Letter from the Director of Undergraduate Studies

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November 2023

Dear Comparative Literature Majors,

I hope the second half of the fall semester is going well for you so far. If you are currently writing a one-semester senior essay, hang in there! You have been keeping on track so well, and we can’t wait to read the final product of your labors.

As I write, we’re approaching the beginning of the pre-registration week for the spring. The start of pre-registration is staggered based on your class: ’24 begin registering at 8 AM on Monday Nov. 13, ’25 on Nov. 14, ’26 on Nov. 15. Pre-registration closes on Dec. 21, but you will have the opportunity to revisit your schedule during the add-drop period from January 8-23. In this letter you’ll find some information about the classes being offered this spring, as well as a few reminders about requirements for the Major.

If you have any questions about your courses, I encourage you to sign up for a meeting with me at my office in HQ 331 (please only sign up for a 15-minute appointment to begin with, to make room for others). Send me any specific questions by email in advance, and if possible, bring your up-to-date requirements worksheet (here are the worksheets: literature and comparative cultures; intensive language; translation; and film).

As questions come up, you can also email me at samuel.hodgkin@yale.edu, or, to discuss any practical questions, our department administrator, Lisa Tomlin, at lisa.tomlin@yale.edu. If you need to contact any member of the Comparative Literature department, you can find their email address or check their virtual office hours here. The default method of contact is to email faculty directly.

If you are a senior writing your essay in the spring, you hopefully already have a senior essay advisor and you have already submitted your topic proposal (it was due Oct. 30). I have already introduced you by email to our brilliant new senior essay coordinator, Ryan Hintzman (ryan.hintzman@yale.edu). If you haven’t been responding to Ryan’s emails so far, please contact us now, because we will need a prospectus from you ASAP. Whether you are a spring or a full-year essay-writer, please review carefully the section of our website that discusses the senior essay, and keep in mind all relevant deadlines. Responding promptly to any questions from Ryan and me will help us to keep you on track for graduation.

This spring, I will teach LITR 140, How To Compare; and Prof. Peter Cole will teach the other required course in the Translation track, LITR 348, The Practice of Literary Translation. LITR 143, Cinema in the World (formerly “World Cinema”), has been taught in alternate years and will be available again in AY 2024-25. (We are tentatively planning to begin offering LITR 143 every year starting next year.) LITR 130 How To Read, the required course for all majors, is offered every fall. We are currently in the course of reconceiving this course with the help of your feedback, so please stay tuned for upcoming listening sessions so we can hear more about your hopes for the future of this course.

All majors are required to take one class during their course of study that devotes significant time to theoretical or methodological matters, whether in our department or in another humanities department. Courses being taught this coming fall that will satisfy this requirement include: LITR 330, Heidegger’s Being and Time; LITR 406, Revenge in World Literature; LITR 467, Blood: Science, Culture, and Society; LITR 481, Alienation and Reconciliation from Hegel to the Ecological Rift; CLCV 215, Is Rhetoric a Good Thing?; SPAN 357, Energizing Latin America; GMAN 211, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud; GMAN 249, Historical Fiction; GMAN 265, Capitalism as Religion; GMAN 504, Play: Theories and Practices; and FREN 412, Postcolonial Theory and Literature. (None of these lists are exhaustive: there are many courses that fulfill any requirement.)

For those looking for courses to fulfill period requirements in our department or in a languages-and-literatures department:

Antiquity courses include: EALL 507, Ancient Musical Thought from Homer to Confucius; NELC 121, The Hero in the Ancient Near East; CLCV 283 The Declines of Rome; ENGL 129 or 130, Tragedy or Epic in the European Literary Tradition; and SAST 470, Indian Philosophy in Sanskrit Literature.

Medieval courses include: LITR 278, Reimaginings: South Asian Literatures Past and Present; EALL 205, The Culture of Landscape in China; EALL 230, Poetry and Ethics Amid Imperial Collapse; ITAL 317, Women in the Middle Ages; and NELC 367, Interreligious Encounters: Jews, Muslims and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Medieval Period.

Renaissance and 17th-18th-century courses include: SPAN 385, Cervantes & Don Quijote; ENGL 268, Literature and Philosophy, Revolution to Romanticism; RUSS 225, Russian Folklore: Bridging Tales and Politics; EALL 236, Japanese Poetry and Poetics; and EALL 296, Religion and Culture in Korea.

And modern courses are too numerous to need listing.

I’m happy to discuss any questions you may have about whether a given course might satisfy requirements, including a course you may have taken in the past (it’s always helpful to bring along a syllabus from the course).

Let me also remind you that that any literature class, in any department (including English), is potentially eligible for general credit in the Comparative Literature Major, whether or not it carries an LITR number. To discuss whether a particular class qualifies, please contact me.

I look forward to meeting with many of you soon. If you need assistance before or during the add-drop period please sign up for a meeting or email me at samuel.hodgkin@yale.edu.

With best wishes for the new term,

Samuel Hodgkin

Director of Undergraduate Studies

The Comparative Literature Major