CLL 152A
Surrealism
This course will introduce the student to the most important and quirky art movement of the 20th century, Surrealism. Founded by the French poet, Andre Breton, Surrealism sought to create a revolution of the mind by giving a greater role to dreaming in everyday life and art and by examining non-rational, magical, mystical ideas and cultures. We will study manifestos (Tzara, Breton, Duchamp, Dali, Eluard), poetry (Breton, Eluard, Mansour, Apollinaire, Elytis, Ginzberg), prose (Breton, Carrington, Mansour, Kerouac ), art (Ernst, Duchamp, Magritte, Dali, DeChirico, etc.), film (Dali, Bunuel, etc.).

CLL 152A
Expatriate Paris
For centuries, Paris has served as a haven for artists the world over. Poets, playwrights, painters, novelists, musicians and dancers have taken refuge in Paris, often for political, social and/or aesthetic reasons. The results have provided world literature and art with some of its richest works. The course will focus on 20th century literature since Paris served as a lure for artists whom Gertrude Stein labeled “the Lost Generation,” but will include other artists from the Russian Ballet to Josephine Baker, to Picasso and Jazz musicians.  Writers studied will include Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Anais Nin, Fernando Arrabal, Ernest Hemingway and James Baldwin.

CLL 152A
Munich in Literature, History and the Arts
This course, taught in English, on modern German literature and culture will use the city of Munich and its surroundings to introduce students to the literature, painting, architecture and other arts of Germany through the ages, as well as its turbulent political history, especially in the 20th century. Select works of German literature will provide the context for an examination of German culture in different historical periods and in other arts as well as literature. The course will combine academic assignments and seminar discussions in the morning with educational group excursions in the afternoon–around town and in the area–linked to particular topics: for example, Expressionist poems combine with a tour of the famous Lenbach villa-museum, home to the brilliantly colorful paintings of the Expressionist Blue Rider group and a train trip to Murnau, the Alpine village that inspired some of that same group’s best work; or, on a more sober note, a tour by foot of the Konigsplatz, the logistical and architectural center of Hitler’s Nazi Party, will be linked to a visit to Dachau, the notorious concentration camp just outside of Munich. By reading, touring and looking carefully, students will discover the rich complexity of German culture in the contours of the city of Munich and the details of its art.

CLL 152A
Modern Arabic Fiction in Translation
This course will be a survey of contemporary Arab authors in translation. In this course we will read and analyze short stories and novels by Nobel prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, Ghassan Kanafani, Yusuf Idris and Tayyib Salih among others. We will analyze these authors under the rubric of colonial and post-colonial studies, with an emphasis on their historical placement in the history of Arabic literature. All readings will be in English. No prior knowledge of Arabic is required for this course.