Courses for Spring 2024

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Syllabus Syllabus URL
COML 0006-401 Hindu Mythology Deven Patel STNH AUD TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Premodern India produced some of the world's greatest myths and stories: tales of gods, goddesses, heroes, princesses, kings and lovers that continue to capture the imaginations of millions of readers and hearers. In this course, we will look closely at some of these stories especially as found in Purana-s, great compendia composed in Sanskrit, including the chief stories of the central gods of Hinduism: Visnu, Siva, and the Goddess. We will also consider the relationship between these texts and the earlier myths of the Vedas and the Indian Epics, the diversity of the narrative and mythic materials within and across different texts, and the re-imagining of these stories in the modern world. RELS0006401, SAST0006401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 0007-401 Introduction to Modern South Asian Literatures Gregory Goulding DRLB 4C2 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course will provide a wide-ranging introduction to the literatures of South Asia from roughly 1500 to the present, as well as an exploration of their histories and impact on South Asian society today. How are literary movements and individual works - along with the attitudes towards religion, society, and culture associated with them - still influential in literature, film, and popular culture? How have writers across time and language engaged with questions of caste, gender, and identity? We will read from the rich archive of South Asian writing in translation - from languages that include Braj, Urdu, Bangla, and Tamil - to consider how these literatures depict their own society while continuing to resonate across time and space. Topics of dicussion will include the Bhakti poetries of personal devotion, the literature of Dalits - formerly referred to as the Untouchables - and the ways in which literature addresses contemporary political and social problems. Students will leave this course with a sense of the contours of the literatures of South Asia as well as ways of exploring the role of these literatures in the larger world. No prior knowledge of South Asia is required; this course fulfills the cross-cultural analysis requirement, and the Arts and Letters sector requirement. SAST0007401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0007401
COML 0022-601 Study of a Theme in Global Literature Avni Sejpal WILL 25 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM How does fiction make sense of globalization and its uneven effects upon the world? And how do the histories of race and empire shape the contemporary novel? This course will introduce students to literatures beyond Europe and the United States by surveying the rich landscape of twentieth and twenty-first century Asian, African, and diasporic writing. Paying close attention to the formal aspects of storytelling, we will examine how novels represent the dizzying scale of a globe in crisis through innovations in language, plot, and form. Together we will learn about literary and popular genres—magical realism, dystopia, the bildungsroman, allegory, crime, and self-help—to appreciate how the novel has transformed in response to global economic and political upheaval. Students will be introduced to and learn how to apply theories of the novel, racial capitalism, Marxism, and postcolonialism. Authors may include Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, NoViolet Bulawayo, Karen Tei Yamashita, Nuruddin Farah, and Ling Ma. Assignments will include a close reading assignment, a class presentation, a keywords project, and a final research paper.

This introduction to literary study examines a compelling literary theme by attending to texts from around the globe. The theme's function within multiple historical and regional contexts, within literary history generally, and within contemporary culture, will all be emphasized. In presenting a range of materials and perspectives, this course is an ideal introduction to literary study. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

Some seats in this course have been reserved for LPS Students. If seats are available, you will be able to register freely. If seats are not available, you should continue to try to register in the case that someone may drop the course. On the first day of the session, any remaining seats will be opened for all students. Permits will not be issued if the course has been filled. Please do not contact the instructor, department or LPS for permits. Permits will not be issued.
ENGL0022601 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0022601
COML 0030-402 Introduction to Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory Eva Pensis BENN 344 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will introduce students to the historical and intellectual forces that led to the emergence of queer theory as a distinct field, as well as to recent and ongoing debates about gender, sexuality, embodiment, race, privacy, global power, and social norms. We will begin by tracing queer theory's conceptual heritage and prehistory in psychoanalysis, deconstruction and poststructuralism, the history of sexuality, gay and lesbian studies, woman-of-color feminism, the feminist sex wars, and the AIDS crisis. We will then study the key terms and concepts of the foundational queer work of the 1990s and early 2000s. Finally, we will turn to the new questions and issues that queer theory has addressed in roughly the past decade. Students will write several short papers. ENGL0160401, GSWS0003401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
COML 0038-401 Study of a Genre: World Autobiography Max C Cavitch CANCELED This course will introduce you to the great variety of narrative forms and themes in autobiographical literature from a wide range of cultural and national traditions. As a course on a major narrative genre, it will give you a grounding in the fundamentals of genre- and narrative-theory and criticism. And, as a course on world literature, it will introduce you to the principles and theories of comparativism, as well as contemporary debates regarding the regional, the national, and the global in literary studies. Our focus will be on “modern” autobiography, from the late 18th century to the present day, with particular emphasis on 20th- and 21st-century autobiographical writing, from many different parts of the world. All works—many of them in translation—will be read in English, which means we’ll be examining the role of the English language in shaping different conceptions of “world literature.” Representative authors and locales include: Alison Bechdel (U.S.), Nirad Chaudhuri (India), Mohamed Choukri (Morocco), J. M. Coetzee (South Africa), Alicia Elliott (Canada/Six Nations), Annie Ernaux (France), Anne Frank (Germany/Netherlands), Kiese Laymon (U.S.), Audre Lorde (U.S.), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (France), Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Greta Thunberg (Sweden), and William Wordsworth (U.K.). Course requirements will vary according to class-size but will likely involve a combination of short essays, quizzes, and in-class exercises. (No mid-term or final exams.)


ENGL0038401 Arts & Letters Sector https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0038401
COML 0087-401 Desire and Deception in Medieval Erotic Literature Francesco Marco Aresu CANCELED In this course, we will investigate the ideology, content, and material forms of love literature from Dante Alighieri to Francesco Petrarca. Through close readings of such texts as Dante’s Vita nova (ca. 1295), Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (ca. 1353), and Petrarca's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (often referred to as the poetry book par excellence: il canzoniere, ca. 1374), we will unveil the literary and fictitious nature of medieval erotic literature. We will explore the origins of love poetry in medieval France and its subsequent interpretation and rewriting in Italian courts and comuni. We will inquire into the cultural constructions of the medieval notion of lyrical self and how it still has an impact on our own notion of consciousness. We will study the forms, themes, and characters that populate 'love stories' in the Middle Ages. We will analyze the dynamics of composition, circulation, and reception in manuscript culture. Our close analysis of the texts as they have been preserved in manuscript form will help us gauge the differences between medieval and contemporary ways of writing, reading, and loving. GSWS0087401, ITAL0087401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0087401
COML 0090-401 The Fantastic Voyage from Homer to Science Fiction Scott M Francis BENN 222 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Tales of voyages to strange lands with strange inhabitants and even stranger customs have been a part of the Western literary tradition from its inception. What connects these tales is that their voyages are not only voyages of discovery, but voyages of self-discovery. By describing the effects these voyages have on the characters who undertake them, and by hinting at comparisons between the lands described in the story and their own society, authors use fantastic voyages as vehicles for incisive commentary on literary, social, political, and scientific issues.
In this course, we will see how voyage narratives as seemingly distant as Homer’s Odyssey and Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes fit into a bigger tradition of speculative fiction. We will determine what the common stylistic elements of speculative fiction are, such as the frame narrative, or story-within-a-story, and what purpose they serve in conveying the tale’s messages. We will see how voyagers attempt to understand and interact with the lands and peoples they encounter, and what these attempts tell us about both the voyagers and their newly discovered counterparts. Finally, we will ask ourselves what real-world issues are commented upon by these narratives, what lessons the narratives can teach about them, and how they impart these lessons to the reader.
Readings for this course, all of which are in English or English translation, range from classics like the Odyssey and Gulliver’s Travels to predecessors of modern science fiction like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells to seminal works of modern science fiction like Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes, Karel Čapek’s War with the Newts, and Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris. We will also look at how films like Planet of the Apes (1968) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) or television shows like Star Trek and Futurama draw upon literary or cinematic models for their own purposes. Students will also have the opportunity to examine and present on pieces from the Mark B. Adams Science Fiction Collection at Penn’s Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts, which comprises over 2,000 volumes of science fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy.
This course is meant not only for SF fans who would like to become better acquainted with the precursors and classics of the genre, but for all those who wish to learn how great works of fiction, far from being intended solely for entertainment and escapism, attempt to improve upon the real world through the effect they have on the reader.
FREN0090401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0090401
COML 0310-401 Reading the City (First-Year Seminar) Emily D. Steinlight BENN 139 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will consider how nineteenth-century literature helped transform the city into the symbolic nerve center of modern social life, and it will follow the changing shapes of urbanism across contexts and into the present. Our focus will be on artists’ and social scientists’ varied efforts to make the internal dynamics of cities perceptible, whether in still or moving images, sound, maps, lyric poetry, or narrative. We will consider the paradoxes of urban representation: scenes of unity and of alienation, newfound freedom and new forms of oppression, total knowledge and impenetrable mystery, enforcement of social norms and their violation. To make sense of these conflicting meanings, we will examine what versions of the city take shape in fiction by Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Honoré de Balzac, Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright, Sam Selvon, and Ling Ma; poetry by William Blake, William Wordsworth, Charles Baudelaire, Walt Whitman, and Edna St. Vincent Millay; social theory by Friedrich Engels, David Harvey, Brenda Yeoh, and Davarian Baldwin; photography, film, and contemporary writing and media. We may discuss the practice of spectatorship, the poetics and politics of urban space, urban cartography, architecture and infrastructure, cities as sites of racialized dispossession and class warfare, representations of crowds and of close encounters with strangers, gender and sexuality in the street, new modes of perception and cognition, scientific analyses of built environments, struggles for housing and education justice and rights to the city, and a range of artistic responses to the world-transforming and uneven conditions of modernity. Requirements include active participation, a short critical essay, and a final paper or project. ENGL0310401 Arts & Letters Sector
COML 0510-401 National Epics David Wallace VANP 627 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM In this course we will consider texts that become “national epics,” texts that in some sense come to “represent” a nation. How and when might such imaginative texts emerge? Nations change, and old poems may no longer serve. Can the Song of Roland, once compulsory study for all schoolchildren in France, still be required reading today — especially if I am French Muslim? What about El Cid in Spain? How do some texts — such as the Mahabharata in India, or Journey to the West in China — seem more adaptable than others? The course begins in western Europe, but then pivots across Eurasian space to become gradually more global. Most all of us have complex family histories: Chinese-American, French Canadian, Latino/a/x, Jewish American, Pennsylvania Dutch, Lenni Lenape. Some students may choose to investigate, for their final project, family histories (and hence their own, personal connection to “national epics”). English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ENGL0510401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML0510401
COML 0540-401 History of Literary Criticism (Literary Theory Ancient to Modern) Rita Copeland BENN 244 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This is a course on the history of literary theory, a survey of major debates about literature, poetics, and ideas about what literary texts should do, from ancient Greece to examples of modern thought. The first half of the course will focus on early periods: Greek and Roman antiquity, especially Plato and Aristotle; the medieval period (including St. Augustine, Al-Farabi, and Boccaccio); and the early modern period (including Giambattista Vico). In the second half of the course we will turn to modern concerns by looking at the literary (or “art”) theories of some major philosophers and theorists: Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Walter Benjamin, and Franz Fanon. We end the course in the later twentieth century with readings from cultural theorists such as Edward Said and Paul Gilroy. The purpose driving this course is to consider closely how this tradition generated questions that are still with us, such as: What is the act of interpretation? Whose interpretation matters? What is the “aesthetic”? What is representation or mimesis? When does an author’s intention matter, and how are we to know it?
CLST3508401, ENGL0540401
COML 0615-USW Modern Arabic Literature This course is a study of modern Arabic literary forms in the context of the major political and social changes which shaped Arab history in the first half of the twentieth century. The aim of the course is to introduce students to key samples of modern Arabic literature which trace major social and political developments in Arab society. Each time the class will be offered with a focus on one of the literary genres which emerged or flourished in the twentieth century: the free verse poem, the prose-poem, drama, the novel, and the short story. We will study each of these emergent genres against the socio-political backdrop which informed it. All readings will be in English translations. The class will also draw attention to the politics of translation as a reading and representational lens. NELC0615USW Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 0700-401 Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics and Religion Mahyar Entezari WILL 220 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This seminar explores Iranian culture, art, history and politics through film in the contemporary era. We will examine a variety of works that represent the social, political, economic and cultural circumstances of post-revolutionary Iran. Along the way, we will discuss issues pertaining to gender, religion, nationialism, ethnicity, and the function of cinema in present day Iranian society. Films to be discussed will be by internationally acclaimed filmmakers, such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Tahmineh Milani, Jafar Panahi, Bahman Ghobadi, among others. CIMS0700401, GSWS0700401, NELC0700401 Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 0701-401 Medieval Road Trip: Reading and Writing with Chaucer Emily R Steiner VANP 626 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM In the fourteenth century, the short story was all the rage, and Geoffrey Chaucer was a master of the form. In this course, we will read his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales—these pathbreaking tales feature some memorable narrators and range from raunchy to preachy, from fable to romance, and from comedy to horror. They ask us to consider whether stories that entertain us can also make us better humans, how we should react when stories offend us; what power short stories have to challenge hierarchies and inequalities, and finally, how adapting and critiquing old stories can fashion communities of readers and writers across time. We will read Chaucer alongside his own favorite tales by Italian and classical authors as well as read modern authors inspired by Chaucer, such as Gloria Naylor, Patience Agbabi, Caroline Bergvall, and Zadie Smith. Finally, we will try our hands at writing like, with, and against Chaucer. We will translate and annotate his tales, and experiment with his language and meter. Our final project will be to assemble an anthology of tales to which students will be asked to contribute either a critical or a creative piece. In the past, students have translated Chaucer into Spanish and Chinese, written an entirely new tale, created comics and animations, and even composed operas (really!). Other assignments will include short weekly writing pieces and an oral presentation. No knowledge of medieval literature is required. Students from all disciplines are welcome. ENGL0701401, RELS0701401
COML 0783-401 Writing About Music (Critical-Creative Seminar) Simone White LERN 102 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM When one writes about music what does one write about? Sound? Culture? Feeling (is feeling historical)? Technologies? Art? How can one approach the power of any of the above through writing, writing about record labels, cities, bands, musicians? Doing away with the presumption that “words don’t go there,” a statement that posits the incompatibility of sound and language and paradoxically positions music as more than words, we will listen to change our writing, and write to alter our ways of listening — to record being with music. Readings include music criticism, fiction, poetry, musicology and writings of musicians. Musically, in addition to your own selections, I will assign songs and/or records for group listening each week, to which everyone will respond in writing on a weekly basis. We’ll spend (a lot of) time working with rap, notoriously confounding for writers, and a wide range of other music including reggae/dub, raga, Berber music, and experimental/art music (jazz, classical, rock and noise). Requirements Weekly response posts (3 graded); one special project/presentation on one of a selection of autobiographies or cultural histories; final take-home exam (an annotated playlist). Possible readings include: Amit Chauduri, Finding the Raga dream hampton, selected essays Greg Tate, Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1&2) Michael Veal, Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Reggae Two Fingas & James Kirk, Junglist Jace Clayton, Uproot! Anthony Braxton, Tri-axium Writings & Graham Lock, Anthony Braxton and The Meta-reality of Creative Music (selections) Dan Charnas, Dilla Time Nathaniel Mackey, Bedouin Hornbook Margo Glantz, The Wake. ENGL0783401
COML 1011-401 World Film History to 1945 Ian Fleishman BENN 401 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course surveys the history of world film from cinema's precursors to 1945. We will develop methods for analyzing film while examining the growth of film as an art, an industry, a technology, and a political instrument. Topics include the emergence of film technology and early film audiences, the rise of narrative film and birth of Hollywood, national film industries and movements, African-American independent film, the emergence of the genre film (the western, film noir, and romantic comedies), ethnographic and documentary film, animated films, censorship, the MPPDA and Hays Code, and the introduction of sound. We will conclude with the transformation of several film industries into propaganda tools during World War II (including the Nazi, Soviet, and US film industries). In addition to contemporary theories that investigate the development of cinema and visual culture during the first half of the 20th century, we will read key texts that contributed to the emergence of film theory. There are no prerequisites. Students are required to attend screenings or watch films on their own. ARTH1080401, CIMS1010401, ENGL1900401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1011401
COML 1011-402 World Film History to 1945 Hugo Salas BENN 401 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course surveys the history of world film from cinema's precursors to 1945. We will develop methods for analyzing film while examining the growth of film as an art, an industry, a technology, and a political instrument. Topics include the emergence of film technology and early film audiences, the rise of narrative film and birth of Hollywood, national film industries and movements, African-American independent film, the emergence of the genre film (the western, film noir, and romantic comedies), ethnographic and documentary film, animated films, censorship, the MPPDA and Hays Code, and the introduction of sound. We will conclude with the transformation of several film industries into propaganda tools during World War II (including the Nazi, Soviet, and US film industries). In addition to contemporary theories that investigate the development of cinema and visual culture during the first half of the 20th century, we will read key texts that contributed to the emergence of film theory. There are no prerequisites. Students are required to attend screenings or watch films on their own. ARTH1080402, CIMS1010402, ENGL1900402 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1022-401 World Film History 1945-Present Julia Alekseyeva BENN 401 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM Focusing on movies made after 1945, this course allows students to learn and to sharpen methods, terminologies, and tools needed for the critical analysis of film. Beginning with the cinematic revolution signaled by the Italian Neo-Realism, we will examine the emergence of various new wave movements and cinematic trends from around the globe, from the French New Wave, New American Cinema, Hong Kong cinema, to the Taiwanese New Wave, and from puzzle films to observational documentary. There will be precise attention paid to formal and stylistic techniques in editing, mise-en-scene, and sound, as well as to the narrative, non-narrative, and generic organizations of film. At the same time, those formal features will be closely linked to historical and cultural distinctions and changes, ranging from the Paramount Decision of 1948 to the digital convergences that are defining screen culture today. There are no perquisites. Requirements will include readings in film history and film analysis, an analytical essay, weekly Canvas postings, and a final exam. ARTH1090401, CIMS1020401, ENGL1901401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1022-402 World Film History 1945-Present Sasha D Krugman BENN 401 R 12:00 PM-2:59 PM Focusing on movies made after 1945, this course allows students to learn and to sharpen methods, terminologies, and tools needed for the critical analysis of film. Beginning with the cinematic revolution signaled by the Italian Neo-Realism, we will examine the emergence of various new wave movements and cinematic trends from around the globe, from the French New Wave, New American Cinema, Hong Kong cinema, to the Taiwanese New Wave, and from puzzle films to observational documentary. There will be precise attention paid to formal and stylistic techniques in editing, mise-en-scene, and sound, as well as to the narrative, non-narrative, and generic organizations of film. At the same time, those formal features will be closely linked to historical and cultural distinctions and changes, ranging from the Paramount Decision of 1948 to the digital convergences that are defining screen culture today. There are no perquisites. Requirements will include readings in film history and film analysis, an analytical essay, weekly Canvas postings, and a final exam.
ARTH1090402, CIMS1020402, ENGL1901402 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1022402
COML 1027-401 Sex and Representation Anju Parvathy Biju COHN 337 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course explores literature that resists normative categories of gender and sexuality. By focusing on figures writing from the margins, we will explore how radical approaches to narrative form and subject-matter invite us to think in new ways about desire and identity. We will read texts that blur the boundaries between fact and fiction, hybridizing the genres of poetry, drama, and autobiography to produce new forms of expression, such as the graphic novel, auto-fiction, and prose poetry. From Viriginia Woolf's gender-bending epic, Orlando, to Tony Kushner's Angels in America, this course traces how non-normative desire is produced and policed by social and literary contexts - and how those contexts can be re-imagined and transformed. CIMS1027401, GSWS1027401 Arts & Letters Sector https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1027401
COML 1031-401 Television and New Media Knar E Gavin ANNS 110 MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM How and when do media become digital? What does digitization afford and what is lost as television and cinema become digitized? As lots of things around us turn digital, have we started telling stories, sharing experiences, and replaying memories differently? What has happened to television and life after New Media? How have television audiences been transformed by algorithmic cultures of Netflix and Hulu? How have (social) media transformed socialities as ephemeral snaps and swiped intimacies become part of the “new” digital/phone cultures? This is an introductory survey course, and we discuss a wide variety of media technologies and phenomena that include: cloud computing, Internet of Things, trolls, distribution platforms, optical fiber cables, surveillance tactics, social media, and race in cyberspace. We also examine emerging mobile phone cultures in the Global South and the environmental impact of digitization. Course activities include Tumblr blog posts and Instagram curations. The final project could take the form of either a critical essay (of 2000 words) or a media project. ARTH1070401, CIMS1030401, ENGL1950401
COML 1031-601 Television and New Media Zane Griffin Talley Cooper BENN 231 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM How and when do media become digital? What does digitization afford and what is lost as television and cinema become digitized? As lots of things around us turn digital, have we started telling stories, sharing experiences, and replaying memories differently? What has happened to television and life after “New Media”? How have television audiences been transformed by algorithmic cultures of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video? Social media platforms such as Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook have blurred the lines between public and private spaces, and ushered in a heightened sense of immediacy to mediations of everyday life. How have (social) media transformed socialities as ephemeral snaps and swiped intimacies become part of the "new" digital/phone cultures? This is an introductory survey/exploratory course and we discuss a wide variety of media technologies and phenomena that include: Internet of Things, hacking, trolls, “FAKE NEWS,” distribution platforms, AI/ChatGPT, surveillance tactics, social media, data centers and race in cyberspace. We also examine emerging mobile phone cultures in the Global South and the environmental impact of digitization. Course activities include analyzing/producing TikTok videos and Instagram curations. The course assignments consist of take-home mid-term of short answer-type questions, a short comparative TV essay, and a take home end-term of long answer-type questions.

