Department of Comparative Literature
Adriana Johnson, Department Chair
243 Humanities Instructional Building
949-824-6406
www.humanities.uci.edu/complit
complit@uci.edu
Comparative Literature is the study of the world through its literatures and cultures. Critical theory and translation provide frameworks for making moves: across languages, media, geographic borders, and political visions. In the Department of Comparative Literature, graduate and undergraduate students immerse themselves in national and regional literatures—of Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, and Europe—while simultaneously placing those cultural practices within dynamic global exchanges, both historical and contemporary. Through courses, conferences, collaborative projects, and digital media, Comparative Literature at UCI advances critical cosmopolitanism—a kind of worldliness cultivated by creative engagements with power, peoples, and their symbolic practices. From novel to poetry, drama to film, monuments to political protest, comics to audio, urban space to visual culture—Comparative Literature introduces students to global cultures in the widest sense, and to the theoretical lenses essential for putting them in perspective. Writing, speaking, visualizing, blogging, social networking: through multiple media, Comparative Literature students at every level interpret and engage with other academics and publics outside the academy. Together, students of Comparative Literature strive for a continually evolving practice of critical awareness and political action: a global literacy and citizenship through which to face the challenges of life and work in the 21st century.
The Department seeks to foster and maintain a lively community that includes undergraduates, graduates, and faculty, and to that end holds a variety of meetings and activities so that majors can get to know one another and other members of the Department.
Faculty
M. Ackbar Abbas, M.Phil. University of Hong Kong, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature; East Asian Studies (Hong Kong culture and postcolonialism, visual culture, architecture and cinema, cultural theory, globalization)
Eyal Amiran, Ph.D. University of Virginia, Professor of Comparative Literature (digital media theory, twentieth-century literature, narrative and textual theory, psychoanalysis, modern and postmodern intellectual history)
Alicia Carroll, Ph.D. University of California, Riverside, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature; English (19th-century American literature; Native American and Indigenous literature and cultural studies; gender and sexuality studies; queer Indigenous studies; Indigenous feminisms; autobiography; American Indian boarding school studies; settler colonialism)
Talar Chahinian, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Lecturer of Comparative Literature (Armenian language and literature, world literature, transnational studies, trauma studies, politics and aesthetics, translation, digital humanities)
David H. Colmenares, Ph.D. Columbia University, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature; History (colonial Mexico, Mesoamerican studies, visual culture, antiquarianism, early modern Iberia)
Herschel Farbman, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature; French (modernism, critical theory)
John B. Gamber, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature (environmental humanities, ethnic studies, settler colonialism, Native American studies)
Martin Harries, Ph.D. Yale University, Professor of Comparative Literature (20th century theater, critical theory)
Susan C. Jarratt, Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature; Education (histories and theories of rhetoric, ancient Greek rhetoric, writing studies)
Adriana M. Johnson, Ph.D. Duke University, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature (Latin American literature and film, subaltern studies, postcolonial studies, politics and culture)
Steven J. Mailloux, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Professor Emeritus of English; Comparative Literature
Catherine Malabou, Ph.D. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, UCI Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; French; German (German idealism, contemporary French philosophy, cultural theory, neurobiology, epigenetics)
Liron Mor, Ph.D. Cornell University, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature (literary and critical theory, contemporary Israeli and Palestinian literature and film, postcolonial theories, conflict, sympathy, questions of translation and literary adaptation)
Ghada Mourad, Ph.D. University of California, Irvine, Lecturer of Comparative Literature; French (Francophone and Arabic literature in the Middle East and North Africa)
Jane O. Newman, Ph.D. Princeton University, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature; English; European Languages and Studies; Religious Studies (comparative Renaissance and early modern literature and culture [English, French, German, Italian, neo-Latin], Mediterranean Renaissance studies, Baroque, afterlives of antiquity, Walter Benjamin, Erich Auerbach, pre-modern lessons for the modern and post-modern)
Margot Norris, Ph.D. State University of New York College at Buffalo, Professor Emerita of English; Comparative Literature
Nasrin Rahimieh, Ph.D. University of Alberta, Associate Dean of Personnel for the School of Humanities and Howard Baskerville Professor of Comparative Literature; European Languages and Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies (Modern Persian literature and culture, diaspora studies, women's writing.)
John C. Rowe, Ph.D. State University of New York College at Buffalo, Professor Emeritus of English; Comparative Literature
Annette M. Schlichter, Ph.D. Humboldt University of Berlin, Associate Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature (feminist theory and criticism, queer theory, critiques of heterosexuality, contemporary American literature, gender and literature, voice studies)
Beryl F. Schlossman, Doctorate University of Paris 7, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature (Modern literature, critical theory, film studies, psychoanalysis, the arts in society.)
Gabriele M. Schwab, Ph.D. University of Konstanz, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature; Anthropology; Culture and Theory; European Languages and Studies; German (modern literature, critical theory, psychoanalysis, comparative literature)
Rei Terada, Ph.D. Boston University, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory (theory, poststructuralism, nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, B.A. Makerere University, UCI Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature; English (African and Caribbean literatures, theater and film, performance studies, cultural and political theory)
Georges Y. Van Den Abbeele, Ph.D. Cornell University, Professor of Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; English; European Languages and Studies; French; Philosophy (French and European philosophical literature, travel narrative and tourism/migration studies, critical theory and aesthetics, francophone literature, history of cartography, media history and theory)
Sholeh Wolpe, M.A. Northwestern University, Writer-in-Residence and Lecturer of Comparative Literature
Affiliate Faculty
Elizabeth G. Allen, Ph.D. University of Michigan, Professor of English; Comparative Literature; European Languages and Studies; Religious Studies (Chaucer, Gower, 15th century poetry; exemplary literature, romance, chronicle, episodic form; intersections between ethics and politics, politics and religion; hospitality, sovereignty, legal and constitutional history of England)
Nahum D. Chandler, Ph.D. University of Chicago, Professor of African American Studies; Asian American Studies; Comparative Literature; English; European Languages and Studies (modern philosophy, intellectual history, history of the human sciences)
Sora Han, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; School of Law (critical theory, art and law, race, gender and sexuality studies, psychoanalysis)
Sandra Harvey, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of African American Studies; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory (black diasporas, sovereignty, indigeneity, visual art and culture, Enlightenment philosophy, feminist and queer theories)
Hu Ying, Ph.D. Princeton University, Professor of Chinese; Comparative Literature (narrative literature, translation theory, feminist theory)
Virginia W. Jackson, Ph.D. Princeton University, Chair in Rhetoric and Communication and Professor of English; Comparative Literature (poetics, 19th, 20th and 21st century American poetry, 19th century American literature and culture, the history of literary theory)
Keiji Kunigami, Ph.D. Cornell University, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies; Asian American Studies; Comparative Literature; East Asian Studies (Brazilian cinema, Japanese cinema, Critical Race Theory, film and media theory, critical theory, silent cinema, decoloniality, cinematic embodiment, Asian-Latin American studies)
Jerry Won Lee, Ph.D. University of Arizona, Professor of English; Anthropology; Asian American Studies; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; East Asian Studies
Horacio Legras, Ph.D. Duke University, Department Chair and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; European Languages and Studies (Latin American literature and culture, Latin American film, visual arts in Latin America, psychoanalysis, and photography)
Margherita Long, Ph.D. Princeton University, Associate Professor of Japanese; Comparative Literature (modern Japanese literature and film, environmental humanities, feminism, eco-documentary)
Julia R. Lupton, Ph.D. Yale University, Distinguished Professor Emerita of English; Comparative Literature; Religious Studies (Shakespeare, virtue ethics, public humanities)
Tyrus Miller, Ph.D. Stanford University, Dean of the School of Humanities and Professor of English; Art History; Comparative Literature; Visual Studies (modernist and avant-garde studies in literature and visual arts; critical theory and aesthetics; modern architecture and urbanism; East-Central European studies; culture of socialism and post-socialism; Frankfurt School theory)
Carrie J. Noland, Ph.D. Harvard University, Professor Emerita of French; Comparative Literature (20th-century poetry and poetics, avant-garde movements in art and literature, critical theory, performance studies)
Laura B. O'Connor, Ph.D. Columbia University, Associate Professor Emerita of English; Comparative Literature (Irish literature, twentieth-century poetry, Anglo-American modernism)
Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan, Ph.D. Binghamton University, State University of New York, Distinguished Professor of English; African American Studies; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory (critical theory, postcoloniality, nationalisms and diasporas, poststructuralism, postmodernism, democracy and minority discourse, cultural studies, globalization and transnationalism, African American thought)
John H. Smith, Ph.D. Princeton University, Professor Emeritus of German; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; Religious Studies (18th- and 19th-century literature and intellectual history, literary theory)
James Steintrager, Ph.D. Columbia University, Professor of English; Comparative Literature; European Languages and Studies (eighteenth-century comparative literature, ethical philosophy and literature, systems theory, amatory and erotic fiction)
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor of Global and International Studies; Comparative Literature; Culture and Theory; Political Science
Courses
COM LIT 3. Just Reading: Developing the Reading Experience . 4 Units.
Develops the reading experience apart from writing. Develops tools for sustained attention in reading practice across a wide range of genres and media from across the globe. Students learn to appreciate elements of reading experience such as attention and perplexity.
(IV and VIII.)
COM LIT 6. Native American and Indigenous Literatures. 4 Units.
Reading literature by Native American/Indigenous writers from the U.S. and beyond. Texts may include an array of genres including, fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose, film, and video games.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
(IV and VII.)
COM LIT 8. Travels in Comparative Literature. 4 Units.
Readings in English and in English translation on such topics as love, war, cities, travel writing, politics, fantasy and science fiction, violence.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
(IV)
COM LIT 9. Introduction to Multiculturalism. 4 Units.
Various themes and forms of literary and cultural production within a multicultural framework, including African American, Asian American, Chicano/Latino, and Native American literatures and cultures.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
(IV and VII.)
COM LIT 10. Topics in World Literature. 4 Units.
Introduction to texts from across the globe and from different historical periods. Readings in English and English translation.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
(IV and VIII.)
COM LIT 60A. World Literature. 4 Units.
An introduction to the comparative study of literatures and cultures in a global context. Studies literary texts and other media across the borders of various cultures, historical periods, and traditions. All texts are read in English translation.
(IV and VIII.)
COM LIT 60B. Reading with Theory. 4 Units.
Introduction to theory and methods of literary and cultural criticism in a global context. Students read theoretical approaches to literature, culture, and ideas. Marx and Freud, e.g., may be studied alongside readings in narrative poetry, film, song lyrics, novel.
(IV and VIII)
COM LIT 60C. Cultural Studies. 4 Units.
Introduces students to a variety of cultural practices (literature, blogs, films, radio, comics) from across the globe. Focuses on the ways that context, genre, and medium (e.g., written, visual, oral) affect how these practices are produced, circulated, and received.
(IV and VIII)
COM LIT 100A. Nations, Regions, and Beyond. 4 Units.
Intensive study of national and regional cultural and literary traditions from across the globe, among them the literary and cultural production of the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 101W. An Introduction to Translation Studies. 4 Units.
Focuses on theories of translation and on how these theories help students understand the role of translation in the world. Students develop a critical vocabulary for discussing translation in multiple linguistic traditions and complete a final translation project.
Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Working knowledge of at least one foreign language.
(Ib)
COM LIT 102W. Comparative Studies in Literature and Theory. 4 Units.
In-depth discussion of special topics.
Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
(Ib)
COM LIT 105. Topics in Comparative Multiculturalism. 4 Units.
Treats the literatures and cultures of one or more minority groups in California and the United States, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latinos, and Native Americans, and their relations to other national literatures.
Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the lower-division writing requirement.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times
COM LIT 107. Colonialisms and Postcolonialisms. 4 Units.
Explores topics such as colonialism and race, decolonization, pre- and postcoloniality, globalization, and the cultural dynamics of colonization and subjectivity.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 110. Topics in Critical Theory. 4 Units.
In-depth discussion of one or more theoretical paradigms, debates, or writers (Marxism, Foucault, Queer Theory, Psychoanalysis) with a special focus on what it means to read and think with theoretical texts.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
Restrictions: No Freshman students.
COM LIT 121. Narrative, Pattern, and Text. 4 Units.
Explores textual patterns, structures, and effects. May include topics such as novel, hypertext, genre, reader responses, intertextuality.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 123. Literatures in Dialogue. 4 Units.
Studies how texts interact across time and space in a global context. Uses concepts of influence, imitation, and parody, to ask, for example, how the Homeric epics can help us understand Caribbean novels and U.S. movies such as Troy.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 130. Gender, Sexuality, Race, Class. 4 Units.
Discusses the roles of differences such as race, class, gender, and sexuality in society, culture, and literature across the globe, covering topics such as theoretical and literary representations of queer sexuality, gender performance, critical race theory.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 131. Psychoanalysis and Culture. 4 Units.
Discusses major psychoanalytic writings of Freud and others in connection with questions of culture.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 132. Discourse, Ideologies, and Politics. 4 Units.
Compares ideologies and systems, e.g., nationalism and fundamentalism, as they affect literature and culture in a global context.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 140. Critical Cultural Studies. 4 Units.
Introduces a variety of ways of understanding cultural phenomena in relation to different power structures. These cultural phenomena may include comics, film, literature, sports, music, festivals, telling stories, or eating out.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 142. The Metropolis and Other Cultural Geographies. 4 Units.
Examines the relationship between space and culture; cultural production in the city, suburb, and/or countryside; spaces in texts and artifacts (film, literature, comics, photographs) in a global context.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 143. Literature, Arts, and Media. 4 Units.
Explores literature and other arts and media in a global context. May include film and electronic media, fine arts, oral cultures, architecture, in an international framework.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 144. Literature, History, and Society. 4 Units.
Explores the relationship between literary texts and their historical and social contexts in an international framework. Courses may address, for example, literary and cultural expressions in social revolutions or the way literary texts talk back to medicine, religion, and anthropology.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 150. Literature in Translation. 4 Units.
The study of literary works in one or more genres in English translation. May be a comparative study of works from several different original languages or a concentration on works from a single cultural/linguistic tradition.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 160. World Cinema . 4 Units.
Comparative analysis of contemporary film in languages other than English.
Repeatability: May be taken 2 times as topics vary
COM LIT 190W. Advanced Seminar in Comparative Literature and Theory. 4 Units.
Capstone seminar for the Comparative Literature major. Deepens understanding of the field through investigation of a special topic and a substantial research and writing project.
Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Recommended: COM LIT 60A, COM LIT 60B, and COM LIT 60C.
Restrictions: Comparative Literature majors have the first consideration for enrollment. School of Humanities students only.
(Ib)
COM LIT 199. Independent Study in Comparative Literature. 1-4 Units.
To be taken only when the materials to be studied lie outside the normal run of departmental offerings.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times
COM LIT 200A. History of Comparative Literature and Introduction to Methods and Theories of CL. 4 Units.
Seminar designed to introduce graduate students in Comparative Literature to the discipline of Comparative Literature. Issues and theories of comparative literary and cultural study are covered. Strongly recommended for first and second year students before the M.A. exam and review.
COM LIT 210. Comparative Studies . 4 Units.
Studies in selected areas of Comparative Literature. Topics addressed vary each quarter.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times as topics vary
COM LIT 220. Translation Workshop. 2-4 Units.
Trains students in the methodologies and practice of translation. Students focus on the translating process in a series of case studies and individual projects.
Repeatability: May be taken for credit for 8 units
COM LIT 280A. Professionalization Seminar. 2 Units.
The first of two required professionalization seminars in Comparative Literature. Intended for first and second year students and covers preparation for the M.A. and Ph.D. exams, conference presentations, teaching and classroom management, and publishing journals.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
COM LIT 280B. Professionalization Seminar. 2 Units.
The second of two required professionalization seminars in Comparative Literature. Intended for fourth and fifth year students and covers course design, applying for grants, dissertation prospectus and support, and the job application process.
Prerequisite: COM LIT 280A with a minimum grade of B.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
COM LIT 290. Reading and Conference. 4-12 Units.
Studies in selected areas. Topics addressed vary each quarter.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times
COM LIT 291. Guided Reading Course. 4 Units.
Studies in selected areas. Topics addressed vary each quarter.
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times
COM LIT 292. Teaching Practicum . 2 Units.
Graduate students develop their pedagogical practices by accompanying a professor teaching a UCI undergraduate class. Meets individually with the professor to discuss relevant pedagogical practices, syllabus design, lecturing, assessment, classroom management, etc. Actively participates in one teaching component.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
COM LIT 298. Pre-Dissertation Research. 1-12 Units.
Taken under the direction of the graduate advisor or committee member in preparation for the Ph.D. exam. It can be taken after students have completed the M.A. review and program coursework requirements.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
Repeatability: May be taken for credit 6 times
COM LIT 299. Dissertation Research. 4-12 Units.
A units-only course for students in the dissertation phase.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times
COM LIT 399. University Teaching. 4 Units.
Limited to Teaching Assistants.
Grading Option: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only
Repeatability: May be taken unlimited times