UGRD > MLLC
Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Courses
MLLC 100 Global Studies Gateway +
Description:
This course provides an introduction to global studies, a field that examines the interconnectedness of societies at the local, regional, national and international levels through the study of culture. We will investigate the following primary questions: What is a national identity? What is globalization? What are the cultural processes by which these identities shift or mutate across time and space? How is national life (politics, economics, religion, etc.) represented to people both inside and outside the nation, whether in political rhetoric or through cultural production (film, novels, visual arts, theater, graphic novels, etc)? What is the function of language in the establishment of identity and power? More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 150G Self and Other +
Description:
A study of personal and social identity through careful analysis of major works of world literature and media. This class explores essential human questions such as: How do we recognize ourselves as individuals? How do we understand ourselves as part of a social group? How we are perceived by others? How can cultural products reflect perspectives on identity and individuality? The class thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the cultural construction of self and offers more nuanced standpoints on identity politics and questions of diversity. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 155L Great Books of East Asia: Classics of Love and War +
Description:
This class introduces students to some of the most famous works of literature in China, Japan, and Korea before 1900. The semester is divided into two parts: the first half examines poetry and fiction in which romances are centrally featured, and the second half looks at stories that present specific points of view about major wars, battles, and acts of violence. The course will provide a broad knowledge of premodern literature in East Asia, as well as of cultural and historical contexts that are relevant to the texts. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 200 Discovering Your Dream Job +
Description:
Wondering how to turn your major into a career you love? Through actionable steps you will explore what kind of day-to-day work life you find rewarding; research what jobs in the global market match those requirements; meet professionals in those fields and positions; and finally, successfully apply for internships and jobs by translating your lived experience into language that resonates with potential employers. The course will host career mentors from a variety of industries, including cultural institutions, government, health sciences, and business.Course taught in English. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 210G Great Books +
Description:
This course provides instruction and practice in the careful reading, analysis, and enhanced understanding of a limited number of great or classic works of literature, ancient and modern, from various national literary cultures. The readings acquaint students with culturally and/or aesthetically significant literature and heighten their awareness of the centrality of great literature to human experience. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 220L Underworld Journeys +
Description:
Storytellers have always spun tales of mortals who managed to visit the beyond. Often these journeys are of critical importance to those left alive, instrumental steps to founding empire or earning salvation. This interdisciplinary course explores depictions of heaven and hell in European literature, film, and the arts. Because the desire to understand the afterlife cuts across geography and time, this topic affords us the opportunity to conduct comparative explorations of a range of national traditions, as well as various time periods: the ancient world, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and modernity. Our focus is how these infernal and paradisal spaces reflect, critique, and animate the real world. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 225L Berlin: Crossroads of History +
Description:
An interdisciplinary introduction to modern German history and culture from the late nineteenth century to the present. Using the German capital of Berlin as its focal point, the class examines the varied historical, socio-political, and artistic changes in German culture throughout the twentieth century. Based on a broad range of media - from literature, film, photography, drawing, and other visual arts to music and theater - students will investigate topics such as the aftermath of the German unification of 1871, Berlin's vibrant and provocative culture of the 1920s and early 1930s, the devastating Jewish genocide, the divided city of the Cold War, the collapse of the Wall and the creation of today's Berlin Republic. Taught in English; no knowledge of German necessary. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 235L Postwar European Cinema +
Description:
This course will investigate the most significant developments of film history int he major European countries after World War II. National cinemas of France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe will be studied in detail through weekly screenings of classic films by some of Europe's most accomplished filmmakers. Films will be analyzed both in a broad socio-historical framework and in respect to authors' specific styles. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 250G Witches and Witch-Hunts +
Description:
From the Salem witch trials to Harry Potter, witchcraft has been of fundamental concern to virtually all societies and cultures. This course examines the figure of the witch, beliefs in witchcraft, and historical waves of persecution from a global perspective. By putting historical events in conversation with works of world media, we will deepen our understanding of witchcraft as a universal cultural phenomenon. All readings are in English. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 252L Global Refugee Narratives +
Description:
Across political, cultural, and literary narratives, problematic representations of Muslim refugees are often fueled by distorted imaginations of their cultural and religious identities. In this course, students will explore literary texts and films that examine the contemporary global refugee crisis. Supplementary readings will provide critical context for studying the different constructions and realities of refugee lives. Students will emerge from this class with the ability to critically examine the cultural spaces refugees occupy in western discourse. They will further be able to articulate how refugee identities are constructed across a range of literary narratives that represent them. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 255L Pacting with the Devil: The Faust Tradition +
Description:
A reading and discussion course emphasizing critical interpretation of major texts in the Faust tradition from German folklore, Christopher Marlowe, J.W. von Goethe, Mikhail Bulgakov and others. Attention is given to the evolution of the legend and to other adaptations (in music and film) of Faustian material. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 260L Imagining the Modern Middle East +
Description:
This course constitutes an interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary novels, picture books, graphic novels, and films that represent Middle Eastern people(s) and settings. It investigates identify formation and cultural construction, as well as politics and ideology in literature. The course examines how texts construct and perpetuate on often problematic version of cultural identify. Students will explore how unique histories, traditions, and politics are significant factors in reading and analyzing literature and will investigate how literature addressed to the western reader often perpetuates a stereotypical version of the Middle East that homogenizes its populations and fails to account for its complexity. The course can cover a variety of topics and genres including adolescent literature, comic books, the graphic novel, and contemporary fiction about the Middle East. Possible themes for the course include political socialization, religious ideology, indoctrination and dissidence across a range of literary and cultural texts. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 265L Icons of East Asia: Stereotypes, gender, and cultural history from geisha girls to martial masters +
Description:
The purpose of this class is to explore, critically and comparatively, various discourses about popular cultural icons of East Asia. We will focus on two specific well-known examples - women entertainers and male figures adapt at martial arts- with the following aims: 1) to focus on specific historical contexts, which suggest how and why these categories were formed and became important; 2) to understand how dynamic and motivated these seemingly unchanging and timeless icons actually are; and 3) to investigate how gendered identities are constructed and manipulated for particular goals. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 270 Global Food Studies +
Description:
This interdisciplinary course examines food cultures and traditions across the globe to explore how food has shaped human identities and societies throughout history. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 276L Italian Cinema +
Description:
An in-depth look into the thematic and technical development of the Italian cinema from the period of Neorealism to the present day, seen through the lens of the cultural and political transformations in Italian society since the end of World War II. Weekly screenings by Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Fellini, Antonioni, and Pasolini. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 285L French Cinema +
Description:
This course will acquaint students with films and filmmakers that have made an impact on French cinema and society from the early 20th century to today. It provides a broad survey of cinematic practices in France and explores the major social issues political debates, and historical memories that have preoccupied French society. The course focuses on how French film interrogates social and national identity in France, but also in Africa and Europe more broadly. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 290 Special Topics +
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics within this subject. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the registration period. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 308L Feminist Histories: Renaissance France, Italy and Beyond +
Description:
Students will study one important branch of the history of global feminism: women's writing in medieval and Renaissance France and Italy. In addition to literature, we will also consider the social history of these women. We will also trace the impact of their feminist thinking on the rest of Europe and beyond, through to our contemporary world. Course taught in English; readings available in the original French or Italian, as well as in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 325L Film Festivals +
Description:
Film festivals play a key role in today's global independent motion picture industry. They shape contemporary film culture and greatly impact communities outside of the film industry. In this course, students will be introduced to the history, structures and practices of today's film festival world and their political, economic and aesthetic impact from a local and global, theoretical and practical perspective.This is a hands-on, interactive course designed with the support of the Mellon Foundation. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 330L Ghostly Doubles and Evil Twins +
Description:
For more than two centuries, the figure of the doppelganger has played a major role in global folklore, fiction, popular culture and film. A doppelganger is a ghostly double of a living person and typically appears as his or her twin, shadow or mirror image, representing evil or misfortune. This course examines the doppelganger as a figure of supernatural horror that simultaneously facilities inquiries into questions of personal identity and the nature of the cinematic medium. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 337L Disney's European Fairy Tales +
Description:
It is difficult to think of any American who has had greater influence on narrative and visual culture around the world than Walt Disney. Yet the quality of Disney's creations has given rise to much debate, famously leading one critic to ask: ''It's Disney, but is it art?'' This course traces the first 65 years of the Walt Disney Animation Studios in an attempt to answer that question. A major focus will be the company's heavy reliance in these years on 'high art' from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. From illuminated manuscripts to palatial architecture, European art ''especially French, Italian, and German'' is pervasive in Walt Disney Studios storytelling. Beyond questions of adaptation, class discussion will also center issues of social commentary, analyzing how gender, sexuality, race, class, and ability were presented onscreen, and how they were treated in Studio culture. Through formalist, narrative, and sociohistorical analysis, students will achieve a better understanding of how European art shaped Disney, and how that art has engaged (or failed to engage) with societal change.Assignments are built around Disney's feature films, to be supplemented by the premodern texts and visual arts that inspired them, as well as relevant critical studies. Course taught in English; readings available in English and in original languages, where relevant. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 340L Moving Across Borders: Migration and Diversity +
Description:
Focusing on questions of identity and migratory experiences across the globe, this comparative class introduces students to key works of world media and culture. It examines the discursive construction of diversity in today's de-centered, globalized world and discusses the analytic benefits of `transculturality' for literary and cultural studies. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 345L Dreams and Visions +
Description:
This comparative literature course focuses on dreams and visions as a cultural phenomenon and introduces students to key authors, genres, and movements in world media history. Adopting a comparative approach, students are led to explore exemplary works from French, German, Italian, and other European literature as cultural practices that shape our understanding of society, history, and culture. Students will investigate the concept of dreams from antiquity to modern psychoanalysis, discuss prophetic dreams and nightmares, and reflect on the connection between dreams and society, exploring French, Italian, German, and other global media cultures. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 350L Green Germany: Environmental Thought and Policy +
Description:
This course will introduce students to German conceptions of nature and to the environmental debates and policies that have emerged from those ideas. Over the course of the last two centuries, environmental thought has had a major impact on German politics, history and culture. Comparing German perspectives and policies to those of other countries, this course will foster an understanding of the factors that have shaped German national identity, sustained the country's environmental movement and elicited Germany's current image as a world leader in environmental policy. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 352L Middle Eastern and North African Cinema +
Description:
This course focuses on how Middle Eastern and North African films have reflected, perpetuated, and criticized national ideologies, as well as how themes of individual and collective identity, memory, and trauma have been represented by filmmakers. By exploring how films have told stories about socio-cultural conflicts, we will open further questions about the place of cinema in nation building and in the formation of historical narratives. The course's specific theme varies from semester to semester, depending on the national contexts being studied. Taught in English. CINE 352L and MLLC 352Land ARABIC 352L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 355L European Crime Fiction +
Description:
This course examines suspects, felons, and detectives in European crime fiction between the 18th century and today (in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia). It introduces students to the historical development of crime literature focusing on key authors, genres and movements. Beginning with the popularization of crime narratives in the era of Enlightenment, the course examines the development of genre conventions in subsequent centuries until the post-modern disintegration of narrative patterns. Particular emphasis is placed on the construction of gender roles, social class, national and regional identity through literature as a cultural practice. Taught in English; readings in the original language are available upon request. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 365L German Pop Culture +
Description:
This course introduces students to German popular culture, focusing on stories that have shaped our civilization over the centuries, including their modern adaptations in various media. It explores major themes and tendencies in the German cultural imagination and reflects how concepts of ’Germanness’ and national identity developed over time. By critically analyzing a variety of popular aesthetic traditions, students expand and deepen their understanding of today’s cultural landscape. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 366L Re-made in Asia: Tellings and re-tellings from the Buddha to Godzilla +
Description:
What is a ''remake''? Why are people interested in stories that are told and re-told, sometimes in many versions? This class explores narratives that travel across time and space in Asia, in order to find some answers to these questions. The purpose of this class is to consider how texts from the past are rendered relevant to concerns contemporary to the remakes. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 372L German Cinema +
Description:
German cinema constitutes one of the most creative, influential and exciting of all filmic traditions. In this course students will analyze masterpieces of the German cinema and develop an understanding of their expressive modes and formal structures. Topics may include Nazi cinema, cinema and technology, minority filmmaking, German filmmakers in American exile, German New Wave, women filmmakers, and contemporary German cinema. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 374L Love Stories: A Historical Handbook to Happily Ever After +
Description:
What is love? Or rather, what do we think love is? From the Beatles' ''all you need is love'' to Shakespeare's ''whoever loved that loved not at first sight?'' we are bombarded in our culture with preconceived notions about the nature of amorous affection. This course takes a transhistorical view of Western civilization, from the Middle Ages to the present, in order to trace and interrogate societal constructs about love. Our goal is to figure out how love stories work, so that we understand better how they work on us. As part of this work, we will explore how people have historically disrupted heteronormative and patriarchal narratives of love, forming alternative models of domestic bliss. We will consider society and history through literature, so texts like sonnets, love letters, and excerpts from novels will make up the bulk of our reading. However, assignments will be drawn from multiple disciplines, as well as popular culture, including song lyrics, reality television, and film.FRENCH 374L and ITAL 374L and GERMAN 374L and MLLC 374L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 377L Rebellion! On Being Young in European Fiction +
Description:
This comparative literature course examines youth cultures, intergenerational relationships and conflicts, coming-of-age stories, narratives of filial rebellion, and the quest for one's own identity in French, German, and Italian fiction. Through this thematic lens, the class introduces students to key authors, genres, and movements in European literary history between the 18th century and today, while also focusing on the interconnectedness between literature and culture. Taught in English. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 378 Independent Study +
MLLC 379 Independent Study +
MLLC 390 Special Topics +
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics within this subject. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the registration period. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 478 Readings and Research +
Description:
Primarily for seniors with a GPA of at least 3.0 in their major who wish to pursue a research topic in depth, one ordinarily not available in standard course offerings. A written prospectus detailing the plan of study must be submitted to supervising instructor and department. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
MLLC 480 Internship in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures +
Description:
The internship in modern languages, literatures and cultures allows students to explore possible careers connected to a variety of industries. Internships take place within a wide range of fields that feature an applied use of skills and knowledge related to modern languages, literatures and cultures, including teaching, serving cultural institutions, translation and interpreting, serving arts management, marketing, and tourism. Internships can include experience such as working for a cultural center, a library, a consulate; working with literary and cultural festivals or the tourism industry to develop marketing materials, write reports, and plan events. The internship in modern languages, literatures and cultures affords students the opportunity to explore how the study of language and culture related to and prepares them for a range of careers within a varied industry. More Info
Offered in:MLLC 488L The Idea of Asia +
Description:
This course examines the imagination of Asia from a variety of perspectives: historical, economic, religious, philosophical, literary, and artistic. It begin from the extreme social and cultural diversity of the continent as it is currently defined, and asks first, how the idea of a coherent Asia was constructed; and second, what effects this idea has had in both ''Asian'' and ''European'' history. More Info
Offered in: