News and Events
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The argument is essentially that recent developments in Cognitive Psychology and Reading Science have demonstrated that working with language at all levels helps develop fundamental intellectual skills across the boards. While this may surprise no one, Dr. Holquist will argue further that the well known differences between acquiring a mother language and learning another language at a later stage of development actually make learning a language to be possibly more significant than merely acquiring one. He will draw on historical examples from the history of reading (Plato, Hugh of St. Victor), as well as recent work in cognitive science. |
Michael Holquist Professor Emeritus Comparative and Slavic Literature Yale University Society of Senior Fellows Columbia University Lecture "At Play in the Vineyard of Literacy: Why Language Learning is as Important as Language Acquisition" Thursday, October 29 4:30 PM McHugh Commons |
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On Sunday, May 17th, the Program in Comparative Literature, along with the Classics Department, hosted a post-baccalaureate reception for all of our graduates in the Cossitt Amphitheatre. |
2009 Awards for Excellence in Comparative Literature
Tara Menon Tara wrote a traditional senior thesis entitled “Nutshell-Kingdoms, Life-Giving Cremations, Fabulous Operas within Narrow Skulls: Hamlet, the Valmiki Ramayana and Une Saison en enfer as Redefinitions of Power through Lyric Interludes in Epic.” As the title indicates, her thesis examined texts from no less than three literary traditions, and she worked on each text in the original language—English, Sanskrit, and French. In the thesis, she expands our notions of genre criticism, showing how the intermixture of genres allows us to view texts in new lights.
Congratulations to you both! |
Greer Schott Greer chose to do a creative senior project, and she translated selected poems from Gianni Rodari’s collection of children’s poems Nursery rhymes in the sky and on earth. Greer's translations are remarkable: they not only mimic the rhyme and the meter of Rodari’s Italian poems, but they also retain the joy and playfulness of their Italian counterparts. Greer’s primary goal, stated in her translator’s afterword, was to render the translator visible in the text. She did so by creating a character, “the translator” who introduces the act of translation and who explains Italian cultural references when necessary. In doing so, she is able to make translation come alive for her intended audience, children, to explain cultural difference, and to make all of it enjoyable. |
Alumni and Parents Education and Travel |
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October 12 - 24, 2009 Join professors Barry Sarchett and Lisa B. Hughes on an Odyssey Unlimited voyage to the classic Greek isles. |
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Congratulations! |
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On April 24th, 2009 our five senior Comparative Literature majors presented their theses to a large audience of faculty and friends. |
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Maggie Barrett |
Paulina Barrios |
Tara Menon (no photo) |
Nikki Muyskens |
Greer Schott |
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Zelideth Maria Rivas has joined the Program of Comparative Literature in 2009-2010 as our Riley Scholar. She just completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Professor Bill Davis travelled to Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan to attend the International Conference on Romanticism and present a paper entitled "In many mortal forms: Polyamory as a Strategy of Masculinity." |
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On December 11, 2008, Professor David Bevington, Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, Professor in English Language and Literature and Comparative Literature, and Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, presented a lecture entitled "Shakespeare's Political Philosophy." Can we tell, from his writings, what Shakespeare's own political persuasions may have been? Speakers in his plays defend monarchy and divine right, and inveigh against disorder; other speakers are more heterodox, justifying political takeover and de facto rule and a kind of machiavellian pragmatic statecraft. Will the real Will Shakespeare please stand up?
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Lecture: "The Palace of Odysseus"
October 9, 2008 7:00 PM-Student Slide Shows 7:30 PM-Lecture Cornerstone Arts Center |
" It is a rugged isle, not fit for driving horses, yet it is not utterly poor, though it be but narrow. Therein grows corn beyond measure, and the wine-grape as well, and the rain never fails it, nor the rich dew. It is a good land for pasturing goats and kine; there are trees of every sort, and in it also pools for watering that fail not the year through. Therefore, stranger, the name of Ithaca has reached even to the land of Troy which, they say, is far from this land of Achaea."² Odyssey 13 |
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Hemingway in Africa In the summer of 2008, Professor William Davis travelled to Tanzania with a class of 19 students. They explored Hemingway's literature around his African journeys, with an emphasis on East African culture. |
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In the summer of 2008, Professor Lisa Hughes taught a class in Greece called "Naked Olympics." Students and faculty traveled to the site of ancient Nemea and participated in the revived games, held, since 1996, in Olympics years. They ran barefoot in the stadium against competitors from over 100 countries, and in the 7.5K "footsteps of Herakles" they ran the distance from the Temple at Kleonai to the Nemean stadium. After the games, the class went to ancient Olympia and held games there too. |