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.

When it comes to literature, this course takes “childish” things seriously. From the simplest picture-books (like Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are) all the way to “grownup” books frequently read by children (like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird), we’ll explore a wide range of modern children’s literature as a resource for people of all ages: for children themselves; for their parents and other family members and caregivers; for the adults those children become; and for the communities and societies in which they live.

The books we read (or have read to us) as children contribute to almost every aspect of our journey toward adulthood, including language acquisition; cognitive development; the assimilation of social norms and expectations: the ability to relate to others; the acquisition of knowledge; the management of difficult feelings; our capacities for play, imagination, and work; our appreciation of human diversity and the ability to empathize with others; and the formation of our own preferences, interests, and identities.

Childhood itself is studied in virtually every humanistic discipline, from anthropology to economics to history to philosophy; but nowhere is the study of childhood more vitally important than in the branch of psychology known as psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud launched the field of psychoanalysis in the late 19th century in large part by asking his adult patients to tell him about their memories of childhood. As they did so, Freud quickly realized that almost every aspect of adult experience (including many psychiatric illnesses) was connected, in some way, to the formative experiences of our earliest years. Psychoanalysis is a way of listening to the child inside all of us—the child whose memories, thoughts, and feelings we all carry with us (mostly unconsciously, but nonetheless consequentially) throughout our lives.

This is why studying children’s literature is also an excellent way to study psychoanalysis. Stories for and about children can teach us a great deal—and help us to remember a great deal more—about what childhood is like, and psychoanalysis gives us an unrivaled set of concepts and terms for understanding much more fully what we were like so long ago and why that still matters so much to our adult selves.

The course surveys major trends in global Sephardi cultures. We will begin by exploring the origins of Sephardi culture, and especially the significance of exile within it, through medieval Hebrew poetry from the “Golden Age” of Jewish culture in Spain (8th-15th centuries) and subsequent responses to the expulsion of Jews in 1492. We will follow those exiles to new homes in the Ottoman Empire, from the period of early settlement in the 16th century to 19th- and 20th-century Ladino literature, which thrived in locations far afield from its Spanish roots, printed and disseminated in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Austria, and the United States. We conclude with narratives of migration in the second half of the 20th century and contemporary Sephardi cinema, literature, and music from America, Turkey, and Israel, focusing on the impact of the Holocaust and the mass emigration of Jews from former Ottoman lands.
Students will become acquainted with Sephardi history through literary texts translated from Ladino, Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. These primary sources will be complemented by relevant scholarship in Jewish studies and European, Middle Eastern, and American history. We will study prominent writers such as Elias Canetti and Emma Lazarus alongside lesser-known writers such as Moses Almosnino, Grace Aguilar, Elia Carmona, Vitalis Danon, and Clarisse Nicoïdski.

The objective of this course is to develop an artistic appreciation for literature through in-depth class discussions and text analysis. Readings are comprised of Israeli poetry and short stories. Students examine how literary language expresses psychological and cultural realms. The course covers topics such as: the short story reinvented, literature and identity, and others. This course is conducted in Hebrew and all readings are in Hebrew. Grading is based primarily on participation and students' literary understanding.

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. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 1231 has as its theme the presentation of love and passion in French literature.

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. Students are expected to take an active part in class discussion in French. French 1231 has as its theme the presentation of love and passion in French literature.

Yuri Slezkine described the twentieth century as a "Jewish Age"-to be modern would essentially mean to be a Jew. In German historical and cultural studies, this linkage has long been made--only in reference to the last years of the German monarchy and the time of the Weimar Republic. Indeed, what has become known as "modern" German culture-reflected in literature, music, and the visual arts and in a multitude of public media-has been more often than not assigned to Jewish authorship or Jewish subjects. But what do authorship and subject mean in this case? Do we locate the German-Jewish experience as the driving force of this new "modernity," or is our understanding of this experience the result of this new "modern" world?

This course offers an introduction to the world of thought and learning at the heart of European culture, from the Romans through the Renaissance. We begin with the ancient Mediterranean and the formation of Christianity and trace its transformation into European society. Along the way we will examine the rise of universities and institutions for learning, and follow the humanist movement in rediscovering and redefining the ancients in the modern world.

What is it that we do, asks David Damrosch, “when we circulate works through the shifting spheres of world literature?” What happens to a text as it moves beyond its culture of origin? What transformations take shape?
This course considers works that move beyond national and linguistic borders, taking on new lives in distinct cultural contexts. We’ll explore key nodes of connection and exchange in world literature in the increasingly interconnected and transnational literary world of the 20th century. In this course, we’ll examine a variety of unique cases in the study of world literature, attending, among others, to global adaptations of Shakespeare; to the exportation of haiku to a variety of linguistic cultures; to debates about the status of African languages in a decolonizing world. This course will cover a wide array of authors and texts from around the world, including Aimé Césaire, Rabindranath Tagore, Chinua Achebe, Roberto Bolaño, and Yoko Towada, as well as theorists like Edward Said, Pascale Casanova, and Franco Moretti.

No previous experience in the study of literature or language is expected. All readings will be offered in English translation.

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 decolonization, and relatedly, 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 include Chinua Achebe’s Thing Fall Apart, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth 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 ‘decolonize’ universities in the global north and beyond.