Some seats in this course have been reserved for LPS Students. If seats are available, you will be able to register freely. If seats are not available, you should continue to try to register in the case that someone may drop the course. On the second day of the session, any remaining seats will be opened for all students. Permits will not be issued if the course has been filled.
ARTH1070601, CIMS1030601, ENGL1950601
COML 1054-401 Forest Worlds: Mapping the Arboreal Imaginary in Literature and Film Simon J Richter WILL 25 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM The destruction of the world's forests through wild fires, deforestation, and global heating threatens planetary bio-diversity and may even, as a 2020 shows, trigger civilizational collapse. Can the humanities help us think differently about the forest? At the same time that forests of the world are in crisis, the "rights of nature" movement is making progress in forcing courts to acknowledge the legal "personhood" of forests and other ecosystems. The stories that humans have told and continue to tell about forests are a source for the imaginative and cultural content of that claim. At a time when humans seem unable to curb the destructive practices that place themselves, biodiversity, and forests at risk, the humanities give us access to a record of the complex inter-relationship between forests and humanity. Forest Worlds serves as an introduction to the environmental humanities. The environmental humanities offer a perspective on the climate emergency and the human dimension of climate change that are typically not part of the study of climate science or climate policy. Students receive instruction in the methods of the humanities - cultural analysis and interpretation of literature and film - in relation to texts that illuminate patterns of human behavior, thought, and affect with regard to living in and with nature. CIMS1520401, ENVS1550401, GRMN1132401 Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1070-401 Modernisms and Modernities: Kafka, Joyce, Beckett Jean-Michel Rabate FAGN 110 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This class will be devoted to parallel readings of Joyce’s, Kafka’s, and Beckett’s major works. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Joyce and Kafka lived in the Austro-Hungarian empire, Joyce in Trieste, Kafka in Prag. The authors never met but shared similar concerns, both taking Flaubert as a model. When Beckett met Joyce in Paris in the 1920’s, Kafka had already died, but if Beckett was thought to be Joyce’s disciple he would soon be compared with Kafka, as Adorno regularly did. However, in spite of common features, Beckett kept Kafka at distance, believing that if Joyce had invented radically new modes of writing, Kafka had not been experimental enough. However, when Beckett attempted to move away from Joyce’s overwhelming influence, he found himself in a position that was much closer to that of Kafka. The three writers explored the ways in which language structures subjectivity while meditating on beauty, faith, humor, justice and resistance to oppression. Before examining formal links and converging concerns in selected passages of Ulysses, The Castle, and Watt, or comparing pages from Finnegans Wake, The Trial and Molloy, we will engage with a corpus of short stories, aphorisms and novellas. This will allow us to investigate commonalities in the aesthetic theories of Joyce, Kafka, and Beckett, while tackling the specific hermeneutics required by their works. Two papers will consist in rewriting one short text by one author as if it has been written by another. There will be a final paper on the three authors. Requirements: One oral presentation, two creative writing experiments, one final paper (8 pages). ENGL1070401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1070401
COML 1180-401 The Art of Revolution Ricardo Bracho
Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon
BENN 231 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” Bertolt Brecht

This course offers an international and multidisciplinary tour of revolutionary art from the 20th and 21st centuries, including cinema, literature, visual art, theater, and performance art. It focuses on art practices that have emerged from and contributed to Left political movements, including socialist movements, struggles for national liberation from colonial and imperialist domination, and movements for sexual liberation and against racism and sexism. Particular attention will be given to thinkers and movements from the Global South and to experimental art practices. Students will learn about the cultural politics of revolutionary movements and will gain skills in analyzing a wide array of art forms. The course will also introduce crucial theories and debates about relationships between aesthetics and politics, the role of artists and other intellectuals in political struggle, and the way the culture industries attempt to control what artists make and who it reaches. Students will develop and present their own creative project as part of the course assignments. No previous knowledge of these topics or experience in making art is required.
CIMS1280401, ENGL1180401, GSWS1180401, LALS1180401, THAR1180401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1180401
COML 1190-401 Introduction to Postcolonial Literature Sara Kazmi CANCELED How does literature contend with the legacies of empire, specifically, modern European colonial rule in the 20th century? How have authors interpreted and responded to decolonisation and to emergent forms of neo-colonialism? How have these processes shaped contestations around issues of gender, race, class, caste and nation? This course will think through these concerns that continue to shape art, culture and society in the Global South today, long after the end of formal empire. We will analyze contemporary novels, short stories and essays addressing regions and contexts ranging from South Asia and West Africa to the Caribbean and post-war Britain. Texts will serve to introduce students to key authors and theoretical debates within the field of postcolonial literatures, and may include Chinua Achebe’s Thing Fall Apart, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. The course will also engage with critical perspectives on ‘post’-colonialism, and explore what postcolonial literatures can teach us about ongoing moves to ‘decolonise’ universities in the Global North and beyond. CIMS1190401, ENGL1190401 Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1232-401 Perspectives in French Literature: The Individual and Society Gerald J Prince WILL 516 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This basic course in literature provides an overview of French literature and acquaints students with major literary trends through the study of representative works from each literary period. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion.

