A Lower-Division Gateway Course
This team-taught course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to the study of global issues through perspectives afforded by the disciplines of humanities, and to explore how a humanistic approach to knowledge can offer unique and key ways of formulating, understanding, and addressing global concerns.
The course has two, interrelated facets. Students become familiar with general ideas and debates about the concept of the "global" across various disciplines, with an emphasis on how the term has been taken up by humanities scholars in different fields. The course also explores these debates through the lens of a specific issue of global concern--e.g. human rights, approaches to other cultures, global civil societies, global ethics. The selection of specific topics, readings, and approaches will be tailored to reflect the instructors' particular interests and fields of inquiry as they relate to global humanities.
In bringing the humanities into areas that have traditionally been seen as existing outside of the comparative, interpretive, and historical methodologies of the humanities, this course stands to challenge and break down disciplinary, institutional, and geopolitical barriers that limit the way we analyze and respond to pressing global issues within and beyond the university. It also serves as a gateway to the many upper-division courses, taught throughout the humanities departments at UCSB, in which specialized topics related to global history and culture are explored in depth. (A list of those courses is forthcoming).
College Honors Program
A limited number of seats for Honors Students will be available through consultation with the instructors.
Courses for the 2007-2008 year will be taught during the winter and spring quarters through the Comparative Literature Program and may be cross-listed or concurrently listed with other departments.
Winter 2008 - Comparative Literature 36/English 65PW .pdf
Global Humanities: The Poetics and Politics of Witnessing
Professors Elisabeth Weber and Julie Carlson
MW 12:30-1:45 p.m, Embarcadero Hall, Isla Vista
What do literature and critical theory contribute to the reflection on human rights and the analysis of their violation? Inquiry into different ways in which the humanities can reframe the debate on human rights and act as a social force. This class will address the fundamentally literary structure of
testimony by exploring several works of fiction that treat various
crimes against humanity. Texts include Ariel Dorfman, Death and the
Maiden, J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, Edwige Danticat,
Krik? Krak!, and others.
There will be two sections and one Honors section.
57729 M 9:00- 9:50 STAFF, SH 1415
57737 M 10:00-10:50 STAFF, SH 1415
Honors Section for Comp Lit, R 12:00-12:50, Girv 2110
Honors Section for English, R 12:00-12:50, Girv 2110
Enroll in any section to switch to honors section with instructor approval.
Comparative Literature 36
English 65PW
Spring 2008 - Comparative Literature 36; English 50
TR 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM, PHELPS 3515
Global Humanities: The Lives of Dead Bodies
Professors Bishnupriya Ghosh and Russell Samolsky
In this course we will pursue what Antigone knew: dead bodies signal hidden truths, they demand redress and recompense. Looking at a range of media (fiction, film, graphic art), we will consider how dead, near-dead, or mutilated bodies animate our knowledge of the contemporary social and political world in which we live. Our major examples will be drawn from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This will take us to what the skeletal remains of the Rwandan genocide or the Sri Lankan civil war still have to tell us with regard to questions of witnessing and responsibility; and to the anguished archives of truth commissions and body counts; and to singular hyper-visible dead bodies in mass media.
All of the writers, illustrators, and filmmakers we will encounter reflect on what dead or near-dead bodies "tell" us, what they signify, and what ethical demands they place upon those who mourn them. While we will follow this thematic through the course, we will pay close attention to what kinds of formal mechanisms are available in these different media forms through which the dead speak.
Required Texts
Antjie Krog, The Country of My Skull
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost
Tim Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film
Course Reader (pick up at Associated Students): collection of criticism and theory, essays, and non-fiction.
Screenings:
Gavin Hood, Tsotsi
Mani Ratnam, Dil Se
Rakesh Sharma, The Final Solution
http://deadbodies.wordpress.com/
UCSB Global Humanities Links:
Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Academic Initiative Professorships in Global Civil Society
Visionary Gift Focuses on Globalization
American Cultures & Global Contexts Center
Global and International Studies Program
Global English
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