1. A historical study of independent cinema, or New Wave movements in post-World War II Europe, including Italian Neo- Realism, the French New Wave and New German Cinema among others. 2. The study of Gilles Deleuze's thesis about these cinematic movements and concepts. 3. A study of the idea of Epic cinema cross-culturally so as to understand how memory is erased, sustained and created anew by film.

Lu Xun was one of the most influential Chinese writers in the early decades of the twentieth century. The works of Lu Xun and his contemporaries marked the emergence of a modern Chinese literature that reflected its proponents' anxiety for sociocultural change and national salvation, absorbed external influences, and was intended to reach a wide readership. This unit of study highlights works by Lu Xun and other major authors in the context of the intellectual history of the time.

Classical Chinese poetry is defined as verse composed in various forms and genres developed in pre-modern China. Most of these traditional forms and genres are still in wide use in contemporary China and within Chinese communities all over the world. This unit of study offers an introduction to classical Chinese poetry from its beginnings to the Song dynasty with focus on selected topics within this rich tradition. This unit assumes a thorough grounding in Classical Chinese.

This unit is an intensive study of plays by Shakespeare in a variety of genres, particularly focusing on current critical interventions, as well as the detailed reading of Shakespeare's dramatic language. Current approaches to Shakespeare read his texts as a way of thinking about ideas of urgent concern in the twenty first century: the environment and ideas of the natural; sexuality and gender; scepticism and belief. Watching film versions of the plays will form an integral part of our study.

This unit of study will explore German film from the perspectives of film theory and historical culture. Discussions will situate films within the German political and cultural context of their time and study them from the perspective of contemporary cross-cultural critique. The unit may concentrate on the works of a specific director, a period or a genre, or deal with key social and political issues within a selection of German films.

What is literature? How is it related to language and culture? What can we learn about different cultures and societies from the stories that they produced? With the shrinking of distances due to travel and technology in the modern age, do literatures of the world become more similar or more different? This unit reflects on these issues by looking at a range of exemplary literary works translated into English from Asian, European, and Middle Eastern languages, and examines them in the context of translation studies, national literatures, and different cultural and narrative traditions.

What is the meaning of "love"? Is it the same for different individuals and cultures at different periods? How does it relate to the profound crisis of meaning in contemporary society? What is its relationship to desire, language and death? Why do the Greeks have three words for love and the English one? This unit of study explores the theme of love in a variety of national literatures including Arabic, English, Greek, French and Italian.

What are the great works of literature of the 20th century? How does history leave its mark on them? This unit introduces some exemplary literary works translated into English from Asian and European languages as well as works originally written in English. It studies them in the context of world history, national literatures and different narrative traditions.

What are the great spiritual and philosophical works of world literature? How have they come to be so regarded? What is it that has made them so enduring and adaptable? What is their relevance to a postmodern society? This unit introduces, in English and from a contemporary perspective, some of the literary cornerstones of reflection on the human condition and seeks to reveal and understand some of their continuing power.

This Unit will look at the interaction of literature and visual and performance arts in different countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. How do these art forms draw upon each other to represent and frame society and culture, and how does this influence our reading of them? These questions will be examined through examples from literature, theatre, painting, dance, photography, cinema and/or mixed media, and movements such as orientalism, realism, symbolism, modernism, postmodernism, pop art and abstract expressionism.

The 'city' is a diverse and controversial theme in world literature. It touches upon past and present, alienation and fulfillment, luxury and poverty, success and failure, anonymity and fame. There are modern and old cities, cosmopolitan and 'holy' cities. By examining how the cultural and historical transformation of urban living has been approached by writers of different cultural and national backgrounds, this unit of study offers a journey to different geographic locations but also a journey through time.

This unit surveys the connection between literature and revolution by investigating the ways in which literary texts and movements across the world have influenced radical responses to the status quo, questioning, and provoking a re-conceptualisation of prevailing values and traditions. But how and when do literary experiments become revolutionary? Are they the same in different cultures? Could a pattern of synergies connecting literary with political and social revolutions emerge from a historical as well as cross-cultural investigation?

Science Fiction is one of the most interesting explorations of human future. Yet it addresses a number of social, political and existential issues that refer to the present: dilemmas, phobias and hopes of a world traumatised by war, disease and internal contradictions. Through the comparative study of novels and movies, this unit explores how the future, from a promised land of a great utopia, has become the dreadful exile into a dark dystopia.

This unit will investigate how film stars reflect national preoccupations and how they achieve national and transnational fame. It will examine and compare several major film stars from several cultures and will analyse their star image through, for example, their on-screen performance in film adaptations, their celebrity bodies and faces and their representations in the popular media. Students will be introduced to film star theories. Students will have to attend at least 4 film screenings.

This unit will look at different approaches to studying the relationship between literary texts and their social contexts. It will explore patterns of literary production and audience reception. Topics covered will include the politics and economics of literature production and the roles of author and reader. These topics will be explored within the framework of global, trans-cultural and comparative literary studies.

The Honours program in International Comparative Literary Studies consists of:
1. a thesis written under the supervision of two members of the ICLS academic staff
2. two seminars that meet weekly for two hours for one semester.
Students should consult with the Honours coordinator regarding seminar offerings in 2014

Refer to ICLS4011

Refer to ICLS4011

Refer to ICLS4011

This unit studies Dante's Divine Comedy as an enduring work of poetry, a major text of the European literary tradition, and the most comprehensive synthesis of Medieval culture. We will look at how literature works in relation to the language and the rhetorical tradition in which it is expressed on the one hand, and, on the other, the historical, philosophical and theological cultures it expresses and interprets.

What is love? Italian authors throughout the centuries have provided many different interpretations. Drawing upon major works of Italian literature, this unit will explore a range of texts from the Middle Ages through to the 19th century that deal with love, its cultural and social contexts. The texts will be considered within the context of the visual culture of the time. This unit will be taught in English.

This unit addresses the 'ancient quarrel' between philosophy and literature. We will examine arguments about the importance of imagination and sympathy to moral judgement by putting various philosophical and literary texts in dialogue with each other.