Course Offerings
- For a complete list of courses, please see the undergraduate bulletin
Spring 2013 courses
CMLT-C110 Writing the World: Strangers & Wanderers | See schedule for times
*carries GenEd EC and CASE EC
Are you too busy to wander for years through exotic landscapes? Don’t have time to play the role of the stranger who shows up out of the blue? Let literature take care of all that for you! This semester we will encounter a wide array of fascinating characters as they confront bizarre landscapes and mysterious outsiders. All sections of CMLT-C 110 will read Sophocles’ Oedipus at Kolonos, Shakespeare’s King Lear, J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, and Campbell McGrath’s Shannon. Find out what happens to that notorious guy who killed his father and married his mother. Watch as a retired king is cast out by his own family. Meanwhile, in a dusty frontier town where war is brewing, a local magistrate gets lost in political violence as he tries to help a nameless woman. Follow the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition as he tries to survive alone in the beautiful and deadly world of the high plains. Each section will read additional works unique to that section that may include short stories, poetry, novels, and drama. Individual sections may also include television, art, music, and film. This course emphasizes critical thinking, clear communication, and effective argumentation. Assignments include 3 analytical essays, short papers to help develop the 3 essays, 3 short quizzes, and an introduction to basic academic research skills.
CMLT-C147 (7020) Images of the Self: East and West | MW 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
*carries GenEd A&H, GenEd WC, CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
Such considerations as the individual in society, the outcast as hero, and the artistic sensibility examined in selected works of Western and Eastern literature from ancient to modern times.
CMLT-C151 Intro to Popular Culture | See schedule for times
*carries GenEd A&H, CASE A&H and CASE DUS credit.
Explores the scope and methodologies for the serious study of entertainment for mass consumption, including popular theater and vaudeville, bestsellers, mass circulation magazines, popular music, phonograph records, and popular aspects of radio, film, and television. Provides the basic background to other popular culture courses in comparative literature.
CMLT-C155 (7702) Culture and the Modern Experience | TR 4:00 -5:15 pm
*carries GenEd A&H, CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
This course, which is interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, introduces students to an inclusive study of major cultural parallels, contrasts, and developments across the arts and beyond national and continental divides. Syllabi and selections of course materials will reflect the specialties of individual instructors.
CMLT-C205 (1883) Comparative Literary Analysis | P. Losensky | MWF 11:15 am – 12:05 pm
*carries GenEd A&H, IW and CASE A&H |*required for CMLT majors
This course introduces methods of textual analysis and interpretation through the close reading and comparison of works from around the world and across time. We will examine texts in a wide range of genres—epic and myth, the essay, lyric poetry, narrative fiction, and drama and film—to investigate how writers utilize language, imagery, character, setting, and plot to represent and comment on themselves, their society, and the world around them. To provide a basis of comparison between works from diverse times and cultures, we will focus this semester on representations of the relationship between human beings and the natural world. To what extent does civilization set humans apart from or above the natural world? How different are humans from other animals, and how are biological imperatives like sex and death integrated into culture? Because of the rich expressive resources of literary forms, creative writers are able to explore these questions in ways that defy simple paraphrase, and it will be our task to comprehend these resources in all their manifold complexity. Among the works that we will examine are texts and films from India, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as Europe and the Americas and from the ancient world to the present. Course requirements include two short quizzes, informal response papers, and three formal essays that will fulfill the College Intensive Writing requirement.
CMLT-C217 (10488) Detective, Mystery, Horror Lit. |TR 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
*carries GenEd A&H and CASE A&H
Origins, evolution, conventions, criticism, and theory of the detective and mystery story,; history of the Gothic novel; later development of the tale of terror; major works of this type in fiction, drama, and film.
