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Bulletin Archive

This archived information is dated to the 2008-09 academic year only and may no longer be current.

For currently applicable policies and information, see the current Stanford Bulletin.

Comparative Literature Introductory Courses

In this section:

COMPLIT 10N. Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context

COMPLIT 11Q. Shakespeare, Playing, Gender

COMPLIT 21N. First Person Singular

COMPLIT 41Q. Ethnicity and Literature

COMPLIT 54N. Reading in Common

COMPLIT 61Q. Culture and Conflict in Contemporary Europe

Up one level:

Stanford Introductory Seminars (IDS, ISF, ISS) Courses

COMPLIT 10N. Shakespeare and Performance in a Global Context

(F,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. 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. GER:DB-Hum, EC-Gender

3 units, Spr (Parker, P)

COMPLIT 11Q. Shakespeare, Playing, Gender

(S,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. 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. Topics: transvestism inside and outside the theater, medical and other discussions of sex changes from female to male, hermaphrodites, and fascination with the monstrous. GER:DB-Hum, EC-Gender

3 units, Win (Parker, P)

COMPLIT 21N. First Person Singular

(F,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. How first person narrative has been used across Western literature from antiquity to the present, in works including nonfictional autobiography, records of travel and testimonial, novels, and lyric poetry. Nonfictional readings may include Augustine, Rousseau, Cook, Equiano, and Freud; novels by Montesquieu, Mary Shelley, Conrad, and Levi; and poems by Rimbaud and Rilke. The use of the first-person in online media. GER:DB-Hum

5 units, Spr (Cohen, M)

COMPLIT 41Q. Ethnicity and Literature

(S,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to sophomores. What is meant by ethnic literature? How is ethnic writing different from non-ethnic writing, or is there such a thing as either? How does ethnicity as an analytic perspective affect the way literature is read by ethnic peoples? Articles and works of fiction; films on ethnic literature and cultural politics. How ethnic literature represents the nexus of social, historical, political, and personal issues. GER:DB-Hum, EC-AmerCul

3-5 units, Aut (Palumbo-Liu, D)

COMPLIT 54N. Reading in Common

(F,Sem) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. The personal and social functions of literary narrative. How do works of literature serve as ways for people to communicate with each other? Are fiction readers part of a broad, transhistorical community of readers? How does that membership shape the way authors write their own life stories? Writers include: Ruth Ozeki, Ondaatje, Calvino, and Gordimer.

5 units, Spr (Palumbo-Liu, D)

COMPLIT 61Q. Culture and Conflict in Contemporary Europe

(S,Sem) (Same as GERGEN 61Q.) Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to sophomores. Transformation of European culture and identity in the wake of the Cold War, European unification, and the post 9/11 environment. Pressures on transatlantic relationships; anti-Americanism; tensions around national cultural identity due to regional integration and globalization; immigration and the European experience of multiculturalism; and flashpoints of conflict concerning religion, secularization, and antisemitism.

3-5 units, Spr (Berman, R)

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