Graduate Seminars
Winter 2008
Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages

 
CPLT 200/SEAS 200
Topics in Southeast Asian Studies
Mondays, 5:10-8:00 PM, HMNSS 1407
Hendrik Maier, Professor

In this graduate course some of the so-called classic essays and books in Southeast Asian Studies will be praised and torn apart. Special emphasis will be on cultural and literary studies; theoretical issues will be addressed against the background of practical knowledge of the region. What are Regional Studies in this day and age? How special is Southeast Asia? How particular are Southeast Asian literatures? How do comparison, juxtaposition and translation work when we walk into the region and its languages?

CPLT 210
Canons in Comparative Literature­ Expanding the Canons:
A Sino-Western Comparative Perspective
Tuesday, 2:10-5:00 PM, HMNSS 1502
Yenna Wu, Professor

This seminar examines a range of dynamics in the construction of literary canons from a Sino-Western
comparative perspective.  We will focus on a selection of canonic Chinese and Western fictional works, as well as relevant criticism and theoretical works. Issues to be addressed include love, violence, and memory. All readings and discussion will be in English.

CPLT 215B
Issues in Contemporary Theory
Wednesday, 5:10-8:00 PM, HMNSS 1407
Georg Gugelberger, Professor

Discussion of the last two works (both fragments) of two seminal thinkers of the last century and of the so-called Frankfurt School who both are of seminal mportance for Comparative Literature and Aesthetics: The Arcade Project by Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetic Theory by T.W. Adorno. These two works will be discussed in the context of the authors' philosophical development as well as  in the context of contemporary critical theory today.