On Digital Pasts and Futures: Comp Lit Conference Program 2023

Wednesday April 19, 2023

Session 1: 8 – 9:30 am PST (UTC 3-4:30 pm)

Panel 1: Surveillance

Location: AS 385.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Surveillance, Ableism, and Misogyny on Reddit: A Case Study of r/fakedisordercringe

Kate Ellis, York University

2. From producing to consuming: surveillance, subjectivity and deindustrialised communities in Pat Barker and Catherine O’Flynn

Elizabeth Sands, Newcastle University

3. “I am Watched therefore I am”: Mathematization of (In)Dividuals during the Covid 19 Pandemic

Sayan Parial, Independent scholar

Panel 2: Reading in a Digital World .. of Archives and Libraries

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Christopher Shaw, California State University, Long Beach

1. Literary authors on social networks: a new epistolary genre?

Beatrice Latini, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

2. The Literary Canon inside and beyond Academia: Adaptations and Engagements

Sunanda Kar, National Institute of Technology, Silchar, India

3. A corpus-based TextMind approach to studying transnational circulation of literature: how prizes shape translation and reception of The Remains of the Day in China

Lin Shen, Beijing Foreign Studies University

4. Term-inally Online: How Independent Researchers on Social Media Are Progressing Education and Creating New Generations of Scholars

Michele Drake, Heritage University

Session 2: 9:30 – 11 am PST (UTC 4:30-6 pm)

Panel 3: Digital Christa Wolf?

Location: AS 385.

Moderator: Jazmin Arellano Gallardo, California State University, Long Beach

1. Mapping Christa Wolf’s Los Angeles: The Contradictions of Digital Cartography for Affective Spaces in Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud

Dr. Robert Blankenship, California State University, Long Beach

2. Can ChatGPT Write Prose?: Reading Christa Wolf to Explore the Failure of AI

Lani Chavez, California State University, Long Beach

Panel 4: Algorithms, Linguistics, and Gaming

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Amy Desuza-Riehm, California State University, Long Beach

1. Archival Excavation: Perception, Cognition and the Generation of Autocatalytic Consents through Battle Royale Video Games

Manodip Chakraborty, TKR College of Engineering

2. A Didactic Peek through the Grotesque Looking Glass: An Analysis of the Video Game Alice: Madness Returns

Sze Man Lam, National Chengchi University

3. The use of diegetic text in video games: the game design of linguistic representation

Tea de Rougemont, Independent scholar

4. How Auto-Completion and Predictive Texting Change Language Perception: Towards a Three-Dimensional Semiotic Triangle

Felix Poschinger and Dr. Barbara Sutter, University of Hamburg

Session 3: 11 – 12:30 pm PST (UTC 6-7:30 pm)

Panel 5: Mavericks, Media, and Machines: Technology Practices in the Translation Programs Offered @ The Beach

Location: AS 385.

Moderator: Dr. Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach

1. Translation Technologies and Endangered Languages: Localizing into Sardinian

Adrià Martín-Mor, California State University, Long Beach

2. ‘Seeing’ the Literary Text through Voyant: Digital Tools in Literary Translation

Dr. Clorinda Donato, California State University, Long Beach

3. Translating Smart: Introducing Students to CAT Tools and Online Language Dictionaries

Alessandra Balzani, California State University, Long Beach

Session 4: 12:30 – 1:45 pm PST (UTC 7:30-8:45 pm)

Workshop with Dr. Cassius Adair: Doing Ethical Storytelling in an Anti-Trans Landscape

Location: HSCI 105

In this workshop Dr. Adair will discuss his scholarly work and professional experiences working in audio journalism with a focus on storytelling and medicine, including his work on KCRW’s “Bodies” podcast, an NPR show about trans youth, and an Invisibilia episode about trans medicine. For those who would like supplementary background on Adair’s scholarship, his article, “Is Transsexualism Chronic?” can be provided—please email and RSVP to Crystal Lie  crystal.lie@csulb.edu to receive it along with accessibility requests/concerns.

