>> Undergraduate-level CPLS courses
CPLS V3900: Introduction to Comparative Literature and Society. 3 pts.
K. Van Dyck. T 4:10 - 6pm.
Required of all comparative literature and
society majors. Intensive research in selected areas of comparative
literature and society. Topic for 2009-2010: TBA. [Link to registrar listing]
CPLS W3945: Transnational Memory Politics and the Culture of Human Rights. 4 pts.
A. Huyssen. W 4:10 - 6pm. 402 Hamilton.
Since the 1980s, societies around the world have developed an obsession with issues of memory and history. A large body of literature, spanning fields in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, has emerged on the role of memory, commemoration, amnesia, and related matters in history and culture. In the years following the fall of the Berlin wall , the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of apartheid in South Africa and of the military dictatorships in Latin America, this memory discourse has increasingly been intertwined with issues of transitional justice, truth commissions, and human rights, arguably one of the most salient public political developments across the globe. Students will have encountered the issues of memory and human rights in other courses related to specific geographic areas they have focused on. This course will introduce them to the transnational, even global dimensions of the topic with a special focus on the cultural contributions to memory and rights discourse. Limited to 20 students. Background in memory studies or human rights studies required. Students must submit as an application a short statement outlining your rationale for taking the course as well as any relevant prior coursework. This statement must be sent to Najeeba Rajah at nr2309 at columbia.edu. Students will be admitted on a first come, first served basis until the class is full.
[Link to registrar listing]
CPLS V3995: Senior Thesis On Comparative Literature and Society. 3 pts.
Students who decide to write a senior thesis should enroll in this tutorial. They should also identify during the previous semester a member of the faculty in a relevant department who will be willing to supervise their work and who is responsible for assigning the final grade. The thesis is a rigorous research work of approximately 40 pages (including a bibliography formatted in MLA style). It may be written in English or in another language relevant to the student's scholarly interests. The thesis should be turned in on the announced due date as hard copy to the Director of Undergraduate Studies. [Link to registrar listing]
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>> Graduate-level CPLS courses
CPLS G4900: Introduction to Comparative Literature and Society. 3 pts.
S. Gourgouris. W 4:10pm - 6:00pm. 613 Hamilton.
An introduction to changing conceptions in the comparative study of
literatures and societies, giving special attention to the stakes of
interdisciplinary method in comparative scholarship. We will
investigate the debates around comparativism in a number of fields, and
our discussions will focus on rubrics of inquiry that combine
strategies of research, analysis, and argumentation from multiple
disciplinary formations: e.g. postcolonial studies, cultural studies,
media studies, urban studies, globalization studies, feminism,
translation studies. There will be regular faculty visitors drawn from
a variety of departments in the humanities and social sciences at
Columbia. Enrollment is limited and the seminar is designed for grad
students working toward a degree in Comparative Literature and Society.
Students are expected to have a preliminary familiarity with the
discipline in which they wish to do their doctoral work. Readings may
include some of the following: fiction by Tayeb Salih, W.G. Sebald,
Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid; critical scholarship by Goethe, Hegel,
Marx, Auerbach, Benjamin, Fanon, C.L.R. James, Bourdieu, Levi-Strauss,
Clifford, Appadurai, Apter, Buck-Morss, Moretti, Damrosch, Harvey,
Jameson, Said, Ranciere, Kittler, Butler, Trouillot, and Spivak. [Link to registrar listing]
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