Comparative Literature (Bi-Co)

Department Website:
https://www.haverford.edu/comparative-literature

Comparative Literature is a joint Bryn Mawr and Haverford program that draws on the diverse teaching and research interests of the faculty at the two colleges, especially but not exclusively those in our many departments of language and literature.

The study of Comparative Literature situates literature in an international perspective; examines transnational cultural connections through literary history, literary criticism, critical theory, and poetics; and works toward a nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural functions of literature. The close reading of literary texts and other works from different cultures and periods is fundamental to our enterprise.

Interpretive methods from other disciplines that interrogate cultural discourses also play a role in the comparative study of literature; among these are anthropology, philosophy, religion, history, music, the history of art, visual studies, film studies, gender studies, and area studies (including Africana studies, Latin American and Iberian studies, and East Asian studies).

Our students have gone on to do graduate work in comparative literature and related fields; pursued advanced degrees in business, law, medicine, and journalism; and undertaken careers in translation, publishing, international business, diplomacy, and non-governmental organizations.

Learning Goals

  • Students should attain advanced skills in a language other than English and show the capacity to analyze and interpret literary and cultural texts in the original language.
  • Students should attain advanced skills in the interpretation or translation of the literary texts of two distinct national cultures, in the comparative analysis of these texts across national and/or linguistic boundaries, and in addressing, considering, evaluating, and applying specific methodological or theoretical paradigms.
  • Students should make use of these skills in the senior thesis and oral exam, which should also demonstrate the capacity to:
    • evaluate and discuss the merits of a critical or methodological approach.
    • complete an independent scholarly project.
    • bring together and analyze critically, in light of certain central issues and themes, a selection of works of literature and criticism read over the four years.

Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.

Curriculum

The resources at Bryn Mawr and Haverford permit the Comparative Literature program to offer an extensive variety of courses, including:

  • literature courses in English and the other languages offered at the two Colleges (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Latin, ancient Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Hebrew).
  • crosslisted comparative electives taught in English.
  • courses in criticism and theory.

Major

We require comparative literature students to have a reading knowledge of at least one language other than English, adequate to the advanced study of literature in that language. Some comparative literature courses may require reading knowledge in the language as a prerequisite for admission.

Students interested in pursuing a comparative literature major should discuss their preparation and program of courses with the comparative literature chair early in their first or second year at the College.

We recommend (but do not require) that:

  • majors study abroad during one or two semesters of the junior year.
  • students with a possible interest in graduate school begin a second foreign language before they graduate.

Major Requirements

  • COML H200 or COML B200 (Introduction to Comparative Literature), normally taken by the spring of the sophomore year.
  • Six advanced literature courses in the original languages (normally at the 200 level or above), balanced between two literature departments (of which English may be one): at least two (one in each literature) must be at the 300 level or above, or its equivalent, as approved in advance by the advisor.
  • One course in critical theory, approved by advisor.
  • COML H398 or COML B398 (Theories and Methods in Comparative Literature).
  • COML H399 or COML B399 (Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature).
  • Two additional courses identified as Comparative Literature (COML); these will be courses that move between two languages/literary traditions and/or two cultures.

Senior Project

Each senior major in comparative literature defines their thesis topic in consultation with the faculty members who teach the capstone seminars, COML 398 and COML 399. In the fall semester, as they near completion of COML 398, students produce a viable prospectus in the form of an essay with bibliography. During the spring semester, students enrolled in the Senior Seminar (COMLL 399) complete a senior thesis of 35-40 pages, under the joint guidance of one of the instructors in COML 399 and a faculty member with expertise in the topic of the thesis.

The thesis should build on languages, literary and cultural interests, and competencies cultivated in coursework at Bryn Mawr and Haverford or abroad, should be broadly comparative in nature, and should normally deal with works in both of the student’s major languages.  Possible models include: a study of a critical issue as exemplified in authors or works from two different literary or linguistic traditions; an exploration of transnational issues in different media; a critical examination of a problem in literary or cultural theory or literary history; a critical examination of different translations of a literary work.

