This course will examine representations of “unruly” women in contemporary Latina/x literary and cultural production. We will consider how, for example, familial relations, traditions, and the performance of gender identities inform Latina womanhood and, thus, Latina girlhood. We will analyze how representations of transgressive Latinas/x disrupt identities and identifications. The purpose of the class is to examine a multitude of Latina/x voices and perspectives that illuminate the heterogeneity of Latinidad or “being Latinx.” Reading may include novels, short stories, poetry, as well as visual and aural texts. 

LTAM 105 The Americas

In this course, we delve into laborers’ voices in contemporary Chinese literature in their original language. The readings include contemporary stories of socialist labor, narratives of migrant workers in post-socialist China, as well as poems and essays authored by contemporary Chinese migrant workers themselves. From the distinctive perspectives of laborers (or ex-laborers), these works embody the dreams of vanishing utopias, provide social commentaries and advocacy, and abound with the laborers’ unique humanistic concerns, sensibilities, and artistic expressions. In the face of today’s overstimulation of consumerism and the atrophy of social life, these voices of labor serve as a lens through which we can understand a different culture, obtain a new view of history, and possibly imagine an alternative future.  

LTCH 101 Chinese

LTCH 101 Asia

The course focuses on the explosion of horror, thriller, and suspense movies across Asia in the new millennium. Our investigation of this wildly popular genre will be framed by the politics of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and national identity. Case studies will include productions from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. Students willl learn foundational skills in formal film analysis.

The course looks at the relationship between love and time in contemporary romantic comedies. It examines rom-com relationships that follow traditional life courses and those that reject romantic chronology altogether. Films may include How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, 50 First Dates, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, I Give It A Year, and Weekend. Students will learn foundational skills in film analysis.

We will read poems by modern Chinese and Sinophone writers to consider the ways in which these poets negotiate with Chinese cultural poetics and new Asian or Western literary expressions.

Fulfills the following requirements: GE or advanced Chinese.

LTEA 110B Asia

In this course, we will view Chinese films covering a wide range of historical periods and subjects. The films screened in this class will be studied as reflections of their respective social realities, as well as the filmmakers’ comments on and interventions in such realities. In addition, we will study these Chinese films within the general cinematic tradition and analyze them as examples of an art form with its own unique language. We will familiarize ourselves with cinematic concepts, techniques, and film theories and try to use them to “read” those Chinese films like experts. The goal of this course is threefold: to equip students with a basic knowledge of the rich body of Chinese films, to explore Chinese history and culture as reflected through these films, and to analyze Chinese cinema as an aesthetic form and a social practice. 

LTEA 120A

LTEA 120A Asia

This course serves as an introduction to the various aspects of Hong Kong cinema, one of the largest and most dynamic film industries in the world. We study the history and development of Hong Kong cinema, its stylistic features, diverse genres (martial arts, action, comedy, ghost story, historical epic, and melodrama), major themes, and the emergence and characteristics of the New Wave. We pay attention to internationally acclaimed directors (John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Stanley Kwan, Wong Kar-wai, and Peter Chan) and stars (Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and many others). The course also explores dimensions of Hong Kong’s film industry, its local, regional, and international markets and audiences, patterns of transnational collaborations, and the global influence of Hong cinema.

LTEA 120C

LTEA 120C Asia

This course surveys literature written in Japanese from the late 19^th into the 21^st centuries. Rather than looking at works written in Japanese as “Japanese literature,” our course uses the term “Japanophone” to highlight how modern literary fiction written in Japanese is shaped by and shapes histories of colonialism, empire-building, nationalism, and racism in East Asia. In this class, while we will explore some canonical voices in modern Japan, including Edogawa Ranpo and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, we will also examine authors who have a complicated relationship to the national category of “Japanese,” including works by Zainichi authors like Yū Miri and Kim Saryang, and Okinawan writers such as Medoruma Shun and Sakiyama Tami.

