One-credit-hour proseminar in methods of study and research in comparative literature.

Required of first-semester graduate students in comparative literature.

Prerequisite: Graduate standing in comparative literature and consent of the graduate adviser in comparative literature.

Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.

This course examines the figure of the vampire in the cultures of Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, including its manifestations in folklore, literature, religion, art, film and common cultural practices from its origins to present day 2019. Texts – from both print and non-print media – will be drawn from original sources. Participants will be asked to separate historical fact from popular fiction, and form their own opinions about the place of the vampire in Slavic and other East European cultures, particularly in contrast to the more familiar portraits in US and Western European cultures. The course is conducted in English with all original source material in Russian or other languages provided in English. No knowledge of Russian required, though readings in Russian and other Slavic languages are available for majors and minors in these related fields from the instructor on request.

Grading:

• Reaction Paper 25%
• Midterm exam 1 25%
• Film Review 25%
• Midterm exam II 25%

This course focuses on post-abolition Afro-Brazilian life, history, culture, politics, and letters.  It engages a wide range of literary texts, socio-cultural movements, visual arts, and cultural performances, while raising a number of questions that would lead to provocative midterm and final research papers, while simultaneously honing students’ writing skills with a number of response papers that may be expanded into a research paper. Most concepts and issues will be illustrated with multimedia clips or movies to ensure that students gain a richer experience of the Afro-Brazilian diaspora world.

Some of the questions the course will grapple with include the following: (i) What explains the continued exclusion of Afro-Brazilians from political power?; (ii) What is the legacy or impact of slavery within this context?; (iii) How is the concept of Africa (re)imagined, distorted, and manipulated in this regard?; (iv)What are the discourses used to justify social inequalities and racial discrimination in Brazil?; (v) How is the “radical” view on discrimination silenced while the “co-opted” perspective is promoted?; (vi) What are the effects of governmental patronage on cultural producers as they negotiate what Carl Degler calls the “mulatto escape hatch”?; and (vii) What are the limitations of ideology in an era of “globalization” and pragmatism?  These among other issues will form the basis of the course which will additionally analyze the social condition that goes beyond the more apparent “culture game”; and must also be seen as a political game towards visibility, participation, gendered equality, and empowerment.

Objectives:

1. Students will be able to meet writing, global, and cultural diversity flags.
2. Students will be exposed to the dynamics of coping mechanism with social inequalities.
3. Students will not only be exposed to elements of style, they will improve their writing skills by having opportunities to re-write their assignments.
4. Transnational resonances will be invoked for comparative analysis within contexts and texts in order to see the African Diaspora beyond a continental prism.

Required Texts:

1. Johnson, Crook et al. ed. Black Brazil: Culture, Identity, and Social Mobilization
2. Alves, Miriam and C. R. Durham. Finally Us/Enfim Nós
3. Almeida, Bira. Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form: History, Philosophy, and Practice
4. Guimarães, Geni. The Color of Tenderness
5. Gomes, Dias. Journey to Bahia

E 316N  |  World Literature 

Instructor:  Kornhaber, David

Unique #:  36315-36370

Semester:  Fall 2021

Cross-lists:  C L 315, 34845 & 34900-34950

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  This course presents a survey of world literature through the lens of dramatic literature, examining classic works of drama from around the globe.  Our survey will begin with the classical theatre of Greece, Rome, India, and China and will continue through the religious dramas of the European middle ages, the plays of feudal Japan, early modern drama from England and Spain, and eighteenth-century neoclassical tragedies from France and Germany; we will continue our studies with an examination of the global spread of melodrama in the nineteenth century, the rise of modern drama in Europe and Russia near the turn of the century, and the explosion of theatrical experiments worldwide across the twentieth century, concluding with a selection of modern and contemporary plays from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and the Caribbean as well as the United States.  Throughout, we will examine the shifting characteristics of dramatic literature across time periods and cultures and will pay ongoing attention to the complex relationship between dramatic literature and theatrical performance.  We will also consider the ways in which the study of drama touches on wider issues of history, politics, and philosophy, even raising questions as to the nature of literature itself.  Students can expect to receive a grounding in the history of world drama, training in the core techniques of close reading and literary analysis, and an appreciation for literary and performance cultures worldwide.  All texts will be read in English.