At the end of the spring semester, during the senior exams period, all seniors are required to participate in senior oral exams before a panel of three faculty examiners—the two thesis co-advisors plus a member of the Comparative Literature Steering Committee or other relevant faculty member. Students respond to questions about the senior thesis during the first half of the exam (approximately 20 minutes); during the second half (another 25 minutes or so) they answer questions about a list of texts and topics they have submitted in advance. (These texts, which may include films and works of art, are chosen by each student from primary and secondary sources that they have studied in courses that count toward the major, with no more than two texts from a single class.)

To get a sense of the kinds of projects our majors elect to pursue, please visit the Senior Thesis archive linked on our homepage.

Senior Project Learning Goals

In the process of writing the senior thesis and preparing for the oral exam, students should develop and demonstrate the capacity to:

  • Complete an independent scholarly project in the form of a senior thesis (35-40 pages) that has a logical and clear overall structure and that expresses complex ideas and argues these convincingly, with clarity and precision.
  • Familiarize themselves with their chosen texts in the original languages and offer interpretations grounded in close reading of these texts.
  • Evaluate and discuss the merits of a critical or methodological approach, identify relevant and generative theoretical frameworks, understand the tradition from which they derive, and competently incorporate them in the service of a critical question.
  • Critique and evaluate scholarship relevant to their own scholarly project.
  • Comment on or critique the research projects of fellow senior seminar participants.
  • Bring together and analyze critically, in light of certain central issues and themes, a selection of works of literature and criticism read over the past four years.
  • Make responsible use of both primary and secondary sources.
  • Make effective use of library resources, including subject-specific databases and indices online and in print

Senior Project Assessment

Faculty in the Comparative Literature Steering Committee (CLSC) evaluate the viability of the thesis prospectus, submitted in COML 398. Student performance evaluations in all the assessment categories mentioned below inform the final grades awarded in COML 399 as well as the awarding of honors in the major and of the departmental prize for the most accomplished senior essay. The examiners are drawn from faculty members teaching COML 399, members of the CLSC, and other colleagues in other relevant disciplines. Examiners (three per student) participate in the required senior oral examination and make the final evaluations of the second semester senior capstone experience. Separate grades are given for the senior essay, seminar performance, and oral exam; the final grade in COML 399 reflects the totality of the senior experience in all categories stated, with the most important element being the senior thesis.

The thesis is evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Conceptualization of an original research question
  • Familiarity with and well-grounded interpretation of primary texts in the original languages.
  • Engagement with chosen theoretical framework or frameworks and with relevant secondary literature.
  • Successful revision in response to criticism.
  • Crafting of a clearly structured and clearly expressed argument.

Requirements for Honors

Students who, in the judgment of the Comparative Literature Steering Committee, have done distinguished work in their comparative literature courses and in the Senior Seminar will be considered for departmental honors.

Minor Requirements

Requirements for the minor are COML 200 and COML 398, plus four additional courses—two each in the literature of two languages. At least one of these four courses must be at the 300 level. Students who minor in comparative literature are encouraged to choose their national literature courses from those with a comparative component.

NOTE: Both majors and minors should work closely with the co-chairs of the program and with members of the steering committee in shaping their programs.

Study Abroad

The majority of our majors study abroad for one semester or two, normally during the junior year, at programs approved by Bryn Mawr and Haverford. We ask our students to confer with the chair of the relevant language department as well as the chair of Comparative Literature in advance when choosing courses abroad in order to determine which courses may be counted towards the major, and which kind of credit (i.e. 200-level or 300-level) should be given for a particular course although we strongly advise that the 300-level courses be taken within the Bi-Co. The course in critical theory must be taken within the Tri-Co.

Prizes

The Laurie Ann Levin Prize is awarded annually to the senior major(s) whose work merits recognition for intellectual achievement, as demonstrated in the senior thesis.

Faculty

Two co-chairs, one at each college, and a Bi-College steering committee administer the program. The committee generally includes those faculty members most often involved in teaching the introductory course and the senior seminar.

Many other faculty at both institutions contribute courses to the program; see the Courses section for more information.

Steering Committee Members at Haverford

Farid Asadullah
Visiting Senior Lecturer of Comparative Literature

Imke Brust
Associate Professor and Chair of German

Israel Burshatin
Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literature

Roberto Castillo Sandoval
Professor of Spanish

Matthew Farmer
Associate Professor and Chair of Classics

Maud McInerney
The Laurie Ann Levin Professor of Comparative Literature; Professor of English; Chair of Comparative Literature

J. Reid Miller
Professor and Chair of Philosophy

Deborah Roberts
Professor Emerita of Classics and Comparative Literature

Luis Rodriguez-Rincon
Assistant Professor of Spanish

Ulrich Schönherr
Professor Emeritus of German and German Studies

David Sedley
Professor of French and Francophone Studies

Steering Committee Members at Bryn Mawr

Catherine Conybeare
Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies

Edwige Crucifix
Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies

Radcliffe Edmonds
Paul Shorey Professor of Greek and Professor and Chair of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies

Martín Gaspar
Associate Professor and Chair of Spanish and Program Co-Director of Comparative Literature

Shiamin Kwa
Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Timothy Harte
Provost and Professor of Russian

Rudy Le Menthéour
Professor of French and Francophone Studies

María Cristina Quintero
Fairbank Professor in the Humanities 

Roberta Ricci
Professor and Chair of Transnational Italian Studies on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities

Qinna Shen
Associate Professor and Chair of German

Jamie K. Taylor
Mary E. Garret Alumnae Professor and Chair of Literatures in English

José Vergara
Assistant Professor of Russian on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship in Russian Studies

Courses at Haverford

COML H100  INTRODUCTORY PERSIAN  (1.0 Credit)

Farid Asadullah

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Introduction to Persian/Farsi language. This course is designed for beginners and will combine the study of grammar with listening, writing, reading and speaking. This course cannot be used to satisfy the Language Requirement.

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H111  INTRODUCTION TO POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Rajeswari Mohan

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introductory survey of English literature from regions that used to be part of the British Empire, focusing on topics such as the representation of first contact, the influence of western education and the English language, the effects of colonial violence, displacement, migration, and exile. Also considered will be the specific aesthetic strategies that have come to be associated with this body of literature.

COML H120  THE EPIC IN ENGLISH  (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of the long, narrative poems that shape the epic tradition in Anglophone literature from Ancient Greece to Medieval England to Africa and the Caribbean. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature

COML H142  INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL STUDIES  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An introduction to the trans-disciplinary field of Visual Studies, its methods of analysis and topical concerns. Traditional media and artifacts of art history and film theory, and also an examination of the ubiquity of images of all kinds, their systems of transmission, their points of consumption, and the very limits of visuality itself. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Fine Arts, Comparative Literature

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H200  INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

A general introduction to the evolving field of comparative literature. Students read, discuss, and write about texts from across a wide range of national literatures and historical periods, with attention both to how these texts influence and relate to each other and to where and why they must differ. An additional focus on theoretical issues relevant to reading in general and, more particularly, reading between canons.

COML H203  WRITING THE JEWISH TRAJECTORIES IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Ariana Huberman

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The course proposes the study of Latin American Jewish literature focusing on narrative, essay, and poetry of the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries. It pays close attention to themes, registers, and cultural contexts relevant to the Jewish experience in Latin America. What is Jewish about this literature? Where do these texts cross paths, or not, with other migratory and minority experiences? The texts studied question identity and Otherness, and explore constructions of memory while examining issues of gender, assimilation, transculturation, migration, and exile in relation to the Jewish Diaspora in the Americas. This course is conducted in Spanish. Crosslisted: Spanish, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): SPAN 102, placement, or instructor consent

COML H210  SPANISH AND SPANISH AMERICAN FILM STUDIES  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Exploration of Latin American film. The course will discuss approximately one movie per week. The class will focus on the analysis of cinematic discourses as well as the films’ cultural and historic background. The course will also provide advanced language training with particular emphasis in refining oral and writing skills. This course is conducted in Spanish. Crosslisted: Spanish, Comparative Literature. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 102, or placement, or instructor consent.

COML H214  WRITING THE NATION: 19TH-CENTURY LITERATURE IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Roberto Castillo Sandoval

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An examination of seminal literary texts written in Latin America in the nineteenth century. Novels, essays, travelogues, short stories, miscellaneous texts, and poetry will be analyzed and placed in the context of the process of nation-building that took place after Independence from Spain. A goal of the course will be to establish and define the nexus between the textual and ideological formations of 19th-century writings in Latin America and their counterparts in the 20th-century. The course fulfills the “pre-1898” requirement. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Comparative Literature. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 102, placement, or instructor consent.

COML H223  VISUALIZING NATIONS: AFRICA AND EUROPE  (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will explore ideas of nation-building in regard to the transnational relations between Europe and Africa. We will discuss African and European experiences of nation-creation to distinguish between exclusionary and inclusionary visions of nation states, and focus in particular on literary texts from Great Britain, Germany, and France in comparison with literary texts from Nigeria, South Africa, and Algeria.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H231  CARIBE QUEER: SEXUALITIES AND NARRATIVES FROM THE HISPANIC CARIBBEAN  (1.0 Credit)

Lina Martinez Hernandez

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The course will look at different narrative and artistic productions regarding alternative sexualities in the Hispanic Caribbean. We will take as a point of departure the Cuban revolution and move to the present. Crosslisted: Spanish, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): SPAN 102

COML H244  OUR AMERICAS: IMAGINING THE HEMISPHERE  (1.0 Credit)

Dennis Hogan

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course focuses on theorists of culture and society across the Americas, as well as major genres of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, considering interventions from Caribbean, Latin American, and North American figures. Reading novels, memoir, travel writing and poetry, we’ll theorize the structures of hemispheric life: how did race and the color line, slavery and the plantation, settler colonialism, labor and migration, travel and transit, and war and imperialism create a shared hemispheric history? Crosslisted: PEAC,COML Pre-requisite(s): One course involving literary analysis.

COML H245  PERFORMANCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARCHIVE  (1.0 Credit)

Lindsay Reckson

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

The ‘archive,’ as both an institutional and performance practice and a theoretical concept, has been one of the most studied sites in performance and literary studies. The hegemonic, patriarchal institution of the archive that constructs and perpetuates the canon and the master narratives of history while, marginalizing, silencing, and erasing the subaltern and the subcultural has been contested by the poststructuralist philosophers and critical theorists of the late 20 th and early 21 st century. A new concept of the archive transpired in the interdisciplinary fields of postcolonial, gender, cultural, and performance studies, one that is more utopian and more inclusive and is not limited by dominant repressive power structures and ideologies. This archive does not merely revisit the past to excavate the eradicated traces and silenced voices, but also, perhaps more importantly, opens the potential for a formerly unimaginable, and yet-to-be-imagined future.

COML H250  WORDS AND MUSIC  (1.0 Credit)

Richard Freedman

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will be devoted to the amazing vocal music of the European Renaissance, exploring the ways in which literary and musical modes of interpretation repeatedly informed each other during this period. How do literary readings of texts differ from musical ones? How did Renaissance musicians bring their own habits as readers to musical and verbal texts they sang and played? Our primary texts will be the works themselves: French chansons, Italian madrigals, Latin motets, and solo songs of the fifteenth through early seventeenth centuries. We will study poetry by Petrarch, Tasso, Christine de Pizan, Ronsard as interpreted by composers like Guillaume Dufay, Josquin Desprez, Cipriano de Rore, Orlandus Lassus, Luca Marenzio, Claudio Monteverdi (and plenty of others, too). Our discussions will be both historical (exploring the values and artistic ideals at work in the European Renaissance) and critical (investigating the ways of knowing or relating words and music).

