An Introduction to Comparative Literature
william a. nericcio
If
anything, you can think of this experiment as a four-month odyssey guided
by an oddly rigorous, eclectic wandering or, alternatively, as a months-long
exercise in aesthetic seduction. Part of this is owing to the course design:
after a three week literary boot camp, each weekly gathering features a
different lecturer and a different text--around SDSU, the class is known
as the "test-drive a professor" seminar. This class is open to all majors,
and while it is a requirement for Comparative Literature majors, you may
rest assured that all curious, dedicated literature-starved wanderers will
find a home away from home here with us this semester. Comparative Literature
emphasis graduate students interested in taking this seminar for E798 Special
Study units should contact Professor Nericcio directly at memo@sdsu.edu
Tuesdays 11am to 1:30pm in Adams Humanities 4117
Office Hours are an important extension of our classroom work; a time for questions, problems, and debate, they afford undergraduates the chance to explore their ideas without the anxiety that classroom exchanges sometimes create. I maintain my office hours religiously, and will only miss them in the event of national catastrophe, personal mortality, or, other extreme unforeseen disasters. Call or email for an appointment if these times are not convenient.
email: memo@sdsu.edu
biography
Your grade in this class will be based on your prepared attendance, occasional short-writing assignments and, most important, a READING/CRITIQUE Journal; more on this TBA in class TUESDAY.
Tuesday,
February 1, 2004
Class cancelled owing to department tragedy; since we are not meeting tomorrow, let me tell you about the writing component of the class....
for the class, much of your grade will be based on a journal that you will keep and that will be returned to you; i recommend a compact 4x6inch sketch journalbook; these are sold on campus in the art section of the main campus store and at the cool satellite campusbookstore/art store nestled in the art college on northern part of campus.
samples of the kind of journal i am recommending are here
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0765534789
and here
http://www.craftsetc.com/Store/ShowProduct.aspx?p=617886
and here, available at the cool DICK BLICK art store in little italy on india street downtown (worth seeing if you're a true artsy!)
The Art
Store
(619) 687-0050
1844 India
St
San Diego,
CA 92101
remember, 4 x 6 hard or softcover journals ONLY please; at some point i have to read AND CARRY these prose-laced beasts, so they should be small....
what to write in them? story analyses; notes; questions; drawings; clippings of news items related to literature and art; photos; sketches paintings... etc! in short, anything that occurs to you as you do your readings.....
more soon!
LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE || META-FICTION || THE SHORT STORY
Walk into COM 206 having read the following stories from Jorge Luis Borges's LABYRINTHS: "The Circular Ruins," "The Library of Babel," and "The Garden of Forking Paths"--do not, or try not to, read cliffs notes, or any other kind of reader's guide to help you "understand" Borges--this is a COMPLIT seminar! readers's guides are for weenies! Lastly, having read these stories, and still intrigued by Borges, THEN go ahead and read "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." When you finish the stories, read this interview if you have the time.
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY || LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY || FILM
As you enter
our Comparative Literature laboratory COM206, you relax knowing you have
finished reading ALL of Derrida For Beginners and, having written for at
least a half-hour about said tome in your ARTjournalDERRIDAbook on what
you view to be the SEVEN most curious moments in the book, authored by
jim powell and illustrated by van howell. also, in class we will
finish screening dick & ziering kofman's DERRIDA movie. if you
can make the time, read THIS
as well--warning: this is a long and brutally difficult essay of Derrida
on the work of ARTAUD; don't freak out! not enough? here
is derrida on FREUD. WARNING: both files are huge pdfs; only download with
a broadband connection.
LITERATURE AND ART HISTORY || ART || POST-MODERN DISCOURSE
Walk into the glorious confines of COM 206 having finished the first 117 pages of Janet Kaplan's REMEDIOS VARO: UNEXPECTED JOURNEYS. As you read Kaplan's words, try not to let her control YOUR interpretations of Varo's paintings; having read BORGES and tasted at DERRIDA's prose table, you are in a unique position to critically interpret VARO's magnificent visual labyrinths. As you read, enter notes in your journal concerning points of interaction between the arts of BORGES, DERRIDA and VARO.
NO SEMINAR TODAY
Tuesday
| March 8, 2005THE NOVEL || AMERICAN LITERATURE || POST-STRUCTURALSIM
Big READING week; today you enter the room having read ALL of Thomas Pynchon's THE CRYING OF LOT 49--a fusion of Borges's fascination with labyrinths, Derrida's musings on the paranoid intrigues of language, and Varo's world view with regard to issues of representation and art, THE CRYING OF LOT 49 is a flash of genius in late 20th century American Literature.
SEMIOTICS || SEQUENTIAL ART || COMIC BOOKS || CULTURAL STUDIES
GRAPHIC NARRATIVE WEEK! carefully read the DRAWN AND QUARTERLY volume cover to cover, front to back, and back to front!!! IN class, we will have a discussion and have a minor in-class writing challenge focused on Borges, Derrida, Varo and Pynchon.
Tuesday
| March 22
META-FICTION || FILM THEORY || LITERATURE AND FILM || BORGES
Read all of the stories circled on the page opposite--click it or the young BORGES to see a readable copy. Also, in class, we will screen HAL HARTLEY's FLIRT. In your readings from Borges be sure to watch for triptych representation of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quijote. Bring your reading journals TO CLASS for dropoff!!
FUN || RELAXATION || EXCESS || SLEEP
SPRING BREAK
LAUREL AMTOWER gets medieval on the tales of King Arthur!
In SOON at the campus bookstore OR buy online before the break OR go to cool old bookstores in san diego!!! here!
Read Part
I, Part 2 ch. 3, and the Book of the Three Worthies chs. 1 and 2!
beatnik JOE BUTLER on GINSBERG's HOWL.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY || BEAT LITERATURE || AMERICAN LITERATURE || CULTURAL HISTORY
reverend FRED BOE on GENESIS, JUDGES, PSALMS, MATTHEW, and LUKE (selections include:
Genesis
chapters 1-3 and 37-50
Judges
13-16
Psalms
22, 23, and 137
Matthew
1-2
Luke 1-3.
Use any
edition of the bible you please--want to download and print later? A decent
online
edition is available here
BIBLE AS LITERATURE || COMPARATIVE LITERATURE || EXEGESIS
boy wonder MIKE BORGSTROM on the Harlem Renaissance and Richard Bruce Nugent--click on the this drawing by NUGENT to access your readings (!).
("Smoke,
Lilies, and Jade," in Fire!! (November 1926): 405-408).
AFRICAN
AMERICAN LITERATURE || QUEER THEORY || GENDER STUDIES
complitguru JERRY FARBER on Poetry and TRANSLATION
kiddielit diva JUNE CUMMINS on Little Red Riding Hood
FOLKLORE || FEMINISM || CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