LTEA 132 Asia

Multiethnic Korea. This course examines South Korean history from 1945 to the present through a comparative examination of literary works, films, media and popular culture. We will focus on three larger issues: 1) globalization 2) multiethnicization and multiculturalism 3) intersectionality of race and gender/sexuality.  Some of the questions we will explore include the following: 1) how do we conceptualize South Korean history transnationally as part of the intensifying globalization process in the post-1945 era? 2) how do we relate the ongoing globalization processes to the contemporary multiethnicization and multiculturalization of South Korea? 3) how are multiethnicization and multiculturalism being managed by the state and the mainstream media in Korea? 4) how does Korean and Asian popular culture help shape the regional globalization process in Asia? 5) how do various contemporary media and communication technologies contribute to the formation of new national, regional and globalized identities? 6) how do ethnic Korean authors and filmmakers represent the ethnic minority populations in their work? 7) how do non-ethnic Korean, biracial/multiracial, and immigrant/migrant authors/filmmakers represent the history of multiethnic Korea differently? 

LTEA 141 Asia

This course will examine how British literature worked through the impact of economic change, urbanization, mass-war, imperialism and globalization, and the many movements for democracy and equality that characterized the past two centuries.  We will examine how the optimism of industrial development was tempered by both a nostalgia for a rural, aristocratic order and working-class upheaval how women fought for visibility in politics and culture (including literature) an how Britain both fortified its position as a global power and was confronted by anti-imperial rebellion and the voices of postcolonial authors.   Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to changes in literary form and the complex interaction between cultural production and historical conditions.

How do we approach the idea of Asia and Asians, even "Asian-ness," in the US? Most of us can point to the continent of "Asia" on the map. Most of us, too, feel even comfortable being able to identify a person of "Asian" descent. And yet, if we pause to reflect on the solidity of these concepts and ideas, we quickly realize how relative and shifting they are. This introductory class studies literary and cultural works by writers, artists, and performers who identified as Asian American, and who staked this identity as the point of entry for reflecting on the fictions, narratives, tales, myths and legends that construct our idea(s) of Asia, Asians and finally, America. Beyond a mere recounting of how Asians "over there" ended up "over here," or even how their descendants deal with their family's past and present, this course examines how literature and culture serve as techniques for promoting, dismantling, reorienting, or transgressing the networks of knowledge and power in US society through redefinitions and questionings of the self, the community, and the outside. 

The Renaissance was a great cultural flowering and “rebirth” in Europe: Michelangelo adorned the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Albrecht Dürer produced his great engravings, Michel de Montaigne penned his essays, and Shakespeare wrote poetry and plays. But it was also the time when European colonizers began, after Columbus' voyage of 1492, to build plantations and empires in the Western hemisphere and beyond. The Spanish empire in the Americas took hold, Cortez conquered Mexico, and Magellan led the first circumnavigation of the globe. As the Europeans reached out to the rest of the world to trade and to expand their empires, fascinating stories about these early encounters between Europeans and others began to circulate.  Each journey produced new tales, and new forms of travel literature proliferated. Students will embark on a journey of their own to explore these tales about travel to faraway lands, including stories about “first contact” between Europeans and other peoples.  In this course, we will pursue the premise that the Renaissance was not only a European phenomenon but was, in some sense, a “global” process of cross-cultural exchange, mixture, conflict, and dispossession. We will look at Renaissance texts from a global perspective, tracing a cultural history of travel, exploration, knowledge-gathering, trade, conquest, piracy, and slavery from the end of the fifteenth century into the 1600s. Students will address questions of cultural, racial and religious difference, with reference to journeys and encounters that were recorded during the early modern period—and to indigenous accounts of these events.

LTEN 110

This course will focus on the works of Virginia Woolf.  One of the most celebrated modernist writers, Woolf’s experimental writing explored themes of memory, intimacy, and relation.  We will examine how Woolf’s novels and non-fiction interrogated and challenged traditionalist understandings of gender and sexuality from a feminist lens, how her writing expresses a critical perspective on the fragmentation of modern society, and how she grappled with Britain’s class structure and its position as global imperial power.  We will also study how Woolf reimagined the novel in English as centrally concerned with subjectivity and interiority, but in a way that brought into play and questioned the role and impact of history on the experiences of everyday life.

Please contact instructor for course description.

LTEN 180 The Americas

Please contact instructor for course description.

Literary realism is a relative term, given that all literature consists of arbitrary signs that can only gesture toward external reality. That being said, some literature seems more realistic than its romantic or modernist counterparts. The nineteenth century is generally considered the heyday of European realism, with French writers leading the way. In this course we will read major works by mainly French authors, although we will also read one German novel. These will include Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet (1833), Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1857) and “A Simple Heart” (1877), Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (1867) and Germinal (1884-85), and Fontane’s Effi Briest (1895). Most of these texts have female protagonists, although all were written by male authors, which should be the basis for some interesting discussions.

