514 Modern Poetry and Poetics
Selected major authors and movements in modern poetry from
Symbolism to present. Backgrounds of contemporary poetry
in European and American intellectual and literary history:
modern experiments with poetic form. Influence of movements
such as symbolism, surrealism, modernism and postmodernism,
with their relation to contemporary art and aesthetics.
551 Translation and Technology
Translation today requires advanced language and computer
skills. This course covers several technologies, including
desktop and internet publishing, computer tools for translation,
and programs editing audio and video files. Prerequisites:
Excellent knowledge of one language other than English.
552 Medical Interpreting Online
An online course that teaches how to interpret
for both patients and for healthcare providers in a medical
setting. Skills covered include medical terminology, word
derivations, memory retention, note-taking, standards of
practice, ethics, and multicultural problem-solving. The
class is multilingual, with most major languages offered.
Requirements include an advanced knowledge of one language
other than English, a general knowledge of scientific concepts,
and the desire to improve interpretation skills. Students
passing the course will receive a certificate and are eligible
for 3 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and/or 3 hours
of academic credit. Open to interpreters, translators,
bilingual health workers, nurses, doctors, hospital administrators,
therapists, social workers, and anyone interested in improving
the quality of bilingual health care.
Register for this
online course at UMass
Continuing Education. See the MA
in Translation Studies page for additional information
on graduate studies in translation, or visit the Translation
Center web site.
592A Medieval Women Writers
Selected medieval and Renaissance women writers from the
point of view of current feminist theory. Writers include
Marie de France, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Margery Kempe, Angela
of Foligno, Sor Juana de la Cruz, Christine de Pizan. Themes
of love and desire in women's writing; the models provided
by Sappho, Plato, and the Bible; critical approaches derived
from French feminism, feminist theologians, Marxist critiques,
and object-relations theory.
601 Literary Criticism
Problems in critical theory prior to the modern period. Not
necessarily chronological or limited to Occidental critics.
691A Literatire and Music
Relations between literature and music from Plato to Samuel
Beckett. Music as a social phenomenon, a pattern of feeling
or understanding, and a mode of interpretation. Topics include
portraits of musicians and composers in literature and film,
themes of inferiority in musical settings of drama and poetry,
and the literary emulation of musical structure and style
("musicality"). Some background in music history
or music theory and knowledge of one modern European language
691D The Discipline and Its Discontents
The course considers both practical matters and theoretical
concerns for new and current graduate students of Comparative
Literature. Each week a faculty member will be invited to
speak on the course they teach in their fields of research
and their assessment of the present and future of our discipline.
691S Female Subject
Relationships between the individual subject, representation,
and the "real world"; the material, social, and
economic context. How the woman writer constitutes a female
subject. How she is seen in relation to another, subject
or object. How to find a critical vocabulary to describe
the female subject, to analyze her representation and remain
aware of the context in which she appears. The appropriateness
of such an analysis beyond first world literature. Theoretical
models and syntheses include Marxist, psychoanalytical, post-structuralist,
and feminist thought, tested on specific literary texts.
691SC Spiritual Cinema (Tarkovsky and Friends)
A seminar for exploring - screening, analyzing, discussing in class and on paper - cinematic masterworks from all over the world, from France to Japan, from Italy to India, from Poland to Iran.
Selection of films to be determined by a combination of a philosophical or "spiritual" orientation (somewhat a la Tarkovsky, and as opposed to having primarily commercial or entertainment values) and by significant artistic achievements, as well as by students' backgrounds and interests.
Students will be free to choose, or develop their own, approach to film criticism and to focus on a specific topic within the rather large general subject matter of the course, and encouraged to work on a paper that they can develop into a conference presentation or a publishable article.
691T Travel and Empire
The course examines the cultures of travel (writing, photography,
filmmaking and fairs) and the tropes of Empire. Our course
begins with the premise that late 19th century travel narratives
and U.S. visual culture illuminate the relationship between
the violence and the romance of imperial travel.
692E Exploring New Media/Digital Humanities
The seminar will set several parallel goals:
- to explore the new media arts and digital culture in general to familiarize students with the major artists and artworks emerging in this area of artistic and intellectual activity
- to study and discuss some of the critical and theoretical issues raised by the digital medium in literature and the visual and performing arts (the digital humanities)
- to learn to use "hands on" some of the new digital tools (both software and hardware) for scholarship (databases for research, production of electronic mss. for conference presentation and publication, "how to write a hyperpaper? and why?")
and for teaching (preparation of electronic, multimedia class materials, lectures, etc., on the web or for Spark, "how to present and teach information in the digital age?")
- to collectively prepare to TA in, and work on, an existing undergraduate course on Digital Culture: students will be invited to comment on, alter, expand parts of this existing course, and focus on their special interests that they will have an opportunity to include and teach in this class (or in a future class of their own)
Additional areas to be included depending on student interest and experience.
693A Word, Image and Book
We examine the contested and potentially sublime relationship
between words and graphic images as they come together, or
are evoked in or by the book in the West. Although we will
begin, of necessity, with an exploration of the political
dimensions of image-making, we will not stop there.
695A International Film Noir
Often referred to as the only indigenous American film style, "film
noir" in its very appellation reveals that its major
effects (for certain modern conceptions of cinema) lay elsewhere.
We will examine film noir in its American heyday (1945-1957)
and how it came to be a major propelling force in the new
European cinema of the 1960's (Godard, and the Cahiers du
703 Contemporary Literary Theories
Intensive study of theories of literature having importance
for contemporary criticism and scholarship.
751 Theory and Practice of Translation
Theoretical issues and practical problems raised by translation,
in light of recent research. The role of translation and
translated literature in cultural systems and in the history
of literary development. Genre and form (poetry, dramatic
literature), language register and tone, metaphor and imagery,
word play. Readings in theory (Nida, Even-Zohar, Lefevere,
Quine, Catford) combined with workshop practice.
752 Theory and Practice of Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature as literary theory and as academic
practice. Nineteenth-century background and the rise of "literary
studies"; traditional concepts of influence, periods,
themes, genres, "extraliterary" relations, translation
studies, and their development in modern theory. Questions
of textuality, canonicity, cultural identity, the politics
of cross-cultural literary images, metatheory, and institutional
setting as they affect current practice.
753 Advanced Translation and Technology
Translation today involves complex language engineering,
information technology, computer memory tools, and sophisticated
graphics editing. This course covers project management,
Internet authoring and file-sharing, software localization,
and computer-aided translation tools. Prerequisites: Knowledge
of one language other than English; successful completion
of COMP-LIT 551 recommended.
791A Translation Technologies
Covers a range of theories and technologies on how to translate
faster and more accurately, incorporate new technologies,
and become more aware of the changing market, including multilingual
word-processing, terminology database, computer-aided translation,
on-line dictionaries, html codes, and Internet discussion
groups for translators.
791C Contemporary Translation Theory
Work on an extended translation project or a paper related
to translation history or theory with a view toward publication.
Students take turns presenting their work, using the class
for constructive criticism, feedback, suggestions, and brainstorming.
Discussion of readings in contemporary translation theory.
791D Translation and Contemporary Fiction
Students will read and respond to literary texts and selected
theoretical texts on translation theory, postcolonial studies,
and border writing, including works by Sherry Simon, Else
Vieira, Gayatri Spivak, Gloria Anzaldua, and Guillermo
Gomez-Peña. Students will become aware of how translation
is used both as a means of cross-cultural communication
and as a mode of understanding, indigenous roots, multicultural
evolution, and growing international cultural connections.
895A Dissertation Research
An overview of the state
of each par-ticipant's research, to familiarize members with the problems
and possibilities of a doctoral dissertation in Comparative Literature.
The group's composition determines the nature of invitations to potential
guests, or the decision to concentrate on its own members' discussions,
with topics including: preparation for paper presentations at academic
conferences, potential openings for positions at colleges and universities,
and opportunities for funding for fellowships, grants, and post-doctoral