COML H253  HISPANIC CARIBBEAN MIGRATION TALES  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Students will learn about different Hispanic Caribbean migratory experiences through a selection of short stories, novels, memoirs, and essays, as well as in film, and performative production. The tales featured in this course will consider how gender and sexuality shape migration experiences. The texts that will be analyzed are mostly originally written in Spanish. Crosslisted: Spanish, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): SPAN H102 or 200-300 level in the placement test

COML H254  WHEN TO OBEY IS TO BETRAY: THE FRENCH RESISTANCE IN CINEMA AND LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Christophe Corbin

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This interdisciplinary course explores the French Resistance during World War II through the lens of cinema and literature. Delving into the complex intersections of history, fiction, and memory, students will uncover the dynamic relationships between popular culture and collective remembrance. Students will examine how fiction intersects with historical “truth”, challenging conventional narratives and revealing the intricate myth-making strategies at play. Highlighting both iconic and lesser-known works, this course sheds light on the often-overlooked contributions of women to the Resistance movement, exploring their invisibility in traditional accounts and their resurfacing in contemporary depictions. Students will critically engage with the complexities of historical representation, grappling with questions of “truth”, memory, and the enduring legacy of resistance. This course is designed for students with interests in cinema, history, literature, and cultural studies. Crosslisted: COML. Pre-requisite(s): First-year writing course

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H257  ANTIGONE’S ECHOES: ACTIVISM AND THE LAW FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO TODAY  (1.0 Credit)

Ryan Warwick

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Where should the law come from, the individual or the state? How can you protest an unjust system, and how can an ancient story help you do it? Who owns a “Classic”? These are just a few questions that Sophocles’ Antigone has raised for philosophers and playwrights from the Enlightenment to today. We'll read several versions of the Antigone myth and explore this character’s enduring relevance to theories of gender, performance, world literature, and politics. Crosslisted: COML,PEAC.

COML H262  EUROPEAN FILM  (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course will explore what role film plays in the conceptualization of the European Union. After a brief historical overview, we will familiarize ourselves with a variety of important European film movements after 1945. Our class discussion will cover important European film movements such as German Expressionist Film, Italian Neorealism, French New Wave, Czech New Wave, New German Cinema, and Dogma 95. In addition, we will be watching films from Poland, the Netherlands, and the Balkans. Towards the end of the semester we will discuss how the accelerated integration of the European Union since the 1990s has affected film production within the European Union and what aesthetic, and political ideas shape contemporary European films. Furthermore, this class also aims to highlight transnational aspects of European film in particular in light of the recent European refugee crisis. This course is taught in English with an extra-session in German. (Taught in English with an extra session in German.) Crosslisted: Coparative Literature, German

COML H267  GLOBAL SF SINCE 1945  (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

SF—science fiction, speculative fiction—is the primary allegorical mode of the contemporary world and permits reflections upon and critiques of the world we inhabit today. This course explores the explosion of the genre in the decades since the WWII and the advent of atomic weapons. We will read classics of post-apocalyptic fiction from the ‘50s and ‘60s before turning to stories that engage queer identities, Afrofuturism and African Futurism, and the global threat of climate change. Crosslisted: ENGL. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: Reserve 10 spaces for First Year Students

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H270  THE ART OF SPORTS: ANCIENT AND MODERN  (1.0 Credit)

Ava Shirazi

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores the visual and poetic life of sports, ancient and modern. It brings together cultural criticism, visual analysis, and historical study to theorize the beauty of athletics. Concepts of the body, gender, race and performance, and tropes such as "for the love of the game," "feel for the game" and "poetry in motion" will organize our work on the sensory and aesthetic dimensions of sports. No prior expertise in classics, art or sports necessary. Crosslisted: COML,VIST.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H301  TOPICS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH: RACING ROMANCE  (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Considers the construction of genders and sexualities in the medieval period. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H312  ADV TOPICS FRENCH LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Kathryne Corbin