Assignments (the course will be conducted in French).
The students will do the reading assignments listed in the syllabus for the day they are assigned. For each reading assignment the students will prepare in writing two questions which may be discussed in class and they will be ready to answer these questions. The students will also be expected to take part in the discussion generated by all the questions raised.

There will be three short writing assignments (250-300 words or more) consisting of two questions formulated by the student about some element of a given text (see syllabus) and of answers to each of the questions.

The students will write a final paper (1300-1500 words or more) on some aspect of one of the required texts discussed in class. The paper will be due by 5/8/2024 at 5:00 pm.

On 5/1/2024 there will be a written assignment done in class: a synthetic discussion pertaining to some aspect of some or all of the texts examined in class.

Assessments
Written questions to discuss in class and participation in discussion will count for 50% of final grade.

Short writing assignments: 5% each.
Final paper: 25%.
Synthetic written discussion: 10%.

Syllabus
1/22 Introduction
1/24 La Chanson de Roland, stanzas 1-54
1/29 La Chanson de Roland, stanzas 55-137
1/31 La Chanson de Roland, stanzas 138-176
2/5 La Chanson de Roland, stanzas 176-267
2/7 La Chanson de Roland, stanzas 268-291
2/12 Short writing assignment due on La Chanson de Roland
François Villon, "L'Epitaphe Villon" (also known as "La Ballade des pendus") (web)
Joachim du Bellay "Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage" (web)
2/14 Joachim du Bellay, "France, mère des arts, des armes et des lois" (web)
Jean de La Fontaine, "La Cigale et la fourmi" (web)
Jean de La Fontaine, "La Mort et le bûcheron" (web)
2/19 Le Misanthrope, Act I
2/21 Le Misanthrope, Act II
2/26 Le Misanthrope, Act III-IV
2/28 Le Misanthrope, Act V
3/11 Candide, chapters 1-8
3/13 Candide, chapters 9-18
3/18 Candide, chapters 19-25
3/20 Candide, chapters 26-30
3/25 Short writing assignment due on Candide
Charles Baudelaire, "L'Albatros" (web)
Charles Baudelaire, "Spleen" ("Quand le ciel bas et lourd . . .") (Web)
Stéphane Mallarmé, "Brise marine" (web)
3/27 Eugénie Grandet (to "Monsieur Charles Grandet, beau jeune homme de vingt-deux ans")
4/3 Eugénie Grandet (to "En l'absence de son père, Eugénie eut le bonheur de pouvoir . . .")
4/5 Eugénie Grandet (to "En toute situation, les femmes ont plus de causes de douleur . . .")
4/10 Eugénie Grandet (to "A trente ans, Eugénie ne connaissait encore aucune des . . .")
4/12 Eugénie Grandet (to the end)
4/17 Short writing assignment due on Eugénie Grandet
Arthur Rimbaud, "Le Bateau ivre" (web)
Paul Eluard, "Liberté" (web)
4/19 Une si longue lettre, chapters 1-10
4/24 Une si longue lettre, chapters 11-21
4/26 Une si longue lettre, (to the end)
4/30 Conclusion
Consideration of the synthetic discussion on some aspect of some or all of the texts examined (to be written in class)
5/1 Synthetic discussion on some aspect of some or all of the texts examined (to be written in class)

gprince@babel.ling.upenn.edu
Office Hours (532 Williams Hall): MW 12:00-1:00
FREN1232401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1232401
COML 1232-402 Perspectives in French Literature: The Individual and Society Corine Labridy BENN 222 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This basic course in literature provides an overview of French literature and acquaints students with major literary trends through the study of representative works from each period. Special emphasis is placed on close reading of texts in order to familiarize students with major authors and their characteristics and with methods of interpretation. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 1232 has as its theme the Individual and Society. FREN1232402 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1232-403 Perspectives in French Literature: The Individual and Society CANCELED This basic course in literature provides an overview of French literature and acquaints students with major literary trends through the study of representative works from each period. Special emphasis is placed on close reading of texts in order to familiarize students with major authors and their characteristics and with methods of interpretation. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 1232 has as its theme the Individual and Society. FREN1232403 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1235-401 Autobiographical Writing Liliane Weissberg VANP 625 MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM How does one write about oneself? Who is the “author” writing? What does one write about? And is it fiction or truth?
Our course on autobiographical writing will pursue these questions, researching confessions, autobiographies, memoirs, and other forms of life-writing both in their historical development and theoretical articulations. Examples will include selections from St. Augustine’s confessiones, Rousseau’s Confessions, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, as well as many examples from contemporary English, German, French, and American literature.
GRMN1235401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1235401
COML 1262-401 Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the Age of Napoleon Peter I. Holquist
Akhil Puthiyadath Veetil
STNH AUD MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM In this course we will read what many consider to be the greatest book in world literature. This work, Tolstoy's War and Peace, is devoted to one of the most momentous periods in world history, the Napoleonic Era (1789-1815). We will study both the book and the era of the Napoleonic Wars: the military campaigns of Napoleon and his opponents, the grand strategies of the age, political intrigues and diplomatic betrayals, the ideologies and human dramas, the relationship between art and history. How does literature help us to understand this era? How does history help us to understand this great book? Because we will read War and Peace over the course of the entire semester, readings will be manageable and very enjoyable. HIST1260401, REES1380401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1262401
COML 1351-401 Contemporary Fiction & Film in Japan Caitlin Adkins MCNB 286-7 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course will explore fiction and film in contemporary Japan, from 1945 to the present. Topics will include literary and cinematic representation of Japan s war experience and post-war reconstruction, negotiation with Japanese classics, confrontation with the state, and changing ideas of gender and sexuality. We will explore these and other questions by analyzing texts of various genres, including film and film scripts, novels, short stories, manga, and academic essays. Class sessions will combine lectures, discussion, audio-visual materials, and creative as well as analytical writing exercises. The course is taught in English, although Japanese materials will be made available upon request. No prior coursework in Japanese literature, culture, or film is required or expected; additional secondary materials will be available for students taking the course at the 600 level. Writers and film directors examined may include: Kawabata Yasunari, Hayashi Fumiko, Abe Kobo, Mishima Yukio, Oe Kenzaburo, Yoshimoto Banana, Ozu Yasujiro, Naruse Mikio, Kurosawa Akira, Imamura Shohei, Koreeda Hirokazu, and Beat Takeshi. CIMS1351401, EALC1351401, GSWS1351401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML1351401
COML 1500-401 Greek & Roman Mythology Peter T. Struck MCNB 286-7 MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1500-402 Greek & Roman Mythology Sheridan Nicole Marsh
Peter T. Struck
MCNB 582 R 10:15 AM-11:14 AM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500402 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1500-403 Greek & Roman Mythology Benjamin T Abbott
Peter T. Struck
COHN 237 F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500403 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1500-404 Greek & Roman Mythology Sheridan Nicole Marsh
Peter T. Struck
MCNB 582 R 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500404 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1500-405 Greek & Roman Mythology CANCELED Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500405 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1500-406 Greek & Roman Mythology CANCELED Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500406 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1500-407 Greek & Roman Mythology Scheherazade Jehan Khan
Peter T. Struck
WILL 438 F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500407 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1500-408 Greek & Roman Mythology Benjamin T Abbott
Peter T. Struck
COHN 237 F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500408 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1500-409 Greek & Roman Mythology Scheherazade Jehan Khan
Peter T. Struck
WILL 215 R 1:45 PM-2:44 PM Myths are traditional stories that have endured many years. Some of them have to do with events of great importance, such as the founding of a nation. Others tell the stories of great heroes and heroines and their exploits and courage in the face of adversity. Still others are simple tales about otherwise unremarkable people who get into trouble or do some great deed. What are we to make of all these tales, and why do people seem to like to hear them? This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as a few contemporary American ones, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths. Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Are they entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Are they a set of blinders that all of us wear, though we do not realize it? We investigate these questions through a variety of topics creation of the universe between gods and mortals, religion and family, sex, love, madness, and death. CLST1500409 Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
COML 1601-401 Ancient Drama Alison C Traweek BENN 406 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will introduce students to some of the greatest works of dramatic literature in the western canon. We will consider the social, political, religious and artistic functions of drama in ancient Greece and Rome, and discuss both differences and similarities between ancient drama and modern art forms. The course will also pursue some broader goals: to improve students skills as readers and scholarly critics of literature, both ancient and modern; to observe the implications of form for meaning, in considering, especially, the differences between dramatic and non-dramatic kinds of cultural production: to help students understand the relationship of ancient Greek and Roman culture to the modern world; and to encourage thought about some big issues, in life as well as in literature: death, heroism, society, action and meaning. CLST1601401 Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 1859-401 The Play: Structure, Style, Meaning Rosemary Malague MCNB 409 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM How does one read a play? Theatre, as a discipline, focuses on the traditions of live performance. In those traditions, a play text must be read not only as a piece of literature, but as a kind of "blueprint" from which productions are built. This course will introduce students to a variety of approaches to reading plays and performance pieces. Drawing on a wide range of dramatic texts from different periods and places, we will examine how plays are made, considering issues such as structure, genre, style, character, and language, as well as the use of time, space, and theatrical effects. Although the course is devoted to the reading and analysis of plays, we will also view selected live and/or filmed versions of several of the scripts we study, assessing their translation from page to stage. ENGL1859401, THAR0103401
COML 2012-401 Transnational Cinema Meta Mazaj BENN 244 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This is a course in contemporary transnational film cultures and world cinema. The course will examine the idea of world cinema and set up a model of how it can be explored by studying contemporary film in various countries. We will explore ways in which cinemas from around the globe have attempted to come to terms with Hollywood, and look at forces that lead many filmmakers to define themselves in opposition to Hollywood norms. But we will also look at the phenomenon of world cinema in independent terms, as “waves” that peak in different places and times, and coordinate various forces. Finally, through the close case study of significant films and cinemas that have dominated the international festival circuit (Chinese, Korean, Iranian, Indian, etc.) we will engage with the questions of which films/cinemas get labeled as “world cinema,” what determines entry into the sphere of world cinema, and examine the importance of film festivals in creating world cinema. ARTH3912401, CIMS2012401, ENGL2930401
COML 2086-401 Latin American and Latinx Theatre and Performance Jennifer Thompson BENN 323 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM This course will examine contemporary Latin American and Latinx theatre and performance from a hemispheric perspective. In particular, we will study how Latin American and Latinx artists engage with notions of identity, nation, and geo-political and geo-cultural borders, asking how we might study "national" theatres in an age of transnational globalization. Our consideration of plays, performances, and theoretical texts will situate Latin American and Latinx theatre and performance within the context of its politics, culture, and history. ENGL0490401, LALS2860401, THAR2860401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML2086401
COML 2201-401 Modern East Asian Texts Chloe Estep BENN 224 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course is an introduction to and exploration of modern East Asian literatures and cultures through close readings and discussion of selected literary works from the early 20th century to the start of the 21st century. Focusing on China, Japan, and Korea, we will explore the shared and interconnected experiences of modernity in East Asia as well as broaden our perspective by considering the location of East Asian cultural production within a global modernity. Major issues we will encounter include: nation-building and the modern novel; cultural translation; media and technology; representations of gender, race, and class; history and memory; colonialism; war; body and sexuality; globalization. No knowledge of the original language is required. COML6201401, EALC2201401, EALC6201401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML2201401
COML 2223-401 Words are Weapons:Protests and Political Activism in South Asian Literature Mahboob Ali Mohammad MEYH B4 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course focuses on the key themes of protest and resistance in contemporary South Asian literarure. Most South Asian countries have been witnessing an endless wave of protests and resistance from various sections of public life for the last three decades. In India, for example, protest literature emerges not only from traditionally marginalized groups (the poor, religious and ethnic minorities, depressed castes and tribal communities), but also from upper-caste groups, whose protest literature expresses concerns over economic oppression, violence and the denial of fundamental rights. Literature is becoming an immediate tool to articualte acts of resistance and anger, as many writers and poets are also taking on new roles as poitical activists. In this class, we will read various contemporary works of short fiction, poetry and memoirs to comprehend shifts in public life toward political and social activism in South Asia. We will also watch two or three documentaries that focus on public protests and resistance. No pre-requisites or South Asian language requirements. All literary works will be read in English translations. SAST2223401, SAST5223401 Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 2401-401 Literature and Theory Seminar: Theories of World Literature Max C Cavitch CANCELED Over the past three decades especially, “World Literature” has moved to the center of literary studies, asking teachers and students to re-examine fundamental concepts, categories, and practices, including periodization, nationalism, specialization and expertise, canonicity, translation, monolingualism and the rise of “global English,” comparativism, area studies, postmodernism and postcoloniality, literacy, access, and digitalization. In this advanced seminar, we’ll start by looking at the nineteenth-century origins of this phenomenon in Goethe’s influential concept of Weltliteraturand the invention of the field of Comparative Literature We’ll then quickly review the twentieth-century history of literary studies, including the rise of “theory,” before concentrating our full attention on the rapid twenty-first-century escalation of interest in the meanings, values, and conditions of “world literature.” Because the course is taught in English, we’ll be particularly concerned with the meanings and consequences of “global English.” And we’ll explore the broader effects on literary studies of twenty-first-century phenomena such as digitalization, new media, identitarianism, neo-liberalism, multinational corporate hegemony, and the crisis of higher education. Fundamental questions of limit, scale, and boundary will help coordinate our evaluation of diverse works by some of the most influential theorists of “world literature,” including Emily Apter, David Damrosch, Jacques Derrida, Theo D’haen, David Gramling, Franco Moretti, Aamir Mufti, Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Yasmin Yildiz. Requirements will include a few short response papers, an in-class presentation, and a research-based, idea-driven final essay. ENGL2401401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML2401401
COML 2402-401 What is Capitalism? Theories of Marx and Marxism David C Kazanjian BENN 222 W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM Karl Marx gave his well-known work Capital the subtitle “A Critique of Political Economy”—not “how to be a communist,” or “why the Soviet Union is the best,” or “what is wrong with religion, freedom, and democracy.” Those non-existent subtitles describe some of the preconceptions many in the U.S. have about Marx and Marxisms, while the actual subtitle reminds us that Marx and Marxisms at their root simply try to examine the problems with both capitalism and the political and economic discourses that justify or ignore those problems. Today, many around the globe are also reflecting on capitalism’s problems, in the hope of imagining and realizing a better future. This course will trace some of the origins of that renewed inquiry, and examine its limits and possibilities in today’s world. First, we will introduce ourselves to the works of Marx and some of the varied traditions that have spun out of them, so no prior familiarity with that work or those traditions is required. By reading Marx’s own writings as well as social theory influenced by them, and by reading literature and watching film, art, and popular culture from around the globe, we will consider a diverse array of answers to questions like: How are activism and theory connected? How do racial, gender, economic, and political inequalities emerge and increase around the globe? Why does shopping make us feel so much pleasure, pain, or numbness? What was the relationship between Atlantic world slavery and capitalism, and how does racism thrive under capitalism? What are ideology and alienation? How might culture help us imagine our way out of the violence and inequality of social relations? ENGL2402401, GSWS2410401
COML 2420-401 British Cinema: Film, Television, and Transatlantic Screen Culture James English BENN 244 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This is a wide-ranging introduction to the “other” major cinema in English: the films of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The British film industry has been thriving in the 21st century, but it remains the underdog in a global media environment dominated by Hollywood. We will consider some of the ways British filmmakers have positioned themselves in the space of world cinema and television as close rivals or radical alternatives to the American model. Our approach will be to study two films a week, mixing films from the 21st century with films from earlier moments in British cinema history from the 1930s through the 1990s. Our aim will be to discern some of the enduring cinematic modes and transatlantic strategies that contribute to the national “signature” of British film. Our screenings will run the gamut from the big-budget James Bond and Harry Potter franchises, to mid-sized transnational productions such as Pride & Prejudice and Slumdog Millionaire, to more independent or artisanal work by such directors as Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Sally Potter, Michael Winterbottom, Lynne Ramsay, Steve McQueen, and Andrea Arnold. A number of films we will study were made for British and/or American television, and we will devote some attention to the important and changing relationship between TV and cinema in contemporary screen culture. ARTH2930401, CIMS2420401, ENGL2420401 Cross Cultural Analysis
COML 2840-401 Groundbreaking Poets and Traditional Forms Taije Jalaya Silverman BENN 138 TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM Learn about sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, and other standards of the established canon as they are revitalized by the most celebrated poets working today. As we read and write in various meters and forms, we will also explore United States history. Phillis Wheatley Peters' address to George Washington will teach us iambic pentameter, as Terrance Hayes' broken villanelle will describe the pre-Civil War raid on Harper's Ferry, and Emma Lazarus's sonnet in the voice of the Statue of Liberty will reveal American immigration policy. Split between discussions and workshops so we can practice the prosody we study, the course will move between early and contemporary events that shape American identity: Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan's terzanelle about Japanese internment camps, Yusef Komenyakaa's ghazal about the Ferguson protests, Patricia Smith's sestinas about Hurricane Katrina, and Reginald Dwayne Betts's sonnets about mass incarceration. We will research sources of these older forms, and look at how they influence newer ones like the bop, the Golden Shovel, and the duplex. Poets we will read in depth include: Gwendolyn Brooks, Natasha Trethewey, Natalie Diaz, Jericho Brown, Agha Shahid Ali, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Marilyn Nelson, and June Jordan. Assignments will include occasional short essays and more playful exercises on how to follow--and break--the shifting rules of meter and form. ENGL2840401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML2840401
COML 3020-401 Literary Translation: Theory and Practice Corine Labridy WILL 302 R 1:45 PM-3:44 PM In this course, we will be guided by the principle that translation is a practice that requires both carefulness and care, by the belief that it is an art form unto its own, and by the understanding that it is a practice steeped in ideological and political power. We will study several trends, theories and philosophical approaches in the field, and we will also attend to more technical concerns, such as copyright, machine translation, etc. We will compare different translations of same works (such as the ones of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks) to think through the complex relationship between author, translator and their publishing contexts. We will welcome several accomplished translators who will share their process and explain the importance of building a translation community. Students will also work on their own translations (into English), which we will workshop together. COML5251401, FIGS5250401, FREN3020401, FREN5250401
