Comparative Literature

COMPLIT 10N. Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context. 3 Units.

Preference to freshmen. The problem of performance including the performance of gender through the plays of Shakespeare. In-class performances by students of scenes from plays. The history of theatrical performance. Sources include filmed versions of plays, and readings on the history of gender, gender performance, and transvestite theater.

COMPLIT 11Q. Shakespeare, Playing, Gender. 3 Units.

Preference to sophomores. Focus is on several of the best and lesser known plays of Shakespeare, on theatrical and other kinds of playing, and on ambiguities of both gender and playing gender.

COMPLIT 11SC. Worlds (No Longer) Apart. 2 Units.

What (if anything) do supermall shoppers in the Philippines, a Filipino taxi driver in Paris, and television viewers in Nepal have to do with a legal case in Canada, two young Japanese on a pilgrimage to Graceland, and a South Asian lawyer/liquor store owner trying to reclaim his property in Uganda from where he lives, in Mississippi? This course uses literary narratives, films, and historical research to examine new textures of contemporary life, where "borders" seem hard-pressed to contain culture. Texts include Pico Iyer, Video Night in Kathmandu, Mira Nair's film Mississippi Masala, and M.G. Vassanji, No New Land. New forms of identity have emerged that reflect the cultural changes that have accompanied such movements. Nevertheless, we will not idealize such phenomena either; we will want also to carefully observe the binding power of nations. The result will be a finer-tuned sense of "globalization" and the "local" and the "global." The course emphasizes creative thinking and discussion. Students are expected to do the reading and be well prepared for every session with not only questions, but tentative answers. Each student will participate in one group presentation as their final project.

COMPLIT 12SC. Ghost Stories: Why the Dead Return and What They Want From Us. 2 Units.

Ghost stories haunt our imagination. When the dead return they may scare us or warn us, they may pursue us with violence or burden us with sorrow. They shock us with the "boo" of surprise, just as they frustrate us by their elusiveness. Blood-chilling stories terrify us, but they also provide entertainment. The ghost story is one of the most enduring genres, from classical literature to popular film. Yet behind the door of the story lurk both anxiety and wisdom: anxiety about our own mortality and wisdom about the cultural place of the past, between memory and regret, mourning and forgetting. The undead point to what we have not accomplished, just as they direct us - since the ghost of Hamlet's father - toward deeds. In this seminar, we will explore some of these ghostly ambitions. During the summer, in preparation for the seminar, students will read selected stories and novels and post comments to the course website. When we convene in September, we will discuss the summer findings and proceed to examine a selection of novels that explore ghosts and hauntings. Texts will include Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Peter Straub's Ghost Story, and others. We will also spend some dark and stormy nights with ghost films and even follow the trail to some hauntings at Stanford and in the Bay Area. Students are expected to participate regularly in the CourseWork discussion forum and work in small groups with other course members to discuss and present readings.

COMPLIT 31SI. What is Neoconservatism? The Movement's History and Ideas. 2 Units.

Its thinking from its communist roots, through the changes of the 60s, the rise of conservatism in the 80s, and the invasion of Iraq. Readings include Irving Kristol, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Daniel P. Moynihan, and David Brooks. Guest lecturers from supporters and critics.

COMPLIT 40Q. Aesthetics of Dissent: the Case of Islamic Iran. 2 Units.

Censorship, Borges tells us, is the mother of metaphors. The Islamic regime in Iran censors all aethetic production in the country. But Iranian dissident artists, from film-makers and fiction writers to composers in a thriving under-ground musical scene, have cleverly found ways to fight these draconian measures. They have developed an impressive body of work that is as sophisticated in style as it is rich in its discourse of democracy and dissent. The purpose of the seminar is to understand the aesthetic tropes of dissent in Iran, and the social and theological roots of rules of censorship. Masterpieces of post-revolutionary film, fiction, and music will be discussed in the context of tumultuous history of dissent in Islamic Iran.
Same as: INTNLREL 71Q.

COMPLIT 41N. Borderlands of Literature and Culture. 3-4 Units.

Rather than try to examine the whole of such an extensive body of work by artists of Mexican descent living in Mexico and the United States, the focus will be on the transnational themes of border thinking, memory, and identity (both personal and collective). Looking at the foundational poetry, auto-ethnographies, and narratives by Américo Paredes and Gloria Anzaldúa and how their literary and ethnographic work laid the groundwork for subsequent imaginings in the narratives, poetry, and theory of border thinking and writing. We will explore the trans-frontier cultural conditions under which imaginative literary texts are produced, disseminated, and received. We will consider not only the historical transnational experiences that inform these borderlands texts but the potential futures of Mexico and the United States they imagine.

COMPLIT 49. "Global Literature": Reading New Worlds. 5 Units.

It is a given that today¿s world is increasingly ¿networked¿¿we are connected to a wider spectrum of people and places than ever before, in multiple ways. Our economic, political, technological, financial, cultural, ecological worlds seem blended into one. And yet amidst all that we seem to have in common, we also have sometimes very different ways of understanding those connections, both as individuals and as members of different national communities. In this course, we will learn how great works of literature help us not only imagine those connections between people and between nations as they have been produced historically and as they exist today, but also to see how literature helps us imagine the future. We will read novels from various locales, explore the cultures and histories from which they emerged, and link them together in a conversation. Works include: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude; Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide; Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah; Ondatjee, The English Patient; Ibrahim Al-Koni, The Bleeding of the Stone.

COMPLIT 51N. Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity. 5 Units.

We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Satisfies PWR2.
Same as: AMSTUD 51N, CSRE 51N.

COMPLIT 101. What is Comparative Literature?. 5 Units.

How critics and authors from different eras and different parts of the globe have considered how literature, as a traditional cultural form, can or cannot, help to sustain societies faced with concrete historical crises such as war, revolution, and colonization. How the aesthetic work of verbal art has been seen to offer the possibility of continuity in the face of change. What, if anything, can be continued? How does art perhaps aid in accommodating change?.

COMPLIT 110. Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1890s to today: Wilde, Gide, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Radclyffe Hall, E.M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Georges Bataille, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters, Audre Lorde, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality (Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, Julia Serano, and others).
Same as: COMPLIT 310, FEMST 110.

COMPLIT 111. German Capstone: Reading Franz Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement)
Same as: COMPLIT 311C, GERMAN 190, GERMAN 390, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349.

COMPLIT 112. Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 312, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312.

COMPLIT 121. Poems, Poetry, Worlds: The Origins, Evolution, and Migration of the Ghazal. 3-5 Units.

An exploration of the origins, evolution, and migration of one of the world's great poetic genres, the ghazal (short lyric poem, usually on love). Starting with a discussion of the origins of the genre in the late pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods in Arabic and Persian, then moving to an examination of the evolution of the genre in the early medieval Islamic period in those languages, and the subsequent emergence of the ghazal in the related literatures of Hebrew, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu. Consideration of European translations of ghazals in the 18th and 19th centuries, the effect of these translations on contemporary European poetry, and the migration of the genre into English in the 19th and 20th centuries.

COMPLIT 122. Literature as Performance. 5 Units.

Theater as performance and as literature. The historical tension between performance and sexuality in the Western tradition since Greek antiquity. Non-European forms and conventions of performance and theatricality. The modern competition between theater and other forms of performance and media such as sports, film, and television. Sources include: classical Japanese theater; ancient Greek tragedy and comedy; medieval theater in interaction with Christian rituals and its countercultural horizons; the classical age of European theater including Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, and Molière.

COMPLIT 123. The Novel, The World. 5 Units.

Combining perspectives of the novels of the world as imaginary force with a sense of reality and as protean form that has reshaped the literary universe. Readings from: ancient Greece; early modern Spain, China, and continental Europe; theories of the novel; 19th-century realism; modernist and postmodern experiments; and the contemporary avant gardes of the world, including South Asia, and the hemispheric and transnational Americas.

COMPLIT 125. Past Desire Made Present: The Traditions of Erotic Poetry in Medieval Iran and Europe. 3-5 Units.

Aims to make present and accessible, to our early 21st-century experience, convergences and differences between medieval Persian and medieval European love poetry. Poetry will be dealt with as a discursive and institutional means through which it is possible to make present and tangible that which is absent -- both in space and time. If we accept that medieval Persian and European love poetry conjured up moods of homo- and heteroerotic desire for contemporary audiences, then this desire can also become present for us today through a close reading of those same texts.

COMPLIT 125A. The Gothic Novel. 5 Units.

The Gothic novel and its relatives from its invention by Walpole in The Castle of Otranto of 1764. Readings include: Northanger Abbey, The Italian, The Monk, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Dracula. What defines the Gothic as it evolves from one specific novel to a mode that makes its way into a range of fictional types?
Same as: ENGLISH 125A.

COMPLIT 126B. Mind Games: Reading and Seeing the World. 3-5 Units.

The world's increased fusion of images, visual arts and personal narratives challenges our minds and can make us feel utterly confused, excited, or even manipulated. Exploring these "mind games" can help us understand human needs, political acts, social realities as well as the workings of our own brain. Can images act as words? Can words act as images? Can photography tell stories? What is a modern tale? And why does it matter? This course studies visual and textual examples of how a particular fusion of elements can provoke particular emotions and actions. We will study examples of texts that cross language, logic and time and tell stories ranging from ecological tragedies to travels across continents, cities or extraordinary experiences. For example, this class will see how form intersects with autobiography, memory and reality. By studying these ways of "reading" and "seeing" the world in the texts for the class we will be asking ourselves if we can recognize the social question they pose and why we feel as we feel when we see them or read them. The texts for the course include novels, films, poems and visual texts by Angel Jovè, Anne Carson, Julio Llamazares, Yoko Tawada, Horacio Castellanos Moya, W.G. Sebald and Abdelkebir Khatibi, among others. We will access several historical contexts and cultures, primarily in 20th and 21st century with a focus on post-WWII and post-1980s globalization.

COMPLIT 129A. Contemporary Persian Poetry: Encounter of a Thousand-Year-Old Classical Tradition with Modernity. 5 Units.

The primacy of poetic expression in Persian culture in the transition from tradition to modernity. Major 20th-century poets in relation to historical events and social change. Authors include: Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamloo, Sohrab Sepehri, Mehdi Akhavan Sales, Forough Farrokhzad, Nader Naderpour, Fereydoun Moshiri, Esma'il Kho'i, and Afghan and Tajik poets.

COMPLIT 133. Gender and Modernism. 3-5 Units.

Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 333.

COMPLIT 135. Chinese Cultural Revolution: Performance, Politics, and Aesthetics. 4 Units.

Events, arts, films, and operas of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Analysis of political passion, aesthetics, and psychology of mass movements. Places the Cultural Revolution in the long-range context of art, social movements, and politics. Chinese language is not required.
Same as: CHINLIT 190, CHINLIT 290.

COMPLIT 141A. The Meaning of Arabic Literature: a seminar investigation into the nebulous concept of adab. 3-5 Units.

An investigation into the concept of literature in mediaeval Arabic. Was there a mediaeval Arabic way of thinking? We look to develop a translation for the word "adab," a concept that dominated mediaeval Arabic intellectual culture, and is related in some ways to what we mean today when we use the word literature. Our core text is a literary anthology from the 900s in Iraq and we try, together, to work out what literature meant for the author and his contemporaries. Readings, assignments and, class discussion all in English.

COMPLIT 142. The Literature of the Americas. 5 Units.

A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas in comparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Same as: AMSTUD 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E.

COMPLIT 143A. Alla Turca Love: Tales of Romance in Turkish Literature. 3-5 Units.

An introduction to the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Topics include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 342.

COMPLIT 144A. Istanbul the Muse: The City in Literature and Film. 3-5 Units.

The multiple layers of culture and history in Istanbul, a city on two continents between East and West, have inspired great art and literature. The class focuses on the idea of "inbetweenness" through art, literature, music, and popular culture seen chronologically. In addition to discussing literary, historical, and academic texts we will explore visual genres such as advertising, architecture, caricature, documentary, film, and miniature painting. Readings and discussion in English.

COMPLIT 145. Reflection on the Other: The Jew in Arabic Literature, the Arab in Hebrew Literature. 4 Units.

How literary works outside the realm of western culture struggle with questions such as identity, minority, and the issue of the other. How the Arab is viewed in Hebrew literature and how the Jew is viewed in Arabic literature. Historical, political, and sociological forces that have contributed to the shaping of the writer's views. Arab and Jewish (Israeli) culture.
Same as: AMELANG 126, JEWISHST 106.

COMPLIT 146. Asian American Culture and Community. 3-5 Units.

An examination of the history, art and culture of Vietnamese Americans, and their contemporary experiences in the South Bay. The course will combine in-class learning with a major conference featuring prominent artists and scholars on the Vietnamese Diasporic community. A service learning component requires community work at a service organization in San Jose. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Same as: AMSTUD 146, ASNAMST 146S, CSRE 146S.

COMPLIT 146A. The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature. 3-5 Units.

An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 347.

COMPLIT 147B. From Greece to Tahrir Square: The Rhetoric of Democracy. 3-5 Units.

Discussion and analysis of how the idea of democracy has been represented, communicated, debated, in Greece, France, the United States, China, and Egypt. Historical, philosophical, literary texts, films. Student research, presentations, debates a key part of course.

COMPLIT 149A. Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction. 3-5 Units.

The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 346.

COMPLIT 151A. Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives. 3-5 Units.

Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Same as: COMPLIT 351A.

COMPLIT 154A. Film & Philosophy. 4 Units.

Issues of freedom, morality, faith, knowledge, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam), Ordet (Dreyer), The Dark Knight (Nolan), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Allen), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C.

COMPLIT 160. The Literature of Dehumanization. 3-5 Units.

An examination of a constellation in Western literature that specifically deals with a borderline state between humanity and animality, showing different approaches to the problem of humanity and non-humanity through some of the major works in the modern Western literary canon. The class explores the different ways in which dehumanization takes place in these texts, and how these texts also suggest a regaining of one's lost humanity. Readings include: Ovid, Marie de France, Shakespeare, Hobbes, Heine, Baudelaire, Tolstoy, Nietszche, Lautreamont, Kafka, Rilke, Celan, and more.

COMPLIT 181. Philosophy and Literature. 5 Units.

Required gateway course for Philosophical and Literary Thought; crosslisted in departments sponsoring the Philosophy and Literature track: majors should register in their home department; non-majors may register in any sponsoring department. Introduction to major problems at the intersection of philosophy and literature. Issues may include authorship, selfhood, truth and fiction, the importance of literary form to philosophical works, and the ethical significance of literary works. Texts include philosophical analyses of literature, works of imaginative literature, and works of both philosophical and literary significance. Authors may include Plato, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Borges, Beckett, Barthes, Foucault, Nussbaum, Walton, Nehamas, Pavel, and Pippin. Taught in English.
Same as: CLASSGEN 81, ENGLISH 81, FRENCH 181, GERMAN 181, ITALIAN 181, PHIL 81, SLAVIC 181.

COMPLIT 194. Independent Research. 1-5 Units.

(Staff).

COMPLIT 199. Senior Seminar. 5 Units.

Major terms of narratology; how different literary, cinematic, and popular culture narratives raise ethical issues, stir public debates and contribute to understanding human values. Readings include Biblical texts, Antigone, Kleist, Kafka, Coetzee, V for Vendetta, South Park, Kant, Arendt, Nussbaum, Rorty, and Levinas. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. CL Senior majors only and minors with permission.
Same as: COMPLIT 367, JEWISHST 149, JEWISHST 347.

COMPLIT 213A. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 313A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382.

COMPLIT 218. The work of Luis Martín Santos in Mid-Twentieth Century Spain. 3-5 Units.

First published in 1962, "Tiempo de Silencio" is the only book that the young psychiatrist Luis Martin Santos finished during his lifetime, and, although largely overlooked (even in Spain) until the present day, one of the great European novels of the 20th century. It brings to a complex convergence the evocation of Spain's decadent and run-down post-Civil War society with high-modernist literary procedures and (an implicit parody of) phenomenological analysis.
Same as: ILAC 229.

COMPLIT 221A. Courtly Love: Deceit and Desire in the Middle Ages. 3-5 Units.

A comparative seminar on medieval love books and their reception. We will examine and question the notion of "amour courtois," which arose in the lyrics and romances of medieval France and was codified in Romantic-era criticism. Primary readings will be enriched by thinking about this notion through the lens of modern theories of desire, such as those of Girard, Lacan, and Zizek. Conducted in English with readings in translation.
Same as: FRENCH 234, ITALIAN 234.

COMPLIT 222A. German Literature and Thought from 1900 to the Present: Wrestling with Modernity. 3-5 Units.

Masters of German 20th and 21st Century literature and philosophy as they present aesthetic innovation and confront the challenges of modern technology, social alienation, manmade catastrophes, and imagine the future. Readings include Nietzsche, Freud, Rilke, Musil, Brecht, Kafka, Doeblin, Benjamin, Juenger, Arendt, Musil, Mann, Adorno, Celan, Grass, Bachmann, Bernhardt, Wolf, and Kluge. Taught in English.
Same as: GERMAN 222, GERMAN 322.

COMPLIT 224A. Genocide and The Humanities. 3-5 Units.

We will study the history and current instances of genocide and ways in which the humanities deal with these. Mass slaughter would seem to be opposed by the supposedly humane nature of the humanities. Yet each realm of the humanities has its own constraints. We will study historiography, memoires, novels, and films in order to recognize ideologies of representation and signifying implications of structure. By discerning implicit values, students will gain tools they can use in working to eliminate genocide.

COMPLIT 230A. The Novel in Europe: The Age of Compromise, 1800-1848. 5 Units.

The novel after the French revolution and the industrial take-off. Novelistic form and historical processes ¿ nation-building and the marriage market, political conservatism and the advent of fashion, aristocracy and bourgeoisie and proletariat... ¿ focusing on how stylistic choices and plot structures offer imaginary resolutions to social and ideological conflicts. Authors will include Austen, Scott, Shelley, Stendhal, Puskin, Balzac, Bronte.
Same as: ENGLISH 230A.

COMPLIT 233. Baroque and Neobaroque. 5 Units.

The literary, cultural, and political implications of the 17th-century phenomenon formed in response to the conditions of the 16th century including humanism, absolutism, and early capitalism, and dispersed through Europe, the Americas, and Asia. If the Baroque is a universal code of this period, how do its vehicles, such as tragic drama, Ciceronian prose, and metaphysical poetry, converse with one another? The neobaroque as a complex reaction to the remains of the baroque in Latin American cultures, with attention to the mode in recent Brazilian literary theory and Mexican poetry.
Same as: ENGLISH 233, SPANLIT 293E.

COMPLIT 240A. Introduction to Hebrew Literature. 3-5 Units.

The influence of biblical poetry, piyut, and medieval Hebrew poetry on the development of Modern Hebrew poetry. With focus on voice, space, lyrical Subjectivity, Intertextuality, and Poetic Forms. Guest Speakers include Tamar Zwei, Susan Einbinder, Berry Saharoff, and Raymond Scheindlin.
Same as: COMPLIT 140, JEWISHST 140.

COMPLIT 241B. Earthly and Heavenly Intoxication: Wine Imagery in Medieval Persian Poetry and Prose. 3-5 Units.