All works will be available in English translation, but students are welcome to read them in the French or German original if they can. Nineteenth-century novels are long some, like Germinal, are very long. We live in the age of distraction, with our attention scattered by sound bites and jump cuts. These novels provide us with the opportunity for slow reading and deep concentration. If you are willing to invest the time and energy, they will prove engrossing, disturbing, and rewarding.

LTEU 111 Europe

One interesting common element in the best-known works of Italian children's literature is the "fear factor," an overwhelming unsettling atmosphere that pervades works which include folk tales and novels like Pinocchio, Cuore and The Beach at Night.  In this course we will read and discuss some of these works, and more, and also talk about the cultural elements who have turned Pinocchio (a rather dark and violent novel) into the "happy" Disney version most American kids know (Spoiler:  Pinocchio kills the cricket!).  

2 quizzes and a final project.

LTEU 140 The Mediterranean

LTEU 140 Europe

The course will be divided into two distinct parts to study the novel Dangerous Liaisons (1782), the well-known eighteenth-century epistolary text by Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803), and to vet thereafter the film adaptations and interpretations that various filmmakers have proposed.

a. During the first four weeks of the course, several letters from the novel will be closely examined, so as to apprehend the novel’s structure, the arc of its characters’ development, gender representations, mores norms and sexual transgression –just a few short years before the advent of the French Revolution in 1789– and to ponder the question of what does constitute a “dangerous liaison.”

b.  During the following six weeks, students will evaluate film adaptations of the novel: Stephen Frears’s 1988 version (with remarkable performances by Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer,) Milos Forman’s 1989 version (with Colin Firth, Annette Bening, Meg Tilly,) and Roger Vadim’s early adaptation in 1959 (with Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philippe.) Cruel Intentions as adaptation in 20^th-century Manhattan by Roger Kumble in 1999 (with Sarah Michelle Geller, Ryan Philippe and Reese Witherspoon) will also be on our agenda. In the process, students will be introduced to methods and techniques of close analysis of cinema, as well as to questions of text-to-film transposition and film adaptation.

This course will be held in seminar style. It is open to advanced students (and interested graduate students as well.) Students will present a paper on the literary text for the midterm and another paper on one of the film adaptations for the second paper. (Music students may substitute one of the opera versions of Laclos’s novel.)

Note 1: If requested, discussion in French will be offered to French majors and minors, in overtime.

Note 2: The course will be counted towards the minor in Film Studies at UCSD.

LTEU 141 Europe

First course in the intermediate sequence designed to be taken after LIFR1C/CX (If you choose to take LIFR1D/DX, you will still need to take LTFR 2A to continue in the French program). Short stories, cartoons and movies from various French-speaking countries are studied to strengthen oral and written language skills while developing reading competency and cultural literacy. A thorough review of grammar is included. Taught entirely in French. May be applied towards a minor in French literature. Successful completion of LTFR 2A satisfies the language requirement in Revelle and in Eleanor Roosevelt colleges. Prerequisite: LIFR 1C/CX or equivalent or a score of 3 on the AP French language exam or a score of 4 or 5 on the Language Placement Exam.

Emphasizes the development of effective communication in writing and speaking. Includes a grammar review. A contemporary novel and various media sources are studied to explore cultural and social issues in France today. Taught entirely in French. May be applied towards a minor in French literature or towards fulfilling the secondary literature requirement. Students who have completed 2C can register in upper-level courses. Prerequisite: LTFR 2B or equivalent or a score of 5 on the AP French language exam.

Please contact instructor for course description.

LTFR 142 French

LTFR 142 The Mediterranean

LTFR 142 Europe

Please contact instructor for course description.

Please contact instructor for course description.

First Year Korean 1C (5 units) is the third part of the Beginning Korean. This course is designed to assist students to develop high-beginning level skills in the Korean language. These skills are speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as cultural understanding. LTKO 1C is designed for students who have already mastered LTKO 1B or who are already in the equivalent proficiency level. This course will focus on grammatical patterns such as sentence structures, some simple grammatical points, and some survival level use of Korean language. Additionally, speaking, reading, writing, and listening comprehension will all be emphasized, with special attention to oral speech. Upon completion of this course, students will become able to do the following in Korean: 

Speaking: Students are able to converse with ease and confidence when dealing with the routine tasks and social situations. They are able to handle successfully uncomplicated tasks and social situations requiring an exchange of basic information. They can narrate and describe in all major time frames using connected discourse of paragraph length, but not all the time.

Listening: Students are able to understand, with ease and confidence, simple sentence-length speech in basic personal and social contexts. They can derive substantial meaning from some connected texts, although there often will be gaps in understanding due to a limited knowledge of the vocabulary and structure of the spoken language.

Reading: Students are able to understand fully and with ease short, non-complex texts that convey basic information and deal with personal and social topics to which they bring personal interest or knowledge. They are able to understand some connected texts featuring description and narration although there will be occasional gaps in understanding due to a limited knowledge of the vocabulary, structures, and writing conventions of the language.

Writing: Students are able to meet all practical writing needs of the basic level. They also can write compositions and simple summaries related to work and/or school experiences. They can narrate and describe in different time frames when writing about everyday events and situations.

Fulfills the following requirements: Pre-Requisite: LTKO 1B or equivalent level of Korean language proficiency

Second Year Korean 2C (5 units) is the third part of the Intermediate Korean. Students in this course are assumed to have previous knowledge of Korean, which was taught during the Korean 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A and 2B courses. Students in this course will learn high-intermediate level of standard modern Korean in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as expand their cultural understanding. After the completion of this course, students are expected to acquire and use more vocabularies, expressions, and sentence structures and to have a good command of Korean in various conversational situations. Students are also expected to write short essays using the vocabularies, expressions, and sentence structures introduced. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to do the following in Korean:

Speaking: Students can perform all intermediate-level tasks with linguistic ease, confidence, and competence. They are consistently able to explain in detail and narrate fully and accurately in all time frame. In addition, they may provide a structured argument to support their opinions, and they may construct hypotheses. They may demonstrate a well-developed ability to compensate for an imperfect grasp of some forms or for limitations in vocabulary by the confident use of communicative strategies.

Listening: Students are able to understand, with ease and confidence, conventional narrative and descriptive texts of any length as well as complex factual material such as summaries or reports. They are able to follow some of the essential points of more complex or argumentative speech in areas of special interest or knowledge.

Reading: Students are able to understand, fully and with ease, conventional narrative and descriptive texts of any length as well as more complex factual material. They are able to follow some of the essential points of argumentative texts in areas of special interest or knowledge. In addition, they are able to understand parts of texts that deal with unfamiliar topics or situations.

Writing: Students are able to write about a variety of topics with significant precision and detail. They can handle informal and formal correspondence according to appropriate conventions. They can write summaries and reports of a factual nature. They can also write extensively about topics relating to particular interests and special areas of competence.

Third Year Korean 130P (4 units) is the third part of the advanced Korean. Students in this course are assumed to have previous knowledge of Korean, which was taught in the Korean 2A, 2B, 2C, 130F and 130W courses. Students in this course will learn high-advanced level skills in the areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Korean, as well as expand their cultural understanding. Upon completion of this course, students are expected to acquire and use more vocabularies, expressions and sentence structures and to have a good command of Korean in formal situations. Students are expected to read and understand daily newspapers and daily news broadcasts. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to do the following in Korean:

Speaking: Students are able to communicate with accuracy and fluency in order to participate fully and effectively in conversations on a variety of topics in formal and informal settings from both concrete and abstract perspectives. They discuss their interests and special fields of competence, explain complex matters in detail, and provide lengthy and coherent narrations, all with ease, fluency, and accuracy. They present their opinions on a number of issues of interest to them and provide structured arguments to support these opinions.

Listening: Students are able to understand speech in a standard dialect on a wide range of familiar and less familiar topics. They can follow linguistically complex extended discourse. Comprehension is no longer limited to the listener's familiarity with subject matter, but also comes from a command of the language that is supported by a broad vocabulary, an understanding of more complex structures and linguistic experience within the target culture. Students can understand not only what is said, but sometimes what is left unsaid.

Reading: Students are able to understand texts from many genres dealing with a wide range of subjects, both familiar and unfamiliar. Comprehension is no longer limited to the reader's familiarity with subject matter, but also comes from a command of the language that is supported by a broad vocabulary, an understanding of complex structures and knowledge of the target culture. Students at this level can draw inferences from textual and extralinguistic clues.

Writing: Students are able to produce most kinds of formal and informal correspondence, in-depth summaries, reports, and research papers. They demonstrate the ability to explain complex matters, and to present and support opinions by developing cogent arguments and hypotheses. They demonstrate a high degree of control of grammar and syntax, of general vocabulary, of spelling or symbol production, of cohesive devices, and of punctuation.