Session 5: 2 – 3:30 pm PST (UTC 9-10:30 pm)

Panel 6: The Digital Art of Rebellion and Social Protest

Location: AS 385.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Social Media Art and Social Protest

Dr. Amir Sharifi, California State University, Long Beach

Dr. Ali Ashouri, San Diego State University

2. Cellphone Art and Social Protest

Payam Farahi, Independent artist and poet

3. Artivist Dialogue for Social Change

Dr. Angelica Huizar, Old Dominion University

Session 6: 3:30 – 5 pm PST (UTC 10:30 pm-12 am)

Panel 7: Selfing the Other: Transnational Imaginaries through East Asian Digital Media

Location: AS 385.

Moderator: Dr. Kimberly Walters, California State University, Long Beach

1. Technology Out of Control in the “Shipwrecked” Last Novel of Abe Kōbō, The Ark Sakura

Camilo Villanueva, Murray State University and Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Japan

2. Cultural Knowledge from a Virtual World

Dana Tran, California State University, Long Beach

3. The “Authentic” Idol: An Analysis of the Transnational Humanitarianism of BTS

Montserrat Martinez, California State University, Long Beach

4. The Consumption of K-Media in Latine Communities: Exploring the Experiences of Five Fans

Guadalupe Sanchez-Soto, California State University, Long Beach

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Session 7: 8 – 9:30 am PST (UTC 3-4:30 pm)

Panel 8: Video Games

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Amy Desuza-Riehm, California State University, Long Beach

1. Segregating Play: Spatial Omission and Oblivion

Jeffrey Lawler, California State University, Long Beach

2. No Level Playing Field: Race, Segregation and Popular Gaming Culture Los Angeles 1977 – 1986

Sean Smith, California State University, Long Beach

3. The Rise of Digital Literature: Are Violent Video Games Detrimental or Beneficial to Modern Society?

Fiona Hang, California State University, Long Beach

Panel 9: Nurturing Citizenship – Inclusions in the Digital Age

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Unpacking The “Pre-Event” in By-Stander Video of Police Militarization Tactics on Un-Housed Communities

Chante Barnwell, York University

2. We Shall Be Heard From The Street to Your Screen: The Fight Against Femicide

Briana Vega, California State University, Long Beach

3. Digital Activism in India: A response to decade-long marginalizing of the Muslim minorities

Dr. Umair Mohammed Syed, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

4. Neoliberalism and Labor: Equitable Work in the Digital Humanities

Carissa Soukup, Coastal Carolina University

Session 8: 9:30 – 11 am PST (UTC 4:30-6 pm)

Panel 10: Quandaries of Participation: Literary Exploration and Criticism in Digital Games

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Dr. Jeffrey High, California State University, Long Beach

1. From the Walking Sim to the Open World and Beyond: Walter Benjamin’s Flânerie in the Age of the Metaverse 

Dr. Curtis Maughan, University of Arkansas

2. Critical Engagement with Violent Histories in Digital Games 

Alexandra Petrus, University of Southern California

3. A New Literary Form: The Socrates Character Trope in Role-Playing Games 

Emily Wysocki, California State University, Long Beach

Panel 11: To Digitize or Not To Digitize: The Impact of the Digital on Mental Health

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Covid poetry: the role of poetry in building affective communities

Shrishti Sinha, Azim Premji University

2. Ethical Cognizance as Critical Inquiry Online: Examining Subversive Identity, Intentionality, and Agency on LinkedIn

Dr. José Rodriguez, California State University, Long Beach

3. Beauty Queen in Digital Tears

Katelin Gomez, California State University, Long Beach

4. Using Social Media and Fanfiction to Engage in Collaborative Storytelling

Mekerah Pittle, California State University, Long Beach

Session 9: 11 – 12:30 pm PST (UTC 6-7:30 pm)