This course will involve asynchronous recorded lectures and in-person weekly discussion sections.

Texts (tentative):  Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos (Greece); Euripides, The Bacchae (Greece); Kalidasa, Shakuntala (India); Shudraku, The Little Clay Cart (India); Hangqing, Snow in Midsummer (China); Zeami, Atsumori (Japan); Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Dulcitus (Germany); Hildegard von Bingen, Play of the Virtues (Germany); Shakespeare, Hamlet (England); Molière, Tartuffe (France); Calderòn de la Barca, Life is a Dream (Spain); De la Cruz, The Divine Narcissus (Mexico); Centlivre A Bold Stroke for a Wife (England); Ibsen, A Doll’s House(Norway); Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (Russia); Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Germany); Treadwell, Machinal (USA); Beckett, Waiting for Godot (Ireland/France); Al-Hakim, Song of Death (Egypt); Abe, The Man Who Turned into a Stick (Japan); Césaire, A Tempest(Martinique); Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (Nigeria); Gambaro, Information for Foreigners (Argentina); Churchill, Top Girls(UK); Moses, Almighty Voice and his Wife (Canada / First Nations); Parks, The America Play (USA); Nottage, Ruined(USA/Uganda/Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Requirements & Grading:  Three at-home mini-exams: 45% (15% each); Final at-home exam: 35%; Section attendance, participation, and short assignments: 20%.

E 316N  |  World Literature 

Instructor:  Kornhaber, David

Unique #:  36315-36370

Semester:  Fall 2021

Cross-lists:  C L 315, 34845 & 34900-34950

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  This course presents a survey of world literature through the lens of dramatic literature, examining classic works of drama from around the globe.  Our survey will begin with the classical theatre of Greece, Rome, India, and China and will continue through the religious dramas of the European middle ages, the plays of feudal Japan, early modern drama from England and Spain, and eighteenth-century neoclassical tragedies from France and Germany; we will continue our studies with an examination of the global spread of melodrama in the nineteenth century, the rise of modern drama in Europe and Russia near the turn of the century, and the explosion of theatrical experiments worldwide across the twentieth century, concluding with a selection of modern and contemporary plays from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and the Caribbean as well as the United States.  Throughout, we will examine the shifting characteristics of dramatic literature across time periods and cultures and will pay ongoing attention to the complex relationship between dramatic literature and theatrical performance.  We will also consider the ways in which the study of drama touches on wider issues of history, politics, and philosophy, even raising questions as to the nature of literature itself.  Students can expect to receive a grounding in the history of world drama, training in the core techniques of close reading and literary analysis, and an appreciation for literary and performance cultures worldwide.  All texts will be read in English.

This course will involve asynchronous recorded lectures and in-person weekly discussion sections.

Texts (tentative):  Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos (Greece); Euripides, The Bacchae (Greece); Kalidasa, Shakuntala (India); Shudraku, The Little Clay Cart (India); Hangqing, Snow in Midsummer (China); Zeami, Atsumori (Japan); Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, Dulcitus (Germany); Hildegard von Bingen, Play of the Virtues (Germany); Shakespeare, Hamlet (England); Molière, Tartuffe (France); Calderòn de la Barca, Life is a Dream (Spain); De la Cruz, The Divine Narcissus (Mexico); Centlivre A Bold Stroke for a Wife (England); Ibsen, A Doll’s House(Norway); Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (Russia); Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Germany); Treadwell, Machinal (USA); Beckett, Waiting for Godot (Ireland/France); Al-Hakim, Song of Death (Egypt); Abe, The Man Who Turned into a Stick (Japan); Césaire, A Tempest(Martinique); Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (Nigeria); Gambaro, Information for Foreigners (Argentina); Churchill, Top Girls(UK); Moses, Almighty Voice and his Wife (Canada / First Nations); Parks, The America Play (USA); Nottage, Ruined(USA/Uganda/Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Requirements & Grading:  Three at-home mini-exams: 45% (15% each); Final at-home exam: 35%; Section attendance, participation, and short assignments: 20%.

Fall 2021 Topic: Landscape Poetry and Painting

This course will provide an introduction to the classical Chinese poetic tradition and is open to all students. No previous background in Chinese language, culture or literature is required. Readings in English translation will encompass a selective sampling of poetry from as early as the seventh century B.C.E. through the 9th century. Lectures and discussions will focus on the literary, cultural, historical, social, political, philosophical, and religious background against which these representative works in poetry arose. While background reading will be assigned, the focus of lectures and discussion will be on the primary works of poetry, and on the relationship of poetry and painting in the Chinese tradition. 

Grading:

• Discussion (20%)
• Writing and Oral Presentation (75%)
• Creative Writing (5%)

Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) was arguably the greatest filmmaker of the twentieth century.  His career spanned over sixty years and includes such works as the sophisticated comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), the allegorical Seventh Seal (1957), the avant-garde Persona (1966), the masterful television adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1975), and the television miniseries Fanny and Alexander (1982).  He also wrote novels, plays, and scripts for many other filmmakers, including Bille August and Liv Ullmann.  In 2003, he directed the television film Saraband (2003), and in recent years, many of his films have been adapted for the stage.

This course is an introduction both to the films of Ingmar Bergman and to the viewing of films in general.  We will look at representative films by this prolific and gifted filmmaker, considering them in the contexts of the director's life, Scandinavian culture, and issues of film theory and aesthetics. 

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING:  One two-page paper (5%); one five-page paper which may be rewritten (25%); one storyboard (10%) accompanied by a five-page essay (25%), and five quizzes (25%; you may drop the lowest grade).   Class participation will count 10%.

REQUIRED TEXTS (for purchase and available on reserve at PCL):

• Bordwell and Thompson:  Film Art:  An Introduction.  9th ed.; 6th ed. on reserve: PN 1995 B617 2001
• Peter Cowie:  Ingmar Bergman, PN 1998 A3 B46147 1982
• Braudy and Cohen:  Film Theory and Criticism (FTC on syllabus), 6th ed. on reserve:  PN1995 B617 2001

RECOMMENDED:

• Birgitta Steene:  Ingmar Bergman:  A Reference Guide.  (U of Amsterdam Press):  PN1998 A3 B46829 2005
• French and French:  Wild Strawberries (BFI Film Classics):  PN 1997 S63 F74 1995

FILMS:

Port of Call, Prison, Monika, Sawdust and Tinsel, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly,  Persona, Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, Cries and Whispers, Scenes from a Marriage,  The Magic Flute, Fanny and Alexander, Document:  Fanny and Alexander, Saraband

In this course, we specifically examine the significant influence of American Hollywood representations of the Holocaust as they have shaped and are reflective of the American cultural memory of the Holocaust. In contrast to Europe where the events of the Holocaust took place and were witnessed personally, knowledge of the events in the United States has been from its earliest inception been mediated by cinematic images, be it of a documentary nature – newsreel footage of the opening of the concentration camps in 1945 - or of a more fictionalized nature. By tracing how Hollywood has shaped a uniquely American way of viewing the Holocaust, and while contrasting this at times with other (European) film traditions, we consider in some depth what particular American cultural or political considerations, sensibilities, and concerns, led to the production of certain films in different decades and not others, how certain genres and cinematic techniques work and why they became popular, and why particular movies became blockbusters while others did not. 

Grading:

• Attendance/participation/prep (15%)
• Film Precis (10%)
• Website evaluation (10%)
• Response paper (10%)
• Class presentation (10%)
• Final Project (45%)

This course uses Jesse Byock’s _Viking Language_ book to introduce students to Old Norse/Old Icelandic language, literature, history, and culture in a way that is both academically sound and optimally accessible. We will explore the Viking-Age world (793-1066 C.E.) through its extant texts: runic inscriptions, poetry, sagas, and chronicles. Lessons will introduce vocabulary and grammar at a manageable pace using selected period prose and poetry passages, assigned in order of increasing complexity, as well as exercises using constructed sentences. All four of the modalities of foreign-language learning – reading, writing, listening and speaking – will be integrated into the course, with stress on the first two. Icelandic Pronunciation (IP) will be used.    Graduate students, should they wish to enroll, will be further required to purchase Gordon and Taylor’s Introduction to Old Norse (Oxford, 1981) and to complete additional translation assignments.