LTKO 130P Korean

LTKO 130P Asia

Students in this course will learn advanced and superior level Sino-Korean vocabulary and characters, skills in reading and understanding advanced and superior level Korean reading materials and expand their understanding of Korean culture. Upon completion of this course, students are expected to have acquired an expanded vocabulary, knowledge of various expressions using Sino-Korean vocabulary and characters.

Sino-Korean vocabulary and characters are necessary for advanced and superior level of knowledge in Korean. Sino-Korean characters are used differently from same Chinese characters used in contemporary China in terms of pronunciation, meaning, and word formation. 

Sino-Korean words represent over 70% of Korean vocabulary in advanced and superior level. Since most modern Korean is written phonetically in hangul however, the semantic connections between related words are not readily transparent to most learners without Chinese character instruction. This course can help students retain new Sino-Korean vocabulary over a short period of time.

LTKO 135 Korean

LTKO 135 Asia

Please contact instructor for course description.

Please contact instructor for course description.

Please contact instructor for course description.

LTRU 104A Russian

LTRU 104A Europe

Emphasizes the development of communication skills, listening comprehension, reading ability, and writing skills. It includes grammar review, compositions, and class discussions. This course is for students who began learning Spanish in a classroom environment. Students who have experience with Spanish outside of the classroom (at home, in their community) should take courses for heritage learners (LTSP 2D, 2E or 100B).

Review of major points of grammar with emphasis on oral communication and critical reading and interpretation of Spanish texts through class discussions, vocabulary development, and written compositions. It is a continuation of LTSP 2A. This course is for students who began learning Spanish in a classroom environment. Students who have experience with Spanish outside of the classroom (at home, in their community) should take courses for heritage learners (LTSP 2D, 2E or 100B).

Continuation of LTSP 2B, with special emphasis in speaking and writing. It includes discussion of cultural topics, grammar review, composition and presentations to further develop the ability to read longer fiction/nonfictional texts. This course is for students who began learning Spanish in a classroom environment. Students who have experience with Spanish outside of the classroom (at home, in their community) should take courses for heritage learners (LTSP 2D, 2E or 100B).

This course is designed for those students who learned Spanish at home and/or other students from Spanish-speaking backgrounds that have little or no formal training in the language. The main goals of the course are to enhance students' reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in a culturally relevant setting. Students also explore their cultural heritage and learn about Hispanic cultures in the United States and the language diversity of its speakers.

This course is designed for students who have been raised in a Spanish-speaking environment and speak some Spanish as a result of hearing it in the home, and in the community by family, friends, and neighbors, or some experience with Spanish in the classroom. The main goals of this course are to further develop and expand the Spanish language skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, while promoting a greater connection with the Hispanic cultures of the students' heritage.

En este seminario analizaremos la experiencia de la gente latina en los Estados Unidos, el papel del lenguaje y la cultura en dicha experiencia y la reproducción de las ideologías lingüísticas y culturales en la sociedad estadounidense. In this seminar we will discuss the experiences of Latinxs in the USA, the role of language and culture in their experiences, and the production of language and cultural ideologies in US society.

For students who learned Spanish at home and/or who went to school in a Spanish speaking country. This course allows students to expand their oral, reading, and writing academic proficiency in Spanish and, through class discussions, promotes critical thinking in a relevant cultural context for Latinx Students. Additionally, students will explore a variety of cultural, literary, and writing genres. This course has the purpose of preparing students to work in a professional context in Spanish. 

Dentro de las varias esferas de la economía, política, sociedad, cultura, religión, y redes sociales, se menciona con frecuencia el impacto del “patrimonio colonial” sobre el presente y porvenir de los países latinoamericanos. ¿En qué consiste este patrimonio, y a qué se debe su gran influencia a lo largo de los siglos? Este curso explorará la persistencia del patrimonio colonial mediante una lectura de varias obras del teatro, literatura, historia, periodismo, y/o ensayos contemporáneos. Abordaremos varias facetas de este patrimonio, incluyendo (pero no limitadas a): los vestigios de las regiones fronterizas, las raíces del extractivismo y explotación, las paradojas de la fe cristiana, y la supervivencia de las comunidades indígenas.