Panel 12: Spirituality and healing

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. An Existential Paradox: Digital Experiences of the Absurd

Dr. Shalini Harilal, All Saints’ College, Kerala, India

2. Spirituality in the Age of Technology

Claudette Duenas, California State University, Long Beach

3. Voicing the Silenced: Accessible Coping Mechanisms via Interactive Storytelling

Pearl Pham, California State University, Long Beach

4. AO3 and COVE: How Open Access Digital Platforms are Saving the Humanities

Morgan Phelps, Coastal Carolina University

Panel 13: The Distorted Reality of Social Media

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Dr. Katherine McLoone, California State University, Long Beach

1. Cucktales: Race, Sex, and Enjoyment in the Reactionary Memescape

Uygar Baspehlivan, University of Bristol

2. A Digital World is a Man’s World: The War Between Genders as Seen on TikTok

Alejandra Juarez, California State University, Long Beach

3. How Fallacy becomes Fact in the Age of Instant Gratification

Dennise Reynoso, California State University, Long Beach

Session 10: 12:30 – 2 pm PST  (UTC 7:30-9 pm)

Panel 14: Gender Identities and Roles

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Amy Desuza-Riehm, California State University, Long Beach

1. Discretizing Motherhood in India: Ruptures in the Visual Archive

Dr. Pooja Thomas and Dr. Susan George, MICA and the University of Delhi

2. From Traditional To Digital: The Representation Of Digital Queer In Indian Cinema

Dr. Shaista Irshad, University of Allahabad Prayagraj

3. Queer Expression within the Non-Linear Gaming World

Casi Coleman, California State University, Long Beach

Panel 15: Of Digital Footprints: Place, Space and the Virtual Environment

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Going Wild on Instagram: India’s Tigers and Protected Areas in the Age of Social Media

Dr. Aileen Blaney, Flame University, India

2. Protecting the Planet Through the Digital Diaspora

Atiana Utu-Jones, California State University, Long Beach

3. Crossing into Mexico by Digital Navigation: How Diasporic Mexicans Maintain Culture

Randal Estupiñán Medel, California State University, Long Beach

4. Manifesting (Force) Ghosts: Utilizing Open Assembly Sources to Maintain Historical Cultures’ Approachability

Melanie Schlesser, Coastal Carolina University

Session 11: 2 – 3:30 pm PST (UTC 9-10:30 pm)

Keynote Address

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Dr. Crystal Lie, California State University, Long Beach

Reverse Engineering: From Trans Tech Histories to Radical Trans Futures

Dr. Cassius Adair, The New School

Between 1968, when groundbreaking engineer Lynn Conway was fired from IBM for being trans, and 2020, when she finally received an apology, the status of many trans people in the tech sector has undergone a radical transformation. For decades, trans women (and other trans people) have contributed major innovations to the computing industry, all while battling transphobia, misogyny, and erasure. Yet today, many major tech companies spotlight key trans technologists in their marketing materials, offer comprehensive trans-related health benefits to employees, and even issue press releases condemning transphobic legislation; Apple, IBM, and Google, for example, have all taken steps to style themselves as “pro-trans” organizations. The story of how transness went from corporate risk to strategic commodity, this talk argues, can inform our academic and activist understandings of corporate diversity, racial capital, and trans justice today. 

Session 12: 3:30 – 5 pm PST (UTC 10:30 pm-12 am)

Panel 16: A.I.

Location: Anatol Center.

Moderator: Dr. Pravina Cooper, California State University, Long Beach

1. Rhymes and Reasons and Zeroes and Ones: Situating ‘AI Poetry’

Shivesh Singh, University of Delhi

2. Using AI to Conceptualize the Built Environment: A Postmodern Perspective 

Zadie Baker, California State University, Long Beach

3. Re-claiming the Humanities: Protecting the Intimacy of Composition in the Era of AI

Allen Dave Luis, Arizona State University

4. Speculative Writing in an Electracy Society: How the Creative Writing Process is Being Shaped by Technology

Lilith Yurkin, Coastal Carolina University

Panel 17: Resistance to Classification

Location: AS 384.

Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, California State University, Long Beach

1. Between Metal, Flesh and Bone: The Autistic Subject of (Mal)Function

G. Koffink, Oregon State University

2. Analogue Horror, the Precursor to Digital Terror

Barbara Ward, California State University, Long Beach

3. John Wilkins Speaks: An Interactive Digital Version of the Universal Language

Aidan Wakely-Mulroney, University of Toronto

4. Addressing Accessibility Issues in the Digital Canon: COVE as a Possible Solution

Jennifer Terry, Coastal Carolina University

Session 13: 5-6:30 pm PST

CWL Graduation Celebration! 

Location: Anatol Center

Cake, bubbly, awards, and a surprise!

In Memoriam Dr. August Coppola

Comparative Literature Conference: Outliers and Outcasts

CFP: 55^th Annual Comparative Literature Conference

Outcasts and Outliers in Literature, Music, and Visual Arts

Cancelled due to COVID19: Look for our CFP again this Fall!

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14-15, 2020

The Comparative World Literature Program at California State University, Long Beach, invites abstracts for presentations at its 55^th annual conference in Long Beach, California on the topic of Outcasts and Outliers.

From the canon wars of the 1980s and 1990s to the debates over the place of genre fiction, popular culture, and digital media in the classroom, the question of what to include—and what to omit—continues to provoke debate and response. But what do we do with those texts, topics, and people who have been cast out, or those who are such outliers that they were never included?

This conference will focus on the outcasts and outliers of literature, music, and the visual arts. That may mean attention to little-known texts, genres that are not typically addressed in a Comparative Literature context, characters and communities on the margins, and the notion of marginality itself.

We invite papers inspired by the following questions:

• Do outliers map out the boundaries of a canon?
• How do publishing designations such as “literary fiction” and “genre fiction” fail to account for outlier texts within both categories, and how do those categories leave some texts outcast?
• What is the relationship of outsider art, broadly conceived, to “insider” art?
• What is the relationship of digital media to print culture—and are new boundaries being drawn?
• How do individual texts portray and engage notions of the outcasts and outliers?
• What is the relationship of marginalization to being outcast and/or an outlier?

The Plenary Talk will be given by Dr. John Morgan, the emeritus Personal Chair in Greek at the University of Wales Swansea. The title of Dr. Morgan’s talk is: “Canon to the right of them, canon to the left of them: the politics of Classics in Great Britain.”

Proposals for 15-20 minute presentations should clearly explain the relationship of the paper to the conference theme, describe the evidence to be examined, and offer tentative conclusions. Abstracts of no more than 300 words (not including optional bibliography) should be submitted by January 31, 2020. Please submit abstracts as a Word document as an email attachment to (comparativeworldliterature@gmail.com). Please do not embed proposals in the text of the email. The conference committee will review all proposals, with accepted papers receiving notification by February 14, 2020.

Archive of previous Comparative Literature Conferences 1966-2019

Conference Program April 25-26, 2018

Wednesday, April 25^th

8:45-9:30 Anatol Center

Registration and Refreshments

9:30-10:45 Anatol Center: Session I

Translating Keist (1777-1811) and Collin (1771/1772-1811): Form, Time, Place, and Meaning

Moderator: Courtney Yamagiwa (California State University, Long Beach)

Lisa Beesley (California State University, Long Beach), “Sophie Mereau and Clemens Brentano’s Translation of Maria de Zayas’ Novellas and their Influence on Heinrich von Kleist”

Jeffrey L. High (California State University, Long Beach): “Translating Punctuation, Gender Conventions, Deist Dialect, and Homonymic Challenges in Kleist’s Early Poetry and Philosophical Prose”

