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 with permission and if the topics are different.

Topics for Spring 2012:

LIT 295-01: The Human Rights Question in African Literature in Translation (4). Prerequisite: Completion of the FDR FW requirement. This course examines the formulation of notions of human rights in Africa from the days of African empires, through the slave trade, colonization, the cold war, and civil wars to the recent genocide in Rwanda and today’s wrangling over the benefits and deficits of immigration and globalization. Comparison of African and Western concepts of human rights, especially through the analysis and discussion of literary texts and films. (HL) Kamara.

LIT 295-02: Coming to Terms with the Past: German Literary Reflections on the Nazi Era (4). Prerequisite: Completion of the FDR FW requirement. A half-century of attempts by German-speaking authors to come to terms with the horrors and crimes of the Nazi era, 1933-1945. Against the historical background of the dictatorship, the war, the Shoah, the destruction and postwar deprivations, students read representative novels, dramas, and poetry of three generations of writers and write frequently. Films viewed outside of class supplement the readings. Daily readings from primary sources vary from about 100 to 150 pages. Students are required to write 20-25 pages during the courses, including two short response papers to be presented in class as the basis for a class discussion led by the students. (HL) Crockett.

Topic for Winter 2012:

Literature in Translation 295-01: Living by the Code: Honor in Love and War in the Literature of the High Middle Ages (3). This course focuses on the ways in which representative works of the period (1100 - 1250) construct and critique codes of honor and courtly conduct, notions of the heroic ideal, of chivalry, courtly love and the courtly lady, and the quest for salvation. We read masterpieces of medieval literature from the predominant genres of the era: the heroic epic (Nibelungenlied), troubadour and Minnesang lyric, the tales of Marie de France, the Arthurian romance (Chretien de Troyes), and Gottfried’s Tristan. (HL) Prager.