Literature

Overview

The Literature Area of Concentration (AOC) allows students to study literature from diverse national and linguistic traditions, gaining a familiarity with genre and periodization across literary fields and an understanding of literary works in a comparative context. Our curriculum includes surveys of literary history and courses that focus on specific historical periods, genres, or thematic questions. The AOC serves students wishing to study literature broadly, including works written in English as well as in other languages; most courses are taught in English or English translation and some are offered for students who can read foreign languages in the original. The requirements and procedures for areas of concentration in specific literary traditions (Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Latin, Russian, Spanish, and Classics) are distinct from those given below. Students should see the catalog entries regarding these other areas of concentration and consult their sponsors and Literature AOC faculty members about which concentration is best for them.

Application for Literature Area of Concentration

Before the end of the first module of the fifth semester, the student submits to the Literature faculty an application for an Area of Concentration in Literature (available from the Humanities Division). Check with any Literature faculty member regarding the deadline for submission of the application, which is earlier than the deadline for submission of the college-wide Provisional Area of Concentration Form, usually in the 6^th week of the term. If a student chooses a joint or interdisciplinary Area of Concentration of which Literature is one part, an application should also be submitted to the Literature faculty.
 
The faculty meets and considers the applications, reviewing each student's progress in meeting the requirements and their plans for future study. If the student is admitted to the AOC, the faculty will make stipulations as to further work the student needs to complete the program. In cases of joint or interdisciplinary concentrations, appropriate adaptations of the Literature requirements will be approved by faculty consensus. After admission to the AOC, the student completes the college-wide Provisional Area of Concentration Form, in consultation with their sponsor, and submits it to the Office of the Registrar by the deadline. The faculty signatures required on this form may be provided by any Literature faculty members.

Faculty in Literature

Tom Bailey, Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
Melanie Hubbard, Visiting Assistant Professor of English
Sonia Labrador-Rodríguez, Associate Professor of Spanish Language and Literature
Fang-Yu Li, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture
Mariam Manzur-Leiva, Instructor of Spanish Language and Literature
Nova Myhill, Professor of English and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies/Director of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
José Alberto Portugal, Professor of Spanish Language and Literature/PepsiCo Professorship/Co-Chair of the Faculty 
Amy Reid, Professor of French Language and Literature/Director of Gender Studies/Chair of the Faculty
Wendy Sutherland, Professor of German and Black European and Diaspora Studies
David Rohrbacher, Professor of Classics
Carl Shaw, Professor of Classics
Alina Wyman, Professor of Russian Language and Literature
Jessica Young, Assistant Professor of Global English
Robert Zamsky, Professor of English/Associate Provost
Jing Zhang, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture/Director of International and Area Studies

Requirements for the AOC in Literature 

A minimum of eight (8) academic units, although ten (10) are recommended. The AOC in Literature should include work in at least three language traditions (selected from Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Latin, Russian, and Spanish). 

Requirements for the Joint AOC in Literature 

A minimum of five (5) academic units. The Joint AOC in Literature should include work in at least three language traditions (selected from Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Latin, Russian, and Spanish). 

¹

This category includes Literature courses that focus on close reading and textual analysis.

²

This category includes courses at 3000-level or above that focus on literary critical methods, include secondary criticism, or take a particular approach to literary material.

Representative Senior Theses in Literature

• The Canterbury Tales: How Gendered Narrative Authority Shaped Medieval Society's Perception of Women
• A Close Reading of Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World: Violence, Memory and a Uniquely American Representations of History
• Desgracia Y Poesia: Tranformando La Lira Cubana
• The Other Side of Paradise: An Exploration of the Masculine Crisis within the Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Art of the Alien Timeline: Exploring how Nonlinear Narratives Achieve Brecht’s Theory of Alienation in Run Lola Run and Memento
• Uncovering Gide
• Dostoevsky and the Problem of Microcosm: Bakhtin, "Bobok" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"
• Pursuit, Punishment, and Perversion: Variation in Ovid's Metamorphoses
• The Adaptation and Appropriation of Shakespeare in Neil Gaiman's Graphic Novel The Sandman
• Place and Space in J.R.R. Tolkien's and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings