Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2019 - WL 300 D100

How Ideas Travel (4)

Class Number: 5756

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Wed, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    45 units, including WL 200.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores the counterpoint of Western and non-Western approaches to world literature. May draw from disciplines including comparative literature, history, anthropology, and semiotics to focus on how concepts of world literature are imported and transformed in new cultural contexts. Builds on the skills and knowledge acquired in WL 200.

COURSE DETAILS:

 

A description of my image
 
                                          “the floating life is but as a dream; how much longer can we enjoy our happiness?”   Li Bai / Tang Dynasty


Stories, films, and poems tends to change their meanings as they cross from one culture into another, but what of the way in which a work’s “meaning” is understood. This course asks what happens when the way that a novel or film makes sense is challenged in a new national setting. Wouldn’t this mean that literature and its interpretations are always transient, that they never cease to flow as they travel around the globe?  

Reading formative statements of world literary theory alongside fictions and films exploring ideas of migration and imagination, this course explores how notions of the transient come together in language and narrative.


Grading

  • Class Participation 10%
  • In-Class Paper 15%
  • Midterm Test 25%
  • Short Presentation 15%
  • Term Paper 35%

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

 

FILMS [ PROVIDED ]

Federico Fellini 8½       Wong Kar Wai 2046         Julian Schnabel The Diving Bell & The Butterfly

 

REQUIRED READING:

Shen Fu Six Records of a Floating Life, TRANS G Sanders, Hackett
ISBN: 978-1603841986

W G SEBALD Emigrants, TRANS M Hulce, New Dir’ 
ISBN: 978-0811226141

J-P TOUSSAINT Running Away, TRANS Matt Smith, Dalkey
ISBN: 978-1564785671

Registrar Notes:

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Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS