LIT 296 - Special Spring-Term Topics in Literature in Translation

Institution:

Washington and Lee University

Subject:

Literature in Translation

Description:

Taught in English. Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. A selected topic focusing on a particular author, genre, motif or period in translation. The specific topic is determined by the interests of the individual instructor. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Topics in Spring 2011 LIT 296-01: Japan in the World: The Global Appeal of Japan’s Manga and Anime Fictions (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FW FDR requirement. This course examines the interrelated fictional and media worlds of modern manga comics and animation produced in Japan, including the role of overseas reception, soft power government policies, and fan cultures in creating the most popular and award-winning fictions. Japan’s long history of mixed visual and literary texts serves as specific cultural background to a modern phenomenon now global in dimension. (HL) Knighton. LIT 296-02: The Grimms Revisited: Fairy Tales and Popular Culture (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FW FDR requirement. In this course, students read and analyze variant forms of fairy tales from the Western tradition as well as poetic, prose, and cinematic rescriptings of fairy-tale narratives. The course traces the tales’ evolution from folktale to literary fairy tale to popular U.S. filmic adaptation, as well as the cultural circumstances that produced them. We examine how fairy tales are generated and structured, their history, and the ways in which they were -– and remain -– instrumental in constructing identity, creating cultural fantasies, and enforcing social norms. To help us interpret the texts, we turn to scholars of anthropology, folklore, psychology, sociology, history, and literature. Finally, we read longer narratives that incorporate and rework -– or offer alternatives to -– fairy-tale themes for both children and adult readers. (HL). Prager. LIT 296-03: French New Wave Film (4). Taught in English. Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. This course uses French language films as the basis for discussions, oral presentations, and directed writing exercises. It is structured as an intensive workshop for students who would like to learn to analyze films. The class focuses on French New Wave films of the 1960s and ‘70s and the filmmakers who revolutionized film style by experimenting with hand-held cameras, natural light and sound, and by playfully questioning accepted film techniques. Students acquire the vocabulary to describe camera position, camera movement, and editing as the grammar and syntax of the ‘mise-en-scene.’ They acquire a better understanding of how the composition and sequencing of images contributes to narrative development. These films are a window onto the baby-boom culture of post-World War II France and, as such, provide a deeper understanding of contemporary French culture. (HL) Lambeth.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wlu.edu/

Phone Number:

(540) 458-8400

Regional Accreditation:

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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