Comparative Literature Catalogue of Courses

• COLT 101gp Masterpieces and Masterminds: Literature and Thought (4 units)

  A broad introduction to the great works of Western culture from antiquity to 1800. 

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Global Perspective in Category H: Traditions and Historical Foundations; 

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category I: Western Cultures and Traditions

• COLT 102g On Location: The Place of Literature in Global Cultures (4 units)

  Comparative study of works from a broad range of cultural traditions that originate from, and provide insight into, vital global locations outside the Western sphere.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category II: Global Cultures and Traditions

• COLT 250g Cultures of Latin America (4 units)

  Comparative study of Latin American cultures, especially vis-a-vis those of Europe and the U.S. Materials drawn from literature, but also film, opera, history, cultural theory.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category II: Global Cultures and Traditions

   

• COLT 251g Modern Literature and Thought of the West Since 1800 (4 units)

  Survey of literary and other cultural texts from the 19th to the 21st centuries, with emphasis on the individual and social change.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category I: Western Cultures and Traditions;

  Duplicates Credit in former COLT 151x.

• COLT 255gw Southeast Asian Literature and Film (4 units)

  (Enroll in EALC 255gw)

• COLT 264gp Asian Aesthetic and Literary Traditions (4 units)

  A comparative study of the Asian aesthetic heritage of poetry, painting, music, and drama; of literary themes, trends, and myths.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Global Perspective in Category H: Traditions and Historical Foundations;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category II: Global Cultures and Traditions

• COLT 302 Introduction to Literary Theory (4 units)

  Introduction to general forms of reflection on literary discourse.  Required for COLT major and minor.

   

• COLT 303 Globalization: Culture, Change, Resistance (4 units)

  Cultural dimensions of issues in globalization: migration, diaspora, terrorism, communications, climate change, collectives, production and technology, money and exchange. Required for COLT major and minor.

   

• COLT 311 Epic (4 units)

  Formation and development of epic poetry from Near Eastern and Greco-Roman antiquity through the Renaissance to the present. Emphasis on relation to political and cultural change.

   

• COLT 312 Heroes, Myths and Legends in Literature and the Arts (4 units)

  Study of transformations of characters and themes from myth, legend or fairytale (Oedipus, Antigone, Faust, Don Juan, Cinderella, Comic and Tragic Twins, Hero and Monster).

• COLT 324 Women in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (4 units)

  Study of literary, social and cultural lives of women during the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. Reading and analysis of texts written by and about women.

• COLT 335 Decadence and Modernity (4 units)

  Study of the notion of “decadence” and its impact on modern and contemporary literary/cultural production, with a comparatist focus on different linguistic traditions.

• COLT 345 Realist Fiction (4 units)

  Study of the ways literature presents the “real” (social and/or individual) through readings of selected novels and short stories in the realist and naturalist traditions.

• COLT 346 Fictions of the First Person (4 units)

  Study of prose fiction in the first person as a model of fiction in general and as a reflection of the fictional structure of selfhood.

• COLT 347g Modern Arab Culture and Literature (4 units)

  (Enroll in MDES 343g)

• COLT 348 Modernist Fiction (4 units)

  Study of the Modernist aesthetic in narrative texts by Gide, Joyce, Kafka, Woolf and others; possible focus on related trends in other literary traditions.

• COLT 351 Modern and Contemporary Drama (4 units)

  Comparative study of major modern dramatic trends, subgenres, and techniques, through representative works from Strindberg to the Theatre of the Grotesque and the Absurd.

• COLT 354 Revolutions in Theater (4 units)

  Comparative study of groundbreaking contributions to modern theories of theater and performance in the context of other 20th century revolutions — aesthetic, cultural, and social.

• COLT 357 The Avant-Garde (4-8 units)

  Study of the relationship between literary modes and other arts since 1900, focusing on particular avant-garde movements.

• COLT 365 Literature and Popular Culture (4 units)

  Study of mass-reproduced verbal and visual art forms, such as graphic novels, comics, animation, popular music, video, graffiti, advertising.

• COLT 370 Leaders and Communities: Classical Models (4 units)

  (Enroll in CLAS 370)

• COLT 373 Literature and Film (4 units)

  Examines literature and film as distinct modes of representation, narration, and structuring of time, language, memory, and visuality.

• COLT 374gm Women Writers in Europe and America (4 units)

  Introduction to works of major women writers from the Middle Ages to the 20th century in their literary, social, and cultural contexts.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category I: Western Cultures and Traditions

• COLT 375 Latin American Cultural and Literary Theory (4 units)

  Survey of cultural critique focused on Latin America as a cultural region and on Latin Americanism as a transnational academic practice.

• COLT 377 Literature, Theory, Gender (4 units)

  Literary representations and theories of gender difference. - Examines questions of gendered voice in writing and the cultural construction of gender in various periods and cultures.

• COLT 379 Nationalism and Postcolonialism in Southeast Asian Cinema (4 units)

  Cinema from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in local and global cultural contexts.

• COLT 381 Psychoanalysis and the Arts (4 units)

  Introduction to psychoanalytic literature on the arts, including classic texts by Freud, Jones, Lacan, Derrida, and others. Readings of theoretical and fictional works.

• COLT 382gw Zen and Taoism in Asian Literature (4 units)

  Studies of the presence and influence of Zen Buddhism and Taoism in Asian literature, with a focus on China and Japan.

  Satisfies New General Education in Category B: Humanistic Inquiry;

  Satisfies Global Perspective in Category G: Citizenship in a Diverse World;

  Satisfies Old General Education in Category II: Global Cultures and Traditions

• COLT 385 Literature and Justice (4 units)

  Examination of literary and autobiographical texts that raise questions of justice in multicultural societies; links to theories of justice in historical, political, or philosophical contexts.

• COLT 390 Special Problems (1-4 units)

  Supervised, individual studies. No more than one registration permitted. Enrollment by petition only.

• COLT 391 Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism (4 units)

  Survey of major texts in the literary criticism of the West from the Greeks to postmodern theories.

• COLT 393 Seminar in French Thought and Theory (4- 8 units)

  (Enroll in FREN 393)

• COLT 420 The Fantastic (4 units)

  Representative works from the “fantastic” and related currents within the European, U.S., and Spanish American traditions; reading of texts by authors such as Borges, Cortazar, Kafka, and Poe. Discussion of relevant theoretical concepts and critical works.

• COLT 426 Utopias (4 units)

  Examination of selected utopias in their historical context as “no places” whose projections of alternate cultures always comment on their own.

• COLT 435 Poetry and Poetics of the Everyday (4 units)

  Relations between poetry of the dominant tradition in various languages and vernacular forms of poetry, such as riddles, nursery rhymes, ballads, and poems in dialect or slang.

• COLT 437 Arabic Autobiography: Writing and Interpreting the Self (4 units)

  Exploration of twentieth-century Arabic autobiographical writings and interrogation of the complex ways by which such works unsettle fundamental assumptions of literary history and modernity.

• COLT 445 Europe and the Writing of Others (4 units)

  Analysis of European texts — literary, musical, philosophical, visual — that focus on other cultures, as well as of non-European texts dealing with Europe or - European cultural forms.

• COLT 447 Traveling Genres: Politics/Poetics of Modern Arabic Prose (4 units)

  Introduction to nineteenth-century Arabic travel-writing and investigation of its role in the reconfiguration of the Arabic tradition at the interface of aesthetics and politics.

• COLT 448 Multilingual Encounters (4 units)

  Exploration of multilingual encounters in literary works, films, and theoretical texts. Topics may include immigrant languages, dialects, jargons, imaginary or hybrid languages, theories of translation.

• COLT 449g Dante (4 units)

  (Enroll in ITAL 382g)

• COLT 451 Opera and Cultural Theory (4 units)

  Study of the words and plots of operas from the viewpoint of gender, postcolonial, and psychoanalytical theory. Special attention to contemporary stagings and film versions.

• COLT 452 Representation and Cognition in Photography (4 units)

  Analysis of documentary photo- - representation in its historical context through study of the work of selected 20th century documentary photographers and of pertinent critical writings.

• COLT 453 Bildungsroman in Modern East Asia (4 units)

  (Enroll in EALC 454)

• COLT 454 Aesthetic Philosophy and Theory (4 units)

  Introduction to philosophical and critical writings on the nature of art and aesthetic experience. Special attention to technology’s impact on art.

• COLT 460 Love, Self and Gender in Japanese Literature (4 units)

  (Enroll in EALC 460)

• COLT 462 Soundtracks of Our Lives (4 units)

  The reciprocal, ideological relations between modes of listening, sounds, music; and literature, film, culture. Examines a range of issues in auditory culture across a broad historical span.

• COLT 470 Literature and Media in Latin America (4 units)

  Study of the relations between Latin American literature and different mass-media genres.
  
  

• COLT 471 Literature, Theory, History (4 units)

  Examines the relation between historical and theoretical approaches to literary works.

• COLT 472 Los Angeles Crime Fiction (4 units)

  The noir tradition in books and films set in Los Angeles. Emphasis on generic conventions, representations of the city, and discourses of class, gender, race.

• COLT 474 Desire, Literature, Technology (4 units)

  Relations between technology, desire, power and literature through contemporary philosophers, theorists and literary critics. Examines literature and philosophy in relation to global technological planning.

• COLT 475 Politics and the Novel (4 units)

  Examination of the modern realist novel with special focus on the representation of social change (revolution, class conflict, sexual politics).

• COLT 476 Narrative and the Law (4 units)

  Study of the relationship between law and narrative through Western literature, including the realist novel, medieval morality plays and Greek drama.

• COLT 478 Family in Theory and Literature (4 units)

  Representations of the family in literary works and films across different cultures and historical periods. Readings in anthropology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and feminist and gender theory.

• COLT 480 Dada and Surrealism (4 units)

  A comparative study of Dada and Surrealism in literature in relation to painting, sculpture, photography and cinema.

• COLT 485 The Shoah (Holocaust) in Literature and the Arts (4 units)

  A critical analysis, in their historical contexts, of representative literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works created by or about the victims of the Shoah (Holocaust).

• COLT 486 Deconstructive Thought (4 units)

  Deconstructive analysis of theories of language, representation, selfhood, the human, art and technology, politics and ethics. Study of works by Derrida and others.

• COLT 487 Critical Image (4 units)

  Introduction to critical reflection on the image. Analysis of criticism, fiction, film, and visual artifacts.

• COLT 490x Directed Research (1-12 units)

  Individual research and readings. Not available for graduate credit. Prerequisite: departmental approval.

  
  
  

• COLT 495 Senior Honors Thesis (4 units)

  Writing of an honors thesis under individual faculty supervision.

• COLT 499 Special Topics (2-8 units)

  Intensive study of selected author or authors in the context of a major literary tradition.