Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An interdisciplinary study of literary texts in translation and/or art forms across cultures and periods. Students may repeat this course for further credit under a different topic. Students with credit for HS 309 or WL 309 under this topic, or HS 303 under the title "Reflection on the Greek Civil War" may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Literature, Film, Modernity and Identity in Southeastern Europe

An interdisciplinary exploration of the cultures and society of Southeastern Europe (Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, and Turkey) through the study of literary texts in translation, films, and/or art forms.

Southeastern European states emerged out of the Ottoman empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. Their “liberation” from the “Oriental” Ottomans was matched by a desire to integrate themselves to Europe, or, more broadly, the West, and to emphasize the uniqueness and modernity of their cultures and societies. This juxtaposition of the “Orient” and western modernity has informed the culture of the societies of the region and been mobilized politically during the past two centuries, including the violent breakup of Yugoslavia.

Using literature, cinema, and art we explore how these societies positioned themselves vis a vis Europe and modernity, the “Orient” (represented by the Ottoman Turks and Islam), and each other. We will explore the notion of borders – cultural and political, displacement, tradition and progress through the literary work of Ivo Andrić, Gazmend Kapllani, Dido Sotiriou, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, and Orhan Pamuk, and a series of key films by directors from the region such as Theo Angelopoulos, Srđan Dragojević, Danis Tanović and Yavuz Turgul.

Students may repeat this course for further credit under a different topic. Students with credit for HS 309 or WL 309 under this topic, or HS 303 under the title "Reflection on the Greek Civil War" may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

At the end of the course, students will be able to: 

1. Demonstrate familiarity with a wide range of authors, texts and other cultural products exploring the relationship between culture and politics of identity formation. 
2. Understand and analyze the processes of construction and contestation of national identities through literature and art in Southeastern Europe 
3. Discuss critically the notions of tradition and progress, of loss and trauma and of borders – cultural and political, and the impact of displacement and migration in Southeastern European cultures.  
4. use sources effectively, and craft sustained, persuasive, logical and well-structured arguments in developing a thesis, or structuring longer or shorter academic papers. 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: