Time Schedule:
Elena Deem
C LIT 240
Seattle Campus
Comparative approach to literature and a workshop in writing comparative papers in English. Emphasis on cross-cultural comparison of literary works. Readings in English with an option to read selected texts in the original languages Offered: AWSp.
Class description
The Trivial, and the Unbearable Lightness of Being. You will engage in a survey of modern short story in this course. Partially adopted from Kundera’s best-known work, the title reflects the preoccupation of modern fiction with the trivial and the meaningless aspects of life. The modern alternatives to elements of classical drama, these attributes may equally prompt or reverse the course of events, and work as life-determining agents for the fictional characters. The short stories we will read question their characters’ often unconscious assumptions about their class, gender and culture, by which the characters generate their “zones of comfort.� We will then consider how the characters’ cultural background often underwrites their definition of the “trivial� as a meaningless aspect of life, which, however, works as a catalyst for self-reflection, or as a life-changing agent, disturbing the “zones of comfort� when confronted with another social and cultural setup. The minimalistic and often open-ended character of the genre offers perfect grounds on which the intervention of the seemingly trivial may be played out. The authors of the short stories we will selectively read — Chopin, Chekhov, P. Bowles, Eberhardt, Faschinger and Kundera — write from the perspectives of their radically different cultural milieus. We will thus examine and compare their differing approaches to this kind of storytelling, paying attention to the ways in which the historically and geographically diverse texts of modern fiction raise questions about class, gender and race.
Student learning goals
Close-read and analyze texts of fiction
Use secondary literary criticism
Write argumentative papers
General method of instruction
Class discussions, writing responses, in-class writing, peer revision, individual conferences
Recommended preparation
Daily reading and writing
Class assignments and grading
Writing responses, peer and self-review, three major papers, portfolio
Final portfolio