Through a close reading of pre-modern Persian poetic and prose texts, there will be an examination of the centrality of wine imagery in both profane and mystical Persian literature. Students will be exposed to a wide range of texts dating from 900-1400 CE. Intermediate command of Persian is required.

COMPLIT 242A. Short Stories from South Asia. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore how cultural identities of the nations in South Asia were re-defined after the Partition of India in 1947, the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948 and the formation of Bangladesh in 1971. Comparative/cross-cultural study of stories will be taken up for indepth analysis based on certain themes like partition and violence, myth and narrative, gender and narrative, music and narratology, familial patterns, etc.

COMPLIT 245. Introductory Ottoman Turkish. 1-3 Units.

Course is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Aims to familiarize students with Ottoman Turkish script and develop competence in reading Ottoman Turkish texts in print. Selected readings will range from poetry to prose, from newspaper and journal articles to reference works.

COMPLIT 246B. Ottoman Translation Workshop. 1-2 Units.

This course aims to provide students with training in reading printed Ottoman Turkish texts and translating them into English. Through translation we will explore not only syntactical and lexical problems, but also cultural history and politics as they relate to the texts. Open to undergraduate and graduate students. High intermediate or advanced level of modern Turkish and introductory level of Ottoman Turkish is required. Contact Burcu Karahan Richardson (bkarahan@stanford.edu) for more information.

COMPLIT 247. Bollywood and Beyond: An Introduction to Indian Film. 3-5 Units.

This course will enter into a broad engagement with Indian cinema: its relationship with Indian politics, history, and economics; its key thematic concerns and forms; and its adaptation of and response to global cinematic themes, genres, and audiences. We will locate the films we study within key critical and theoretical debates and scholarship on Indian and world cinemas. The class aims to open up what is often seen as a dauntingly complex region for many students, especially for those who are interested in but unfamiliar with it's histories and cultural forms.
Same as: FILMSTUD 250B, ICA 250.

COMPLIT 248A. Reading Turkish I. 3-5 Units.

Designed to develop reading competence in Turkish for graduate students (undergraduates should consult the instructor). An introduction to the structures of Turkish language necessary for reading. Essential grammar, syntax points, vocabulary, and reading skills will be emphasized. The goal is to enable you to read Turkish at an advanced level in a relatively short period of time. It is not a traditional language course that takes an integrated four-skill approach; it focuses only on reading, and as a result we will be able to cover advanced material in a short amount of time.

COMPLIT 248B. Reading Turkish II. 3-5 Units.

Continuation of language and reading development from Reading Turkish I. Open with consent of the instructor to undergraduates who have already taken Reading Turkish I.

COMPLIT 248C. Advanced Turkish for Research. 3-5 Units.

Refining advanced reading skills in modern Turkish through intensive reading and translation. Emphasis on Turkish cultural, historical, literary, and political texts depending on students¿ academic interests. Prior knowledge of Turkish and/or consultation with the instructor is necessary.

COMPLIT 249A. The Iranian Cinema: Image and Meaning. 1-3 Units.

This course will focus on the analysis of ten Iranian films with the view of conducting a discourse on the semiotics of Iranian art and culture. Each session will be designated to the viewing of a film by a prominent Iranian film-maker. Students are expected to prepare for class by having previously examined other available films by the film-maker under consideration.

COMPLIT 249B. Iranian Cinema in Diaspora. 1-3 Units.

Despite enormous obstacles, immigrant Iranian Filmmakers, within a few decades (after the Iranian revolution), have created a slow but steady stream of films outside Iran. They were originally started by individual spontaneous attempts from different corners of the world and by now we can identify common lines of interest amongst them. There are also major differences between them. These films have never been allowed to be screened inside Iran, and without any support from the global system of production and distribution, as independent and individual attempts, they have enjoyed little attention. Despite all this, Iranian cinema in exile is in no sense any less important than Iranian cinema inside Iran. In this course we will view one such film, made outside Iran, in each class meeting and expect to reach a common consensus in identifying the general patterns within these works and this movement. Questions such as the ones listed below will be addressed in our meetings each week: What changes in aesthetics and point of view of the filmmaker are caused by the change in his or her work environment? Though unwantedly these films are made outside Iran, how related are they to the known (recognized) cinema within Iran? And in fact, to what extent do these films express things that are left unsaid by the cinema within Iran?.

COMPLIT 249C. Contemporary Iranian Theater. 1-3 Units.

Today Iranian plays¿both in traditional and contemporary styles¿are staged in theater festivals throughout the world play their role in forming a universal language of theater which combine the heritages from countries in all five continents. Despite many obstacles, some Iranian plays have been translated into English and some prominent Iranian figures are successful stage directors outside Iran. Forty six years ago when ¿Theater in Iran¿ (a monograph on the history of Iranian plays) by Bahram Beyzaie was first published, it put the then contemporary Iranian theater movement--which was altogether westernizing itself blindly --face to face with a new kind of self-awareness. Hence in today¿s generation of playwrights and stage directors in Iran, all know something of their theatrical heritage. In this course we will spend some class sessions on the history of theater in Iran and some class meetings will be concentrating on contemporary movements and present day playwrights. Given the dearth of visual documents, an attempt will be made to present a picture of Iranian theater to the student. Students are expected to read the recommended available translated plays of the contemporary Iranian playwrights and participate in classroom discussions.

COMPLIT 250. Literature, History and Memory. 3-5 Units.

Analysis of literary works as historical narratives. Focus on the relationship history, fiction, and memory as reflected in Francophone literary texts that envision new ways of reconstructing or representing ancient or immediate past. Among questions to be raised: individual memory and collective history, master narratives and alternatives histories, the role of reconstructing history in the shaping or consolidating national or gender identities. Readings include fiction by Glissant, Kane, Condé, Schwarz-Bart, Djebar, Perec, as well as theoretical texts by Ricoeur, de Certeau, Nora, Halbwachs, White, Echevarrîa. Taught in French.
Same as: FRENCH 248.

COMPLIT 254. Modern Chinese Novel: Theory, Aesthetics, History. 4 Units.

From the May Fourth movement to the 40s. Themes include enlightenment, democracy, women's liberation, revolution, war, urban culture, and love. Prerequisite: advanced Chinese.
Same as: CHINLIT 174, CHINLIT 274.

COMPLIT 256A. Dionysus - Mythology and Poetry of a Nietzschean Inspiration. 3-5 Units.

The Greek god Dionysus became, like Apollo, the symbol of poetic imagination. In the modern era he substituted the Apolline tradition, while Apollo assumed the characteristics of Dionysus. We will examine this central poctological motif in texts by authors including Euripides, Keats, Nietzsche, Pound, and Eliot. Open to advanced undergraduates. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 356A, GERMAN 210, GERMAN 310.

COMPLIT 275. Humanities Education in the Changing University. 3 Units.

Advanced study in the humanities faces changes within fields, the university and the wider culture. Considers the debate over the status of the humanities with regard to historical genealogies and current innovations. Particular attention on changes in doctoral education. Topics include: origins of the research university; disciplines and specialization; liberal education in conflict with professionalization; literature and literacy education; interdisciplinarity as a challenge to departments; education policy; digital humanities; accountability in education, assessment and student-centered pedagogies.
Same as: DLCL 320, GERMAN 250.

COMPLIT 281. Visions of the Future in Literature. 4 Units.

Emphasis on personal and collective future as perceived and described in works translated from Hebrew or written originally in English. Focus on novels, short stories, poems and movies that deal both with the future of Israel and the Middle East and the future of individuals in the area. Guest speaker on Science Fiction and the Graphic Novel. The course is part of "The Future of Storytelling" activities organized by Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
Same as: JEWISHST 241.

COMPLIT 303D. Thinking in Fiction. 5 Units.

Narrative and cognition in 18th-century fictional, philosophical, scientific, and cultural texts. Probable readings: Hobbes, Locke, Newton, Swift, Defoe, Hume, Lennox, Sterne, Adam Smith, Wollstonecraft, and Bentham.
Same as: ENGLISH 303D.

COMPLIT 310. Introduction to Comparative Queer Literary Studies. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the comparative literary study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers and their changing social, political, and cultural contexts from the 1890s to today: Wilde, Gide, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Radclyffe Hall, E.M. Forster, Thomas Mann, Georges Bataille, James Baldwin, Jean Genet, Jeanette Winterson, Sarah Waters, Audre Lorde, discussed in the context of 20th-century feminist and queer literary and social theories of gender and sexuality (Judith Butler, Eve Sedgwick, Julia Serano, and others).
Same as: COMPLIT 110, FEMST 110.

COMPLIT 311. Shakespeare, Islam, and Others. 5 Units.

Shakespeare and other early modern writers in relation to new work on Islam and the Ottoman Turk in early modern studies. Othello, Twelfth Night, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, and other Shakespeare plays. Kyd's Solyman and Perseda, Daborne's A Christian Turned Turk, Massinger's The Renegado, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and literary and historical materials.
Same as: ENGLISH 373D.

COMPLIT 311C. German Capstone: Reading Franz Kafka. 3-5 Units.

This class will address major works by Franz Kafka and consider Kafka as a modernist writer whose work reflects on modernity. We will also examine the role of Kafka's themes and poetics in the work of contemporary writers. (Meets Writing-in-the-Major requirement)
Same as: COMPLIT 111, GERMAN 190, GERMAN 390, JEWISHST 147, JEWISHST 349.

COMPLIT 312. Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents. 3-5 Units.

