Course Offerings
- For a complete list of courses, please see the undergraduate bulletin
Fall 2012 courses
CMLT-C110 Writing the World: Behave Yourself| See schedule for times
*carries GenEd EC and CASE EC
Great literature explores the boundaries between acceptable and forbidden behavior and tells us something about the values of the culture from which it comes. What if you had to fire an employee you liked, and then he wouldn’t leave your office? Is it right for a son to kill his mother for killing his father because he killed his daughter? Is eight years locked up in the house enough time to make children into respectable adults? Throughout our semester we will delve into superb stories from different cultures and time periods that dramatize the basic question of how people should and should not behave. All sections of CMLT-C 110 will be reading the ancient Greek revenge trilogy The Oresteia, William Shakespeare’s most shocking and violent play Titus Andronicus, Herman Melville’s classic short story “Bartleby,” and Federico Lorca’s modern tragedy The House of Bernarda Alba. Each section will read additional works unique to that section. Some sections will also sample art, music, television, 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 (22365) Images of the Self: East and West | TR 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.
*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-C200 (26306) Honors Seminar: The Good Life | H. Marks | TR 4:00pm – 6:30pm
*carries GenEd A&H and CASE A&H | 2nd 8-weeks only
What is a good life? The question of how one ought to live one's life is at the center of a long tradition of practical philosophy. In the West, the principal approaches were sketched out by the ancient Greeks, who first distinguished between such concepts as "pleasure," "happiness," and "goodness," and charted the possible relations between them. Less systematic but more nuanced than philosophy, literary texts often revolve around the same question, but they tend to focus more on personal choices and the particular circumstances under which they are made. Starting with the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who defined true happiness as freedom from anxiety and pain, this course will take up three imaginative writers whose reflections on how to live were inseparable from their reflections on writing itself: Montaigne, who responded to the civil wars of sixteenth-century France by inventing the literary "essay"; Thoreau, who withdrew to the isolation of Walden Pond in an effort to live "authentically"; and Henry James, who represented the conflict between new world virtue and old-world pleasures through the eyes of a fictional alter ego in his late novel The Ambassadors. All three, in their different ways, espoused an ideal of personal integrity-of fidelity to one's own nature-which they defended against the pressures of conformity and self-interest. Written work: one paper focusing on a particular passage (an early version of which must be presented and defended in class) and a final exam.
CMLT-C205 (16688) Comparative Literary Analysis: Literary Self-Reflections | A. Sokol | MWF 9:05 am – 9:55 am
*carries GenEd A&H, IW and CASE A&H |*required for CMLT majors
This course is an introduction to comparative literary analysis through close readings of works from various genres (prose, poetry, and drama), historical periods, and national traditions. The specific focus will be on direct and indirect commentaries that literary works offer about literature itself and the process of literary creation. Readings may be drawn from such works and authors as One Thousand and One Nights, Ovid, Miguel de Cervantes, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Victor Hugo, Robert Browning, Jorge Luis Borges, and Luigi Pirandello, among others. Detailed knowledge of the readings will form part of course evaluation. This course is required for Comparative Literature majors, but is open to all students interested in literature. The course fulfills the Intensive Writing requirement.
CMLT-C217 (26306) Detective, Mystery, Horror Lit. | TR 1:00pm – 2:15 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 (25792) 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 late-nineteenth century to now. We will mostly concentrate on the great American songwriters, including such as figures as Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, W.C. Handy, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and Frank Loesser. We will also consider later figures such as 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 Edith Piaf, Frank Sinatra, or Billy Holiday. Or we will discover that the performer and creator are sometimes the same person, as in the case of Jacques Brel, the Beatles, or Bruce 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, examining both words and music, and considering the special role of performance. Emphasis will be on the 1920s through the 50s, but there will be 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). Two tests (midterm and final). Required Texts (subject to change): Phil Furia, Poets of Tin Pan Alley, Will Friedwald, Stardust Melodies, D.M. Hertz, ed., Songbook I (essays, lyrics, scores) available at IU Bookstore. Oncourse materials and other short readings to be assigned during the semester.
CMLT-C255 (25793) 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 materials, sounds, silences and language 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 Beethoven, 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. Two 3-4 page papers and one 6-8 page comparative paper. Midterm and final exam. No prerequisites and no previous experience in literature, painting or music is required or expected. Required readings (subject to change): Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther, Poetry anthology, revised throughout semester (Oncourse), Ortega y Gasset, “Dehumanization of Art” (E-reserve), Maupassant, selected short stories (oncourse or E-reserve), Vaughan, Romanticism and Art, Peter Gay, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy and other short readings to be assigned throughout the semester (check Oncourse and E-reserve)
CMLT-C255 (16689) Modern Lit & the Other Arts: An Introduction | TR 9:30 am – 10:45 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-C265 (30075) Intro to East Asian Poetry |K. Tsai | TR 11:15 am – 12:30 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-C301 (24127) Special Topics in Comparative Lit: Environmental Literature | J. Johnson | TR 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
In many cultures around the globe, literature about the natural world represents one of the oldest on-going traditions in poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. This course focuses on how the environment, animals, plants, humans, and weather are transformed into literary forms and what those forms tell us about humanity’s relationship to the natural world. We will sample a wide array of literary texts which will take us from untamed wilderness to the confines of the autumn vineyard, from ancient Greece to classical Japan to nineteenth century America. We will see nature moralized, politicized, romanticized, mythologized, colonized, personified, demonized, and deified. Whether cataloging animals into individual species or meditating on a sunset, by writing about nature our authors are saying something about the place of humans in the physical world. Is humanity a part of nature or apart from nature? Our reading list will include the pastoral poetry of Theocritus, ancient Roman farming poetry by Vergil, the travel journals of the haiku master Matsuo Basho, Joseph Conrad’s nightmarish novella Heart of Darkness, and Herman Melville’s “The Encantadas.” Workload will include 3 analytical essays, short papers, and a brief annotated bibliography.