COML 3211-401 Modern Chinese Poetry in a Global Context Chloe Estep DRLB 3C8 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The tumultuous political and economic history of modern China has been mirrored in and shaped by equally fundamental revolutions in language and poetic expression. In this course, we will take Chinese poetry as a crucible in which we can observe the interacting forces of literary history and social change. From diplomats who saw poetry as a medium for cultural translation between China and the world, to revolutionaries who enlisted poetry in the project of social transformation, we will examine the lives and works of some of China’s most prominent poets and ask, what can we learn about modern China from reading their poetry? In asking this question, we will also reckon with the strengths and limitations of using poetry as an historical source. In addition to poems, the course will include fiction, essays, photographs, and films by both Chinese and non-Chinese artists that place our poets in a broader context. We will pay close attention to how these poets represent China’s place in the world, as well as the role of language in social change. Topics of discussion include: national identity, revolution, translation, gender, the body, ethnicity, and technology.
Familiarity with Chinese or related cultural context is beneficial, but not required.
This course introduces students to Chinese poetry in English translation. Students will leave the course with an in-depth understanding of the main figures, themes, and techniques of Chinese poetry, and will be introduced to some of the major developments in the history of China. Through a focus on primary texts, students will develop the vocabulary and analytical skills to appreciate and analyze poetry in translation and will gain confidence as writers thinking about literary texts.
ASAM3211401, COML7211401, EALC3211401, EALC7211401 Cross Cultural Analysis https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML3211401
COML 5110-640 Life Writing: Autobiography, Memoir, and the Diary Batsheva Ben-Amos BENN 244 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course introduces three genres of life writing: Autobiography, Memoir and the Diary. While the Memoir and the diary are older forms of first persons writing the Autobiography developed later. We will first study the literary-historical shifts that occurred in Autobiographies from religious confession through the secular Eurocentric Enlightenment men, expanded to women writers and to members of marginal oppressed groups as well as to non-European autobiographies in the twentieth century. Subsequently we shall study the rise of the modern memoir, asking how it is different from this form of writing that existed already in the middle ages. In the memoirs we see a shift from a self and identity centered on a private individualautobiographer to ones that comes from connections to a community, a country or a nation; a self of a memoirist that represents selves of others. Students will attain theoretical background related to the basic issues and concepts in life writing: genre, truth claims and what they mean, the limits of memory, autobiographical subject, agency or self, the autonomous vs. the relational self. The concepts will be discussed as they apply to several texts. Some examples are: parts of Jan Jacques Rousseau's Confessions; the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; selected East European autobiographies between the two world wars; the memoirs of Lady Ann Clifford, Sally Morgan, Mary Jamison and Saul Friedlander. The third genre, the diary, is a person account, organized around the passage of time, and its subject is in the present. We will study diary theories, diary's generic conventions and the canonical text, trauma diaries and the testimonial aspect, the diary's time, decoding emotions, the relation of the diary to an audience and the process of transition from archival manuscript to a published book. The reading will include travel diaries (for relocation and pleasure), personal diaries in different historical periods and countries, diaries in political conflict (as American Civil War women's diaries, Holocaust diaries, Middle East political conflicts diaries). We will conclude with diaries online, and students will have a chance to experience and report about differences between writing a personal diary on paper and diaries and blogs on line. Each new subject in this online course will be preceded by an introduction. Specific reading and written assignments, some via links to texts will be posted weekly ahead of time. We will have weekly videos and discussions of texts and assigned material and students will post responses during these sessions and class presentations in the forums. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML5110640
COML 5180-401 Old Church Slavonic: History, Language, Manuscripts Julia Verkholantsev WILL 737 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The language that we know today as Old Church Slavonic was invented, along with the Slavic alphabet(s), in the 9th century by two Greek scholars, Sts. Cyril and Methodius. They had been tasked by the Byzantine Emperor with bringing the Christian faith to the Slavic-speaking people of Great Moravia, a powerful medieval state in central Europe. From there, literacy, along with the Christian faith, spread to other Slavs, and even non-Slavic speakers, such as Lithuanians and Romanians. Church Slavonic and its regional variants were used to compose the oldest texts of the Slavic-speaking world, which today is comprised of Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. Knowledge of this language and tradition aids in understanding the cultural, literary, and linguistic history of any modern Slavic language. For learners of Russian and other Slavic languages, Church Slavonic provides a layer of elevated stylistic vocabulary and conceptual terminology, similar to, and even greater than, the role of Latin and Greek roots in the English language. For historical linguists, Church Slavonic provides unique material for comparison with other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. For medievalists and cultural historians, it opens the door into the Slavic Orthodox tradition that developed in the orbit of the Byzantine Commonwealth. REES5100401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML5180401
COML 5251-401 Literary Translation: Theory and Practice Corine Labridy WILL 302 R 1:45 PM-3:44 PM In this course, we will be guided by the principle that translation is a practice that requires both carefulness and care, by the belief that it is an art form unto its own, and by the understanding that it is a practice steeped in ideological and political power. We will study several trends, theories and philosophical approaches in the field, and we will also attend to more technical concerns, such as copyright, machine translation, etc. We will compare different translations of same works (such as the ones of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks) to think through the complex relationship between author, translator and their publishing contexts. We will welcome
several accomplished translators who will share their process and explain the importance of building a translation community. Students will also work on their own translations (into English), which we will workshop together. This course is open to graduate students and to advanced undergraduate students, with permission from the instructor.
COML3020401, FIGS5250401, FREN3020401, FREN5250401
COML 5300-401 Medieval Italian Literature: Fragments of a Lover's Discourse in Medieval Italy Francesco Marco Aresu VANP 605 W 1:45 PM-3:44 PM Medieval Italian society, art, intellectual and political history. ITAL5300401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML5300401
COML 5440-401 Public Environmental Humanities Bethany Wiggin HAYD 358 W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM By necessity, work in environmental humanities spans academic disciplines. By design, it can also address and engage publics beyond traditional academic settings. This seminar explores best practices in public environmental humanities. Students receive close mentoring and build collaborative community to develop and execute cross-disciplinary, public engagement projects on the environment. This spring, this broadly interdisciplinary course is designed in conjunction with the ongoing environmental humanities project, An Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene. In the framework of our seminar, students will have opportunities to work with tne project’s curators and educators as well as Toolmakers on project-based assignments that also engage wider publics around issues of climate and environmental justice. This lab-style seminar is suitable for advanced undergraduates (with permission) and fulfills the “Capstone” requirement for the Minor in Environmental Humanities. It is also open to graduate students in departments across Arts and Sciences as well as other schools at the university. ANTH5440401, ENVS5440401, GRMN5440401, URBS5440401
COML 5520-401 Affect Theory and Power Donovan O. Schaefer GLAB 102 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar will examine contemporary affect theory and its relationship with Michel Foucault's theory of power. We will begin by mapping out Foucault's "analytics of power," from his early work on power knowledge to his late work on embodiment, desire, and the care of the self. We will then turn to affect theory, an approach which centralizes the non-rational, emotive force of power. No previous knowledge of theory is required. GSWS5520401, RELS5520401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML5520401
COML 5771-401 Inside the Archive Liliane Weissberg VANP 627 T 1:45 PM-3:44 PM What is an archive, and what is its history? What makes an archival collection special, and how can we work with it? In this course, we will discuss work essays that focus on the idea and concept of the archive by Jacques Derrida, Michel de Certeau, Benjamin Buchloh, Cornelia Vismann, and others. We will consider the difference between public and private archives, archives dedicated to specific disciplines, persons, or events, and consider the relationship to museums and memorials. Further questions will involve questions of property and ownership as well as the access to material, and finally the archive's upkeep, expansion, or reduction. While the first part of the course will focus on readings about archives, we will invite curators, and visit archives (either in person or per zoom) in the second part of the course. At Penn, we will consider four archives: (1) the Louis Kahn archive of architecture at Furness, (2) the Lorraine Beitler Collection of material relating to the Dreyfus affair, (3) the Schoenberg collection of medieval manuscripts and its digitalization, and (4) the University archives. Outside Penn, we will study the following archives and their history: (1) Leo Baeck Institute for the study of German Jewry in New York, (2) the Sigmund Freud archive at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., (3) the German Literary Archive and the Literturmuseum der Moderne in Marbach, Germany, and (4) the archives of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. ARTH5690401, GRMN5770401, JWST5770401
COML 5840-401 Fantastic Literature 19th/20th Centuries Philippe Charles Met WILL 516 T 3:30 PM-5:29 PM This course will explore fantasy and the fantastic in short tales of 19th- and 20th-century French literature. A variety of approaches -- thematic, psychoanalytic, cultural, narratological -- will be used in an attempt to test their viability and define the subversive force of a literary mode that contributes to shedding light on the dark side of the human psyche by interrogating the "real," making visible the unseen and articulating the unsaid. Such broad categories as distortions of space and time, reason and madness, order and disorder, sexual transgressions, self and other will be considered. Readings will include "recits fantastiques" by Merimee, Gautier, Nerval, Maupassant, Breton, Pieyre de Mandiargues, Jean Ray and others. CIMS5821401, FREN5820401
COML 5841-401 Narrating Environment Paul K Saint-Amour BENN 224 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM What do theorists and historians of narrative have to contribute to the study of environments and of human/nonhuman relations? How might recent developments in environmental studies unsettle or reshape our models of plot, narratorial modes, narrative genres, suspense, protagonism, character, and character-space? And what are the limits of narrative in getting to grips with pressing environmental questions? This seminar explores the estuary where narrative and environment mix. Through primary and secondary readings we’ll consider environment as, variously, object and subject of narration, event, condition, and actant in plot. We’ll take up narrative’s provisions and limitations as a channel for environmental thinking and environmental justice. And we’ll pay special attention to the narrative elements of scholarship in the environmental humanities, tracing how the writers of article- and book-length studies in the field stage, pace, protagonize, and emplot their arguments. Advanced undergraduate students interested in this course should contact the instructor to request permission to enroll and submit a permit request via Path@Penn. Submatriculated M.A. students may enroll without special permission. ENGL5840401
COML 5850-401 Italian Thought Alessandro Mulieri CANCELED What is Italian philosophy? Does Italian philosophy have a peculiar character? Can we speak of "Italian philosophy" if Italy became a unified country only recently, and its history is complex and fragmented? Yet “Italian Thought” and its genealogy are central to today’s theoretical debates on concepts such as biopolitics, reproductive labor and “empire” among others. This course will offer a diachronic review of the most important Italian thinkers, highlighting the political vocation of Italian philosophy, and its engagement with history and science, while discussing the modern supporters and opponents of the “Italian Thought” category. Readings might include Dante, Machiavelli, Bruno, Vico, Beccaria, Gramsci, Cavarero and Agamben among others. CIMS5850401, ITAL5850401
COML 5851-401 Machiavelli’s Political Thought and its Modern Readers Alessandro Mulieri COHN 337 T 3:30 PM-5:29 PM There is hardly an author who has been as controversial as Niccolò Machiavelli. The influence of this Italian political thinker on the theoretical imaginary of subsequent thinkers and writers has been huge. Yet, there have been strong disagreements on how to interpret Machiavelli’s ideas and questions still abound on the political meaning of his thought. Is there a core message of Machiavellian politics? Is he a political philosopher or a theorist or a ‘scientist’ of politics? Can we call him a realist? Or is he rather a republican or a plebeian actor and thinker, as recent scholars have pointed out? If so, what kind of republicanism or plebeian ideas can be found in his context and in his works? What has been the impact of his ideas in 20th century political thought? The goal of this course is two-fold. Each class will comment and discuss passages from The Prince and the Discourses or important modern and contemporary texts based on Machiavelli’s ideas. On the one hand, the course aims to directly analyze some key passage of the two main texts of Machiavelli, The Prince and the Discourses. The aim of this investigation is to stress the complexity of Machiavelli’s thought in its own context, which substantially challenges any attempt to reduce him to simple labels. Machiavelli’s texts will also be approached through a close and thorough reading as well as a comparison with the ideas of its own sources (especially Polybius, Dante, Petrarca, Plutarch, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero etc.). On the other hand, the course aims to analyze the influence of Machiavelli thought on some 20th century thinkers (The students will also read texts from Antonio Gramsci, Claude Lefort, Isaiah Berlin, Leo Strauss, Louis Althusser, next to the most recent scholarly historical literature in Machiavelli studies). This will allow the students to become familiar not only with Machiavelli’s texts but also with several thinker who have drawn on this author from completely different perspectives to shape their own political thought. ITAL5851401
COML 5921-401 Graphic Memoir Julia Alekseyeva EDUC 008 T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM This course analyzes acclaimed autobiographical graphic narratives-- also called nonfiction comics or graphic memoirs-- from a transnational and global perspective, focusing on works from East Asia, Latin America, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The course will include academic research essays, a short presentation, and guest artists and lectures. The class will conclude with a hands-on creative project which allows students to use the skills they learned and apply it towards the creation of short non-fiction graphic essays. There will also be events connected to the April 2024 CIMS Wolf Colloquium, Art and Revolution Today, which will feature a roundtable and events with local cartoonists and visual artists. Advanced undergraduate students interested in taking this course should request permission from the instructor and submit a permit request via Path@Penn CIMS5920401, ENGL5920401
COML 5945-401 Nationalism, Globalism, and Literary Form David Wallace VANP 627 T 8:30 AM-11:29 AM The default setting of much critical work has been global: the global premodern, global modernism, and so on. But we are currently experiencing deglobalisation, a return to national boundaries, with restrictions on physical movement, prompted by anxieties about fuel self-sufficiency, vaccination supply, migration patterns, economic dependency. It thus seems timely to examine the cultural and historical mechanisms of nationalism. This course draws from some of the conceptual and material challenges of a research project of global scope, nationalepics.com, which has invited over 100 scholars to consider which cultural texts, most often literature but sometimes film, have been adopted to represent a territory as its national epic. When was this choice made? How did the chosen text emerge? Is it still fit for purpose, or do new texts threaten to take its place? The Song of Roland, for example, was made compulsory reading in all French schools, and French colonial schools, in the late 19th-century. Can it still, with its anti-Muslim polemics, be taught in Paris? When did The Song of Hiawatha, assuredly an American national epic a century ago, become a national embarrassment in the USA? Is El Cid, a favourite of General Franco, making a comeback with the return of the Spanish right? Is Mahabharata, always already India’s national epic, able to outlast the co-optative efforts of the current Indian regime? Many “national epics” first emerged c. 1800, especially in western Europe, often through the intensive collecting, editing, and repurposing of premodern texts. Our course begins out west, with Spain, France, Ireland, England, and Iceland, before pivoting across Eurasian space to Iran, Russia and Mongolia, and then China, Korea, and Vietnam. The latter part of the course can consider locales as chosen by class members; past locales include the Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Scotland, Italy. This is not a class in “world literature,” but it does enter into debates between those who champion and market such a concept, and those (Emily Apter, Gayatri Spivak) who would critique it. Valuing philology highly, it draws upon the local linguistic expertise of students and Faculty. Courses such as this are proving increasingly attractive to undergraduates, given Penn’s globalising demographic, and we will also consider the challenges of formulating and teaching courses where most every student can be “expert for a week,” tracing long strands of family history. Examination by several short meditations, plus the workshopping and writing of one long (but not too long) research essay.

