LIT 295 - Special Topics in Literature in Translation

FDR: HL
Credits: 3 credits in Fall or Winter; 4 credits in Spring
Planned Offering: Offered when interest is expressed and departmental resources permit.

Prerequisites: Completion of FW requirement. A selected topic focusing on a particular author, genre, motif or period in translation. The specific topic is determined by the interests of the individual instructor. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.

Spring 2015 topics:

LIT 295-01: Switzerland’s Postwar Literary Masters: Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. Novels, short stories, dramas and essays from Switzerland’s two greatest postwar authors—works that were both a source of national pride and also often embarrassment for the Swiss Confederation. Frisch and Dürrenmatt were their nation’s staunch supporters and tireless critics, a paradox formed from the attitudes toward the elusive concept of patriotism that these friends and literary rivals held. Distrust of ideology, loss of identity, the nature of justice and honor, culpability for the Holocaust and communal responsibility for society’s ills are shared concerns and are topics for reflection and analysis in the course. (HL) Crockett.

LIT 295-03: Celluloid Carmens (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. Study of a major archetype of Western culture, the mythical character Carmen, from the short story by Prosper Mérimée (1845) to her reincarnations on the Opera stage (Bizet’s Carmen, 1875). and on screen (74 versions according to the 2002 University of Newcastle’s Carmen project). Students investigate international screen representations of Carmen from silent movies to today and use them to construct a database. Though no knowledge of French is required, speakers of foreign languages are welcome. During our research, we may need to work on primary sources in various languages. (HL) Frégnac-Clave. Spring 2015

Winter 2015 topic:

LIT 295-01: Theater, Women and Sexuality in the Renaissance and Beyond (3). Prerequisites: Completion of FW requirement. An exploration of the role of women theater artists and representations of femininity and sexuality in early modern theater across European cultures such as France, Italy, Spain and England. We explore plays and performance art by women theater artists during Renaissance Europe, such as Isabella Andreini, as well as images of femininity in Renaissance plays by male playwrights such as Niccolò Machiavelli and their echos and influences in the theater of later centuries. All texts are read in English translations. (HL) Radulescu. Winter 2015

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