"A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism": This, the famous opening line of The Communist Manifesto, will guide this course's exploration of the history, legacy, and potential future of Karl Marx's most important texts and ideas, even long after Communism has been pronounced dead. Contextualizing Marx within a tradition of radical thought regarding politics, religion, and sexuality, we will focus on the philosophical, political, and cultural origins and implications of his ideas. Our work will center on the question of how his writings seek to counter or exploit various tendencies of the time; how they align with the work of Nietzsche, Freud, and other radical thinkers to follow; and how they might continue to haunt us today. We will begin by discussing key works by Marx himself, examining ways in which he is both influenced by and appeals to many of the same fantasies, desires, and anxieties encoded in the literature, arts and intellectual currents of the time. In examining his legacy, we will focus on elaborations or challenges to his ideas, particularly within cultural criticism, postwar protest movements, and the cultural politics of the Cold War. In conclusion, we will turn to the question of Marxism or Post-Marxism today, asking what promise Marx's ideas might still hold in a world vastly different from his own. All readings and lectures in English.

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.
INSTRUCTOR: HUDA FAKHREDDINE

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 232 has as its theme the Individual and Society. Prerequisite: Two 200-level courses taken at Penn or equivalent.
INSTRUCTOR: GERALD PRINCE

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 232 has as its theme the Individual and Society. Prerequisite: Two 200-level courses taken at Penn or equivalent.
INSTRUCTOR: SCOTT FRANCIS

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 232 has as its theme the Individual and Society. Prerequisite: Two 200-level courses taken at Penn or equivalent.
INSTRUCTOR: ANDREA GOULET

This course introduces some of the major genres and themes of the millennium-old Persian poetic tradition from ancient to modern Iran. Epic and romance, love and mysticism, wine and drunkenness, wisdom and madness, body and mind, sin and temptation are some of the key themes that will be explored through a close reading of poems in this course.The course suits undergraduate students of all disciplines, as it requires no prior knowledge of or familiarity with the Persian language or the canon of Persian literature. All teaching materials are available in English translation. Students are expected to attend seminars and take part in discussions. Fulfills Arts and Letters sector.
INSTRUCTOR: FATEMEH SHAMS ESMAEILI

This course is offered online in asynchronous format.

How has our image of Italy arrived to us? Where does the story begin and who has recounted, rewritten, and rearranged it over the centuries? In this course, we will study Italy's rich and complex past and present. We will carefully read literary and historical texts and thoughtfully watch films in order to attain an understanding of Italy that is as varied and multifacted as the country itself. Group work, discussions and readings will allow us to examine the problems and trends in the political, cultural and social history from ancient Rome to today. We will focus on: the Roman Empire, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Unification, Turn of the Century, Fascist era, World War II, post-war and contemporary Italy. Fulfills Cross Cultural Analysis and Arts and Letters.
INSTRUCTOR: CARLA LOCATELLI

This course is intended for those with no prior background in folklore or knowledge of various cultures. Texts range in age from the first century to the twentieth, and geographically from the Middle East to Europe to the United States. Each collection displays various techniques of collecting folk materials and making them concrete. Each in its own way also raises different issues of genre, legitimacy, canon formation, cultural values and context.
INSTRUCTOR: DAVID AZZOLINA

How do we conceptualize “the world?” In this course, whose alternate title might be “Literature at the End(s) of the World” (or even, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It—and I Feel Various Feelings”), we will approach the idea of “world literature” through the lens of social, political and ecospheric collapse, interrogating along the way the various claims to universality a text can make. "World literature" here refers not merely to the usual definition of "books written in places other than the US and Europe," but to any form of cultural production that explores and pushes at the limits of a particular world, that steps between and beyond worlds, or that heralds the coming of new worlds, waiting to be born. Some of our guiding questions will include: what is a world? Can a text create, depict, or contain a world? How many worlds are there? And most importantly, what happens when a world—or our world—is threatened with extinction? To explore these topics, we will read, view, and discuss selected canonical texts in the tradition of “World Literature” as well as more recent work from writers and creators outside of Europe and the Anglosphere, spanning the generic categories of poetry, fiction, and film. In approaching these texts, we will try to push beyond both a view of “world” as predicted on us vs. them distinctions as well as one in which local difference has been homogenized or erased by the rise of global capitalism. We will also attempt to defamiliarize—or, perhaps, decolonize—our generic categories by looking at texts which are often placed outside the rarified categories of “literature.” Potential authors/filmmakers may include: Arthur Rimbaud, Jorge Luis Borges, Amos Tutuola, Clarice Lispector, Leslie Marmon Silko, Roberto Bolaño, Fernanda Melchor, Bong Joon-Ho, Abbas Kiarostami and others. Theoretical readings will supplement our discussion of the primary texts, and may include work from Theodor Adorno, Fredric Jameson, David Damrosch, Emily Apter, and others. Assignments will include weekly preparation, occasional discussion board posts, an in-class presentation, a mid-semester creative assignment, and a final paper (6-8 pp).
INSTRUCTOR: MICHAEL SHEA

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. Fulfills Arts and Letters sector.
INSTRUCTOR: SIMON RICHTER