COML1015 - Sagas and Skalds: Old Norse Literature in Translation
Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Sagas and Skalds: Old Norse Literature in Translation
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML1015401
Course number integer
1015
Meeting times
TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM
Meeting location
JAFF 113
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Caroline Batten
Description
This course introduces students to the powerful and influential corpus of Old Norse literature and to the cultural and historical landscape of Viking and medieval Scandinavia. Students will explore mythological and heroic verse, court poetry, law codes, runic inscriptions, and the famed Icelandic sagas to develop a deeper understanding of one of the most significant literary traditions in high medieval Europe, and to myth-bust popular misconceptions about who 'the Vikings' were and how they lived.
Course number only
1015
Cross listings
ENGL1015401, ENGL1015401
Use local description
No
COML1000 - Introduction to Literary Study: Global Novel
Status
A
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Introduction to Literary Study: Global Novel
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML1000401
Course number integer
1000
Meeting times
MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM
Meeting location
BENN 201
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Rita Barnard
Description
THE GLOBAL NOVEL: This course has three broad aims: first, it will introduce students to a selection of compelling contemporary narratives; second, it will provide prospective students of literature and film, as well as interested students headed for other majors, with fundamental skills in literary, visual, and cultural analysis; and, third, it will encourage a meditation on the function of literature and culture in our world, where commodities, people, and ideas have been constantly in motion. Questions for discussion will therefore include: the meaning of terms like "globalization," "translation," and "world literature"; the transnational reach and circulation of texts; migration and engagement with "others"; violence, trauma, and memory; terrorism and the state; and the ethic of cosmopolitanism. Our collective endeavor will be to think about narrative forms as modes of mediating and engaging with the vast and complex world we inhabit today. See COML website for current semester's description at https://complit.sas.upenn.edu/course-list/2019A
Course number only
1000
Cross listings
ENGL1409401, ENGL1409401
Fulfills
Cross Cultural Analysis
Arts & Letters Sector
Arts & Letters Sector
Use local description
Yes
COML6050 - Modern Literary Theory and Criticism
Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Modern Literary Theory and Criticism
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML6050401
Course number integer
6050
Registration notes
Perm Needed From Instructor
Meeting times
M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM
Meeting location
VANP 626
Level
graduate
Instructors
Ian Fleishman
Andrea Goulet
Andrea Goulet
Description
This course will provide an overview of major European thinkers in literary theory of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will pay particular attention to the following movements: Structuralism and Deconstruction (Levi-Strauss, Jakobson, Barthes, Derrida), Social Theory (Foucault, Ranciere), Psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan, Abraham and Torok), Schizoanalysis (Deleuze and Guattari), Feminism and Queer Theory (Irigary, Kristeva, Sedgwick), Spatial Theory (Bachelard, DeCerteau, Lefebvre), and the Frankfurt School (Adorno and Horkheimer, Kracauer). Readings and discussion will be in English.
Course number only
6050
Cross listings
ENGL7905401, ENGL7905401, FREN6050401, FREN6050401, GRMN6050401, GRMN6050401, ITAL6050401, ITAL6050401, REES6435401, REES6435401
Use local description
Yes
COML5245 - Topics in Medieval Studies: Premodern Animals (c.500-c.1500)
Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Topics in Medieval Studies: Premodern Animals (c.500-c.1500)
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML5245401
Course number integer
5245
Meeting times
W 10:15 AM-1:14 PM
Meeting location
BENN 224
Level
graduate
Instructors
Emily R Steiner
Description
From St. Cuthbert, whose freezing feet were warmed by otters, to St. Guinefort, a miracle-performing greyhound in 13th-century France, to Melusine, the half-fish, half-woman ancestress of the house of Luxembourg (now the Starbucks logo), medieval narratives are deeply inventive in their portrayal of human-animal interactions. This course introduces students to critical animals studies via medieval literature and culture. We will read a range of genres, from philosophical commentaries on Aristotle and theological commentaries on Noah’s ark to werewolf poems, beast fables, political satires, saints’ lives, chivalric romances, bestiaries, natural encyclopaedias, dietary treatises and travel narratives.