CMLT-C251 (10047) Lyrics and Popular Song | TR 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm | D. Hertz
*carries GenEd A&H, CASE A&H and CASE DUS credit
The course will explore all sorts of popular songs, from the nineteenth century to now. We will mostly concentrate on the great American songwriters, including such as figures as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. We will periodically move abroad to study French,Italian, Argentine, Brazilian and Mexican songs. Our target in all cases is the same: the varied phenomena of how words and music come together in the hybrid art form we call the popular song. At times we will concentrate on the culture that produced the song, and its means of production and distribution. Most of the time, we will focus close attention on the work of the lyricist or the composer. Sometimes we will discover that they are the same person. The great Cole Porter is a case in point, and Irving Berlin is another fine example. At other times, we will focus on a great performer, such as Piaf or Sinatra. Or we will discover that the performer and creator are sometimes the same person, as in the case of Jacques Brel, the Beatles, or Springsteen. Lyrics will be analyzed in relation to the musical structures and as poetry too. Most important will be to study the popular song as a complete art form, using both words and music. Emphasis will be on the 30s through the 50s, but there will be some discussion of the 60s and after and some very recent song material as well. No prerequisites. Varied levels of training in music and poetry are expected from the students in the class. Independent projects will be designed to fit the level of each student. Classes will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. There will be some live performance, and some recordings. Attendance is required. Assignments: there will be two short papers, or the first paper can be expanded into a final paper (the two written projects can be interrelated). A final project instead of a paper is also possible (by permission of instructor). Two tests (midterm and final). A note on readings and preparing for class: Please prepare the assigned readings for each class, as specified. You are expected to read any assigned readings in the Songbook, to familiarize yourself as much as possible with many of the songs in the Songbook (although you are not required to know how to read music), and to read and study the assigned materials on Oncourse. You must read all of Furia and the assigned chapters of Friedwald. You should review them for the midterm and final. Everyone will be expected to have some familiarity with key concepts and terms. Some extra readings may be added, and your own ability to find fresh scholarly material for your projects will be judged as part of the course work. The Songbook has important songs, lyrics, and articles that will be covered in class in on tests, so bring it to class.
CMLT-C255 (10048) Modern Lit & the Other Arts: An Introduction | D. Hertz | TR 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
* carries GenEd A&H, CASE A&H, CASE GCC and IW credit
This is the course that takes us into the creative mind of the modern artist, composer and poet and into the analytical mind of the critic. In C255, we analyze works of art (painting, music and literature) of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, compare how these works interrelate and discover how they are unique. We learn what motivates the creative personality and how such a person turns forms, colors sounds, silences and words into art. We also observe how styles in the arts change over time and study why artists often rebel against their precursors in search of new ways to express themselves. Students of C255 see, hear and comprehend art in new, exciting and discriminating ways. For example, we discover how a musician paints a landscape, how a painter composes motion and how a poet creates musical and visual effects in verbal expression. Among the many figures we will study are Beaumarchais, Mozart, Beethoven, Mary and Percy Shelley, Keats, Chopin, Schumann, Delacroix, Turner, Liszt, Dickinson, Wagner, Cassatt, Whistler, Monet, Debussy, Picasso, Stravinsky, Apollinaire, Matisse, and Eliot. Requirements, Assignments and Course Activities: Visits to the IU Art Museum. Attend 2 Jacobs School of Music events. Attend one other cultural events of your choice. Two 3-4 page papers and one 6-8 page comparative paper. One revision of a paper. Midterm and final exam. Some spot quizzes possible. No prerequisites and no previous experience in literature, painting or music is required or expected.
CMLT-C255 (1884) Modern Lit & the Other Arts: An Introduction | MW 2:30 am – 3:45 am |
*carries GenEd A&H credit, CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
Analyzes the materials of literature, painting, and music and the ways in which meaning is expressed through the organization of materials. Investigates similarities and differences among the arts. Examples selected from the past 200 years. No previous knowledge of any art required.
CMLT-C261 (29298) Introduction to the Literatures of Africa | E. Julien | TR 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
This course will introduce you to foundational and contemporary African literary texts. You will learn about proverbs, praise poetry, and oral narrative performance, read recent examples of the novel, poetry, autobiography, drama, and view several films as well as popular music video clips. We will take a trip to the third floor gallery of the IU Art Museum. Possible texts: Amos Tutuola’s The Palm Wine Drinkard, Bessie Head’s Maru, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, Boubacar Boris Diop’s Murambi: The Book of Bones, Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Matigari, Abdellatif Laâbi’s Rue du retour, Salem Mekuria’s Deluge, Athol Fugard’s Master Harold and the Boys, Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa, Joseph Gaï Ramaka’s Karmen Geï. From magical love story to feminist rebellion, from fantastic tales to detective story, we will pay attention to the formal qualities of these works and the broad historical conditions affecting African literatures and cultures, including the continent’s experience with European languages. You will encounter issues such as pre-colonial social and political relations, colonialism and decolonization, anti-apartheid politics, gender and racial identities, and disenchantment with the postcolonial state. There will also be critical readings on literature and culture. Please contact Professor Julien <ejulien> for additional information.
