Literature Undergraduate Course Descriptions
Summer Session II 2024 (S224)

LTCS 130 - Gender,Race/Ethn,Class&Culture
Culture and the Body: Constructions of Gender and Race in US
Instructor: Meg Wesling

This course examines representations and conceptualizations of the body, sex, sexuality in in contemporary American popular culture. We will discuss how our understandings of sexuality are inextricably linked to our cultural ideas about race and class, and examine the histories that converge to give gender, race, and sex their current meanings. While we will focus primarily on visual representations, including TV, film, video, advertising, we will supplement our visual learning with essays and s

LTEA 120A - Chinese Films
Contemporary Chinese TV drama
Instructor: Chenfeng Wang

This course delves into the enthralling realm of contemporary Chinese TV dramas, particularly focusing on period dramas. It examines the historical contexts, narrative structures, and cultural implications of these dramas, highlighting their reflection of modern Chinese societal values and international impact. Additionally, the course aids students in understanding the global reception of China's contemporary cultural exports.

• LTEA 120A will count towards the Media concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.
• LTEA 120A will count towards the Region (Asia) concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.

LTEA 132 - Later Japanese Lit/Translatn
Science Fiction in Japan
Instructor: Andrea Mendoza

This course focuses on reading and analyzing a selection of science fiction texts produced in Japan after the Second World War with attention to their historical contexts and their philosophical, political, and cultural import. The objective is to explore SF as diverse and reflective on global issues pertaining to gender, race/ethnicity, class, and climate justice. Course assignments include a short individual paper project on a topic of student interest and a collaborative "podcast" project.

• LTEA 132 will count towards the Region (Asia) concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.

LTEN 178 - Contemporary American Lit (D)
It’s a Vibe: Race, Gender, and Affect
Instructor: Phuong Vuong

This course will link pop culture to the 19th century and contemporary literary texts to other cultural forms to explore what is possible through feeling and embodiment. We will discuss the history of feeling as political and structural and consider the potentialities and complications of emotional expression as freedom. We will read, watch, and listen to poetry, stories, personal essays, music, and performances by women of color and trans and queer of color artists and scholars such as Audre Lorde, José Esteban Muñoz, and Kai Cheng Thom. There will be an option for a creative final assignment.

• LTEN 178 will count towards the "D" (U.S. Lit Post-1860) requirement for the Literatures in English major.
  

LTEN 180 - Chicano Literature in English (D)
Chicana Feminisms
Instructor: Bianca Negrete Coba

In this course, we will first learn about the origins of Chicana/Xicana Feminisms and Chicanisma/Xicanisma rising alongside the Chicano Movement of the 1960s as a response to U.S. Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1980s) and how these movements oftentimes clashed. We will also come to understand the intricacies of Chicana/Xicana Feminisms and Chicanisma/Xicanisma such as rejection of traditional gender roles, household hierarchies, and obedience. We will also look into other aspects such as Chicana/Xicana activism, bodily autonomy, gender, sexuality, and queerness, and aesthetics. In a mixed-media approach, we will be looking at different forms of Chicana cultural expressions through art, media (film/documentary/videos), and literature. One main goal of the course is to see where conversations on Chicana/Xicana Feminisms and Chicanisma/Xicanisma are at today and how we can practically be part of these conversations and movements in solidarity with other forms of Feminism across cultures.

• LTEN 180 will count towards the "D" (U.S. Lit Post-1860) requirement for the Literatures in English major.
• LTEN 180 will count towards the Region (The Americas) concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.
  

LTSP 175 - Feminisms, Gender, & Sexuality
Women in Postwar Central American Literature
Instructor: Andrea Zelaya

Women in Postwar Central American Literature is a Spanish Literature class in which students explore and analyze Central American literature written in the last decade of the 20th century and onward, focusing primarily on the experiences and representation of women in literary works from the region, as well as other types of cultural production, to gain a deeper understanding of the socioeconomic, political and historical context of the region in relation to women's spaces in society.

• LTSP 175 will count towards the Language (Spanish) concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.

LTWL 100 - Mythology
Classical Mythology
Instructor: Jacobo Myerston

This class introduces student to the study of ancient Greek myths. The course is designed to give students an understanding of how Greek myths were used to reflect on various issues, including the individual, politics and religion, power and inequality, and gender differences. Students will become familiar with the main Greek texts that tell the stories of gods and heroes. The course will also pay attention to how ancient Greek myths are used today to think about current problems.

• LTWL 100 will count towards the History concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.

LTWL 181 - Film Studies&Lit:Film Movement
Indigenous Lit and Film
Instructor: Manuel Carrion Lira

As a participant in this course you will be able to distinguish and contrast diverse representations of Indigenous identity in contemporary film, media, and literature.
-Study of relationship of Indigenous and Native American literature, media and film movements in The Americas.
-Understanding of comparative genealogies of Indigenous textualities, media, and political discourses.
-Revision of critical literature relate to the fields of Indigenous Media and Indigenous Literatures.

• LTWL 181 will count towards the Media concentration for the World Literature and Culture major.

LTWR 100 - Short Fiction Workshop
The Art of Flash Fiction
Instructor: Gin To

Flash fiction is roughly defined as prose narrative that ranges from 5 to 1500 words, or one that can be consumed in the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. In this course, we will approach flash fiction from a cross-genre perspective. While you will be asked to engage with multimedia texts (a song, a music video, a painting, an advertisement, a tweet, a chant, an orange, etc), you are expected to generate word-based works. It is my personal belief that you can learn a lot about writing through learning to write flash. You may find that writing flash is a means to experiment, to try new things, to push through writer’s block, to build and maintain a writing practice, or to generate building blocks for a longer work.

LTWR 102 - Poetry Workshop
Form and Content
Instructor: Ben Doller

In this workshop course we will read a wide-ranging selection of historical and contemporary poetry, write poems in myriad forms and styles, and develop a writing community of support and conscious critique.