LTSP 116

LTSP 116 Spanish

LTSP 116 The Americas

Este curso ofrece una introducción a la producción cultural del México decimonónico, con un enfoque en la interconexión de ésta con la realidad histórica (Independencia, intervención extranjera, conflictos étnicos) y la política (proyectos de nación en disputa). A través del periodismo político y la tradición del “corrido”, además de novelas, cuentos y ensayos, exploraremos la noción de “literatura” y las ideas de nación (quiénes pertenecen a la nación, quiénes deben ser excluidos) que se formulan a lo largo del siglo XIX. También examinaremos la presencia/ausencia de la mujer en la producción literaria de la época. Algunas expresiones de la cultura visual --mapas, tarjetas de visita y pinturas (con sus mensajes sociales, étnicos, etc.)-- contribuirán al debate en torno a la cuestión racial, de género y clase social en el proceso de formación nacional.

LTSP 135A

LTSP 135A Spanish

LTSP 135A The Americas

En esta clase nos enfocaremos en textos latinoamericanos que representan relaciones entre el medio ambiente y el ser humano. Exploraremos cuestiones de género, de la esclavitud, de revoluciones, de colonialidad, de nacionalismos, de capitalismo. Nos preguntaremos: ¿de qué manera podemos observar en la literatura latinoamericana la cuestión ecológica? ¿Cómo es que se viene a formar un pensamiento binario sobre el mundo natural y mundo humano como tal? ?¿Cómo se muestran los procesos de subjetividad dentro de este marco histórico y político? ¿De qué forma se puede leer dentro de violencias históricas una preocupación con un “yo” ecológico? A partir de varios textos, indagaremos en estas cuestiones y más.

This course offers an introduction to literary and cultural theory. It can be used to fulfill the requirement for one upper-division course in the history of criticism or literary theory for English majors. It is strongly recommended for all literary majors and, indeed, anyone interested in reading literature and understanding culture. The course can function both as a capstone to your undergraduate classes in literature and as a springboard to graduate studies or other career opportunities that value a background in the humanities.

Many of you are avid readers and skilled interpreters of literary texts and cultural artifacts. This course invites you to step back and reflect on the larger questions at stake in individual interpretations. What sort of questions are we asking? Why do they matter? We will read selected works of literary and cultural theory, some quite recent, others classic examples of particular movements or schools. Topics will include gender and sexuality, “native” tongues and multilingualism, Orientalism, environmental criticism, cultural studies, the digital humanities, world literature, and more. Students will be required to write a series of short critical analyses of individual essays and a longer paper that incorporates course readings into a project of your choice.

This course will introduce students to Roman literature, which we’ll approach via two interrelated themes. First, the relationship between literature and systems of power in Roman culture. We’ll tackle foundation myths, xenophobia, imperialist literatures, satire, and propaganda, among other topics. Second, we’ll discuss Roman accounts of gods, myths, heroes, and the universe. We will ask how mythology and philosophy helped Romans make sense of their place in the world. Authors covered will include Horace, Vergil, Ovid, Lucan, Juvenal, Apuleius, and more! 

Who were the Egyptians? What was life like in ancient Egypt? How did they view themselves and the world around them? How did Egyptian civilization change over more than 3,000 years of Pharaonic history? 

LTWL 101

LTWL 101 The Mediterranean

LTWL 101 Africa

This course explores children’s literature from its origins in classical antiquity to the present day. The study of children’s literature serves as a testing ground for important questions about the acts of imaginative empathy demanded by literature and the ethics of authorial influence. It also allows us to interrogate the assumptions we make about children and childhood, especially as connected to innocence, playfulness, freedom, and creativity. We will explore primary texts in detail and analyze some of the critical frameworks which help us to negotiate the relationship between adult and child, including narratology, postcolonial theories, and feminist critiques.

There are several interrelated strands to our work in this course. We will explore the origins of children’s literature in fables, fairy tales and folklore the notion of “childhood” as a concept and critical discourses engendering it the intersection between children’s literary texts, education, and social values and the mature genre of children’s literature which makes up a canon of modern classics. Throughout, we will interrogate themes of universal importance to the study of modern literature such as familial relationships travel and displacement interaction with the natural world friendship adolescence and coming-of-age magic and mythology education and psychological development as well as religion and morality. We will also pay close attention to the rhetorical power of children’s literature, the dual audience many children’s texts address (adults and children), the deeper ideological messages a text may convey, as well as the interplay between images (the visual) and words (the verbal). Though our primary focus will be on children’s literature in the Western tradition, we will also examine modern Chinese and Japanese children’s texts, which are closely interwoven with the classical East Asian traditions and are distinct in their aesthetic and literary qualities. To this end, we will consider the process of cross-cultural translation and exchange that informed the evolution of modern East Asian literature and continues to remain important in our global world today.

