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COLT 101 - Introduction to Comparative Literature I

CRN: 11682

Instructor: Katherine Brundan

Term: Fall 2019

The “Introduction to Comparative Literature” series (COLT 101, 102, 103) introduces students to the study of world culture. Each course emphasizes the richness and complexity of world culture, covering a broad array of works from classical Greece to the modern Caribbean, from Shakespeare to the Kenyan essayist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong’o. COLT 101 in particular focuses on questions of genre (i.e. literary form) and literary history: namely, the history of those genres as they evolve and are transmitted and translated from one culture and context to the next. Students are introduced to the basics of formal literary analysis: they learn to appreciate and analyze specific literary forms like the novel, lyric poetry, drama. They learn, as well, to appreciate how a single theme or content is shaped by its culturally specific mode of representation. Perhaps even more importantly, by becoming attentive to the way in which a given culture shapes its expression of common human themes — e.g. coming of age, grappling with death, finding one’s home — students become more aware of the way their own identities are shaped by culture. COLT 101, 102 and 103 complement each other, and may be taken individually or out of sequence.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

  • Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
  • Multicultural Courses: Identity, Pluralism, and Tolerance (IP)
  • Core Education Multicultural: Global Perspectives (GP)