| |
The Program
Courses
Comparative Literature - Minor
|
 |
|
Comparative Literature*
Department of Comparative Literature
College of Arts and Sciences
638 Clemens Hall
North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-2066
Fax: (716) 645-5979
Henry Sussman, Chair
*Not a baccalaureate degree program
Comparative literature is the study and comparison of literary, philosophical,
and cultural issues that cut across national borders and historical boundaries
or do not fit conventional disciplinary categories. Comparative literature
recognizes that literary production never takes place in isolation from
other social and cultural trends, and recognizes, too, that cultural maps
rarely coincide with national contours. National literatures take shape
in a global context. These considerations govern the intelligibility of
the texts we read. It is to this heterogeneity that comparative literature
responds. Students of comparative literature approach literatures in English,
as well as other languages, using methods derived from philosophy, psychoanalysis,
legal studies, political theory and anthropology.
The Department of Comparative Literature at the University at Buffalo,
rated one of the strongest in the country, is currently developing new
interests in nationalism and colonialism, film and popular culture, and
gender studies. A comprehensive range of courses is offered, dealing with
literature and with literary and critical theory. Starting from the recognition
that language is never an obedient servant of meaning, courses tackle
advanced problems of interpretation from multiple perspectives. The program also offers upper- and lower-level
courses within the framework of undergraduate
general education. These include freshman classes aimed at offering an
introduction to a variety of literary periods, themes, and critical vocabularies.
130 Introduction to the Twentieth Century (3)
Offers the student who is beginning to read modernist texts an overview
of the various movements that shaped and influenced the cultural scene
in the early part of the century. The course attempts to distinguish between
modernism and the avant-garde with reference to such movements as futurism,
dadaism, surrealism, expressionism, and socialist realism. LEC
140 Language of Sexuality (3)
Sexuality figures as a central theme in Western literature from the Bible
and Homer through to the present. Reading texts from various historical
periods, we address such issues as how sexuality is treated through such
concepts as representation, authority, desire, history, self, and truth,
and examine how in each case sexuality is related to a particular conception
in literature and its interpretation. LEC
150 World Lit: The Fantastic (3)
An international survey of the literature of the fantastic. Pays particular
attention to modernism's fascination with the eerie and the uncanny. Seeks
to find why the fantastic seems to serve as such a suitable emblem for
our age through a reading of international texts. Also considers the way
in which the fantastic serves as a social commentary on the society in
which it is produced. LEC
160 The Culture of Rebellion (3)
A course about youth culture, both how it has developed and how it has
been packaged since World War II. Deals with literary texts that reflect
the emergence of a youth "voice" in literature and examines
the way in which youth figures in analytical discourses. Examines youth
and popular culture: music, film, and television. LEC
180 Medicine and Literary Interpretation (3)
Surveys the border shared by scientific investigation and literary interpretation,
with a strong emphasis on reading and writing skills. Traces a common
insistence upon order in both spheres and the persistence, nevertheless,
of disorder and uncertainty. Reading mainly modern authors, compares the
reading of symptoms and of messages in language in an attempt to show
the way in which the literary is intrinsic to the concerns of scientific
writers, just as the scientific search for certainty is to the literary
figures. LEC
230 Science and the Humanities (3)
Stresses the commonality between scientific investigation and humanistic
inquiry. We read in close detail a series of scientific works with obvious
artistic and philosophical implications, and literary works that have
posed profound scientific problems or been structured in a scientific
way. Includes works by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Goethe, Poe, Hoffmann,
and Philip K. Dick. SEM
240 The Tragedy and the Comedy of Love in the History of Literature (3)
The love theme is perhaps the most important single theme in literature.
Examines the ways in which the love relationship has been viewed at different
times. The course focuses on the cultural and philosophical reasons why
this type of relationship became increasingly central and a subject for
serious investigation in western society. LEC
250 Masterpieces of World Literature (3)
Invites students in all fields to explore the study of literature. Structured
to introduce a wide variety of texts, both in terms of historical breadth
and genre. The course is not a survey with a program of systematic, obligatory
coverage. Rather, in readings that run from Homer to contemporary cinema,
that investigate the epic, poetry, political documents, fiction, and film,
we consider the ways in which such texts function and why the place of
such works is crucial to our understanding of ourselves. LEC
251 Masterpieces of World Literature (3)
See COL250. LEC
255 Crime and Punishment (3)
Considers a range of major literary and philosophical texts dealing with
issues of crime, guilt, retribution, and punishment. Students discuss
these texts in their social and literary contexts, and write one long
and one short paper based on their readings. LEC
280 City in Literature (3)
The city has witnessed revolutionary changes in recent times, yet has
itself always been the witness to change, the site of history and storytelling.
Studies the city in a modern or postmodern manner by examining the way
in which it serves as a model for design, government, and policing. Examines
the commonality and differences that link the modern city and its predecessors.
While drawing mainly on literary works, we also work in the fields of
history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. LEC
301 Literary Theory-Twentieth Century (3)
Overview of the most recent, and often controversial, developments in
literary theory. As well as covering theoretical strains, such as formalism,
New Criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, Marxism, and the Frankfurt
School, the course interpolates literary texts as examples of interpretive
possibilities. Part of a two-course module with COL302. SEM
302 Literary Theory-History (3)
Charts the development of the theories of culture and literature, which
both reflect and, in turn, shape the great works of our literary tradition.