Vampires in Literature. Fulfills the following requirements:  In this course, we'll look at representations of the vampire from early appearances through to more recent depictions such as The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. Lectures will include discussion of many aspects of vampires and vampirism, including the "historical vampires," Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory, the European vampire "epidemic" of the eighteenth century, medical explanations for early cases of vampirism, and folk traditions surrounding vampires. We will also consider the vampire in relation to other famous legendary beings, especially the werewolf. We will explore why vampires are such popular figures, considering them as cultural symbols that have and still do allow writers an incredibly rich way to explore themes of death, immortality, power, racism, sexuality and addiction.

Crime fiction is the most popular (and commercially successful) genre of popular literature all over the world.  It is entertaining and challenging, but it is also a great way to learn about a society, its values, its fears and its culture. In this course we will read several (mostly) contemporary examples of crime fiction, from countries like the US, Japan, Italy, India, Nigeria, Latin America, Korea, Ireland and more, and discuss the aspects that make these work mirrors of the worlds they portray, and portals for the readers through which they can enter these societies.  Students will give short oral presentations and write a final paper.  The course is in English.  For information, contact Adriana De Marchi Gherini at demarchi@ucsd.edu.

The 13 films Stanley Kubrick directed over his lifetime never involve the same genres genres of cinema, as they convoke us to 13 different filmic universes. Six of his films will be studied in depth, along with clips of the seven others. All of them underscore the continuity of Kubrick’s engagement with the most pertinent issues of our times. Vetting them in this course will illuminate how much Kubrick (1929-1999) is a towering figure of US and international cinema whose work may also be viewed as that of a creative philosopher (albeit with a camera and a sound-lab).

Kubrick’s films address war and aggression in very different ways and with different wars: WWI (Paths of Glory), the Cold War (Dr Strangelove), the Vietnam War (Full Metal Jacket), and allusions to WWII (A Clockwork Orange). Using a series of film and clips, part of our inquiry will evoke Kubrick’s impeccable style and success in creating a series of unique and yet clearly defined cultural icons: e.g. the hypersensitive supercomputer and the space-time warps in 2001 A Space Odyssey (along with Kubrick’s lifelong interest in artificial intelligence) or his anticipatory controversial questions regarding the elusive psychology and aesthetics of violence in A Clockwork Orange (1971) with the chilling Alex and his droogs. Kubrick had time to investigate many other concerns: he explored the intricacies of fantasies, dreams and the emotional storms of sexual jealousy in the stylish treatment of his last work, Eyes Wide Shut. The period piece Barry Lyndon (1975) illustrates the interweave of art history and cinema’s painterly style. The Shining (1980) (his own favorite film) is a classic for its myriad possible interpretations, as is the forceful jagged narrative of The Killing (1956) one of his early (already postmodern) films, not to mention Peter Sellers’s dazzling triple performance(s) in Dr. Strangelove (1964).

Precise methods of film analysis (e.g. frame composition, shot-by-shot analysis, narrative programs, film breakdowns, filmic poetics, film genres, integration of specific films as they relate to the history of cinema) will be presented to lead into the interweave between history and the history of cinema as they relate to the minute details of every single shot or sequence – from film technique to the deep structure of music, sex, gender, ethics and politics in relation to Kubrick’s visual philosophy. Note: Veterans from previous courses and advanced students may also wish to study technical questions of text-into-film transpositions (from Clark, Burgess, King, Nabokov, or Schnitzler) which may be addressed with illustrations from specific literary and film excerpts.

LTWL 183

LTWL 183

Please contact instructor for course description.

LTWR 8A is designed to prepare Literary Arts majors and minors to participate skillfully in advanced upper division fiction workshops. Students interested in learning the nuts & bolts of fiction who do not plan to advance to upper division writing courses may also take this very rigorous introductory course for college credit or for general interest.

This course introduces many of the basic elements of contemporary flash fiction and short fiction, including memorable characterization, vivid imagery, compelling and consistent narration, energetic narrative structure, and other tools of fiction-craft. Emphasis will be placed upon three things:

- Dreaming & Adventure: writing from your most unfettered imagination in class

- Strategy & Engineering: sculpting these wild writings into shapely, dynamic short stories through a variety of creative revision techniques

- Literary Analysis: Learning to read published contemporary flash fiction and short stories and peer drafts-in-progress to detect which of the many fiction tools an author has put into action to learn how short fiction makes meaningful stories unfold within the minds of readers.

Writers in this course will submit for feedback two flash fiction stories and one full-length short story over the course of the quarter, plus one revised version of the full-length short story.  Additionally, you will give and receive guided, written feedback on three assigned short fiction assignments submitted by several of your peers. 

What to know before you register: All classes are held In-Person, and consistent attendance is required for a passing grade.  To succeed in this course, please expect to spend a minimum of 4-5 hours per week reading, writing, revising and doing other activities outside of class, in addition to 4 hours in lectures and section each week. There will be quizzes on assigned textbook chapters and stories, which you will take in person in Lecture periods and/or Section. Expect to read, analyze and write comments upon 40 pages or more of fiction per week.  Additionally, plan to attend two live literary readings of your choice on Wednesday evenings at 5PM as your required LAB for this course, which will be held on campus as The New Writing Series.

As this is a course in developing literary intellect and writing skills, use of AI writing apps or other digital drafting and revision tools or human services to write stories or create or complete any written exercises for this course will result in a failing grade and will be treated as intentional plagiarism and submitted to the Academic Integrity offices, as will any other breaches of basic Academic Integrity.

This course zeroes in on what has been termed "creative nonfiction," expanding our vision of what nonfiction—literature based on “fact”—can be. For our purposes, creative nonfiction has three central characteristics: it’s concerned with actual events, people, and places it’s written with a special focus on language and it engages personal views and experiences. In this course, we will turn our attention to writing informed by literary craft, taking advantage of techniques used by fiction writers.

Stories Matter. This is why you’re here: you believe in the power of story. Perhaps you’ve come to this class with a question: How do I create short stories that entertain and delight, that touch the heart and mind, that draw an eager reader deeply into new worlds? Perhaps you hold other questions, such as: How does point of view affect the shape of a story?  How do you create realistic dialogue? How do you revise a story?  We’ll explore those questions and more, studying authors’ works with an eye toward understanding the choices writers make to enrich their stories. Throughout the quarter, we’ll practice working with various elements, from point of view to dialogue, to gain facility with the tools that help transform a good story into a great one. This course balances literary craft, generative writing, and workshop.

In this workshop, we will read and create intracultural versus intercultural writing, considering and producing work that moves between and across languages, mediums, genres, and timespace dimensions. Possible texts we will engage include: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, Cecilia Vicuña’s QuiPOEM, select actions of ASCO, Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston, Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony, and Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer. 

In this class we’ll practice storytelling and poetry in comics, with emphasis on how this time-based literary form uniquely moves a reader between reading and seeing and aspects of complex narration. This is a hybrid literary arts and literature study course. It is a class for writers, so no particular drawing skill is necessary, and emphasis will be placed on written as well as visual design. The course consists of comics-making techniques, in-class drawing, sharing work for comments, and discussion of narrative & artistic features of published comics and graphic novels. Over the course, you will make 3 finished comics and in addition to keeping a notebook-sketchbook for weekly practice exercises and literary analysis homework assignments. Please note, due to the nature of the form, this course is significantly more time-intensive than many writing classes. It is not a discussion-based workshop.

Course Texts: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures by Matt Madden and Jessica Abel, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, and Best American Comics 2019 ed. Jillian Tamaki.

This is a “wet” studio arts Literary Arts course with a lab fee: The course is taught as a paper-and-pen arts course and requires participants to do several assignments in a paper sketchbook with pencil, pens, brushes, and ink, though use of digital drawing tablets is fine for some assignments.  You will need to purchase paper & ink art supplies that cost about $75-$125.

Required In-Person Attendance and Participation: This course requires being in class from beginning to end of each class meeting. Absences above the course limit will result in a failing grade.

Copies: Some weeks you will need to bring several copies of your comics to class. Therefore, you will need access to a black and white printer, and you must be able to use a copy machine or printer to get the reproduction results you want.

Course Results: By the end of the course you will have kept a sketchbook, gathered a portfolio of exercises and will have made 3 literary works in the comics format.

Please contact instructor for course description.

Please contact instructor for course description.