Close reading of Oscar Wilde's work together with major texts and authors of 19th-century French Decadence, including Symbolism, l'art pour l'art, and early Modernism. Points of contact between Wilde and avant-garde Paris salons; provocative, creative intersections between (homo)erotic and aesthetic styles, transgression; literary and cultural developments from Baudelaire to Mallarmé, Huysmans, Flaubert, Rachilde, Lorrain, and Proust compared with Wilde¿s Salomé, Picture of Dorian Gray, and critical writings; relevant historical and philosophical contexts. All readings in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 112, FRENCH 112, FRENCH 312.

COMPLIT 313A. Martin Heidegger. 3-5 Units.

Working through the most systematically important texts by Martin Heidegger and their historical moments and challenges, starting with Being and Time (1927), but emphasizing his philosophical production after World War II. The philological and historical understanding of the texts function as a condition for the laying open of their systematic provocations within our own (early 21st-century) situations. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 213A, GERMAN 282, GERMAN 382.

COMPLIT 320A. Epic and Empire. 5 Units.

Focus is on Virgil's Aeneid and its influence, tracing the European epic tradition (Ariosto, Tasso, Camoes, Spenser, and Milton) to New World discovery and mercantile expansion in the early modern period.
Same as: ENGLISH 314.

COMPLIT 325. Rethinking Comparative Literary Study Outside of Academia. 2 Units.

This graduate seminar will serve three primary purposes: 1) we will create and inspire a dialogue to help us think through the application of comparative literary study in non-academic contexts, 2) we will refine our ideas by applying them in various exercises and settings, and, as a result, 3) we will need to investigate what is meant by the phrase `critical thinking¿. Broadly speaking, this seminar represents a forum for thinking creatively about the unique skills of a doctoral student as well as the specific challenges that await when pursuing career opportunities outside of academia. The goal is to come out of the seminar with a heightened appreciation of the humanities skill set in applications that may present new opportunities for the student. Texts will be highly cross-disciplinary, drawing from legal, financial, and technological traditions and mediums. No pre-requisites required.

COMPLIT 327. Genres of the Novel. 5 Units.

Provides students with an overview of major genres in the history of the modern novel. Novels might include works by Cervantes, Defoe, Lafayette, Radcliffe, Goethe, Balzac, Woolf, and Marquez, coupled with theory by Lukacs, Bahktin, Jameson and Barthes.
Same as: FRENCH 327.

COMPLIT 330. The Bourgeois. 5 Units.

Goal is to define the ruling class of modern times. Social history (Weber, Hirschmann, Marx); literary texts (Defoe, Goethe, Gaskell); and Henrik Ibsen who produced an intransigent criticism of the bourgeois ethos.
Same as: ENGLISH 363.

COMPLIT 333. Gender and Modernism. 3-5 Units.

Gender and sexuality in trans-Atlantic modernist literature and culture from the 1880s-1930s. Topics include the 19th-century culture wars and the figures of the dandy and the New Woman; modernist critiques of Enlightenment rationality; impact of World War I on gender roles; gender and the rise of modern consumer culture, fashion, design; the modernist metropolis and gender/sexuality; the avant-garde and gender; literary first-wave feminism; homoerotic modernism; modernism in the context of current theories of gender and sexuality.
Same as: COMPLIT 133.

COMPLIT 334B. Concepts of Modernity 2: The Study of Culture in the Age of Globalization. 5 Units.

A survey of 20th-century theory with focus on the concept of culture and methods of studying it from diverse disciplines including, anthropology, historical sociology, literary and cultural studies. Discussions will emphasize modernization, transmodernization and globalization processes in their relations to culture broadly understood, cultures in their regional, national and diasporic manifestations, and cultures as internally differentiated (high and low culture, subcultures, media cultures).
Same as: ENGLISH 334B, MTL 334B.

COMPLIT 342. Alla Turca Love: Tales of Romance in Turkish Literature. 3-5 Units.

An introduction to the theme of romantic love in Turkish literature, with particular attention to key classical and contemporary works that influenced the development of the Turkish literary tradition. Topics include close reading and discussion of folk tales, poems, short stories, and plays with particular attention to the characters of lover/beloved, the theme of romantic love, and the cultural and historical background of these elements. We will begin with essential examples of ghazels from Ottoman court poetry to explore the notion of "courtly love" and move to the most influential texts of 19th and 20th centuries. All readings and discussions will be in English; all student levels welcome.
Same as: COMPLIT 143A.

COMPLIT 346. Classical Arabic Poetry: An Introduction. 3-5 Units.

The primary litmus test of proficiency in the Arabic language is, and has always been, a command of classical Arabic poetry. Study and memorize the great lines of Arabic poetry with a manual that has stood the pedagogical test of time from the eleventh century until today. Questions of literary merit, poetic technique, metaphor, and divine and human linguistic innovation are all raised by the text that we will read together. Readings in Arabic, assignments and discussion in English. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 149A.

COMPLIT 347. The Arab Spring in Arabic Literature. 3-5 Units.

An examination of the events of 2011 in the Middle East through literature. We will read short stories, poetry, graphic novels, and blogs in order to try and work out whether the revolution could have been predicted, and how it took place. Prerequisite: two years of Arabic at Stanford, or equivalent.
Same as: COMPLIT 146A.