CMLT-C301 (29199) Special Topics in Comparative Lit: Major Western Epics | S. Van der Laan | MW 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
*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-C313 (13522) Narrative: Henry James and the art of fiction | H. Marks | TR 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
*carries CASE A&H | 2nd 8-weeks only
The focus of this eight-week course will be the work of Henry James (1843-1916), who brought a level of subtlety and nuance never surpassed to the art of narrative fiction. Especially in his late phase, where the increased difficulty of the style reflects the complexity of the characters, his novels are characterized by acute psychological insight, a heightened sense of moral urgency, and an obsessive attention to literary form. But James was not only a great novelist; he was also a great theorist of the novel. In essays and reviews, and in the prefaces to his own books specially composed for the New York Edition, he takes us inside the "house of fiction," describing the sources and aims of the writer's work. At the center of James's world is the American encounter with Europe, often staged as a confrontation between innocence or virtue, on one side, and sophistication or cynicism, on the other. Since this is a comparative course, we shall carry this "international theme" a step further by exploring the relations between fiction written in English and the parallel tradition of fiction in French on which James wrote copiously his entire life. Thus, in addition to major examples of James's own work as novelist, short-story writer, and critic, we shall be studying at least one major text by Stendhal or Balzac, both of whom James greatly admired. We shall also give some attention to the relation between the novel and other narrative forms such as epic and romance. Written work: two short papers (8-10 pages): one an explication de texte to be presented in class, the other focusing on the theory of the novel. Weekly readings will be fairly heavy.
CMLT-C335 (30078) Realism, Naturalism and Symbolism: Desire | A. Pao | TR 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
The desire for wealth, power, love, knowledge, or spiritual transcendence was a dominant theme in 19th-century literature. In this class, we will read works of fiction, drama and poetry traditionally identified with the Realist, Naturalist, and Symbolist movements. We will consider the socio-cultural contexts that made desire such a prominent theme in 19th-century literature; the fascination with the exotic; the imperial presence; and the impact of new practices – from commercial photography to shopping – on the literature of the period. Assignments: one 5-6 page paper; one 7-8 page paper and a take-home final exam. Readings will include Honoré de Balzac (Eugenie Grandet, The Fatal Skin), Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary), Thomas Hardy (Jude the Obscure), Emile Zola (Thérèse Raquin, The Ladies Paradise), Henrik Ibsen (Hedda Gabler, Ghosts), Anton Chekhov (The Seagull, selected short stories), Charles Baudelaire (selections from Flowers of Evil and Artificial Paradises), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salomé) and William Butler Yeats (selected plays and poetry).
CMLT-C357 (30081) The Arts Today: 1950 – Pres: Total Theatre | A. Pao | TR 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit.
The search for a theatrical form that would fully integrate visual images, words, music and movement has inspired artists, musicians, choreographers and directors of the past century. In this course, we will study the theories and productions of leading figures in the performing arts who sought to create works that would engage the mind and the senses in equal measure, reshaping time and space, and breaking down boundaries between art and life in the process. We will begin with the foundational concepts of Richard Wagner’s total artwork, Antonin Artaud’s alchemical theatre, and various forms of mixed means theatre (happenings and kinetic environments). We will focus on the collaborations of Merce Cunningham, John Cage and various painters; Robert Wilson’s theatre of images; Peter Brook’s and Ariane Mnouchkine’s innovative productions of Shakespeare and classical Greek playwrights; Samuel Beckett’s minimalist theatre; the performance art of Robert Lepage; and the dance theatre of Pina Bausch and Meredith Monk. Assignments: two 5-6 page papers; creative/critical final project. and a final exam.
CMLT-C363 (30084) Black Paris | E. Julien | TR 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
*carries CASE A&H and CASE GCC credit
As early as the 1800s, free New Orleanians of color journeyed to France, a country that seemed to offer them greater freedom. Since then, countless African Americans, including writers, musicians, visual artists, and performers, have made Paris (or France)--however temporarily—their home. By examining the lives and work of figures such as our own David Baker, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Chester Himes, Lois Mailou Jones, Claude McKay, Richard Wright, and African, Caribbean, and French intellectual counterparts (Aimé Césaire, Jean Genêt, Paulette Nardal, Jean Paul Sartre, Léopold Senghor), we will consider the broad intellectual issues arising from this displacement: the historical and cultural ties of New Orleans to the Caribbean and France, migration and exile, “African primitivism” and the jazz age, the Harlem Renaissance and the négritude movement, transnationalism, race and the performance of identity.
