Literature Summer Courses

LIT 61U

Session 2

Online only course. 

Close reading of speculative and science fiction texts (short stories, novels, and films) with the aim of developing critical methods for the analysis and interpretation of SF as a critique of science, technology, and culture. Course will explore themes like encounters across species; novelty and change; expanded concepts of life; and the role of technology in human development. (General Education Codes: PE-T.)

Course video

Proposed Instructor: Zac Zimmer

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LIT 102

Session 2

Promotes the understanding of translation and its role in redefining meanings across epochs and cultures, in establishing common norms, and in advancing mutual intelligibility; but also providing encounters with absolute alterity. Actual translations are used as case studies. Prerequisite(s): one year of college-level, non-English language study or the equivalent reading ability in a non-English language. (General Education Code(s): TA.)

All students - if you satisfied the language prerequisite at another college or via the UCSC Literature Department proficiency exam, email litdept@ucsc.edu to request a permission code. To schedule a language proficiency exam, call the Literature Department at 831-459-4778.

Proposed Instructor: Wlad Godzich

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LIT 111D

Session 2

Study of representative works by William Shakespeare. Course topic changes; please see the Class Search for the current topic. Critical approach designations: Canons, Media. Distribution requirements: Poetry, Pre-1750. May be repeated for credit. (General Education Code(s): TA.) 

Proposed Instructor: Sean Keilen

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LIT 112C

Special Session: July 14 - July 20

Study of representative work by Charles Dickens. Course topic: Barnaby Rudge.  Critical approach designations: Canons, Histories. May be repeated for credit. (General Education Code(s): TA.)

Proposed Instructor: John Jordan

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LIT 112K

Session 2

Study of representative work by Herman Melville, including novels and short stories. Critical approach designations: Canons, Histories. (General Education Code(s): PE-E.)

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LIT 116G

Session 2

Through an examination of monsters in literature, course explores anxieties, fears, and ideals of Victorian society, paying close attention to issues of gender, sexuality, class, race, empire, scientific, and technology. Critical approach designations: Canons, Histories. (General Education Code(s):TA.)

Proposed Instructor: Tara Thomas

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LIT 155L

Session 1

Examines development and central themes of vampire film from the silent era to the present. Critical approach designations: Genres, Media. (General Education Code(s): IM.)

Proposed Instructor: Marshall H. Leicester, Jr.

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LIT 160M

Session 1

Investigates the cultural logic of U.S. imperialism in its contemporary form, highlighting the use of metaphor and language in constructing enemies at home and abroad. Students will engage with a range of media—novels, plays, poetry, film, graphic literature, music—and draw on interdisciplinary theoretical texts. Critical approach designations: Geographies, Power & Subjectivities. (General Education Code(s): TA.)

Proposed Instructor:  Talib Jabbar

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LIT 167F

Session 1

Course examines the presences of non-human animals as they appear in a variety of narrative forms: poetry, prose fiction, and non-fiction. Utilizes these texts to ask larger questions about the ethics and expression of non-human animals, and to consider questions of authorship, subjectivity, identity, and expression. Critical approach designations: Histories, Power and Subjectivities. Distribution requirement: Poetry. (General Education Code(s): TA.)

Proposed Instructor: Courtney Kersten

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LIT 179C

Special Session: June 24 - July 8