COMPLIT 351A. Philosophies, Literatures, and Alternatives. 3-5 Units.

Aristotelian poetics and mediaeval Arabic literary theory. Nietzsche's irony and Philosophies and literatures, together and apart, dominate the last two millennia of human thought. How might they best be read? Are philosophy and literature two different ways of thinking, or are they just two separate institutional histories? This course starts with familiar Greeks, moves onto unfamiliar Arabs, confronts old Europe, and ends with contemporary Americans arguing.
Same as: COMPLIT 151A.

COMPLIT 353A. Experiment and the Novel. 5 Units.

A double exploration of experiment in the novel from 1750 into the 19th century. Taking off from Zola's "The Experimental Novel," consideration of the novel's aspect as scientific instrument. Taking the idea of experimental fiction in the usual sense of departures from standard practice, consideration of works that seem to break away from techniques of "realism" devised prior to 1750. Possible texts by: Lennox, Sterne, Walpole, Goldsmith, Godwin, Lewis, Shelley, Hogg, Emily Bronte, and Diderot.
Same as: ENGLISH 303.

COMPLIT 356A. Dionysus - Mythology and Poetry of a Nietzschean Inspiration. 3-5 Units.

The Greek god Dionysus became, like Apollo, the symbol of poetic imagination. In the modern era he substituted the Apolline tradition, while Apollo assumed the characteristics of Dionysus. We will examine this central poctological motif in texts by authors including Euripides, Keats, Nietzsche, Pound, and Eliot. Open to advanced undergraduates. Taught in English.
Same as: COMPLIT 256A, GERMAN 210, GERMAN 310.

COMPLIT 359A. Philosophical Reading Group. 1 Unitss.

Discussion of one contemporary or historical text from the Western philosophical tradition per quarter in a group of faculty and graduate students. For admission of new participants, a conversation with H. U. Gumbrecht is required. May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Same as: FRENCH 395, ITALIAN 395.

COMPLIT 364. Style. 5 Units.

The return of a term that was central in 20th-century criticism, and has all but disappeared in recent decades. Focus ison looking at concepts of style from various branches of linguistic and literary theory, and examination of some revealing examples in novels and films. Team taught with D.A. Miller from U.C. Berkeley.
Same as: ENGLISH 364.

COMPLIT 367. Senior Seminar. 5 Units.

Major terms of narratology; how different literary, cinematic, and popular culture narratives raise ethical issues, stir public debates and contribute to understanding human values. Readings include Biblical texts, Antigone, Kleist, Kafka, Coetzee, V for Vendetta, South Park, Kant, Arendt, Nussbaum, Rorty, and Levinas. Satisfies the capstone seminar requirement for the major tracks in Philosophy and Literature. CL Senior majors only and minors with permission.
Same as: COMPLIT 199, JEWISHST 149, JEWISHST 347.

COMPLIT 368. Imagining the Oceans. 5 Units.

How has Western culture constructed the world's oceans since the beginning of global ocean exploration? How have imaginative visions of the ocean been shaped by marine science, technology, exploration, commerce and leisure? Readings might include voyage accounts by Cook and Darwin, sailors' narratives by Equiano and Dana, poetry by Coleridge, Bishop and Walcott, novels by Melville, Verne, Conrad and Woolf. Visual culture might include paintings by Turner and Redon, and films by Jean Painlevé, Kathryn Bigelow, Jerry Bruckheimer and James Cameron. Critical texts will be drawn from interdisciplinary theorists of modernity and mobility, such as Schmitt, Wallerstein, Corbin, Latour, Deleuze + Guattari, and Cresswell.
Same as: FRENCH 368.

COMPLIT 369. Introduction to Graduate Studies: Criticism as Profession. 5 Units.

A number of faculty will present published work and discuss their research and composition process. We will read critical, theoretical, and literary texts that address, in different ways, "What is a World?" Taught in English.
Same as: DLCL 369, FRENCH 369, GERMAN 369, ITALIAN 369.

COMPLIT 371. Aesthetics, Politics, and Literary Criticism: East and West. 2-5 Units.

How aesthetics and politics intertwine and break apart in Western and Eastern traditions. Aesthetics for understanding culture, morality, and power in crosscultural contexts. Readings include Hegel, Kant, Marcuse, Lukacs, and Adorno; and Chinese thinkers Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Li Zehou, and Mao. Prerequisite: CHINLIT 127/207 or consent of instructor.
Same as: CHINLIT 371.

COMPLIT 396L. Pedagogy Seminar I. 2 Units.

Required for first-year Ph.D students in English, Modern Thought and Literature, and Comparative Literature. Preparation for surviving as teaching assistants in undergraduate literature courses. Focus is on leading discussions and grading papers.
Same as: ENGLISH 396L.

COMPLIT 399. Individual Work. 1-15 Units.

COMPLIT 802. TGR Dissertation. 0 Unit.