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World Literature Courses
WL 100 - Introduction to World Literature (3)
Explores how texts resonate in other cultural contexts, influence foreign traditions, and become works of world literature. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 101W - Writing About Literature (3)
Examines international migrancy, cultural identities, or cross-cultural influence in world literatures, while introducing the fundamentals of literary analysis and expository writing. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.
WL 102 - Literature Across Cultures (3)
Introduction to the study of literary texts from diverse linguistic and cultural origins. May examine the literature of cross-cultural interaction, or compare texts through thematic topics. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 103W - Pre-Modern World Literature (3)
Surveys pre-modern texts of world literature. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.
WL 104W - Modern World Literature (3)
Surveys poetry and prose from the seventeenth century to the present, with a focus on the literary exploration of issues of humanity. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.
WL 200 - Literary Analysis and Interpretation (3)
Introduces major theoretical approaches to literature and fundamental techniques of literary analysis. Develops students' critical skills for analytical writing about literature in comparative, cross-cultural contexts. Prerequisite: six units in World Literature, including WL 100, 103W or 104W.
WL 201 - East/West (3)
Explores the relationship between Eastern and Western narratives. The focus may include the mutual influence of Eastern and Western cultural traditions and modernities, the construction of the 'East' in the West and of the 'West' in the East, theories of Orientalism and Occidentalism, and forms of East/West syncretism. Prerequisite: Three units in World Literature or six units of B-Hum designated courses. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 202 - North/South (3)
Explores how European traditions have influenced and engaged the cultures of the global 'South'. The focus may encompass the cultures and counter-cultures of empire and globalization and the 'tropicalization' of European genres and cultural forms under the influence of artists from Africa, Latin-America, and South Asia. Prerequisite: Three units in World Literature or six units of B-Hum designated courses. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 203 - Selected Genres in World Literature (3)
Explores the cross-cultural trajectory of a genre or genres of world literature. Prerequisite: Three units in World Literature or six units of B-Hum designated courses. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 204 - Human Rights Literature (3)
Examines a diversity of world literature concerning human rights. May focus on writing in the face of political oppression, censorship, political and economic displacement, terrorism and/or warfare. Prerequisite: Three units in World Literature or six units of B-Hum designated courses. Breadth-Humanities.
WL 300 - How Theory Travels (4)
Explores the counterpoint of Western and non-Western approaches to world literature. May draw from disciplines including comparative literature, history and anthropology, and focus on how concepts of world literature are imported into new cultural contexts. Prerequisite: 12 units in World Literature, including WL 200.
WL 301W - Advanced Composition (3)
Examines scholarly and other professional styles of writing about literature, focusing on representative genres, approaches and practices through a selected topic in world literature. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature. Writing.
WL 303 - Global Culture and Its Others (4)
Explores cultural expressions of sameness and difference in an age of globalization and its discontents. May focus on transnational expressions of secularism and faith or of the metropolis and suburbia, or on forms of cross-pollination in world literature, cinema and music. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 304 - Exiles and Emigres (4)
Explores the culture of peoples and individuals displaced by force or migrating by choice. May focus on the plight of refugees in the work of playwrights, essayists and novelists, on the work of emigre artists in different cultural traditions, or on a comparison of the literary cultures of exiles and emigres. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 305W - Sages and Poets (4)
Explores wisdom literature, poetry, or the resonance of faith in secular world literatures. May focus on cross-cultural mystical quests, secular re-castings of narratives of faith and conversion, or the interplay of the religious and the secular in comparative supernatural literatures. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses. Writing.
WL 306 - Literary Romanticisms (4)
A comparative approach to literary romanticisms and romantic texts. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 308 - Imperial Cultures (4)
Explores the cultures of imperialism in a cross-continental and comparative framework. May focus on chronicles of discovery, moments of colonial contact, critiques of empire, and the imperial engagement with pre-conquest cultures. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 309 - Post-Imperial Cultures (4)
Explores post-imperial notions of culture and universality, tradition and modernity, or nation and cosmopolis. May focus on narratives of independence, postcolonial self-fashioning, and imperial nostalgia. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 310 - Text and Context (3)
Intermediate seminar on selected literary texts in relation to their social, historical, cultural, or theoretical contexts. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 320 - Interdisciplinary Approaches World Literature (3)
Intermediate seminar on a topic in world literature. This course may be repeated for credit when different topics are offered. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 330 - Special Topic in World Literature (4)
Seminar on a topic in World Literature. Prerequisite: 45 units including nine units in World Literature or nine units of B-Hum designated courses.
WL 340 - Directed Studies (1)
Independent reading and research on a topic selected in consultation with the supervising instructor. A research essay is required. Reserved for World Literature honors, major and minor students. Prerequisite: 間眅埶AV is by permission of the Instructor and Director.
WL 345 - Directed Studies (2)
Independent reading and research on a topic selected in consultation with the supervising instructor. A research essay is required. Reserved for world literature honors, major and minor students. Prerequisite: 間眅埶AV is by permission of the Instructor and Director.
WL 350 - Directed Studies (3)
Independent reading and research on a topic selected in consultation with the supervising instructor. A research essay is required. Prerequisite: Two 100 level World Literature courses, two 200 level World Literature courses, and two 300 level World Literature courses. Reserved for World Literature honors, major, and minor students. 間眅埶AV is by permission of the instructor and Director.
WL 400 - Literary Perspectives on Ancient Cultures (4)
Explores the discovery, resonance, and/or influence of ancient literature and culture. May focus on the role and poetics of ancient cultures in modern writing. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300-level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities.
WL 401 - Early Modernities (4)
Explores early modern literature across cultures. May compare Eastern and Western texts or focus on the cross-cultural influence of a single genre or author. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300-level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities.
WL 402 - Other Modernities (4)
Explores the mutual constitution of modernity in North and South. May focus on modernism and its enemies, case studies of alternative modernities, or the pre-modern in discourses of the modern and anti-modern. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300-level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities.
WL 403 - After Modernities (4)
Explores works of contemporary world literature in the second half of the twentieth century. May focus on the postmodern as a response to the modern, on prevalent postmodern genres, or on the postmodern engagement with developments in philosophy, science, and the media in East and West. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300 level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities.
WL 404W - Literature and Translation (4)
Explores the translation of texts into new cultural contexts, their reception, and the theory and practice of literary translation. May compare several texts or focus on a single work that has been reconceived in several cultures. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300 level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities. Writing.
WL 410 - Selected Topic in World Literature I (4)
Advanced seminar on a topic in World Literature. Prerequisite: 60 units including two 300 level courses in World Literature, English, or Humanities.
WL 450 - Directed Readings in Language and Literature (4)
Independent study of literature in a language other than English. Prerequisite: 間眅埶AV by permission of the instructor and department.
WL 460 - Directed Studies (4)
Independent reading and research on a topic selected in consultation with the supervising instructor. A research essay is required. Prerequisite: Two 100 level World Literature courses, two 200 level World Literature courses, and two 300 level World Literature courses. Reserved for World Literature honors, major, and minor students. 間眅埶AV is by permission of the instructor and Director.
WL 480 - Research Seminar for Honours Essay (4)
Examines the methods and methodologies of world literature by focusing on case studies of influence, reception and translation. The case studies will be chosen in relation to students' approved topics for honours essays. Students will present research for their honours essay to the class. Prerequisite: Lower division and language requirements for the World Literature major plus 12 units of upper division requirements including WL 300. Open only to students who have been accepted into the World Literature honours program. 間眅埶AV is by permission of the Instructor and the Department.
WL 490 - Honours Graduate Essay (4)
Examines the methods and methodologies of world literature by focusing on case studies of influence, reception and translation. The case studies will be chosen in relation to students' approved topics for honours essays. Students will present detailed research and well-developed drafts of their essay to the class. In addition to the weekly seminar, honours students will meet regularly with their supervisors. Prerequisite: Lower division and language requirements for the World Literature major plus 12 units of upper division requirements including WL 300. Open only to students who have been accepted into the World Literature honours program. 間眅埶AV is by permission of the Instructor and the Department.