Tegan White-Nesbitt (California State University, Long Beach); “The Language or the Life?: Two Approaches to Translating Heinrich von Kleist’s Political Poems”

Rebecca Stewart (Harvard University) “‘Rise, you peoples’: Translating the Political Poetry of Heinrich Joseph von Collin in the Context of Kleist’s Works”

11:00-12:15 Anatol Center: Session II

Christa Wolf’s Borders: Geography, Genre, Fiction, Knowledge

Moderator: Veronica Galvez (California State University, Long Beach)

Robert Blankenship (California State University, Long Beach), “The Blind Spot: Borders of Vision, Knowledge, and Narrative in the Works of Christa Wolf”

Kenneth Ensslin (California State University, Long Beach), “Transformation and Rebirth: The City of Angels as Landscape of Salvation in Christa Wolf’s Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud”

Liane Sponberg (California State University, Long Beach), “Blurring the Line and Finding Reality through Fiction: Stadt der Engel as an Auto-Fictitious Diary”

Elaine Chen (California State University, Long Beach), “Telling Stories Across Borders: Playing with Genre and Identity in Christa Wolf’s Stadt der Engel”

12:30-1:45 Anatol Center

Lunch

 12:30-1:45 Anatol Center: Session III

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata: A Dramatic Reading

2:00-3:15 Anatol Center: Session IV

Place and Identity

 Marziyeh Kameli (University of California, Riverside), “Space as an Illusion of Safety in Ports of Call“

Amir Sharifi (California State University, Long Beach) and Ali Ashouri (San Diego State University), “Cultural Revival in the City of Kermanshan: A New Cartography of Contested Identities”

Khatuna Beridze (Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University), “Medea from the Greek Dramas to the Contemporary Literary Writing”

 3:30-4:45 Anatol Center: Session VI

Keynote Speaker

 Edwin Hill (University of Southern California), “The Sound of Something that Doesn’t Belong There”

4:45-5:00 Anatol Center

Refreshments

5:00-6:15 Anatol Center: Session VI

In Shadowy Places: Invisible, Anonymous, and Absent Translations

Moderator: Dr. Jonathan Fleck (Rice University)

Marlena Cravens (University of Texas, Austin), “José de Acosta in Spain and England: Colonialism in Translation”

Jonathan Fleck (Rice University), “Silent Histories of Translation: Rubén Darío and ‘El poeta Walt Whitman’”

Nina Cline (University of Texas, Austin), “The Woman Writer as la voleuse in Grandville’s Scènes des animaux”

Thursday, April 26

8:00-9:15 Anatol Center: Session VII

The Construction of Space

Ludmila Volna, (ERIAC Universite de Rouen Normandie), “Crossing Borders: Home and Exile Spaces in Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices“

Mohan Dharvath, “The European Construction of the Tribal ‘Other'”

Jack Decklayn (California State University, Long Beach), “Intertextual Resistance in Rawi Hage’s Carnival“

Jyoti Sabharwal (University of Delhi), “Of Borders and Boundaries: Mapping Genre Crossings in Contemporary City Fictions from Germany and India”

9:30-10:45 Anatol Center: Session VIII

Space and Identity in Video Games

Jeffrey Lawler (California State University, Long Beach), “Assembling Masculinity: How Video Games Set in the American West Recreate Order”

Sean Smith (California State University, Long Beach), “Playing without Quarters: The Home Gaming Console and the Rise of Women Gamers”

Richard Flamein (California State University, Long Beach) “’The Ambivalent Smile of Robespierre’: The Debate Surrounding the Reception of the Game Assassin’s Creed Unity in France, 2014″

9:30-10:45 AS-384: Session IX

Narratives of Place

Elisabeth Oliver (California State University, Long Beach), “Death Re-Imagined: The Creation of Female Identity in Southwell and Whitney’s Poetry”

