Comparative Literature (COML)

COML 221     Great Books I: Ancient World     3 Credit Hours

Introduction to masterpieces of Western world literature from the ancient world. Readings include the Bible, Iliad, Odyssey, Greek drama, and Roman authors. (YR).

COML 222     Great Books II     3 Credit Hours

Introduction to masterpieces of Western world literature from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Readings include Dante, Chaucer, Wolfram, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Moliere, and Racine. (YR).

COML 223     Great Books III: Modern Era     3 Credit Hours

Introduction to masterpieces of Western world literature from the Modern Era. Readings include Swift, Voltaire, Rousseau, English romantic poets, fiction and drama of the 19th and 20th century. (YR).

COML 301     Literary Criticism     4 Credit Hours

This course introduces literary criticism and theory from Aristotle to the present, focusing on the changing concept of literature's nature and function. Lectures, readings, and discussion cover such critics as Aristotle, Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Arnold, T. E. Hulme, I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, and such movements as New Criticism, Phenomenology, Reader-Response, Archetypal Criticism, psychological approaches to literature, New Historicism, Marxism, Feminism, and Deconstruction. This course is a Project Based Learning centered on a major project and/or on a research question related to the topic of the class and will imply hands-on work for a good portion of the semester. The project can be local or international community-driven and will connect to real-life experiences. (OC).

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239)

COML 302     Arabic and Comparative Literature in English     4 Credit Hours

This course examines the intersectionality of Arabic literature and world literature in a comparative context. Students study Arabic literary works and compare them to works in the European and other literary traditions. The comparative analyses highlight similarities and differences among cultures, literary styles, and themes, that at once unite and diversify the human condition. The course places Arabic literature as a significant contributor to world literature and culture. Classes are conducted in English. Students who wish for this course to count for language credit can do the required writing in Arabic. This course is a Project Based Learning centered on a major project and/or on a research question related to the topic of the class and will imply hands-on work for a good portion of the semester. The project can be local or international community-driven and will connect to real-life experiences. (F, W, S, OC).

COML 303     The Arabic Novel and Short Story in Translation     4 Credit Hours

This course examines the robust tradition of Arabic fiction, offering examples of short stories, novellas, and novels. The course is designed for non-speakers of Arabic as all the texts are translated in English. The survey of narratives relies on three considerations. First, the analysis that the novels lend themselves to, including narrative strategies, feminism, psychoanalysis and postcolonialism. Second, the novels cover some of the recurrent themes of Arabic fiction, such as war, memory, class struggle, migration, and childhood. Third, the novels and short fiction writers represent the national and cultural diversity of the region, ranging from Morocco, to Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq, and Yemen. Classes are conducted in English. Students who wish for this course to count for language credit can do the required writing in Arabic. This course adopts the project-based learning approach and a relevant final project enables students to practically apply the comparative, analytical, and creative skills they learn in this class. (F, W, S, OC).

COML 340     Modern European Short Fiction     3 Credit Hours

A careful reading of between 10 and 15 short novels (in English translation) with particular attention being paid to the manner in which their plots and characters express contemporary cultural issues. Such works as Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and Unamuno's Abel Sanchez will be included.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200

COML 341     Mod Eur Poetry in Translation     3 Credit Hours

Movements and genres of modern European poetry, from the Symbolists to the present. Included will be such poets as D'Annunzio, Cavafy, Rilke, Blok, Mayakovsky, Valery, Eluard, Pavese, Seferis, Akhmatova, Mandestram, Marinetti, Trakl, Mistrale, Vallejo, Morgenstern, Apollinaire, Loren, Transtromer, Brodsky, Milosz, and others in translation. (OC).

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 231

COML 344     Modern Literature: the Novel     3 Credit Hours

A careful examination of five or six significant modern novels in translation, with particular emphasis on their influence on the development of the novel, and their reflection of contemporary cultural issues. The works of such authors as Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gide, Joyce, and Mann will be included.

COML 347     Clas Lit in Engl Translation     3 Credit Hours

A study of masterworks of ancient Greek and Roman literature with special attention to the development of epic, tragedy, comedy, and lyric poetry. Authors studied will include Homer, Virgil, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Terence, and Plautus.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239 or ENGL 200

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Junior

COML 355     Urban Voices: France and Italy     3 Credit Hours

This course is an interdisciplinary approach to the concepts of urban development and literary, visual and cultural responses to the process of urbanization mainly in Rome and Paris. The readings will illustrate how the city shaped the writers' creativity, as well as how their works interpret urbanization.

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Class is Freshman

COML 375     The Hero in Literature     3 Credit Hours

Reflections on myth, history, and literature, based on analyses of literary texts. The individual hero may change from term to term. The course, for example, might center on the transition from Faust to anti-Faust. In this instance, some of the writers or works might include: The Faustbook, Marlow's Doctor Faustus, Goethe's Faust, Byron's Manfred, a Faust opera, Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus, Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. All reading in English translation. (OC).

COML 390     Topics in Comparative Lit     3 Credit Hours

Examination of problems and issues in selected areas of comparative literature. Title as listed in Schedule of Classes will change according to content. Course may be repeated for credit when specific topics differ. (OC).

COML 399     Independent Studies     1 to 3 Credit Hours

Readings or analytical assignments in Comparative Literature in accordance with the needs and interests of those enrolled and agreed upon by the student and instructor.

COML 404     Medieval Mystical Writers     3 Credit Hours

A study of the genre of mystical writing as it was developed and practiced throughout the Middle Ages and in 14th century England particularly. Attention will be given to the historical, religious, and cultural contexts that enabled and were created by mystical texts. In addition, the course will explore how traditional and contemporary trends in the fields of religious and literary studies can be brought to bear on the genre of mystical writing. (OC)

Prerequisite(s): (COMP 106 or COMP 220 or COMP 270 or COMP 280 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 40 or Composition Placement Score with a score of 107) and (ENGL 200 or ENGL 230 or ENGL 231 or ENGL 232 or ENGL 233 or ENGL 235 or ENGL 236 or ENGL 237 or ENGL 239)

COML 433     Writing Women in Renaissance     3 Credit Hours

This course will be taught in English, and will focus on the influence of Italian literary models for the construction of female literary types as well as female voices in France and Italy from 1300 to about 1600. Italian authors studied include three very influential Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, as well as Castiglione and Ariosto. We will read women poets, patrons, prostitutes and queens from Italy and France such as Veronica Gambara, Isabella di Morra, Vittoria Colonna, Christine de Pizan, Louise Labe, and Marguerite de Navarre. At last issue will be women's roles and women's images in city and court culture during the early modern period, and the interaction of their writings with the literary canons of Italy and France. (OC).

Restriction(s):
Can enroll if Level is Undergraduate

COML 455     This American Life     3 Credit Hours

The course "This American Life: Immigrant Literature and the American Dream" is a literary and cultural analysis of the literature of immigration. The readings are from works of fiction in a variety of genres, and are written by American and non-American prize-winning authors. Their common denominator is the pursuit of the American Dream and its many multifaceted aspects. The themes explored include: assimilation, acculturation, diversity, language, subculture, intertextuality, nostalgia, belonging, and double identity. Student wishing to take this course for graduate credit should sign up for COML 555. Students cannot receive credit for both COML 455 and COML 555.

Restriction(s):
Cannot enroll if Class is Freshman or Graduate