Time Schedule:
Lin Chen
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
Writing about Literature: Where is Wisdom to be Found?
The aim of this course is to enable you to read carefully, think critically, write professionally, and above all, find pleasure in what you do. The agenda is to read a modest selection of major texts in three sets: Zhuangzi and Blake’s poems, Marlowe and Goethe’s adaptations of the Faust legend, and Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter and selected short stories. These texts are foundational, engaging, intellectually stimulating, and oftentimes amusing. Each text raises its own set of questions, questions concerning knowledge, morality, desire, evil, mortality, family, nature, and society, all so fundamental to human experience that you may find yourself changed, unwittingly at times, as you engage with the readings. Literature, in this view—which is also the implied argument in the design of this class—springs from emotive cognition, from the union of profound thought with intense feeling. It is, therefore, neither an abstract enterprise, nor a hysterical outpouring, but teaches, moves, and pleases in and through the exact details of complex narratives, characters, and relationships in a verbally imagined yet historically determined space. Everything we will read is in English, and the pace will be such that no one will sink. You will be encouraged to participate actively in all sorts of individual as well as group activities. Additional help is available via meeting with me one-on-one outside the classroom.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