Kayla Boogar (California State University, Long Beach), “The Liminality of Theatrical Space and the Forest of Arden: An Exploration of Self-Fashioning in Early Modern Theaters”

Ana Stefanovska (University of Padua), “Between Dwelling and Surviving: Atopic Places in the Neorealist Aesthetics”

Bernadette Luciano and Steele Burrow (University of Auckland), “Il Signor Rotpeter: Kafka’s Ape Comes to Naples”

11:00-12:15 Anatol Center: Session X

Borders and Beliefs in the Digital Age: Cultural Representation in American and Global Contexts

Moderator: Vlatka Velcic (California State University, Long Beach)

Miranda Gámez (California State University, Long Beach), “Traversing the Permeable Borderlands of Cholo/a: An Examination of Religious Iconography and Other Cultural Inscriptions on the Bodies of Cholo/as”

Jean-Paul Hoang (California State University, Long Beach), “Digital Spaces and Global Reactions: Twitter and Representation”

Victor Tran (California State University, Long Beach), “TV’s Wilfred (U.S.): An Anachronism of Renaissance Literature”

Kristen Naeem (California State University, Long Beach), “The Usage of Superstition in the Latin American Diaspora as Presented in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”

Farzana Waseeq, “The Delegitimization of Islam in Ossifying the Orientalist Fear”

 11:00-12:15 AS-384: Session XI

Bodies and Borders in East Asian Film and Literature

Shane Carreon (Binghamton University), “Site of Loyalties/Rebellions: The Body of Tsao Wan and Lin Ching Hsia in Peking Opera Blues“

Youn Soo Kim (Binghamton University), “When Borders are Challenged: Representations of the Enemy in Mongsil ŏnni“

Yeojin Kim (Binghamton University), “Translating the Other within Us: Redefining Identities of Asian Immigrants in South Korea Based on Chanwook Park’s N.E.P.A.L.”

12:30-1:45 Anatol Center

Lunch

12:30-1:45 Anatol Center: Session XII

Poetry Reading

Moderator: Elizabeth Dahab (California State University, Long Beach)

2:00-3:15 AS-384: Session XIII

Place and Translation

Fan Yang (Binghamton University), “Visions of Utopia in Translating Chinese Utopian Land: A Comparative Study of Two English Translations of Tao Qian’s Peach Blossom Spring”

Keith Appler (University of Macau), “Positioning the Diasporic Subject and Interrogating ‘Home’ in Mac Wellman’s My Old Habit of Returning to Places”

Cindy Hong (California State University, Long Beac), “The Concept of Borders and Their Correlation to Their Translations of Identity”

Qin Lin (University of Science and Technology, Beijing), “Reconstruction of Resistant Enclave: Reflections on ‘Square’ to ‘Plaza'”

Annamarie Carlson (Northern Arizona University), “Resistance to Westernization in Junichiro Tanizaki’s Chijin no Ai”

2:00-3:15 AS-384: Session XIV

Crossing Criminal, Anthropological, and Geographical Borders through Translation

Francesca Ricciardelli and Joanna Tatro (California State University, Long Beach), “Translating Murder: The Deadly Soap Maker, A Woman from Correggio (La Saponificatrice di Correggio)”

Manuel Romero (California State University, Long Beach), “Blurring Borders: Notions of Civilization and Savageness in Filippo Salvatore Gilij’s Essay on American History”

Clorinda Donato (California State University, Long Beach), “Cultures and Contexts in Translation: Geographical Articles in Eighteenth-Century Encyclopedias”

Thursday 3:30-4:45 Anatol Center: Session XV

Marginalized Power in Medieval Women’s Bodies

Vanessa Moore (California State University, Long Beach), “The ‘Good Wif’: The Wife of Bath and Literary Spaces”

Jillian Sutton (California State University, Long Beach), “They saw nevere of so fowle a thyng’: Reexamining the Role of the Loathly Lady”

