This course will engage current debates on the place of suicide protest in affecting political change. Recent events--from self-immolations in the Arab Spring, to hunger strikes in Turkey and India, to public suicides in China, Tibet, and Greece--have revealed that suicide can be a significant mode of protest. Yet despite the public attention these events have claimed, there has been too little consideration of whether and how suicide constitutes a unique form of social and political protest.

How does the history of literature relate to the history of media? This course addresses the question by focusing on William Shakespeare’s plays as printed texts evolving from the sixteenth through the twenty-first century. With the Shakespeare archive as our case study, we will explore how drama as a literary form is shaped by the material format of its sources, performance documents, and print editions.

This tutorial offers an intensive introduction to writings of contemporary democracy, tourism studies, and cultural agency in Latin America. We will study the role that African dance in Bahia, Brazil plays in the dynamics of social and political inclusion of marginal lives.

Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

This course examines Rome's political and social systems and its struggles from its legendary beginnings through its growth into a world empire. We will use Roman literature in translation, inscriptions, and material evidence to explore the development of the republican form of government and its transformation into an empire in the aftermath of civil wars. In order to understand the Republic, we will also consider the perceptions of that period by writers in the early Empire.  Three class hours per week.

A survey of the myths of the gods and heroes of ancient Greece, with a view to their original context in Greek art and literature as well as their place in Greek religion. We will give particular attention to myths that live on in Western art and literature, in order to become familiar with the stories which were part of the repertory of later artists and authors. Three class hours per week.

Spring semester. Professor R. Sinos.

Independent Reading Course.

Fall and spring semester. Members of the Department.

This course is a continuation of CHIN 401. More advanced authentic texts of different genres of writings and literary works will be introduced to students. Development of a higher level of proficiency of the four skills will be stressed through class discussions, writing compositions, listening to TV news clips and watching movies that are supplemental to the themes of the reading materials. Class will be conducted entirely in Chinese. There will be three class meetings each week.

This course is a continuation of CHIN 401. More advanced authentic texts of different genres of writings and literary works will be introduced to students. Development of a higher level of proficiency of the four skills will be stressed through class discussions, writing compositions, listening to TV news clips and watching movies that are supplemental to the themes of the reading materials. Class will be conducted entirely in Chinese. There will be three class meetings each week.