Comparative Literature 141 - Good&Evil:East-West

This course will explore the concepts of Good and Evil as expressed in philosophical and theological texts and in their imaginative representation in literature, film and television, photography, and other forms of popular media. Cross-cultural perspectives and approaches to moral problems such as the suffering of the innocent, the existence of evil, the development of a moral consciousness and social responsibility, and the role of faith and spirituality will be considered. A range of historical and contemporary events and controversies will be discussed in relation to these issues including immigration, war, gender and sexuality, and new technologies. (Gen.Ed. AL, G)

This course will have the specific topic Trauma in Literature and Art. Through fiction, prose, poetry, drama, film, painting, and photography of the twentieth-century we think about and respond to the effects of trauma on individual's physical and psychological existence. Questions such as representing the unrepresentable, speaking about the unspeakable, depicting the unimaginable, and return of the repressed, crisis of identity, communication, belonging, and flashbacks, dreams and hallucinations as an outlet for trauma will be explored. We will examine how literature and visual arts perceive, deal with, or memorialize individual or collective trauma, how trauma shapes narratives, and what the social, political, and cultural implications are of narrating trauma. The varied materials from Middle Eastern, Western, and European background will help us to understand how the narratives of trauma specific to each respective culture allow for possibilities of survival, healing, and recovery.