LANG 3750 - Foreign Literature in English Translation: Views of Humanity

The content of the course will stress the observation and experience of another society and culture as depicted in some of the great writings of foreign literature through reading in English. Universal themes about the human condition and insight into their treatment by representative native writers will be presented. The course will consider the differences in treatment of individuals and society and will offer a comparison to contemporary life through various literary works and the social-historical background for each of the selections. This course does not apply toward a major or minor in French or German, but it may apply toward a major or minor in Latin or a minor in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. The course may be taken in more than one language area. This course is approved as a writing-intensive course which may fulfill the baccalaureate-level writing requirement of the student’s curriculum.

Representative topics which may be treated in this course include:

Classical Literature in English Translation
Themes and genres of classical literature in English translation. Possible themes include: Women in Greek Drama; Invention in Ovid’s Metamorphoses; the Tragic Outlook; Ancient Epic; the Philosophic-Satirical Tradition in Rome.

French Literature in English Translation
A thematic and stylistic analysis of major French writers from LaFayette to the present, to include Stendahl, Balzac, Flaubert and Proust.

German Literature in English Translation
A comparative study of literary themes and techniques of major German writers from Hauptmann to the present, including Mann, Brecht, Kafka, and Borchert.

Japanese Literature in English Translation An overview of Japan’s experience as depicted in literature. The course deals extensively with the processes of cultural hybridization, territorial expansion, and cultural change as Japan developed into a nation-state. The course uses literature and, to a lesser extent, film and art history to gain insight into the ways Japan has transformed and developed.

Russian Literature in English Translation
This course, taught in English, may be a survey of 19th and/or 20th century Russian prose in its historical and cultural context, or it may be a course examining works of a particular author. May be repeated for credit when the topics vary. Currently offered are the following: Dostoevsky and the Existentialists, Russian Short Fiction, Leo Tolstoy.

Spanish-American Literature in English Translation
Selected prose and poetry from late 19th century (Ruben Dario and Modernismo) to the contemporary writers of Hispanoamerica.

Spanish Literature in English Translation
Selected Spanish prose and poetry from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The course will include, but will not be restricted to, works by Lope de Vega, Cervantes, St. Teresa, Calderon de la Barca, Unamuno, and Garcia Lorca, as well as the Anonymous Poem of the Cid and Lazarillo de Tormes.

Credits: 3 hours