Karen Grumberg

Intro To Comparative Lit

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.

Space and Place in Literature

Professor Karen Grumberg

Mon. 2-5, CLA 0.124

Office hours: By appointment

What does the representation of space and place in literature contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural dynamics of the past century? We hear much about territory and airspace, cartography and border, nation and colony. We hear far less about spaces of human existence and experience: places as ordinary as a house, a terrace, or a garden, or as complex as major cities, the poetics of which dominated earlier theoretical scholarship on place. Nor do we hear about how sites such as borders and security zones are themselves spaces of social experience and practice. This course will explore the poetics of social and experiential space as expressed in literature from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, spanning diverse generic and aesthetic affiliations. We will examine these texts from a wide interdisciplinary array of theoretical perspectives on space and place, which consider the meanings of space as a place, as a condition, as a metaphor, and as a practice. All readings will be in English or English translation.

Class Requirements:

Attendance and vigorous participation

Periodic presentations of readings

Presentation of research project to class at end of semester

Research paper on relevant topic of your choosing (15-20 pgs.)  

Assessment is based on participation (50%) and research paper (50%)

Required Texts:

Fiction

Orly Castel-Bloom, Dolly City

Don DeLillo, White Noise

Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

Non-Fiction

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Course Reader, available at Jenn’s Copies

Please check back for updates.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

Course Description

The course, which builds upon HEB 601C, emphasizes composition, comprehension and conversation in Modern Hebrew, and provides a segue to upper-division Hebrew courses such as Hebrew Grammar, Advanced Conversation and Composition, and Introduction to Hebrew Literature. Oral discourse is maintained at maximal level, and small group/individual instruction sessions supplement the regular class routine. Audio-visual materials are frequently used. Students write short papers, present topics to the class and lead class discussions. Active participation in class discussions is a decisive element in students' participation grade. Not open to native speakers of Hebrew.

Grading Policy

Participation 15%; Quizzes 30%; Homework 20% Presentations 5%; Midtem exam 10%; Final exam 20% May vary with instructor.

Texts

Information on texts will be provided by the instructor.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

This course is the first semester of intensive Hebrew language instruction.

Texts

Raizen, Modern Hebrew for Beginners

Grading

To be provided by instructor.

This course is the first semester of intensive Hebrew language instruction.

Texts

Raizen, Modern Hebrew for Beginners

Grading

To be provided by instructor.

This is a graduate seminar on literary and other theories dealing with space and place, and their application in literary and cinematic works.

What does the representation of space and place in literature contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural dynamics of the past century? We hear much about territory and airspace, cartography and border, nation and colony. We hear far less about spaces of human existence and experience: places as ordinary as a house, a terrace, or a garden, or as complex as major cities, the poetics of which dominated earlier theoretical scholarship on place.  Nor do we hear about how sites such as borders and security zones are themselves spaces of social experience and practice. This course will explore the poetics of social and experiential space as expressed in literature from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. We will examine these fictional texts from a diverse interdisciplinary array of theoretical perspectives on space and place, which consider the meanings of space as a place, as a condition, and as a practice. All readings will be in English translation.

Previous readings have included:

Sherwood Anderson, selected stories (1919)

Anzia Yezierska, Salome of the Tenements (1923)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Henry Roth, Call It Sleep (1934)

Amos Oz, selected stories (1963)

Marguerite Duras, The Lover (1984)

Philip Roth, The Counterlife (1986)

Sayed Kashua, Let It Be Morning (2006)

The previous course reader included

Selections from the following:

Robert Alter, Imagined Cities

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Edward Casey, Getting Back into Place

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

David Harvey, Spaces of Hope

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space

Barabara Mann, A Place in History

Edward Soja, Postmodern Geographies

Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place

Thinking Space, eds. Mike Crang and Nigel Thrift

Homi Bhabha, in locating an international postcolonial culture, offers the concept of Third Space to account for its hybridity. He writes that 'we should remember that it is the 'inter' -- the cutting edge of translation and negotiation, the inbetween space -- that carries the burden of the meaning of culture' (Bhabha 1994). The existence of the Israeli Arab and the Arab Jew, two seemingly impossible categories of identity, suggests a reconsideration of a relationship that is often uncritically cast as antithetical, and seems to confirm the ideal of hybridity. However, the encounter with in-betweenness for both groups, rather than offering a fertile and fluid Third Space of identity formation that may help 'elude the politics of polarity,' foregrounds the uneasy and often paralyzing tension they impose (Bhabha 1994). As the world moves beyond the post-colonial paradigm and new demographic and cultural dynamics take shape, our understanding of identity must necessarily shift as well. In this seminar, we shall examine the theorization of in-betweenness and question its applicability in literature and film by Israeli Arab and Arab Jewish authors and filmmakers. Foremost among our concerns will be the poetics of in-betweenness, as they are articulated through allusion, spatiality, intertextuality, and more. Students interested in in-betweenness in other cultural and linguistic contexts are welcome and encouraged to join the seminar; no knowledge of Arabic or Hebrew is necessary.