Maitlyn Reynolds (California State University, Long Beach), “Overcoming the (Fe)Male: Transcending the Borders of the Female Body in the Old English Judith”

Robin Gaitan (California State University, Long Beach), “Daynté Wordez: A Post-Structural and New Historical Examination of Gender Roles in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”

3:30-4:45 AS-384: Session XVI

Translating Genres and Media

Dejah Rodriguez (California State University, Long Beach), “Analyzing Borders and Places in I Am Not Your Negro: The Intersectionality of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality”

Tania Nicolaou (CUNY), “Dictatorship, Dreams, and Diaspora: Forming Identity through Language in The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao”

Carol Comfort and José Rodriguez (California State University, Long Beac), “Wonder Woman and Third-Wave Feminism: Disrupting Borders and Places in a Shock Wave Heard Round the World”

Aya Nabih (Translation and Interpreting Institute [HBKU]), “Objectivity and Subjectivity in Audio Description, Dinofroz as a Case Study”

4:45-5:00 Anatol Center

Refreshments

5:00-6:45 Anatol Center: Session XVII

Imaginary Places Then and Now

Katherine Georges (California State University, Long Beach), “Space and Place in ‘Your Name’”

William Vasquez (California State University, Long Beach), “The Empty Promise of Another World”

Isaac Garland (California State University, Long Beach), “An Irish Fairy Among Youkai: Why the Dullahan Works in Japanese Media”

Patrick Shaffer (California State University, Long Beach), “Memento Mori: Orphans, Abjection, and Making the Impossible Possible”

Anni Perheentupa (San Diego State University), “Cultural Translation: Fairy Tale Retellings and the Cultural Assimilation of Stories”

Jessica Gomez (California State University, Long Beach), “Good Girls Don’t Stray from the Path”

55th Annual Comparative Literature Conference: Outcasts and Outliers: CANCELLED :(

Comparative World Literature Courses: Spring 2016

Comparative World Literature Courses: Spring 2016

Lower Division Courses

100. Introduction to World Literature (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: Any GE Foundation course.
Readings in translation from world literature. Emphasis on how literature engages unique cultural elements around the world as well as cross-cultural comparisons.

103. Introduction to Comparative Asian Literature and Culture (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: Any GE Foundation course.
Introduction to India and China cultures through an exploration of their literatures, cultures, and diasporas. Focus will be on the modern period.

124. Introduction to World Theatre and Drama (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: Any GE Foundation course.
Introduction to all aspects of theatre including criticism, dramatic literature, movements, themes, historical background and theatrical production from different parts of the world.

132. Folklore and Mythology (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: Any GE Foundation course.
Introduction to the study of mythology and folklore in a global context, with an emphasis on their application in literature.
Not open for credit to students with credit in CWL 232.

161. Reading the World (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: ENGL 100 or GE Composition (Area A1).
Introduction to contemporary theories of reading and interpretation. Examination of diverse forms of human expression and critical understanding from around the world and across the disciplines designed to develop and refine a broad repertoire of reading tools and practices.

205. Digital Literature and Culture (3)
Prerequisites: Completion of the GE Foundation courses
Introductory survey of digital literature and culture from early experiments to contemporary uses of internet technology and interactive platforms. Combines historical and cultural backgrounds with comparative and analytical skill development necessary for understanding digital literature in local and global contexts.

210. Erotica, Love, Romance: Literary and Cultural Representations (3)
Prerequisite: Completion of 6 units in Category A, GE foundation requirement
Explores interdisciplinary representations of eroticism, love, and romance across history and cultures, including diverse contemporary representations of love and sexuality.

213. Visual Studies: Comics and Graphic Novels (3)
Prerequisite: GE Foundation requirements
Introductory study of Comics and Graphic Novels across cultures and within global contexts by emphasizing visual narrative storytelling as well as the political, social and visual trends that have shaped the powerful creative industry of comics around the world.

