RMST221B

RMST221B

Animal Reading

What does it mean to be an animal? To be a human? And what does reading have to do with anything?

Animal studies and the environmental humanities are ideas that are increasingly familiar to 21st-century readers; viewed here through the lens of some of the finest and most intriguing Medieval and Renaissance literary works from the Romance world, with important interactions with other literatures around the whole world and influences on later European literatures, and spanning a range of forms: from short poems to encyclopaedias, from fables to bestiaries, from saints’ miracles to dramatic multimedia satires.

We will start small: listening to a frog in a 12th-century Troubadour poem in Old Occitan by Marcabru, “Bel m’es quan la rana chanta.” We will revisit this frog at the end of the course, to see how our readings have changed along the way.

Our two set / required texts in the main body of the course are originally in 12th- and 16th- century French; through them, we will meet animals in associated works from France, Italy, and Spain. There will be reading about animals, of animals, and physically on animals (through online digitised manuscripts and books in the library); shape-shifting; animals reading (and speaking, interacting, and otherwise showing evidence of sentience and thinking); and reading humans as animals (via Montaigne). Along the way, readings and student presentations may converse with—for example—wolves, dogs, foxes, bears, birds, bees, donkeys, horses, deer, cats, squirrels, rabbits, snails, unicorns, hedgehogs, lions, chickens, sheep, fish, whales, otters, beavers (and of course frogs).

All texts will be worked on in English translation, though students will have the option, if they wish, of using versions in the original (or a modernized variant) in their final projects.

Required Texts

The Lais of Marie de France, ed. and trans. Glyn S. Burgess (Penguin Classics, any edition)

Montaigne, The Complete Essays, ed. and trans. M. A. Screech (Penguin Classics, any edition)

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

 

ITST432

Love and Sex in Italian Cinema

Italy, cinema, and romantic love are closely associated concepts for many people. William Wyler’s wildly popular film Roman Holiday (1953) stands as a powerful testament to this perception. What does Italian cinema say about this subject? This course will explore nuances of love, sex, desire, and eroticism in Italian cinema within the country’s post-WWII historical, socio-political, and cultural milieus. The course’s three units— “masculinities,” “femininities,” and “stardom”—will cover a range of focused discussions of tropes and notions of gender and sexuality in cinema. Students will learn to contextualize contemporary Italian cinematic depictions of love and to apply critical concepts from gender studies to film analysis.

All films have English subtitles.

Textbooks (REQUIRED):
TBA

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

ITST232B

Food Cultures and Italy

Italy is world-renowned for its food cultures and Italians put great care into food preparation, consumption, and appreciation. It’s no wonder that Italian food-related themes permeate the country’s cultural life and beyond.

This course will examine representations of Italian or Italian-derived foodways and the role they play in articulating larger issues concerning contemporary Italy, including regionalism, anti-globalization, family history, gender identities, Italian American food, tourism in Italy, and immigration to Italy. Students will form a complex picture of Italy’s relationships with food cultures in a global context.

Class assignments and final projects will allow students to explore their critical and/or creative views of class materials. The course assumes no prior knowledge of Italian. But it requires a passion for Italian food and culture!

Required readings:

TBA

Prerequisite: None

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

FREN420T

Les imaginaires de Paris

For centuries, Paris has inspired artists, novelists, film directors and poets. Study the history of the French capital through some of its most significant fictional representations.

Required readings:

TBA

Suggested readings:

TBA

Prerequisite:One of FREN 320, FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329, FREN 330

Language of Instruction: French

Course Registration

FREN419A

Écrits de femmes (Studies in Women’s Writing)

Christine de Pizan, Collected Works (1407), BL, MS Harley 4431

Dans ce cours, nous examinerons un éventail de textes écrits par des femmes à travers les siècles (des récits allégoriques du Moyen Âge jusqu’au théâtre du dix-neuvième siècle) en nous penchant particulièrement sur la représentation des femmes et de l’écriture, ainsi que la réception de ces textes par le lectorat. Nous aurons lieu de nous demander s’il existe une « écriture féminine » qui se distinguerait d’une « écriture masculine », selon les genres choisis, les thèmes, les considérations stylistiques, etc.