Sample Texts

Robert Young, 'Hybridity and Diaspora,' from Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture, and Race, Homi Bhabha, from The Location of CultureDeleuze and Guattari, 'Toward a Minor Literature'Spivak, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' Selections from Reconstructing Hybridity (essay collection) Anton Shammas, Arabesques: Hanan Hever, 'Hebrew in an Israeli Arab Hand: Anton Shammas's Arabesques' (from Producing the Modern Hebrew Canon) Taha, 'The Palestinians in Israel: Towards a Minority Literature'Shammas, 'Mixed as in Pidgin: The Vanishing Arabic of a 'Bilingual' City' Snir, ' 'Till Spring Comes': Arabic and Hebrew Literary Debates among Iraqi-Jews in Israel (1950-2000)', Sayed Kashua, Dancing Arabs, Hochberg, 'To Be or Not to Be an Israeli Arab: Sayed Kashua and the Prospect of Minority Speech-Acts', Brenner, 'The Search for Identity in Israeli Arab Fiction: Atallah Mansour, Emile Habiby, and Anton Shammas', D. Kayyal, ''Arabs Dancing in a New Light of Arabesques': Minor Hebrew Works of Palestinian Authors in the Eyes of Critics', Emile Habiby, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, Snir, ' 'Hebrew As the Language of Grace': Arab-Palestinian Writers in Hebrew'Ronit Matalon, The One Facing Us, Hochberg, 'Permanent Immigration': Jacqueline Kahanoff, Ronit Matalon, and the Impetus of Levantinism', Sami Michael, A Trumpet in the Wadi, Smadar Lavie, 'Blowups in the Borderzones: Third World Israeli Authors' Gropings for Home', Snir, ' 'We Were Like Those Who Dream': Iraqi-Jewish Writers in Israel in the 1950s'Eli Amir, Scapegoat, Ella Shohat, 'The Invention of the Mizrahim' Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt, Memmi, 'Who is an Arab Jew?' Albert Cohen, Book of My MotherHelene Cixous, on Passporicity

Grading: 

Participation: 50%; Seminar Paper: 50%

Students read and discuss Hebrew language materials related to the subject matter of another designated course.

This upper-division course approaches the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians through a multifaceted cultural lens. The course begins with a consideration of the two major national identities at stake to better understand how they contribute to the collective imagination and to representations of the conflict. To this end, the semester is divided into five sections, each one devoted to a different cultural phenomenon: 1. Visual Culture (Film, photography, art) 2. Literature (Novels, short stories, poetry, theater) 3. Music 4. Spatial Culture (Architecture and Landscape) 5. New Media (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) The goal is for students to be exposed to the multivalent and complex reverberations of the conflict beyond the political and into the everyday lived experience of being Israeli and Palestinian -- in other words, to humanize the conflict through culture.

Texts

Texts will include (among others): - films: Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, Eran Riklis’s Zaytoun, and Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention; - photography exhibits such as Bashir Makhoul’s Enter Ghost, Exit Ghost and Noel Jabbour’s Palestinian Interiors; - art such as Sivan Hurvitz’s graphic illustrations; - writings by Amos Oz (Nomad and Viper), Etgar Keret (Cocked and Locked), David Grossman (excerpts from The Yellow Wind), Mahmoud Darwish (poetry), and Ghassan Kanafani (from In the Land of the Sad Orange); - music by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as well as traditional and popular artists; - essays on the importance of particular landscape features (such as olive and eucalyptus trees, forests, and the sea) as well as features or types of built environment (the kibbutz, the Palestinian village); - blog posts and new media campaigns for awareness and activism (Electronic Intifada, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others).

Grading Policy

Partner or Group Presentations: 15%. Students will present either in small groups on one of the five categories outlined above. The topic will be chosen in consultation with the instructor and will entail research. Presentations will be ongoing throughout the semester. - Analytical Paper: 20%. A critical comparative analysis of two texts (4-5 pages). - Essay Exams: An essay-based midterm exam (20%) and a final exam (25%). - Participation (20%): Vigorous, regular participation in class discussion. - Possible Extra-Credit Assignments: A creative project (a short film, work of art, poem, etc., relevant to the class topic); a response or short reaction paper to a relevant text not on the syllabus; a response or short reaction paper to a relevant lecture.

Description:

What is world literature? What does it mean for a literary text to transcend particularity? The diverse texts we will encounter in this yearlong course demand a confrontation with this question. The first semester will focus on the foundational texts of what is considered the “world canon,” while the second semester will take us to the farthest reaches of the globe and to the literary and artistic movements that have shaped the contemporary western conception of literature. Throughout the year, we will consider and critique assumptions that inform cultural processes. Our goal is to become engaged readers, attuned to the contexts of cultural production and consumption and attentive to the symbiotic relationship between culture and society. From Homer, Virgil, and the Icelandic Sagas, through Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe, and finally to Kafka’s century, we shall consider the implications of literature’s crossing of linguistic, geographic, and temporal boundaries and critique the conceptualization of “modernity” that is intricately intertwined with this process. We will also explore the manner in which adaptations of these texts into new forms, such as film, contribute to their continuing relevance in our world.

Assignments:

The course grade will be based on energetic and engaged participation in discussion and several writing assignments. ??

Texts: ?

Specific reading assignments to be announced.

About the Professor:

Karen Grumberg earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from UCLA in 2004. She specializes in modern Hebrew literature but also studied twentieth-century American literature and French. Her first book, Place and Ideology in Contemporary Hebrew Literature, was published in 2011 by Syracuse University Press. Currently she is writing a book on Gothic tropes in Hebrew literature, and is happy to have a legitimate excuse to spend time thinking, reading, and writing about vampires and melancholic castles.

This course provides an introduction to exile, a definitive theme in Hebrew literature from Biblical times to the 21st century. It focuses on major figures writing in Hebrew in different historical periods and parts of the world, and asks how they expressed and dealt with their sense of strangeness or their literal exile. For some writers, exile is a central force that pervades the literary imagination. However, the consciousness of exile often informs even those texts in which it is not the primary concern. This course explores an array of Hebrew literature in terms of this theme, which has been a formative one in Jewish identity, and which continues to be a major concern in Hebrew writing. This course is conducted in Hebrew.

Texts

Course reader containing short stories and poetry in Hebrew.

Grading

Participation 50%: Vigorous and consistent participation in class discussion. This includes contributions of questions, comments, and analysis of the day's reading assignment. Please note that each student is expected to lead two class discussions over the course of the semester as well as to present his/her final paper ideas at the end of the semester; these three components will count toward the overall participation grade on a CR/NC basis. The bulk of the participation grade is based on the student's daily participation in class discussion.

Paper 1 20%: This 4-5 page paper will be a close reading analysis, in Hebrew, of a section of one text on the syllabus and will be graded for both content and language usage.

Paper 2 30%: This 8-10 page paper will be a comparative analysis, in Hebrew, of two texts on the syllabus and will be graded for both content and language usage.

This is a graduate seminar on literary and other theories dealing with space and place, and their application in literary and cinematic works.Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

Readings

A. B. Yehoshua, Mr Mani, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, Ronit Matalon, The One Facing Us, Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, Toni Morrison, Beloved, Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Theodor Herzl, Altneuland, Orly Castel-Bloom, Dolly CityYi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: the Perspective of Experience, Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of SpaceThomas More, Utopia (Norton), Also: Various articles in course reader.

Grading

Class participation: 50%Research paper: 50%

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

This course is an introduction to the idea of exile, a central concept in Hebrew literature from the biblical era to today. The course focuses on important authors in the modern era and examines how they express and deal with exile. For certain authors, exile was the motif driving the literary imagination. Sometimes, it is expressed in a feeling of strangeness even at home. Through a selection of literary works, the course considers different approaches to exile, a motif in Jewish identity that continues to preoccupy Hebrew authors to this day. The main goal of this course is to improve students' oral and reading comprehension skills in Hebrew. Therefore, in addition to writing assignments, each student will prepare an oral reading response to present before the class and thereby function as discussion leader. Each student will have the opportunity to present briefly on two texts over the course of the semester. Additionally, students are encouraged to build and maintain a vocabulary notebook.

Texts

The required course reader, available at Jenn's Copies, includes all required readings for the semester.

Grading Policy

Writing assignments: 50%, Oral presentations: 20%, Class participation: 30%

Homi Bhabha, in locating an international postcolonial culture, offers the concept of Third Space to account for its hybridity. He writes that 'we should remember that it is the 'inter' -- the cutting edge of translation and negotiation, the inbetween space -- that carries the burden of the meaning of culture' (Bhabha 1994). The existence of the Israeli Arab and the Arab Jew, two seemingly impossible categories of identity, suggests a reconsideration of a relationship that is often uncritically cast as antithetical, and seems to confirm the ideal of hybridity. However, the encounter with in-betweenness for both groups, rather than offering a fertile and fluid Third Space of identity formation that may help 'elude the politics of polarity,' foregrounds the uneasy and often paralyzing tension they impose (Bhabha 1994). As the world moves beyond the post-colonial paradigm and new demographic and cultural dynamics take shape, our understanding of identity must necessarily shift as well. In this seminar, we shall examine the theorization of in-betweenness and question its applicability in literature and film by Israeli Arab and Arab Jewish authors and filmmakers. Foremost among our concerns will be the poetics of in-betweenness, as they are articulated through allusion, spatiality, intertextuality, and more. Students interested in in-betweenness in other cultural and linguistic contexts are welcome and encouraged to join the seminar; no knowledge of Arabic or Hebrew is necessary.

Sample Texts

Robert Young, 'Hybridity and Diaspora,' from Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture, and Race, Homi Bhabha, from The Location of CultureDeleuze and Guattari, 'Toward a Minor Literature'Spivak, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' Selections from Reconstructing Hybridity (essay collection) Anton Shammas, Arabesques: Hanan Hever, 'Hebrew in an Israeli Arab Hand: Anton Shammas's Arabesques' (from Producing the Modern Hebrew Canon) Taha, 'The Palestinians in Israel: Towards a Minority Literature'Shammas, 'Mixed as in Pidgin: The Vanishing Arabic of a 'Bilingual' City' Snir, ' 'Till Spring Comes': Arabic and Hebrew Literary Debates among Iraqi-Jews in Israel (1950-2000)', Sayed Kashua, Dancing Arabs, Hochberg, 'To Be or Not to Be an Israeli Arab: Sayed Kashua and the Prospect of Minority Speech-Acts', Brenner, 'The Search for Identity in Israeli Arab Fiction: Atallah Mansour, Emile Habiby, and Anton Shammas', D. Kayyal, ''Arabs Dancing in a New Light of Arabesques': Minor Hebrew Works of Palestinian Authors in the Eyes of Critics', Emile Habiby, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, Snir, ' 'Hebrew As the Language of Grace': Arab-Palestinian Writers in Hebrew'Ronit Matalon, The One Facing Us, Hochberg, 'Permanent Immigration': Jacqueline Kahanoff, Ronit Matalon, and the Impetus of Levantinism', Sami Michael, A Trumpet in the Wadi, Smadar Lavie, 'Blowups in the Borderzones: Third World Israeli Authors' Gropings for Home', Snir, ' 'We Were Like Those Who Dream': Iraqi-Jewish Writers in Israel in the 1950s'Eli Amir, Scapegoat, Ella Shohat, 'The Invention of the Mizrahim' Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt, Memmi, 'Who is an Arab Jew?' Albert Cohen, Book of My MotherHelene Cixous, on Passporicity

Grading: 

Participation-50%; Seminar Paper-50%

Students read and discuss Arabic language materials related to the subject matter of another designated course.     

Course Description

This upper-division undergraduate course will examine literary and cinematic representations ofelements of the Israel/Palestine conflict by the most important Israeli, Palestinian, and “Arab Israeli”writers and filmmakers. In a discussion-intensive course, students will be exposed to diverseperspectives of the conflict. Some of the central questions we will investigate are: What effect canliterature and film have on the conflict? Conversely, what effect has the conflict had on literature andfilm? Do authors and filmmakers on any side of the conflict have a moral obligation to represent it, or torepresent it in a particular way? What is the author or artist’s role in places at war? No knowledge ofHebrew or Arabic is necessary.

Texts

Ghassan Kanafani, from Men In the Sun; Mahmoud Darwish, from Unfortunately, It Was ParadiseAnton Shammas, Arabesques. Additional textbooks will be provided by the instructor.

Grading & Requirements

Quiz 10%Active Participation 20%Essay Exam 1 20%Essay Exam 2 20%Final Essay Exam 30%

What does the representation of space and place in literature contribute to our understanding of the social and cultural dynamics of the past century? We hear much about territory and airspace, cartography and border, nation and colony. We hear far less about spaces of human existence and experience: places as ordinary as a house, a terrace, or a garden, or as complex as major cities, the poetics of which dominated earlier theoretical scholarship on place.  Nor do we hear about how sites such as borders and security zones are themselves spaces of social experience and practice. This course will explore the poetics of social and experiential space as expressed in literature from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. We will examine these fictional texts from a diverse interdisciplinary array of theoretical perspectives on space and place, which consider the meanings of space as a place, as a condition, and as a practice. All readings will be in English translation.

Sherwood Anderson, selected stories (1919)

Anzia Yezierska, Salome of the Tenements (1923)

Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway (1925)

Henry Roth, Call It Sleep (1934)

Amos Oz, selected stories (1963)

Marguerite Duras, The Lover (1984)

Philip Roth, The Counterlife (1986)

Sayed Kashua, Let It Be Morning (2006)

Course reader

Selections from the following:

Robert Alter, Imagined Cities

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Edward Casey, Getting Back into Place

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

David Harvey, Spaces of Hope

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space

Barabara Mann, A Place in History

Edward Soja, Postmodern Geographies

Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place

Thinking Space, eds. Mike Crang and Nigel Thrift

This course will encompass almost six decades of fiction, from the 1948 declaration of Israeli independence to the present time. We will read the works of the first Israeli generation from the late 1940s and early 1950s, and continue with those of the State Generation, or New Wave (including Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua), of the 1950s-1980s. We will continue with contemporary writing by women, Mizrahim, & Israeli Arabs, and finally, arrive at postmodernism. Our explorations of Israeli literature will be marked by points of political turbulence and upheaval, beginning with the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and culminating in the current Al-Aqsa Intifada. Along the way, we will examine some major themes of Israeli literature, including the shift from collective concerns to individual ones, the disillusionment with Zionism, the creation of an Israeli identity, and intergenerational conflicts. We will also consider the interaction between literature and various tensions in Israeli society (Jews and Arabs, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, the religious and the secular).

Texts:

Book Lost; "Facing Forests"; Kashua, Dancing Arabs; Oz, "Nomad & Viper"; Matalon, Bliss; Grossman, "Yani on the Mountain"; Shamir, Walked Through Fields; Megged, Living on Dead; Hareven, City Many Days; Shalev, Blue Mountain; Appelfeld, Badenheim; Castel-Bloom, Human Parts.

Grading:

To be provided by the instructor.

This course will examine contemporary Jewish literature from the U.S., France, and Israel, in terms of their relationship (or lack thereof) with Judaism and Jewishness. In this context, we will read well-known works by several major authors from each country. How does their work interpret Jewishness, if at all? Does it redefine the sacred? Conversely, what is the role of the secular in these texts? We will consider these and other questions, taking into account not only nationality, but also gender, ethnicity, and generational differences.

Texts:

Mind-Body Problem, Counterlife, Pillar of Salt, Book of My Mother, Shadows of a Childhood, City of Many Days, Lover, Dolly City. Additional information regarding textbooks will be provided by the instructor.

Grading:

To be provided by the instructor.

SPECIAL NOTE: This course satisfies Area V requirements for English and Area II requirements for Religious Studies.

Please check back for updates.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

Please check back for updates.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

The goal of this course is to equip the intermediate student of Biblical Hebrew to become a more independent and proficient reader of the biblical text. Students will read, listen to, discuss, and write about the Hebrew Bible in its original language. Class time will be spent activating Hebrew vocabulary and grammar by reading and discussing biblical narrative prose and poetic texts. Students will learn and practice how to use the major lexicons and reference grammars of Biblical Hebrew. Preparation for class will include reading, listening, and homework exercises.

The goal of this course is to equip the intermediate student of Biblical Hebrew to become a more independent and proficient reader of the biblical text. Students will read, listen to, discuss, and write about the Hebrew Bible in its original language. Class time will be spent activating Hebrew vocabulary and grammar by reading and discussing biblical narrative prose and poetic texts. Students will learn and practice how to use the major lexicons and reference grammars of Biblical Hebrew. Preparation for class will include reading, listening, and homework exercises.

The goal of this course is to equip the intermediate student of Biblical Hebrew to become a more independent and proficient reader of the biblical text. Students will read, listen to, discuss, and write about the Hebrew Bible in its original language. Class time will be spent activating Hebrew vocabulary and grammar by reading and discussing biblical narrative prose and poetic texts. Students will learn and practice how to use the major lexicons and reference grammars of Biblical Hebrew. Preparation for class will include reading, listening, and homework exercises.