220. Literature and Play (3)
Prerequisite: GE Foundation requirements.
Explores interrelation of human physiological, social, and psychological states of being in culturally and historically diverse works of literature concentrated on the nature of human play and the purpose of human games.

Upper Division Courses

305. Science Fiction and Global Technologies (3)
Prerequisite: G.E. Foundation and upper-division status. Students must have scored 11 or higher on the GWAR Placement Examination or successfully completed the necessary portfolio course that is a prerequisite for a GWAR Writing Intensive Capstone.
Comparative study of science fiction as a global discipline, across cultures and time periods, emphasizing technological advances, sociopolitical implications, and imaginative constructions.

315. Literature and Medicine (3)
Prerequisite: GE Foundation requirements, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Interdisciplinary examination of the complex relationship between medicine and human experience, integrating materials from the humanities and social sciences to explore diverse experiences across cultures, between and among genders, and in various economic and social contexts.
Letter grade only (A-F).

320. Comic Spirit (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirements, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Study of comedy as a literary genre and of the manifestation of the comic spirit in related art forms such as music, art, and film, focusing on the history and philosophy of comedy as well as theories of laughter.

324. Theatre Today (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirements, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Examines current trends, achievements and problems in contemporary western theatre and dramatic literature. Particular attention will be paid to multicultural expression in the theatre.
Same course as THEA 324. Not open for credit to students with credit in THEA 324.

330A,B. Masterpieces of European Literature (3,3)
Prerequisite: One course in literature or consent of instructor.
Representative selections, in translation, of European texts to and since the Renaissance, and their relation to the development of Western civilization.

346. Readings in World Poetry (3)
Prerequisite: One course in literature or consent of instructor.
Representative selections of the poetry of the world from the earliest examples to the present. Facing-page translations will be included.

365. Cultural Studies: Histories, Theories, and Issues (3)
Prerequisite: one course in literature or instructor’s consent.
Cultural studies in a global, comparative context, including theories of discursive practices and identity politics; examined through theoretical discourses about literature and the arts and also as an interpretive technique for cultural institutions, practices, and products.

412. Art and Literature (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirements, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Interdisciplinary study of 19th and 20th Century art and literature, emphasizing comparative analysis of styles, methods, principles, and movements across genres as well as major artists, writers and theorists in their social and historical contexts.

415. Ethnic Literature and Culture in America (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Comparative, interdisciplinary study of multicultural literature in historical and sociopolitical context. Ethnic groups include Native American, African American, Latino/Latina, Asian American and Middle Eastern American.

451. Film and Novel in Society (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirements, one or more Exploration courses, and upper-division standing.
Interdisciplinary study of two genres, with particular focus on novels made into films and on aesthetic distinction of both forms as major genres in 20th and 21st centuries.

452. Selected Topics – Mythology (3)
Prerequisites: One course in literature or consent of instructor.
Interrelation of two or more mythologies, mythological themes or theories of mythology. Different areas of study of mythology each semester.
May be repeated to a maximum of 9 units with different topics. Topics announced in the Schedule of Classes.

492. Internship Program (1-3)
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and department chair.
Field work in literature-related industries. Internships and other assignments directed by a supervising faculty member.
May be repeated to a maximum of 6 units. Credit/No Credit grading only.

495. Genre (1-3)
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
Production of student journal, Genre, including editing, design, soliciting contributors, working with printer, desktop publishing, and financial management. Organizational meeting previous fall semester. Contact department office for information.
May be repeated to a maximum of 9 units. Credit/No Credit grading only.

Graduate Courses

552. Selected Topics – Mythology (3)
Prerequisites: One course in literature or consent of instructor.
Interrelation of two or more mythologies, mythological themes or theories of mythology. Different areas of study of mythology each semester.
May be repeated to a maximum of 9 units with different topics. Topics announced in the Schedule of Classes.