CMLT-C265 (12831) Intro to East Asian Poetry|K. Tsai | TR 2:30 pm -3:45 pm
*carries GenEd A&H, GenEd WC, CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
This course explores the poetic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea. We aim to develop sensitivity to literary language and to understand Asian poetry within its literary and cultural contexts. How does poetry in East Asia serve as a medium for self-expression as well as a means for political engagement and even spiritual cultivation? Why does love poetry focus on loss or longing to the exclusion of consummation? What is Zen poetry all about, and why is it so short? Close reading and literary analysis are supplemented with composition exercises to develop a greater sense of form and style. Comparison with the Western tradition will enable us to examine the place of lyric poetry in world literature. While the volume of reading is not high, poetry does demand a great deal of attention and concentration. All readings will be in English translation.
CMLT-C291 (12117) Studies in Non-Western Film | A. Adesokan | MW 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
*carries, GenEd A&H, GendEd WC , CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
This is a course which focuses on politics as a topical issue in contemporary African cinema. Working through the popular assumption that new generation African filmmakers prefer to deal with formal and aesthetic issues at the expense of the kind of political filmmaking which preoccupied their precursors, the course looks at recent films which give equal weight to politics and aesthetics. Readings, screenings and class discussions will focus on a number of issues, including the relationship between art and everyday life, the impact of immigration and professional mobility on contemporary cinema, and the economics of filmmaking. Films to be studied may include Bamako, The Night of Truth, Moolaade, Amazing Grace, Sometimes in April, and Ezra.
CMLT-C291 (29775) Studies in Non-Western Film | K. Tsai | TR 5:45 pm – 8:15 pm
*carries, GenEd A&H, GendEd WC , CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
This course will examine some of the most influential directors from China, Japan, and Korea. The goals of the course are: (1) learning the formal vocabulary and methods for analyzing filmic genres from anime to romance; and (2) examining the cultural and historical contexts for interpreting the works of these directors, including Rashomon, Ghost in the Shell, Oldboy, 2046, and Good Men, Good Women. Students will emerge from the course with a new way to look at movies, and with an appreciation of the vibrancy and diversity of Asian cinema.
CMLT-C301 (8635) Special Topics: Beauty and the Beast | E. Julien | TR 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
This course examines twentieth-century popular adaptations (movie, stage, and feature-length cartoon) of literary classics. Since many works now treated as literary "classics" were considered "popular" in their own time, we will be asking, first of all, "what constitutes a classic?" and "what is popular culture?" We will attempt to define the relationship between the two. We will explore original versions and adaptations in terms of the socio-historical contexts in which they were made. And, since many remakes are films--ours is a visual culture and cinema was the invention of the twentieth century-- we shall also ask, "What aesthetic or thematic alterations does a change in the medium of expression trigger?" We will begin by considering the 17th century European folktale "Beauty and the Beast," Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation and Disney’s 1991 animated film of the same name. We shall then read Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611) alongside Aimé Césaire’s 1969 reinvention, A Tempest; Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) alongside William Dieterle’s 1939 film starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara and Disney’s 1996 animated film; possibly Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and the Kenneth Branagh film (1994); and Prosper Mérimée’s 19th century novella, Carmen, and Joseph Gaï Ramaka’s Karmen Geï (2001). Students will write three four-page papers and a final essay exam. Regular attendance and participation in class discussion are a must.
CMLT-C301 (12335) Special Topics in Comparative Lit: Major Western Epics |S. Van der Laan |TR 9:30 am – 10:45 am
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
Why did the architects of the World Trade Center memorial choose a quotation from Virgil’s Aeneid, a two-thousand-year-old Latin poem, for its walls? For twenty-seven hundred years, epic has been at the heart of the Western literary tradition. The most prestigious and the most ambitious of literary genres, epic more than any other form of literature explores human nature, celebrates or attacks political and social ideals, and argues for certain behaviors and values as heroic. Epic tells stories of long-dead heroes and super-human adventures, but beneath these stories lurk intense engagements with the problems of being human and of participating in social and political power structures. Epic endures because it offers its readers tools for living in the real world. We will read four of the greatest Western epics, poems that have left their mark on all later literature: Homer’s Odyssey, the twin stories of the Greek hero Odysseus’s ten years of adventures and Penelope’s defiance of the suitors who would have her betray Odysseus and take another husband; Virgil’s Aeneid, the tale of the founding of the Roman Empire that both celebrates and questions the sacrifices made in the name of imperial values; Dante’s Inferno, an allegorical journey through Hell that marries epic values to Christian ethics while reveling in the opportunity to take revenge on political enemies; and Milton’s Paradise Lost, an epic retelling of the story of the Fall from Genesis that explores—and finds heroism in—the human condition.