Ouvrages au programme :

Christine de Pizan, Le Livre de la cité des dames (extraits)
Marguerite de Navarre, L’Heptaméron (extraits)
Madame de Lafayette, La Comtesse de Tende.
Isabelle de Charrière, Trois femmes.
George Sand, Gabriel.

Un choix de textes et d’ouvrages critiques sera affiché sur Canvas.

Professeur: Nancy Frelick
Bureau: TBA
Téléphone: TBA
Courriel: nancy.frelick@ubc.ca

Prerequisites: One of FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329 and one of FREN 225, FREN 402.

Language of instruction: French

FREN346

French at Work

This course develops practical and professional French language skills for use in workplace and organizational settings. It is designed for students who wish to strengthen their communicative competence in French while engaging with authentic professional contexts in the local community.

Students will learn to understand and produce a range of workplace-specific discourse, including presentations, reports, and formal workplace interactions. A central feature of the course is its experiential learning component. Students will collaborate with institutions and organizations in the Vancouver region, engage in supervised training activities, workplace simulations, or project-based partnerships.

Aligned with CEFR level B1 objectives.

Language of instruction: French

Instructor: Dr. Nadia Naami

Recommended prerequisites: This course is recommended for students who have completed one of FREN_V 123 or FREN_V 302.

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Grading Breakdown

Coming soon!

Readings

Required texts:

Coming soon!

FREN328B

Mémoires d’avenir

Ce cours se veut une étude de la tension entre le contexte historique de la modernité postcoloniale et la représentation fictive d’un avenir radicalement différent, souvent imprévisible et potentiellement libérateur. Nous lirons ensemble trois ouvrages d’auteurs de la Martinique, de la Côte d’Ivoire et du Cameroun. Nous discuterons de problèmes sociaux, politiques, économiques et culturels qui nous aideront à comprendre les textes. Nous identifierons les stratégies narratives mises en œuvre chez ces auteurs pour mener le lecteur à repenser ses perspectives sur l’Afrique et les Antilles.

Required readings:

Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
Ahmadou Kourouma, Monnè, outrages et défis
Calixthe Beyala, Les arbres en parlent encore

Prerequisite: One of FREN 220, FREN 221

Language of Instruction: French

Course Registration

FREN418K

Francophonie or Postcolonial Studies?

Francophonie hides more than it reveals, is this why we need to approach the subject via the Postcolonial Studies framework? This course develops around a conceptual toolkit (universalism, hybridity, feminisms, diglossia, transnationalism, etc.) to get a better understanding of vision and division around language, identity, memory, national imaginary, and so forth. The works studied reflect on the problematics of the youngest generation of francophone writers. At the same time, course assignments facilitate practice with critical thinking (emphasis on participation), reading reports, exposés, and a research project. In French.

Required readings:

Bachi, Salim. Amours et aventures de Sindbad le marin (2010)

Confiant, Raphaël. Eau de café (1991)

Miano, Léonora. La saison de l’ombre (2013)

Slimani, Leïla. Chanson douce (2016)

Recommended readings:

Badran, Margot. Feminists, Islam, and Nation (1996)

Bhaba, Homi. The Location of Culture (1994)

Césaire, Aimé. Discours sur le colonialisme (1950)

Combe, Dominique. Littératures francophones. Questions, débats, polémiques (2010)

Confiant, Raphaël. Éloge de la créolité (1989)

Fanon, Frantz. Peau noire, masque blanc (1952)

Forsdick, Charles (ed.). Francophone Postcolonial Studies: A Critical Introduction (2003)

Gauvin, Lise. Écrire, pour qui: l’écrivain francophone et ses publics (2007)

Glissant, Édouard. Poétique de la relation (1990)

Khatibi, Abdlekébir. Amour bilingue (1983)

Laroussi, Farid. Postcolonial Counterpoint. Orientalism, France and the Maghreb (2016)

Lionnet, Françoise. Postcolonial Representations: Women, Literature, Identity (1995)

Mabanckou, Alain. Penser et écrire l’Afrique aujourd’hui (2017)

Mbembe, Achille. Critique de la raison nègre (2013)

Provenzano, François. Vies et mort de la francophonie (2011)

Said, Edward. Orientalism (1978)

Spivak, Gayatri. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999)

Prerequisite:
 One of FREN 320, FREN 321, FREN 328, FREN 329, FREN 330

Note:
FREN 418 may be taken twice, with different content, for a maximum of 6 credits.

Language of instruction: French

Course Registration

SPAN550B

Hispanic Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Cultural Cannibalisms: Avant-garde to Decolonial

In this interdisciplinary and comparative course, we will study cultural cannibalisms in Latin American literature and culture within a hemispheric and global context. We will examine critical texts and analyze specific literary and art projects, from avant-garde movements to the 21st century, according to a postcolonial / decolonial theoretical framework and tropes of cultural consumption and exchange (e.g., intertextuality, bricolage, transculturation, hybridity, anthropophagy). Starting from the avant-garde concept of “cultural cannibalism,” which proposed a satirical and metaphorical devouring of foreign elements that, once processed with local elements, produce a synthesis, we will study visual and textual intersections (literary texts, films, images) in a variety of locations. One of the seminar’s objectives is to question how the image and concept of cannibalism became cultural models of critical appropriation within specific social, political, and historical contexts.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Instructor: Dr. Alessandra Santos

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Grading Breakdown

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Readings

Primary Texts (short selections from):

  • Cristóbal Colón “Diario de abordo - primer viaje” (1492-3)
  • Michel de Montaigne “De los caníbales” (1580)
  • Hans Staden A True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-eating People in the New World, America (1557)
  • Jean de Léry History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (1578)
  • Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg Funk Staden (2007)
  • Francis Picabia “Manifeste Cannibale Dada” (1920)
  • Revista Martín Fierro (1924-1927)
  • Alfredo Mario Ferreiro El hombre que se comió un autobus (1927)
  • Oswald de Andrade “Manifiesto Antropófago” (1928)
  • Paula Heredia and Coco Fusco The Couple in the Cage (1993)
  • Dennis O’Rourke Cannibal Tours (1986)
  • Alberto Fuguet Mala onda (1991)
  • Peter Greenaway The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
  • Juan José Saer El entenado (1982)
  • Art by: Tropicália / Brazil, Tania Bruguera, Regina José Galindo, Teresa Margolles
  • Jorge Furtado Isla de las Flores (1989)
  • Lucy Walker Waste Land (2010)
  • Jenniffer Baichwal Manufactured Landscapes (2006)

Secondary texts (selections):

  • Peter Hulme “Columbus and the Cannibals” (1995)
  • Carlos A. Jáuregui Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo (2008)
  • Claude Lévi-Strauss Anthropology and Myth (1984)
  • Kim Beauchesne “La parrilla viajera: canibalismo y colonialidad en la cultura contemporánea de las Américas (Chagoya, Dias, Riedweg y Cros)” (2016)
  • Fernando Ortiz Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar (1940)
  • Roberto Fernández Retamar Todo Caliban (2002)
  • Abril Trigo “Shifting Paradigms: From Transculturation to Hibridity” (2000)
  • Haroldo de Campos “De la razón antropofágica: Europa bajo el signo de la devoración” (1980)
  • Crystal Bartolovich “Consumerism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Cannibalism” (1998)
  • Rita De Grandis “The First Colonial Encounter in El entenado by Juan José Saer: Paratextuality and History in Postmodern Fiction.” (1993)
  • Jonatham Lethem “The Ecstasy of Influence” (2007)
  • Eduardo Viveiros de Castro “Metafísicas Caníbales” (2010)
  • Macarena Gómez-Barris “Mapuche Hunger Acts: Epistemology of the Decolonial” (2012)
  • Macarena Gómez-Barris The Extractive Zone Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives (2017)

The Afrikaner

A hijacking in deeper Johannesburg goes horribly wrong. Zoe du Plessis, a paleontologist of Afrikaner origin, is suddenly confronted with her family’s secret, seemingly wrapped in an old Xhosa’s spell. As she heads for the Kalahari Desert in search of early human fossils, Zoe embarks on an inner journey into the unredeemable sense of guilt haunting her white tribe. She reluctantly seeks salvation in the love of a man scarred by South Africa’s darker past.

Arianna Dagnino. The Afrikaner. Guernica Editions: Oakville, 2019.
ISBN-13: 978-1771833578