Same as L03 East Asia 115, L05 Japan 115. An introduction to some of the ideas and practices of literary studies at the end of the 20th century. We will read literature from many parts of the world and explore issues in literary studies including questions of epistemology and representation, the cultural biases of readers, semiotics, translation theory, and Orientalism. Plays, novels, and poems by Euripides, Vergil, Racine, Rilke, Henry James, Borges, Mellah, and Murakami, and closely related short excerpts by theorists from Aristotle to Bhabha. Required for majors and recommended for prospective majors and other interested students.
Freshmen are welcome.
There are no prerequisites, although excellent reading skills and curiosity about literature as a professional discipline will be useful. Four medium-length essays and several projects, some creative. Credit 3 units. This course explores how European avant-garde writers believed destructive acts could displace their forerunners, clear a space for their own aesthetics, and promote new ways of experiencing the world, all in the name of liberation and progress. We will consider how Italian Futurism and subsequent avant-garde movements like Expressionism, DADA, and surrealism translated their fascination with real violence into radical experiments with literary form.