Among the many topics we will explore are the following: animals in premodern law; comfort and companion animals; vegetarianism across religious cultures; animal symbolism and human virtue; taxonomies of species in relation to race, gender, and class; literary animals and political subversion; menageries and collecting across medieval Europe, the Near East, and Asia; medieval notions of hybridity, compositeness, trans-species identity, and interspecies relationships; art and the global traffic in animals (e.g., ivory, parchment); European encounters with New World animals; and the legacy of medieval animals in contemporary philosophy and media.
No prior knowledge of medieval literature is required. Students from all disciplines are welcome.
Among the many topics we will explore are the following: animals in premodern law; comfort and companion animals; vegetarianism across religious cultures; animal symbolism and human virtue; taxonomies of species in relation to race, gender, and class; literary animals and political subversion; menageries and collecting across medieval Europe, the Near East, and Asia; medieval notions of hybridity, compositeness, trans-species identity, and interspecies relationships; art and the global traffic in animals (e.g., ivory, parchment); European encounters with New World animals; and the legacy of medieval animals in contemporary philosophy and media.
No prior knowledge of medieval literature is required. Students from all disciplines are welcome.
Course number only
5245
Cross listings
CLST7710401, CLST7710401, ENGL5245401, ENGL5245401, RELS6101401, RELS6101401
Use local description
No
COML1025 - Narrative Across Cultures
Status
A
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Narrative Across Cultures
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML1025401
Course number integer
1025
Meeting times
MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM
Meeting location
BENN 322
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Ania Loomba
Description
The purpose of this course is to present a variety of narrative genres and to discuss and illustrate the modes whereby they can be analyzed. We will be looking at shorter types of narrative: short stories, novellas, and fables, and also some extracts from longer works such as autobiographies. While some works will come from the Anglo-American tradition, a larger number will be selected from European and non-Western cultural traditions and from earlier time-periods. The course will thus offer ample opportunity for the exploration of the translation of cultural values in a comparative perspective.
Course number only
1025
Cross listings
ENGL0039401, ENGL0039401, NELC1960401, NELC1960401, SAST1124401, SAST1124401, THAR1025401, THAR1025401
Fulfills
Arts & Letters Sector
Cross Cultural Analysis
Cross Cultural Analysis
Use local description
No
COML0030 - Introduction to Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory
Status
A
Activity
LEC
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Introduction to Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML0030401
Course number integer
30
Meeting times
TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM
Meeting location
BENN 345
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
Matilda Kate Hemming
Description
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.
Course number only
0030
Cross listings
ENGL2303401, GSWS0003401, GSWS0003401
Fulfills
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Use local description
No
COML5811 - Modern/Contemporary Italian Culture
Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Modern/Contemporary Italian Culture
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML5811401
Course number integer
5811
Meeting times
T 3:30 PM-5:29 PM
Meeting location
WILL 307
Level
graduate
Instructors
Carla Locatelli
Description
Please see department website for current description at: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/italians/graduate/courses
Course number only
5811
Cross listings
ITAL5810401, ITAL5810401, ITAL5810401, JWST5810401, JWST5810401, JWST5810401
Use local description
No
COML2004 - Tolstoy
Status
A
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Tolstoy
Term
2022C
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML2004401
Course number integer
2004
Meeting times
TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM
Meeting location
WILL 320
Level
undergraduate
Instructors
D. Brian Kim
Description
Leo Tolstoy is a figure who arguably needs little introduction, if only as an effigy for the kind of author who writes books like "War and Peace" — prime examples of what Henry James called the “large, loose, baggy monsters” of nineteenth-century Russian literature, the sprawling novels with several parallel plot lines and hundreds of characters who inhabit page numbers in the quadruple digits. In this seminar, we will grapple together with the intricacies of "War and Peace," learn about the social, cultural, and historical contexts not only of its depiction and genesis, but also of its wide-ranging reception, and consider the big questions that preoccupied Tolstoy throughout his lifetime. Working with a range of his texts including a wide spread of his shorter fiction and also a number of Tolstoy’s non-literary writings on topics such as aesthetics, religion, education, and social and political problems, we will work toward understanding Tolstoy’s work, how he became who he was, and the reverberations of his thought throughout the rest of the world.
Course number only
2004
Cross listings
REES0481401, REES0481401
Fulfills
Arts & Letters Sector
Use local description
No