Advanced undergraduate students interested in this course should request permission from the instructor and submit a permit request via Path@Penn
ENGL5945401
COML 5960-401 Marxism David C Kazanjian
Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon
BENN 112 T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course will focus on Marxist thought as it has developed around the world from the 19th century to the present. Different instructors may emphasize difference aspects of Marxism and its legacy. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a complete description of the current offerings. ENGL5960401
COML 6030-401 Poetics of Narrative Gerald J Prince WILL 516 W 2:00 PM-3:59 PM An exploration of the poetics of narrative, with particular emphasis on classical and postclassical narratology. To be analyzed are texts by Maupassant, Joyce, Faulkner, and Hemingway. Taught in English. FREN6030401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML6030401
COML 6200-401 Paris and Philadelphia: Landscapes and Literature of the 19th Century Andrea Goulet
Aaron V Wunsch
VANP 627 F 2:00 PM-4:59 PM This course explores the literal and literary landscapes of 19th-century Paris and Philadelphia, paying particular attention to the ways in which the built environment is shaped by and shapes shifting ideologies in the modern age. Although today the luxury and excesses of the "City of Light" may seem worlds apart from the Quaker simplicity of the "City of Brotherly Love," Paris and Philadelphia saw themselves as partners and mutual referents during the 1800s in many areas, from urban planning to politics, prisons to paleontology. This interdisciplinary seminar will include readings from the realms of literature, historical geography, architectural history, and cultural studies as well as site visits to Philadelphia landmarks, with a view to uncovering overlaps and resonances among different ways of reading the City. We will facilitate in-depth research by students on topics relating to both French and American architectural history, literature, and cultural thought. FREN6200401
COML 6201-401 Modern East Asian Texts Chloe Estep BENN 224 TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course is an introduction to and exploration of modern East Asian literatures and cultures through close readings and discussion of selected literary works from the early 20th century to the start of the 21st century. Focusing on China, Japan, and Korea, we will explore the shared and interconnected experiences of modernity in East Asia as well as broaden our perspective by considering the location of East Asian cultural production within a global modernity. Major issues we will encounter include: nation-building and the modern novel; cultural translation; media and technology; representations of gender, race, and class; history and memory; colonialism; war; body and sexuality; globalization. No knowledge of the original language is required. COML2201401, EALC2201401, EALC6201401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML6201401
COML 7211-401 Modern Chinese Poetry in a Global Context Chloe Estep DRLB 3C8 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The tumultuous political and economic history of modern China has been mirrored in and shaped by equally fundamental revolutions in language and poetic expression. In this course, we will take Chinese poetry as a crucible in which we can observe the interacting forces of literary history and social change. From diplomats who saw poetry as a medium for cultural translation between China and the world, to revolutionaries who enlisted poetry in the project of social transformation, we will examine the lives and works of some of China’s most prominent poets and ask, what can we learn about modern China from reading their poetry? In asking this question, we will also reckon with the strengths and limitations of using poetry as an historical source. In addition to poems, the course will include fiction, essays, photographs, and films by both Chinese and non-Chinese artists that place our poets in a broader context. We will pay close attention to how these poets represent China’s place in the world, as well as the role of language in social change. Topics of discussion include: national identity, revolution, translation, gender, the body, ethnicity, and technology.
Familiarity with Chinese or related cultural context is beneficial, but not required.
This course introduces students to Chinese poetry in English translation. Students will leave the course with an in-depth understanding of the main figures, themes, and techniques of Chinese poetry, and will be introduced to some of the major developments in the history of China. Through a focus on primary texts, students will develop the vocabulary and analytical skills to appreciate and analyze poetry in translation and will gain confidence as writers thinking about literary texts.
ASAM3211401, COML3211401, EALC3211401, EALC7211401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=COML7211401
COML 7220-401 Vernacular Epistemologies Rita Copeland
Emily R Steiner
VANP 629 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM In this seminar we will consider the ways of knowing, the epistemologies, that were particular to vernacular cultures in medieval Europe, c.1100-1500. From the late twelfth century, knowledge that had hitherto been transmitted in scholarly languages and formats (Latin, for example, and in some contexts Arabic and Hebrew), began to be translated and reformatted for vernacular language speakers. This major shift in the transmission of knowledge responded to - and helped to create - a broader audience for subjects ranging from natural science, law, medicine, and astronomy to ethics, political theory, world history, and religious instruction. It also gave rise to vernacular cultures of knowledge or ways of knowing and transmitting knowledge within particular regions and languages.

Together we will explore the following questions: how did vernacular cultures redefine what constitutes knowledge and what was worth knowing? Did medieval writers acknowledge a division between general and elite (“high-brow”) knowledge (questions that we still ask today)? And to what extent did they recognize a difference between “literary” and “learned” productions? How did vernacular writers develop their languages to bear the burden of learning? For example, what new genres of knowledge did they create, what styles did they invent in order to accommodate new readerships, and what formal choices (e.g. prose, verse, dialogue, exposition) did they make for transmitting and thematizing knowledge? In what ways was a broadening of audiences for learning accompanied by sensory appeals (visual, aural, imaginative)? Finally, how did the material vehicles of learning target vernacular audiences, from manuscript mis-en-page, diagrams, and illustrations to copying, compilation, and circulation?

These are questions that bear on many theoretical issues, including form, poetics, hermeneutics, textual reception, visuality, the senses, readership, gender, class, encyclopedism, and translation.

We welcome students from a variety of language interests and competences. While some of the basics of our reading will be medieval English texts, each week we will also put these side by side with texts from other language traditions (including, for example, French, Italian, German, Catalan and Castilian, Hebrew and Yiddish, Arabic and Persian, and other languages that the students in the seminar wish to see considered).

We will be meeting in Special Collections in Van Pelt Library in order to have manuscripts at our weekly seminar meetings. We will also invite guest lecturers to speak to us about various language fields.

Knowledge of one or more medieval languages is helpful but not necessary: all the readings will be available in translation. Submatriculated M.A. students interested in this course should request permission from the instructor and should submit a permit request via Path@Penn.
CLST7713401, ENGL7220401
COML 7903-401 The Matter of the Archive Bakirathi Mani MCES 105 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar examines the literary, historical, and visual matter of the archive in order to generate new methods of creating, deconstructing, and reading across archival formations in comparative race and ethnic studies. In alignment with recent feminist and queer of color critiques and theorizations of the archive, we will ask: how do we encounter, assemble, and disassemble archival matter? What haunts the archives that we work within, and who do we become in the process of doing archival research? Our readings will foreground the imperial archive as an epistemological and material formation, but we will also attend to the uses and value of personal and familial archives. In so doing, we will consider what it means to intimately engage with archival matter such as dust, ephemera, and decay. Our objective is to develop ways of what Antoinette Burton calls “dwelling in the archive” – practices of research and reading that counter Derrida’s “archive fever.” Readings draw from Asian American and Black Studies, and may include Hazel Carby, Imperial Intimacies; Lisa Lowe, The Intimacies of Four Continents; Lily Cho, Mass Capture; Tiya Miles, All That She Carried; Martha Hodes, My Hijacking; Sarita See, The Filipino Primitive; and Nicole Fleetwood, Marking Time.

Submatriculated M.A. students interested in this course should request permission from the instructor and should submit a permit request via Path@Penn.
AFRC7903401, ENGL7903401
COML 7904-401 New Directions in Black Studies Margo N. Crawford
Dagmawi Woubshet
BENN 224 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course explores contemporary Black thought through a set of literary, visual, and theoretical texts. One of the signal shifts in contemporary Black arts and letters, and Black studies, is a turn towards interiority. This shift has enabled a capacious accounting of Black being, foregrounding everyday interior and intramural experiences that cannot be summed by ideological critiques of white power nor by nationalist discourses of Black resistance. Our theoretical repertoire will include concepts like love, quiet, fabulation, and gaze to explore Black interiority in relation to political movements, aesthetic experimentation, gender and sexual identity, and African continental and diasporic practices. The course will draw on a range of genres (including films, photo portraits, personal essays, and criticism) and also take a comparative approach (including works from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States).

Submatriculated M.A. students interested in this course should request permission from the instructor and should also submit a permit request via Path@Penn
AFRC7904401, ENGL7904401, GSWS7904401
COML 9999-005 Modern Literature in South Asia Kevin M.F. Platt CANCELED Designed to allow students to pursue a particular research topic under the close supervision of an instructor.