Grading:

• 40 % Attendance, Daily Quizzes, and Homework
• 30 % Midterm
• 30 % Final

Often called “the most violent century in human history”, the 20th century brought unprecedented forms of war and destruction to the Middle East and Eurasia.  In the 21^st century, too, new generations of young people have “come of age” during international wars, their lives indelibly marked by coercive political force, national and revolutionary struggle, ethnic and racial cleansing, and/or interpersonal and domestic violence.  Yet, this region of the world – known for its rapidly changing borders, political constellations, and cultural norms – has also seen a remarkable explosion of creativity in the arts, literature, science, politics, philosophy, and social organization, as well as extraordinary technological innovation and invention.  Participants in this course will discuss and analyze literary and cinematic depictions of what it means to “come of age” in the modern Middle East and Eurasia. Weekly readings, post-reading/viewing discussions and discussion board conversations about the memoirs, novels and films selected will deepen participants’ insight into the socio-cultural dilemmas and political conflicts experienced by the young men and women of this region in the past 100 years, and also heighten their awareness of the artists’ political and aesthetic concerns.  Participants will be expected to complete weekly reading and writing assignments, view several films online, participate actively in class discussions, and pursue one thematically organized, independent reading and/or viewing project.  All required texts will be read in English translation, and all required films are available in the original language/s with English subtitles via UT Libraries’ digital collections.  No prior knowledge of a Middle Eastern or Eurasian language is necessary; however, students with knowledge of a particular language or country may choose to focus their project on a set of literary or cinematic works related to that language/country.

Prerequisites:  The course has no prerequisites.

Global Cultures Flag:  This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present.

Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum Add-on: This course may be taken in association with a one-hour Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum credit, working on course materials in Arabic, Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, Bulgarian, Czech, Hebrew, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, or Yakut (Sakha). Students must have a proficiency level of intermediate-low or higher.

Required Reading: The White Ship by Chingiz Aitmatov (Kirghizstan), The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan/USA), The Gray Earth by Galsan Tschinag (Mongolia/Germany), Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar (Israel), Shards: A Novel by Ismet Prcic (Bosnia), Daughters of Fire and Smoke by Ava Noma (Iran/Kurdistan) and other short stories, poems, and articles to be posted on Canvas

Grading Policy

Attendance and Participation   25%

Discussion Board Responses     20%

Spotlight Oral Presentation        5%

Mid-Term Exam                          15%     

Independent Project                  20%

Final Exam                                    15%

Dante's Afterlives (Fall 2021)

ITL 390K, cross-listed with CL 382 and MDV 392M

TTH 12:30-1:45 in HRH 2.106C

Guy P. Raffa, HRH 3.104A; guyr@utexas.edu

Note: While the language of instruction is English, Italian Studies students are required to read primary Italian texts in the original language.

Summarizing Dante's popularity in Italy in the early twentieth century, one critic amusingly observed that the medieval poet "was cooked in every sauce, served hot and cold, grilled and in gelatin, whole and ground, alone or with sides, with critical mayonnaise and historical croutons: there was something for all tastes, for strong stomachs and for dyspeptic ones, for women and for men, for kindergartners and for doddering academics." In this course we will seek intellectual nourishment at the banquet of Dante's legacy by closely examining a broad range of responses to the poet—the man and his works—from Giovanni Boccaccio's biography in the late Middle Ages to Roberto Benigni's performances of TuttoDante and Dan Brown's Inferno. Between the Dante-inspired works of Boccaccio and Brown, we will study various, often conflicting, versions of "Dante" in literature, art, film, politics, history, and popular culture. After establishing a foundation for Dante's influence by discussing his political treatise (Monarchia) and selected cantos of his Commedia (most from Inferno), we will embark on an interpretive journey tracing Dante's evolution from a regional to a national (then nationalist) figure before he attained the global status he enjoys today. Giuseppe Mazzini famously called Dante—Ugo Foscolo's "Ghibelline fugitive"—the "Prophet of the Italian Nation": we will accordingly examine appeals to Dante's authority in promoting the liberation and unification of Italy, but we will also consider his role as a beacon of liberty in the United States. Among other areas of inquiry, we will discuss Catholic interpretations of Dante as a neo-Guelph advocate of papal political power, nationalist appropriations of the poet for territorial expansion and military interventions, and recent representations of Dante as an icon of Italian culture on the world stage.

Touchstone texts in our tour of Dante's legacy across time, space, discipline, and culture will include: writings by Boccaccio, Alfieri, Foscolo, Mazzini, Byron, Leopardi, Carducci, Cordelia Ray, Longfellow, D'Annunzio, Marinetti, T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Primo Levi, Matthew Pearl, Dan Brown, and others; artwork by Botticelli, Blake, Flaxman, Doré, and Suloni Robertson; and films (and clips) by Francesco Bertolini (1911), Harry Lachman (1935), Peter Greenaway and Raúl Ruiz (1989), Woody Allen (1997), Vincent Ward (1998), Sandow Birk (2008), and Michael Patrick King (2008).     

Required Texts (at COOP): Dante, Inferno (Garzanti, 2008) and Monarchy (Cambridge, 1996)

Optional: The Complete Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Divine Comedy (Chicago, 2009)

[Other sources and critical works will be posted on Canvas.]

Assignments and Computation of Grade

Classwork and participation (including weekly Discussion Forum entries on Canvas): 20%

Short essay (750-1000 words) on a creative work studied this semester in relation to Dante: 15%

Discussion leader for a lesson on creative and critical works for your research paper: 15%

Research paper of 10-15 pages (2500-3750 words) with full documentation: 50%

Danteworlds Web site (http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu): In addition to entries, audio recordings, and study questions, this Web site contains numerous images from works by Sandro Botticelli, John Flaxman, William Blake, Gustave Dorè, and Suloni Robertson (a UT graduate).

Sources for Videos and Images

Canvas contains links to the following streaming videos: 1911 silent Inferno (set to music by Tangerine Dream), Harry Lachman's Dante's Inferno (1935), the 2008 Puppet Inferno based on the artwork of Sandow Birk, and A TV Dante (1989): Cantos 1 and 5 by Peter Greenaway, and Cantos 9-14 by Raúl Ruiz. In addition to containing entries with abridged commentary from The Complete Danteworlds, the Danteworlds Web site (DW: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu) hosts galleries of artistic images (Botticelli, Vellutello commentary, Blake, Flaxman, Doré, Robertson) that you should consult as part of your preparation for the assigned Inferno cantos. I also encourage you to visit the "Dante Today" Web site for modern Dante sightings / citings as we proceed through the Inferno. Over 1000 images from Cornell University's Divine Comedy Image Archive are available on Shared Shelf Commons (http://www.sscommons.org/openlibrary/welcome.html), an open-access image library. For links to other on-line collections of Dante images, see the "World of Dante" Web site: http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_main.html.

Other Dante Web Sites

Dante Today (Dante in contemporary culture): http://research.bowdoin.edu/dante-today/

Dartmouth Dante Project (commentaries on the Divine Comedy): http://dante.dartmouth.edu

Digital Dante (Columbia University): http://digitaldante.columbia.edu

World of Dante (University of Virginia): http://www.worldofdante.org

Princeton Dante Project: http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/index.html

Dante On-Line (Società Dantesca Italiana): http://www.danteonline.it/italiano/home_ita.asp

Course Objectives

1) Mastery of the course content through intensive study of a wide range of creative responses to Dante and his work. From Boccaccio to Benigni, Botticelli to Blake, Byron to Birk, Beckett to Brown (to list just the B's), we will look critically at Dante-inspired and Dante-related works across time, space, media, genres, disciplines, and cultural registers.

2) Systematic, targeted attention to research, writing, and oral communication skills to produce scholarly work fit for presentation at an academic conference and, with reasonable revision, for inclusion in a dissertation or for publication in a reputable venue.

3) To advance the reciprocity of scholarly and teaching excellence, we will explore pedagogical strategies and digital humanities projects to inform a potential undergraduate course on Dante's cultural legacy with knowledge of the material studied and researched this semester.  

The project we will undertake is an exercise of recovery and public scholarship: it is a work in progress seminar where participants evolve their own project explaining how these legacies still determine Western thought (or good or ill).  The result will be a recovery, because many of the "standard accounts" of these thinkers and their impacts were produced in nationalist eras, which falsified many of the original problems they answered to.  It will be public scholarship because the class projects will be aimed at producing museum-type materials for more general audiences in your own home disciplines, using online resources and those from the HRC (which owns, for example, a complete edition of the illustrated version of A. v. Humboldt's Cosmos as well as early editions in Spanish and those printed for US audiences). 

We will read basic texts introducing this generation of thinkers poised between the Enlightenment and European colonialism, with an emphasis on their central concepts of history, nation, mind, and languages (including poetic language) -- the core of emerging nationalist politics of the nineteenth century, deriving from these source texts but not at one with them.  Thereafter, we will collaboratively work through designing complementary research strategies involving both textual and visual materials (maps, book illustrations, art) that will make visible to specified audiences what is at stake in the materials, and why/how today's audiences/readers should attend to these legacies today as persistent in cultural politics.  We'll leave something behind to help others understand what we come to see.

The seminar will be conducted in English, with materials available in ­­­­­German, English, and Spanish; French materials can be added if student populations exist. Most texts available in CANVAS or otherwise online.

Premodern Race

It’s an old theoretical canard that race and discourses on race existed in the West only from the Enlightenment onward: that premodern European culture was pre-racial, because its operative prioritizing discourse was founded on religion, and not biological-scientific taxonomic systems of bodily difference, despite the evidence, in medieval culture and history, of institutions and phenomena that we would today identify as racial, were they to recur. 

This seminar will ask what is lost or gained by tracing discourses on race backward in time.  Beginning with a selection of texts from antiquity, we consider a range of medieval texts to ask what racial thinking, racial phenomena, racial institutions, and racial practices are, in their historically-contextualized relations to the following (not listed in order of priority or procedure): (1) war, conquest, colonization and empire-formation; (2) theories of blood, reproduction, and genealogy; (3) religion, canon law, and church apparatuses; (4) the body and physiognomy (color, biology, etc); (5) sex and gender; (6) slavery, occupations, and economic systems; (7) nation-formation, “nationalisms”, state apparatuses; (8) disciplinary systems of knowledge-power (climatology, geography, ethnography, etc).  We will end by student-led critical readings of 3 Shakespearean plays: Titus Andronicus, Merchant of Venice, and Othello. 

Medieval materials include romances, travel literature, historical documents, manuscript drawings, saints' legends, maps, statuary, and whatever else may be useful.  For critical comparison, we will also read two Arabic original documents in translation, in which race is featured.  Concomitantly, we will read a selection of theoretical writing on race by scholars working with postmedieval periods, to test definitions against earlier texts and documents, to see how established theories of race might be revised, augmented, or replaced. Classicists and early modern studies students in the seminar can contribute substantially to take their period out of parentheses. 

Requirements: This course runs like a research seminar: students working in any period, discipline, or culture are welcome.  Previous knowledge of the European Middle Ages or languages other than English is not required, but non-medievalists are expected to thicken their understanding of the Middle Ages in a serious and aggregative way, and medievalists are expected to engage with critical and theoretical texts we read with the same degree of attentiveness and commitment they afford medieval texts. Though not required for seminar discussion, possession of other languages, European and non-European, medieval and modern, is an advantage for research and writing.  Medievalists who can read our texts in their original languages (Middle High German, Latin, Franco-Italian, Middle Dutch, etc) should do this.  Other requirements: 2 seminar presentations and a term paper for a letter grade; presentations only for pass/fail.

Sample texts (suggestive, subject to change, open to negotiation): “Airs, Waters, Places,” Herodotus’ Histories (selections), Vinland Sagas, Parzival, Moriaen, Al-Jahiz, The Book of the Glory of the Black Race, Ibn Battuta’s travels in West Africa, John of Plano Carpini’s Ystoria Mongalorum, William of Rubruck’s Itinerarium, Chaucer’s Prioress's Tale and Man of Law's Tale; Marian miracle tales from the Vernon manuscript; King of Tars, Richard Coer de Lyon, Marco Polo’s Il Milione, Mandeville’s Travels, Titus Andronicus, Othello, Merchant of Venice; a small selection of theoretical and critical readings.

Course Description:

Octavio Paz and Vicente Aleixandre once considered the Havana literary journal Orígenes “the best of its kind in our language." Published from 1944 to 1956 by poet-writer José Lezama Lima and translator-essayist José Rodríguez Feo, Orígenesfeatured works by poets of international renown such as T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and Saint-John Perse and by the circle of young local poets eventually known as Grupo Orígenes. After the Cuban Revolution and up to this day, most origenistawriters—Lezama Lima, Virgilio Piñera, Cinto Vitier, Fina García Marruz, María Zambrano, Lorenzo García Vega, Gastón Baquero, Eliseo Diego, and Lydia Cabrera, among many others—came to be recognized as canonical or cult authors, in and out of Cuba.

This course will evaluate the Orígenesconstellation of authors and publications as an ever-changing network of artists and intellectuals confronting the challenges and consequences of some of the most polarizing political events in the hemisphere following the Mexican Revolution. It will review lasting questions raised by the Orígenes project about the role of art and poetry during the Spanish Civil War, WWII, the Cold War, the Cuban Revolution, and post-1989 globalization, and about anti-normative expressions of sexuality, religion, gender, race, and national and cultural ontopolitics in print, visual, and virtual modes of dissemination. Depending on student interest and choice, we will review Orígenes-like polemics in a selection of rival cohorts and journals in its past, present, and future, both archipelagic and diasporic, regional and global, print and virtual. Among these options are:  in Cuba, Jorge Mañach’s Revista Avance, Nicolás Guillén’s Gaceta del Caribe; José Rodríguez Feo’s Ciclón; Guillermo Cabrera Infante's Lunes de Revolución; Roberto Fernández Retamar's Casa de las Américas; Nancy Morejón and Jorge Mario's Ediciones El Puente, andthe post-Soviet samizdat Revista Diaspora(s); in exile, Reinaldo Arenas' Mariel (New York), Octavio Armand's 

Escandalar (Venezuela), Belkis Cuza Malé's Linden Lane (New Jersey-Dallas), Jesús Díaz's Revista Encuentro and Antonio José Ponte’s Diario de Cuba(Madrid); in the Dominican Republic, Alberto Baeza Flores’ La poesía sorprendida and Brigadas dominicanas; in Haiti, the Revue Indigène;in Martinique, Aimé Césaire and René Ménil’s Tropiques; in Puerto Rico Indice, Nilita Vientós Gastón’s Asomante y Sin Nombre, Rosario Ferré’sZona Carga y Descarga, Guajana, orNómada.

Since almost all of the journal and print materials for this class will be consulted virtually, a good part of our reflection will deal with how digitalization initiatives related to Orígenesand other journal networks in the Antilles and Greater Caribbean are reshaping and galvanizing the academic field. We will reflect about how “distant reading” programing and online data searches could be used to set new agendas for historical research and esthetic analysis about journal-and-cohort dynamics. Finally, with the help of the LLILAS Benson Curriculum Digital Humanities Curriculum Redesign Grant (if won), we will capitalize on the Benson Collection’s recent purchase of origenistapoet Eliseo Diego archives to think up and propose digital, publishing, curatorial, and material display projects that can invigorate further the study of Orígenesand/or other Caribbean Journal Networks (CJNs).

Grading

One class presentation/book review on chosen scholarship on Orígenes or other CJNs for tentative publication in E3W Review (10%); digital research proposal based on materials from the Eliseo Diego archives or other relevant resources at the Benson or the Ransom Center(10%); short reading presentation assignments (15%); seminar participation (15%); 15-18 page research paper/possible conference presentation with preliminary draft (50%).

Texts

Journals (digitally accessible through Blackboard)

Required (Cuba):

Verbum (1937)

Espuela de Plata (1939-1941)

Poeta, Clavileño, Nadie Parecía (1941-43)

Orígenes, revista de literatura y arte (1944-1956)

Gaceta del Caribe (1944)

Ciclón (1956-1959)

Optional (Cuba):

Revista Avance (1927-30)

Lunes de Revolución (1959-1961)

Ediciones El Puente (Havana)

Revista Mariel (New York)

Escandalar (Venezuela)

Revista Diaspora(s)

Journal choices from the rest of the Caribbean will be decided in consultation with class participants

Books:

Required:

José Rodríguez Feo, Mi correspondencia con Lezama Lima [Co-op]

Jose Lezama Lima, Paradiso, La expresión americana [Co-op or Internet]

Cintio Vitier, De Peña Pobre, Lo cubano en la poesía [Co-op Custom Publishing]

Virgilio Piñera, Poesía y crítica, La carne de René [Co-op Custom Publishing, Co-op)]

Ernesto Cardenal, En Cuba (digitalización de seleciones en Canvas)

Lorenzo García Vega, Espirales del cuje, Los años de Orígenes [Co-op Custom Publishing, Co-op]

Fina García Marruz, La familia de Orígenes [Co-op Custom Publishing]

Antonio José Ponte, El libro perdido de los origenistas [Co-op]

Angel Escobar, Abuso de confianza (1992) (Canvas or Amazon)

Optional:

Jesus Barquet, ed. Ediciones El Puente en la Habana de los años 60

Revista Diaspora(s), edición facsimilar (2012)

Reading Packets:

Packet #1: Anthology of critical articles on Orígenes [P1, Jenn's Copies]

Packet #2: Reader with articles on methodologies in the Digital Humanities relevant for processing and analyzing CJNs (Caribbean Journal Networks) such as Orígenes.

Choice of scholarly studies for presentations:

 Ben A. Heller, de Assimilation/Generation/Resurrection. Contrapuntal Readings in the Poetry of José Lezama Lima (2000); Thomas Anderson, Everything in its Place: The Life and Works of Virgilio Piñera (2006); Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia, Fulguración del espacio. Letras e imaginario institucional de la Revolución Cubana (2002); Adriana Kanzelpolsky, Un dibujo del mundo: extranjeros en Orígenes (2004); Rafael Rojas, Motivos de Anteo. Patria y nación en la historia intelectual de Cuba (2008); Nancy Calomarde, El diálogo oblicuo: Orígenes y Sur: Fragmentos de una escena de lectura latinoamericana (1944-1956) (2010); Eduardo González, Cuba and the Fall: Christian Text and Queer Narrative in Lezama Lima and Reinaldo Arenas (2010); Sergio Ugalde Quintana, La biblioteca en la isla. Una lectura de la expresión americana de José Lezama Lima (2010); James Buckwalter-Arias, Cuba and the New Origenismo (2010); Amaury Gutiérrez Coto, El grupo Orígenes de Lezama Lima o el infierno de la trascendencia (2012); Juan Pablo Lupi, Reading Anew: José Lezama Lima's Rhetorical Investigations (2012); Jorge Luis Arcos, Kaleidoscopio. La poética de Lorenzo. García Vega (2012); Duanel Díaz, Límites del origenismo (new edition, 2015); Marta Hernández Salván, Mínima Cuba (2015); Jaime Rodríguez Matos, Writing of the Formless: José Lezama and the End of Time (2017); Juan Pablo Lupi and César A. Salgado, eds., La futuridad del naufragio; Orígenes,estelas y derivas(2019); Ingrid Robyn, Márgenes del reverso. José Lezama Lima en la encrucijada vanguardista(2020)

This course introduces students to the canons of Arabic literature through readings in translation. Texts range from pre-Islamic poetry in the 6th century to novels in the 20th century, and include the Qur’an, Maqamat, Islamic court literature known as adab, literary criticism, philosophical literature, early modern love poetry, European genres in the modern era, and more. We will discuss to what degree the term “canon” applies to these texts and will consider how the work of early modern orientalists and Islamic revivalists influenced our perception of the canon(s). We will also explore the persistence of certain literary forms, especially classical Arabic poetry, up until the 21st century, with reality shows coming out of the Arab world like “Prince of Poets.” The question of translation will be considered throughout. No knowledge of Arabic or Islam needed.

Weekly readings, attendance & participation: 40%

Presentation(s): 10%

Research paper: 50%

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)

Current Course Schedule Information (registrar.utexas.edu)