Students read aesthetic theory from the ancient Greeks through to the
nineteenth century, covering such diverse periods as the Middle Ages,
the Enlightenment, and romanticism. Also studies literary texts for the
way in which they help elucidate some of the issues being covered in the
theory. Students should expect to develop an awareness of the historical
import of such notions as genre, the beautiful, etc. See COL301. SEM
315 Signs and Representation (3)
Introduces theories of the sign and representation, and the development
of these accounts in the twentieth century. The course is divided into
three parts. Part one introduces basic concepts and pioneering theories:
the work of Saussure and Peirce, formalism and structuralism (Levi-Strauss,
Piaget, Jackobson, Benveniste), their similarities and differences, and
the debates their works have engendered. Part two considers developments
and refinements of their work, particularly in various analyses of social
power; among the figures analyzed here are Roland Barthes and his examination
of bourgeois cultural life, and Michel Foucault and his understanding
of social power and its investment in the production and control of discourse.
Part three discusses poststructuralist critiques of structuralism, concentrating
particularly on the work of the Derrideans, including a session on Kristeva,
Cixous, and the writing of otherness. SEM
320 Literature and Desire (3)
The psychological thrust of many literary works is a long-established
truism. This is a course situated on the interstice between literary works,
mostly fictive, and the intricate web of social and psychological factors
involved in desire, whether for love, power, or wealth. Combines the philosophy
of Plato and Hegel with the psychology of Freud and Lacan with works by,
among others, Shakespeare, Richardson, Flaubert, and Dostoyevsky. LEC
328 Rethinking Bodies (3)
Introduces various philosophical and theoretical accounts of the body.
The concept of the body is generally relegated to a secondary or subordinate
category relative to the privilege of mind or Reason in the history of
Western thought. Examines the work of a number of theorists who have questioned
and problematized the subordination of body to mind. The course is divided
into four parts. Part one introduces and selectively surveys the ways
in which the body (and mind) have been formulated in modern Western thought.
Part two focusses on phenomenological and psychoanalytic concepts of the
lived body, the body of experience or the corporeal schema. Part three
examines the body as a (writing) surface, a surface of social inscription,
marking, and training. The fourth and final part explores the implications
of acknowledging the sexual specificity of the body for notions of knowledge
and representation. SEM
340 Berlin, Paris, and Vienna at the Turn of the Century (3)
General introduction to twentieth-century culture and art. Focuses on
three centers of modernism: Vienna, Paris, and Berlin, and reaches toward
that moment when innovations in linguistics, psychoanalysis, logical analysis,
and radical literary works were at the peak of ferment. Literary texts,
clinical texts and visual texts form the material for the course, which
aims to develop a notion of modernity equally applicable to all. LEC
387 Freud and Feminism (3)
Introduces some of the central concepts in the writings of Sigmund Freud,
focusing mainly on his understanding of the development of the ego or
sense of self, the operations of the unconscious and the genesis of sexual
drives in the constitution of male and female subjects. The course explains
these basic Freudian concepts through the central feminist question of
sexual difference. SEM
425 The Novel as Genre (3)
The history of the novel is consecutive with the rise and emergence of
the broader modernity. The novel thus chronicles, among other factors,
the rise of cities and commerce and the demise of feudalism; the emergence
of the individuated and inherently conflicted subject; the flowering of
passion as the very stuff of literature; and the invention and dissemination
of new forms of technology. We read a selection of novels by such authors
as Cervantes, Rousseau, Defoe, Richardson, Balzac, Zola, Woolf, and Stein.
LEC
440 Eighteenth-Century European Literature (3)
Surveys the century as it wound through the powerhouses of Europe and
impacted on the colonized segments of the world. Readings by, among others,
Defore, Montaigne, Fielding, Goethe, Mme. de Stael, and Austen. LEC
443 Literature and War (3)
An attempt at analyzing some of the most important war novels, both European
and continental, in the perspective of the major theories of war. Theoretical
texts include Sun Tsu, Huisinga, Clausewitz, and Freud. Literary texts
include Swift, Crane, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Junger. SEM
451 Modernism (3)
Pursues the great experiments of modernism in Europe and the United States
over the period 1890-1945. Emphasizes the culture of combination, expansion,
and distortion that characterized not only literature, but art, music,
drama, and architecture. Readings by Rilke, Kafka, Proust, Joyce, Freud,
Stein, Woolf, Barnes, and Borges. LEC
COL301 Literary Theory-20th Century
COL302 Literary Theory-History
Students select five additional courses at upper and lower levels.
Specific requirements vary slightly according to affiliation with the College of Arts and Sciences. Certain credits from modern languages, English, and media study can be credited toward this minor. For a full list of qualifying courses or further details, students are encouraged to contact the director of undergraduate studies at (716) 645-2066.
Questions and Comments about this site should be sent to:
- Academic Affairs
- Phone: (716) 645-6003
- Fax: (716) 645-2549
Last updated: Thursday, 09-Dec-2004 15:21:17 EST
|
