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INS 2001:
Comparative Literature and Culture
Spring 2007
Professor Wickert
T 5-8:30
Description
This course, required of International Studies majors, seeks to engage students with cultural problems of the global world as revealed through selected literary readings and films. In different years we will focus on different areas of the world and different socio-cultural issues reflected in literature and film from these areas. This semester the focus will be on cultural problems of post-colonial Africa, of migrants to Europe from underdeveloped countries, and of post-communist Europe. The required seven texts and seven films for this semester are as follows:
Literature:
Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Conditions [Rhodesia/Zimbabwe]
Ama Ata Aidoo: Change.
A Love Story [Ghana/West Africa]]
Calixthe Beyala:
Loukoum, The ‘Little Prince’ of Belleville [African
immigrants in Paris]
Peter Schneider: The German Comedy.
Scenes of Life After the Wall [post-communist Europe/unified Germany]
Monika Maron: Pavel’s
Letters [former East Germany]
Ivan Klima: Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light [Czechoslovakia]
Ingo Schulze: selected stories from 33 Moments of
Happiness [post-Soviet Union]
Victor Pelevin: selected stories from A Werewolf
Problem in Central Russia [post-
Soviet Union}
Films:
Pontecorvo: The Battle of Algiers [Algeria]
Sembene: Faat
Kiné [Senegal]
Benguigui: Inch’
Allah Dimanche [Algerian migrants to France]
Dridi: Byebye
[Tunisian migrants to France]
Becker: Goodbye,
Lenin! [former East Germany]
Bar-Lev: Fighter
[Czechoslovakia]
Balabanov: Brother [Russia]
Requirements
Students are expected
to attend faithfully; if they must miss a class, they should make up the
required work by the following week. All
films and assigned readings are accompanied by study questions, which must be
completed and submitted before the beginning of the class in which they will be
discussed. By the end of the
semester students are also required to complete an independent project pf 5-7
pages, based on literature not covered in class.
A separate handout will give details about the expectations of the
independent project. The final
grade for the course will be based on the following:
· Attendance
and participation: 40%
·
Average of grades from weekly
study questions: 40%
·
Independent project: 20%
Class length will vary
from 2-3 ½ hours per week.
Classes that include film showings (noted on the syllabus as “Longer
Class”) will be 3 ½ hours (with
a 15-20 minute break), while classes with no film showings will be 2 hours.
Week 1 (Jan.16) [Longer class]
· Intro to course: what it hopes to achieve and what is expected of students (syllabus)
·
What is “culture”?
Why read literature and see film to learn about it?
·
Brief introduction to section on
Africa: the colonial experience and the anti-colonial struggle
·
Showing of Pontecorvo’s
“Battle of Algiers”
Assignment: Complete
film questions [due before class on 1.23]
Read either Fanon:
“On National Culture” OR Ngugi wa Thiong’o: “The Politics of Language in
African Literature” [handouts and on Blackboard]
Week 2 (Jan. 23)
·
Discuss “Battle of Algiers”
·
Discuss Fanon chapter and Ngugi
chapter [anti-colonialism and neo-colonialism]
Assignment: Read
Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (p.1-100)
Week 3 (Jan. 30)
·
Intro to problems of independence/
post-colonialism in Africa
·
Discuss first half of Dangarembga
Assignment: Finish Dangarembga
(p.100-200) and complete
questions [due before class on 2.6]
Week 4 (Feb.6 )
[Longer class]
·
Finish discussion of Dangarembga
·
Showing of Sembene’s “Faat Kiné”
Assignment:
Complete film questions [due before class on 2.13]
Read Aidoo, Change (1st half)
Week 5 (Feb. 13)
·
Discuss film
·
Discuss first half of Aidoo,
Change
Assignment:
Read Aidoo, Change (2nd half) and complete
questions [due before class on 2.20]
Week 6 (Feb. 20)
·
Finish discussion of Aidoo
·
Intro to cultural issues of 3rd
World migrants to Europe
·
Showing of Benguigi’s
“Inch’ Allah Dimanche”
Assignment: Complete
film questions [due before class on 2.27]
Read Beyala, Loukoum (1st half) [handout]
Week 7 (Feb. 27)
[Longer class]
·
Discuss film
·
Discussion of migrant issues
·
Showing of Dridi’s “Byebye”
Assignment: Complete
film questions [due before class on 3.6]
Finish Beyala, Loukoum (2nd half) [handout] and complete questions [due before class on 3.6.]
Week 8 (March 6)
·
Discuss “Byebye”
·
Discuss Beyala’s Loukoum
Assignment:
Read assigned sections of Schneider, German Comedy
and complete questions [due before class on 3.20]
Week 9 (March 20)
[Longer class]
·
Intro to cultural problems of
post-communism in Eastern Europe
·
Discuss Schneider
·
Showing of Becker’s “Goodbye,
Lenin!”
Assignment: Complete
film questions [due before class on 3.27)
Begin Maron’s “Pavel’s Letters” (1st half)
Week 10 (March 27)
·
Discuss “Goodbye, Lenin!”
·
Intro to Maron and issues of life
under Communism
Assignment: Finish Maron (2nd
half) and complete questions [due
before class on 4.3]
Week 11 (April 3)
[Longer class]
·
Discuss Maron
·
Showing of Bar-Lev’s
“Fighter”
Assignment:
Complete film questions [due before class on 4.10]
Read Klima, Waiting for the Dark (1st half)
Week 12 (April 10)
·
Discuss “Fighter”
·
Discuss Klima
Assignment:
Finish Klima (2nd half) and complete questions [due
before class on 4.17)
Week 13 (April 17)
[Longer class]
·
Finish discussion of Klima
·
Show Balabanov’s “Brother”
Assignment: Complete
film questions [due before class on 4.24]
Read Schulze
selections from “33 Moments of Happiness” and complete questions [due before
class on 4.24]
Week 14 (April 24)
·
Discuss “Brother”
·
Discuss Schulze stories
Assignment:
Read Pelevin selections from “Werewolf Problem in
Central Russia” and complete questions [due
before class on 5.1]
Week 15 (May 1) Discuss Pelevin stories