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

During the 19th century, and more specifically the Second Empire (1852-1870), Emperor Napoleon III and Baron Eugene Haussmann embarked on the demolition and reconstruction of Paris, a project that would establish the capital as the modern city so widely celebrated today. In this course, we will explore the ways writers and artists during this time experienced the city and discovered new ways of seeing their world as a result of these (sometimes polarizing) transformations. Through works by Baudelaire, Balzac, Sue, and Zola, as well as artists such as Caillebotte, Cassatt, Manet, Monet, and Renoir, we will appreciate what writers and artists discovered as they became « painters of modern life », looking closely, for the first time, at everyday objects as veritable objects of art. Alongside the readings of these classics, students will keep a personal journal where they will consider new ways of seeing their world, reflecting on mundane encounters, and transforming simple objects and panoramas into their own « chefs d’œuvre ». Crosslisted: FREN and COML

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H312B  ADV TOPICS FRENCH LIT  (1.0 Credit)

David Sedley

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is about Michel de Montaigne, whose fame in French is comparable to Shakespeare's in English. In any language, Montaigne is the inventor of an intellectual exercise typically assigned to college students: the essay. Montaigne wrote the first book of "essays" as experiments in judging. He did so in order to improve the quality of his own—and his readers'—judgments. In conducting these experiments, however, he discovered cognitive, emotional, and cultural reflexes—in other words, prejudices—that preceded judgment and skewed its outcomes. In this course, we will follow the struggle between judgment and prejudice staged in Montaigne's Essais. We will thereby gain perspective on the values of essay-writing in the context of an education charged with the task of decolonizing the mind. In French. In French. Crosslisted: FREN and COML Prerequisite(s): At least one 200-level course

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H318  THE WESTERN DRAMATIC TRADITION  (1.0 Credit)

Kimberly Benston

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An investigation of Western drama through close study of major representative plays from Aeschylus and Sophocles to Beckett and Shange. Differing notions of the dramatic event, from classical to modern and "post-modern" theaters, will be examined in relation to evolving ideas of character, consciousness, destiny, social structure, linguistic power, and theatricality itself. Emphasis placed on both thematic and structural problems of "play" and on the relation of the text to consequences of performance (e.g., acting, stagecraft, and audience response). Prerequisite: 1 course in English, Comparative Literature, or Theater Studies..

COML H321  TOPICS GERM LIT: 1919 - 2019  (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Crosslisted: German, Comparative Literature

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H322  POLITICS OF MEMORY IN LATIN AMERICA  (1.0 Credit)

Aurelia Gómez De Unamuno

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An exploration of the dynamics of memory, narration, censorship and oblivion after a period of state violence either under a dictatorship or an official democracy. This course analyses and compares literary genres (testimonies, diaries, poetry and fiction), visual archives, documentary films, practices and projects of memory (Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Museo de la Memoria in Chile, Museo Casa de la Memoria Indómita in Mexico, “sitios de memoria” and digital resources). Students will be able to compare debates, outcomes and current controversies of production of memory in Chile after the coup and dictatorship of Pinochet, and in Mexico after the repression of the student movement of ‘68 and the guerrilla movement. This course is conducted in Spanish. Cross-listed: Spanish, Comparative Literature, PJHR

COML H336  HUMANIMALS IN SPANISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD  (1.0 Credit)

Luis Rodriguez-Rincon

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

Humans are animals and yet most people consider animals to be something other than humans. This course sets out to understand from a specifically Iberian perspective how humans have come to define themselves in relation to animals and vice versa how animals have come to be defined in relation to humans. Readings in this course will approach animals as both living and literary figures with an emphasis on the medieval and early modern periods as well as key theories in Animal Studies. Crosslisted: COML. Pre-requisite(s): A 200 level-course; or permission of the instructor Lottery Preference: Spanish majors; Spanish minors; Comparative Literature majors; LAILS concentrators

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H337  ANTHROPOLOGY OF WRITING AND THE POLITICS/POETICS OF INTERTEXTUALITY  (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An interdisciplinary exploration of writing as a social institution, personal ritual, cultural artifact and a technology, this course theorizes the interface between tradition and innovation as a way to think about intertextuality using Jewish American fiction as a case study Crosslisted: COML

(Offered: Spring 2025)

COML H377  PROBLEMS IN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE: IMPERIAL INTIMACIES  (1.0 Credit)

Alexander Millen

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This course mobilizes the concept of “imperial intimacies” to theorize the rich historical, imaginative, and political horizons of imperialism. Taking our cue from Hazel Carby’s book of the same name—and from what Lisa Lowe has influentially described as The Intimacies of Four Continents—this interdisciplinary class will study literary works (novels, memoir, poetry, film) that bring into critical focus the lasting contradictions and critical challenges of colonial and postcolonial literature and culture. Crosslisted: English, Comparative Literature Prerequisite(s): Two 200-level English courses or instructor consent

(Offered: Fall 2024)

COML H398  THEORIES AND METHODS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Imke Brust

Division: Humanities

This course is both a seminar on theory and method and a workshop on the deveopment of the senior thesis. It introduces students to a variety of critical approaches and their application, and assists them in developing conceptual frameworks for the senior thesis projects they are in the process of formulating. Prerequisite(s): Open to comparative literature senior majors and minors

COML H399  SENIOR SEMINAR  (1.0 Credit)

Maud McInerney

Division: Humanities

Oral and written presentations of work in progress, culminating in a senior thesis and comprehensive oral examination. Prerequisite(s): students must be senior majors in Comparative Literature

(Offered: Spring 2025)

Courses at Bryn Mawr

COML B200  INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Rudy Le Menthéour

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course explores a variety of approaches to the comparative or transnational study of literature through readings of several kinds: texts from different cultural traditions that raise questions about the nature and function of storytelling and literature; texts that comment on, respond to, and rewrite other texts from different historical periods and nations; translations; and readings in critical theory.

(Offered: Spring 2025)

FREN B312  ADVANCED TOPICS IN LITERATURE  (1.0 Credit)

Edwige Crucifix

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Prerequisites: two 200-level courses.

(Offered: Spring 2025)

FREN B326  ETUDES AVANCÉES  (1.0 Credit)

Camille Leclère-Gregory

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

An in-depth study of a particular topic, event or historical figure in French civilization. This is a topics course. Course content varies.

HART B235  CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VISUAL REPRESENTATION: IDENTIFICATION IN THE CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Matthew Feliz

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course is writing intensive. An introduction to the analysis of film and other lensed, time-based media through particular attention to the role of the spectator. Why do moving images compel our fascination? How exactly do spectators relate to the people, objects, and places that appear on the screen? Wherein lies the power of images to move, attract, repel, persuade, or transform their viewers? Students will be introduced to film theory through the rich and complex topic of identification. We will explore how points of view are framed by the camera in still photography, film, television, video games, and other media. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100-level or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art and Film Studies. Fulfills Film Studies Introductory or Theory course requirement. This course was formerly numbered HART B110; students who previously completed HART B110 may not repeat this course.

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ITAL B213  THEORY IN PRACTICE: CRITICAL DISCOURSES IN THE HUMANITIES  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

What is a postcolonial subject, a queer gaze, a feminist manifesto? And how can we use (as readers of texts, art, and films) contemporary studies on animals and cyborgs, object oriented ontology, zombies, storyworlds, neuroaesthetics? In this course we will read some pivotal theoretical texts from different fields, with a focus on race&ethnicity and gender&sexuality. Each theory will be paired with a masterpiece from Italian culture (from Renaissance treatises and paintings to stories written under fascism and postwar movies). We will discuss how to apply theory to the practice of interpretation and of academic writing, and how theoretical ideas shaped what we are reading. Class conducted in English, with an additional hour in Italian for students seeking Italian credit.