Graduate

Printing is one of the truly transformative communication technologies, but in the fifteenth century it was by no means certain it would succeed or even survive. One thing that we will learn in this course, is that new media are always accompanied by a deluge of optimistic prophecy, and this was the case with printing just as much as with the internet. New technologies do not destroy what went before: instead they take their place in an ever-richer communication nexus. This course will examine all aspects of this fragile trade, authors and readers, booksellers, printers and publishers, along with the numerous strategies pursued by members of the book trade to find their audience. It will engage with how the new tools at the disposal of book historians are transforming our understanding of the early modern print world. It takes the story through to the new technologies of the last two centuries, and how the knowledge revolution made possible through new technology and the provision of universal educational transformed the book world.

This course introduces students to the field of Translation Studies and its key concepts, including fidelity, equivalence, and untranslatability, as well as the ethics and politics of translation. We will investigate the metaphors and models that have been used to think about translation and will consider translation as a transnational practice, exploring how "world histories" may be hidden within "word histories," as Emily Apter puts it. In the process, we will assess theories of translation and poetry from classical antiquity to the present; compare multiple translations of the same text; and examine notable recent translations. Students will regularly carry out translation exercises and create a final translation project of their own. (20th/21st)

This course examines the diverse ways in which love, sex, and desire are represented in Middle Eastern literatures from the seventh century through the modern period. With a focus on primary source readings (in English translation), we will explore love as a concept, affect, and practice as it pertains to all kinds of relationships: familial, romantic, pederastic, political—even the relationship between believers and God. We will pay special attention to how literary representations of love and sex are informed not only by genre conventions but also medical, legal, and philosophical discourses and consider the ways in which these texts can—and cannot—shed light on actual social practices and lived realities. Throughout our investigations, we will remain cognizant of how the Orient has been erotically fantasized in the Euro-American imaginary, while also noting how widespread modern notions of love and sex often fail to fully account for the modes of eroticism portrayed in the works that we will study.

Weird fiction is a form of (mostly) short fiction that emerged as a distinctive kind of writing in the late nineteenth century: strange landscapes, uncanny presences, historical beings encountered where they ought not to be. We will read representative works by some of the major figures: Algernon Blackwood, Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), H. P. Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Harriet Spofford. To frame our guiding question — what is so weird about weird fiction? — we will also read short fiction by significant precursors in European and American Romanticism: Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The course will explore continuities of thought between the German language tradition of the Robinsonade and Anglo-American postapocalyptic fiction. At present, our syllabus proposes beginning with Robinson Crusoe itself, with the following weeks dedicated to Arno Schimdt’s Dark Mirrors, Marlen Haushofer’s The Wall, and Max Frisch’s Man in the Holocene. We will also dedicate a week to Sophocles’ Philoctetes, viewed in the Romantic period as an ancient precursor of Defoe’s work, and to the video game The Alters, possibly in conjunction with Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora, or Octavia Butler’s Parable books. We will explore how the theme of recovered human capabilities interacts in these texts with ideas of mortalism, finitude, and attachment to place. All readings will be in English.

What does it mean to call a book, a film, or an artwork “immersive”? What do we gain when we lose ourselves in a work of art, and what is it that we lose? Whereas Diderot lauded the feeling of “delicious repose” elicited from pastoral paintings, literary theorist Victor Shklovsky claimed that art exists “to return sensation to life, to make us feel objects, to make a stone feel stony.” Are these reactions opposed or related? What are the dangers of this kind of attraction in the age of mass spectacle or of its use for the ends of an autocratic or fascist ideology? In this seminar, we will examine literary, film and media theories of immersion in international perspective. Case studies in world cinema and literature, from 19th century second-person narratives to recent VR experiences. Students will introduce works from their own area of specialization over the course of the term. Advanced undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor.

In this course, we will read a selection of European crime fiction not only to be in a better position to judge Poe’s protestations, but more importantly, to familiarize ourselves with a selection of canonical writers as well as with the history and the characteristics of the genre. Why is crime fiction one of the most popular literary genres today? What is the relationship between the genre and society? We will consider – among other questions – the figure of the detective, the history of policing, different concepts of justice and guilt, the status of clues, indices, evidence. Materials will include Poe, Foucault, Ginzburg, Droste-Hülshoff, Christie, Doyle, Kleist, Eco among others as well as a selection of films. Readings and discussions in English.

Fundamental questions about the human condition are as old as time. First attested in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts conventionally labeled ‘wisdom literature’ dating from the third to the first millennia BCE, we can still relate to ancient musings about life, death, power, justice, and the relation between mortals and the divine. While they are often rooted in folk traditions, these contemplations find expression in diverse modes of literary expression, ranging from proverbs and instructions to fables and philosophical dialogues—all of which provide readers with some guidance on how to grapple with the challenges and uncertainty of the human experience. However, given the heterogeneity of the corpus, ‘wisdom literature’ is one of the most contested generic labels.

This interdisciplinary graduate seminar approaches wisdom texts from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia from a comparative perspective. We will explore how ‘wisdom literature’ traditions developed in these two interconnected regions, how the texts relate to their respective social and political contexts, in what material contexts they were written and read, and how they compare with ancient Greek and Hebrew, as well as later Arabic and Persian texts. In contrast with text-reading classes in Egyptology, Assyriology, and Sumerology, the seminar will focus on broader methodological and interpretive questions about this body of literature.

This course examines well-being and illness from transnational, decolonial and intersectional perspectives. Together, we will explore the various ways in which fiction and film can help challenge and expand our notions of what it means to be sick or healthy in complex circumstances. Some guiding threads: To what extent is illness an intensely personal experience, and to what extent does it draw in those around us - family members, friends, partners, medical practitioners, legal counsel? What renewed valences do concepts of autonomy, care and responsibility take when overshadowed by the spectre of disease? How might we ethically and productively relate the medical humanities to broader entangled concerns such as migration (both legal and clandestine), gender, class, race, community, queerness and neocolonialism? Beyond the justified responses of fear and anger, what are other ways to relate to death and mortality - ways that are infused with creativity and resilience? How does human "health" relate to planetary and interspecies well-being?

While journalists and historians work to uncover facts and present accurate accounts, the public imagination is captured by compelling stories, regardless of their accuracy. Where the first course in this sequence, Media and Power, focused on how media impact the spread of information, here we will consider how stories attract audiences and shape understanding, and thus inform the political arena and shape history. As in Media and Power, we will examine recent and current Russian and American events. Each week we will focus on a set of critical opposing narratives that are motivating political orientation and action, asking how they inflected by political and ethical perspectives, how they capture attention, how they are being used to legitimate authority, and how they are incorporated into larger frameworks of historical and political interpretation.

Class members will participate in creating the list of topics for discussion, which will include at least one topic that emerges during the quarter so that we can observe as the story takes shape in real time. The list of possible topics will include: 1) Trump vs. campus protesters. What happened at the encampments at UChicago and elsewhere? We were right here—so what do we know? What stories were told at the time, and what stories are being told now? 2) The Ukraine War: How has Russia used the story of the Great Patriotic War (WW2) to explain its actions in Ukraine? How have terms like genocide and war crime been used throughout the conflict? 3) 1619 vs 1620: How is the master narrative of American history being revised, and how is the counterattack on this effort being justified? 4) Public Economics: What are the current stories of the national economy, and how are they affecting policy and public behavior (consumer confidence, etc.)?