some analytic (showing how the writers we read create these effects), mostly one's own personal narratives about childhood and youth showing knowledge of the strategies we have examined. LTWR 125 Students will read and write in a variety
of genres, including tabloid articles, magazine features, "high brow"
essays on pop culture, political propaganda, comics, and "zines."
There will be two major papers: the first drafts of paper #1 will be critiqued
in peer groups; drafts of the second paper will be read and discussed
by the whole class. Writing exercises on extensive readings encourage
both analysis and emulation of different styles and strategies involved
in persuasive writing. Readings include James Baldwin's The Evidence
of Things Not Seen; essays by Martin Luther King, Joan Didion, Frank
Zappa, Manning Marable, Nell Irvin Painter; excerpts from The Gen
X Reader; Susan Faludi's Backlash; Hitler's Mein Kampf,
etc. Pre-requisite: LTWR 8A or 8C This course will examine processes of
writing and the nature of authorship. Drawing on various methods for studying
how people write, we will examine our own writing processes, talk to published
writers of various kinds, see what novelists and poets say. We'll talk
about what "authorship" may be, and how people market themselves
as authors. We'll look at the fights among academics about the nature
of readers and authors, and see how these relate to public discourse about
writing. We will also talk about how new technologies may influence how
people read and write. Science Writing Two concerns itself with excellence in writing within any discipline that publishes its findings as facts. The course work results in a ten-page final writing project of the student's own choosing, which may include science journalism or nature writing (students may also complete and submit written work assigned for other courses). Classes alternate from lectures on Tuesdays to workshops on Thursdays. This course repeats background material from Science Writing One and therefore does not require Science Writing One as a prerequisite. Those who have taken Science Writing One will undertake advanced writing study in Science Writing Two, with adjusted assignments and objectives. |