SPRING 2016
WORLD LITERATURE
ENGL2199 Introduction to Caribbean Writers (Spring:3.0)
Satisfies core requirement for: Cultural Diversity.
The Caribbean, merely viewed through the lens of colonial history, often does not reflect the diversity
and complexity of the region. From a colonial perspective, therefore, the Caribbean is both "known" and
"unknown." Our work for this course compares and contrasts versions of the region by examining
colonial histories and current literary traditions. We will pay particular attention to the ways
oppositional cultures and identifies manifest in Caribbean literature. Themes of this course include:
colonialism, History/histories, gender, geography ation, sexuality, class, and culture. Varied texts and
media will assist in our interpretations of the Caribbean and its diaspora.
Rhonda Frederick
SLAV3176 Russian Literary Forms (Spring:3.0)
Cross Listed with: ENGL2223
This course will use the prism of literary form to explore some of the achievements of Russian literature.
Poetry, drama, the novel, and the short story will be our examples. Pushkin, Lermontov, Mandelshtam,
Brodsky, and Elena Shvarts in poetry; novels by Turgenev and Venedikt Yerofeev; short fiction from
Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Kharms, Bunin, and Tolstaya; dramas by Chekhov, Bulgakov, and
Petrushevskaia in theatre. The course will combine lectures outlining the history of literary forms in
Russia and discussions of the assigned readings.
Thomas Epstein
SLAV2173 Twentieth-Century Russian Literature (in translation) (Spring:3.0)
Cross Listed with: ENGL2228
Readings and lectures in English. Undergraduate major elective. Russian major requirement.
Study of major landmarks of Russian literature in light of Russia's turbulent history in the twentieth
century. Works by Akhmatova, Babel, Belyi, Berberova, Bunin, Venedikt Erofeev, Gladkov, Olesha,
Platonov, Solzhenitsyn, Trifonov, and others.
Cynthia Simmons, Maxim D. Shrayer
RLRL2292 Modern Middle Eastern and Arabic Literature (Spring:3.0)
Cross Listed with: ENGL2348, NELC2161
All works are read in English translation.
This course examines the complex, multicultural nature of the Middle East by surveying twentieth
century literature of Arabic-speaking lands, Israel, and Turkey. Topics include identity, culture, religion,
nationalism, conflict, and minority narratives. Of Arabic works, we will read at the writings of Adonis,
Darwish, and Qabbani. Of Hebrew works, we will examine the writings of Amichai and Bialik. Of the
works written French, English, Kurdish, Syriac, Turkish, and various Middle Eastern dialects, we will
survey the writings of Andree Chedid, Mario Levi, Charles Corm, Louis Awad, Said Akl, and Orhan Pamuk.
Franck Salameh
ENGL3336 Novels of the World (Spring:3.0)
Focus on contemporary novels by authors from various places across the globe. We will explore the
ideas, narrative structures, and styles of writers such as Mahfouz (Egypt), Kundera (former
Czechoslovakia), Sebald (Germany), Pamuk (Turkey), Hosseini (Afghanistan), Tahar Ben Jelloun
(Morocco), and Coetzee (South Africa). Through close reading, we will examine the aesthetic dimension
of each novel, comparing the books as we proceed. We will also be attuned to their political, social, and
historical dimensions. With as much sensitivity as possible, we will address questions of cultural
difference. Relevant post-colonial and psychoanalytic theory will also be included.
Frances Restuccia