CMLT-C311 (29313) Drama |A. Pao |TR 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
A guest arrives and a drama is set in motion. This is what happens in tragedies, comedies, and other dramatic forms from ancient Greece and Rome to modern Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The guests may be invited and welcome or else surprise visitors whose presence is highly undesirable; they may be imposing on the hospitality of an individual, a family or an entire city. Regal or humble, beneficent or malevolent, these guests and their hosts engage in ways that have created some of the most stimulating and enjoyable dramas of world literature. We will examine the staging of the guest/host relationship and its perversion in various theatrical and cultural contexts. In particular, we will consider the ways in which generic conventions shape reception and interpretation. The works we will be reading include works by playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides, Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wilde, Ionesco, Lorca, Brecht,Pinter, Soyinka. Assignments: one 5-6 page paper, one 7-8 page paper, a critical review of a stage production, a final exam.
CMLT-C313 (13862) Narrative |R. McGerr |TR 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
This course will introduce students to the variety of narrative forms found in literatures from different times and cultures. We will examine some of the ways in which critics and theorists interpret the aesthetic, psychological, and philosophical aspects of narrative. Among the issues we will explore are the social functions of narrative texts, the relationship of gender and narrative form, the role of inter-textuality in narrative tradition, and the interplay of closed and open forms of narrative. In addition to examples of myth, fairy tale, parable, and legend, we will study more complex forms such as epic, romance, frame narrative, and novel. The readings for the course will include texts from ancient times to the twentieth century. We will begin with a selection of myths, fairy tales, legends, and ancient and modern fables, and then turn to longer narrative forms: The Odyssey, The Tale of Genji, The Arabian Nights, Yvain, Inferno, The Decameron, Lazarillo de Tormes, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, Things Fall Apart, and In the Labyrinth. Writing Requirements: one hour-test, one comparative essay (5-7 pages), and a final exam.
CMLT-C347 (29339) Literature & Ideas: Alone| J. Johnson | TR 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
While scientists tell us that humans are naturally social creatures, the world of literature is filled with compelling tales of characters isolated from the rest of human society. Some are punished with exile or solitary confinement; others turn their back on civilization in search of a new and better lifestyle; still others are lost in the world and can’t find the society they’re looking for; other characters live lives of isolation in the midst of a crowd, surrounded on all sides by other people. This is your chance to explore a powerful and persistent theme in world literature. Our texts include Sophocles’ heartbreaking tale of abandonment Philoktetes; four early Christian lives of “desert fathers”; Shakespeare’s most unconventional play Timon of Athens; Luis de Gongora’s ornate poem about a shipwrecked wanderer, The Solitudes; Henry David Thoreau’s classic Walden, Joseph Conrad’s psychological novel Victory, and David Malouf’s lyrical novel of a famous poet in exile, An Imaginary Life. Workload includes three analytical essays, short papers, and a short research bibliography. The course welcomes any interested student regardless of major; however, it is recommended that you have completed your General Education composition requirement first. For more information, jwjohnso@indiana.edu
CMLT-C360 (29348) Diasporic Literatures |A. Pao |TR 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
This course will study texts (fiction, memoirs, poetry, screenplays) by Asian, African, and Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants in North America and Europe. Some of the writers are recent immigrants to the U.S., France, Great Britain, or Germany, while others are 2nd, 3rd or multiple-generation citizens of these countries. The countries of origin include China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mali, Senegal, India, and Turkey. We will use the experiences as portrayed in literature and film to examine various concepts, terms and models used to analyze multicultural individual and community identities including ethnic minority, diaspora, expatriate, immigrant, migrant, sojourner. One of the central questions we will be examining will be the effects of national histories and cultural institutions -- of the country of origin and of the country of residency -- on the experiences of immigrants and minority citizens and on their cultural production.
CMLT-C377 (32634) Topics in Yiddish Literature: Yiddish Life: On Page, On Stage, On Screen | D. Kerler | TR 4:00 pm – 6:15 pm | Class meets with GER-E-351 and GER-Y 505
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC | 2nd 8-weeks only
This course will be devoted to a number of major works of early modern Yiddish fiction, drama and film some of them being prime achievements of modern Yiddish creativity dealing with the rapid modernization, identity issues and cultural as well as social aspiration of East European Jews in Europe and in America. These works will be closely read and discussed in class. Each one of the three larger works was also adapted or transformed into a film which will be viewed and critically compared with the literary work that inspired it. Apart from the general introduction to the historical and socio-cultural background of Yiddish literature and culture this course will also deal with issues of (1) literary structure and representation, (2) fantasy, realism and fiction, (3) the notion of a “national” literature and its possible role in the so-called “world literature,” (4) various specific concerns of a cinematic adaptation of a literary work, (5) the role of drama, theater (and perhaps also cinema) in the cultural public make-up of a stateless national group both in Europe and North America.
