Many courses offered in Literature in Translation are taught by German, Nordic, and Slavic
faculty and instructional staff. LITTRANS course usually do not require knowledge of the original
language and all texts are read in translation and discussed in English. LITTRANS courses will
often meet with courses with the same title in German, Scandinavian Studies, or Slavic. Note
that LITTRANS sections may have different requirements and prerequisites and may count
differently toward degree requirements than the German, Scandinavian Studies, or Slavic
sections. Talk to your advisor if you have questions.
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LITTRANS 202 Survey of 19th and 20th Century Russian Literature in Translation II
001 9:55-10:45 AM MWF Reynolds, Andrew
Meets with LitTrans 204
LITTRANS 204 Survey of 19th and 20th Century Russian Literature in Translation II
001 9:55-10:45 AM MWF Reynolds, Andrew
301 9:55-10:45 AM R
302 12:05-12:55 R
Meets with LitTrans 202
LITTRANS 218 Polish Literature in Translation: Late 19th and 20th Centuries
001 5:00-6:15 PM MW Filipowicz, Halina
Meets with Slavic 472
LITTRANS 220 Chekov in Translation
001 1:20-2:10 PM MWF Hanukai, Maksim
Meets with Slavic 420
LITTRANS 229 Representations of the Jew in Eastern European Cultures
001 2:30-3:45 PM MW
LITTRANS 234 Soviet Life and Culture Through Literature and Art (from 1917)
001 2:25-3:15 PM MWF Tishler, Jennifer
301 2:25-3:15 PM T Tishler, Jennifer
LITTRANS 236 Bascom Course-In Translation
001 9:30-10:45 AM TR Mani, Venkat Migration in Literature, Film, and Music
002 9:30-10:45 AM TR Eldridge, Hannah Extreme Stories: Tales of Criminality & Disease
Meets with German 236
Migration in Literature, Film and Translation (Section 001):
Please contact bvmani@wisc.edu with any questions.
Course Description: Migration is a highly contested topic in the world today, especially in Europe and North America, where immigration has defined the demographic make up of specific nations for centuries, but especially since the end of the Second World War. 2016 set a new record in terms of global migration, with the number of international migrants expected to climb above 250 million people. Of these, around 14 million will be registered refugees. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey, the U.S. immigrant population was 12.5 percent of the total U.S. population. As per statistics of the European Union, a total of 3.8 million people immigrated to one of the EU-28 Member States during 2014, while at least 2.8 million emigrants were reported to have left an EU Member State. Germany reported the largest total number of immigrants (884.9 thousand) in 2014, followed by the United Kingdom (632.0 thousand), France (339.9 thousand), Spain (305.5 thousand) and Italy (277.6 thousand).
Still interested? Then this is a course for you.
In this course, we will engage with “migration” as a social, cultural, political, and historical phenomenon. In addition to discussing migration as a journey from the nation of birth to the adopted nation of residence we will discuss migration as a multidirectional, multi-lingual movement of ideas. The focus of our course will be recent migration into Germany, but we will compare and contrast it with migration into the US, UK, and the Scandinavian countries. What is so special about the German migration history in the 20th century? How has migration changed the social fabric of Germany and other European nations? How has migration enriched literature, culture, music, food, and sports? How do racial, ethnic, religious, and other differences pose challenges to inclusion of German/ European migrant subjects? These and other questions will be central to this course. We will discuss how the understanding of migration in the Euro-American world has changed in the 21st century. We will analyze how migration as an experience is manifested in literature, cinema, music and other art forms, and how issues of identities and difference, tolerance and acceptance, nationalism and cosmopolitanism form and inform the core of German society. Most importantly, we will explore how categories such as home and elsewhere, the self and the other, belonging and cultural citizenship find expression in contemporary Germany. To this end, we will read and discuss writers such as Aras Ören, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Sathnam Sanghera, Peter Manseau, Jonas Hassan Khemiri. We will watch and discuss films by directors such as Fatih Akin, Xavier Coller, Yasemin Semderli, Kutlug Ataman, and music by Pop Tadka, Isam B., Kool Savas and Eco Fresh. Readings and Discussions will be in English.
Course Requirements:
- Attendance and Class Participation: [includes two weekly “tweets” on twitter.com]: 25%
- One oral presentation: 10%
- 5 short blogs (400 words each): 15%
- Mid-term Project (8 page paper OR multimedia project such as Youtube Film or Prezi): 25%
- Final Project: Revised and expanded version of the mid-term project: (12 page paper OR multimedia project such as Youtube Film or Prezi): 25%
Texts: Shorter Texts available on learn@uw [course website]; films screened thorough password protected streaming; novels ordered through the University Book Store and available in College Reserves.
Required Texts:
- Manseau, Peter. Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter. New York: Free Press, 2009. ISBN: 9781416538707
- Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Refugees. New York: Grove Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780802126399
- Özdamar, Emine Sevgi. The Bridge of the Golden Horn. Translated by Martin Chalmers. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2007. ISBN 9781852429324
- Sanghera, Sathnam. Marriage Material. New York: Europa Editions, 2016. ISBN: 9781609453077
Extreme Stories: Tales of Criminality and Disease (Section 002):
The extremes of human experience fascinate us: faced with stories of illnesses that seem to move between mind and body, devastating plagues, or gruesome crimes, we look for explanations that make sense of how and why such events take place. But often enough, attempts to rationalize frightening or confusing events reveal how hard it is to draw the boundaries between “extreme” and “normal,” showing just how slippery our categories of sickness and health, guilt and innocence are. This course looks at fictional texts (including films and plays) and legal, psychological, and medical cases to examine critically the different ways we try to make sense of these experiences. In paying special attention to the way writers, scientists, lawyers, psychologists, and filmmakers are challenged, inspired, or confounded by these extreme stories, we will: look at early case studies published in pedagogical journals and magazines in the eighteenth century, watch as practitioners try to explain mental illness at the birth of psychoanalysis (including Freud’s famous case study “The Wolf Man”), debate the use of cases in establishing mental categories (for example in the discovery and history of Dissociative Identity Disorder), and consider criminal cases (e.g. Leopold and Loeb). We will look further at fictionalized ‘cases,’ such as Nunally Johnson’s film The Three Faces of Eve, Friedrich Schiller’s adaptation of a legal case, “The Criminal of Lost Honour,” and Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” to see what these stories about the extremes of the human condition can tell us about what it means to be human and healthy.
Specific COMM B Objectives (see http://www.ls.wisc.edu/gened/CoursesNew.htm for detailed information):
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- critical reading, logical thinking, and the use of evidence
- the use of appropriate style and disciplinary conventions in writing and speaking
- the productive use of core library resources specific to the discipline
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Required Texts:
Texts in bold can be accessed at the Memorial, or College Library (as Reserves) or purchased as print or e-books from a bookstore or an online vendor of your choice. For Kindle and other electronic editions please check relevant websites. All other texts listed will be made available through learn@uw [See the notation “learn@uw” on the course calendar]. Films will be made available through password protected streaming.
LITTRANS 247 Topics in Slavic Literatures in Translation
001 4:00-5:15 PM TR Filipowicz, Halina Representing Holocaust in Poland
Meets with Slavic 245 and Jewish 230
LITTRANS 274 In Translation: Masterpieces of Scandinavian Literature – The 20th Century
001 12:05-12:55 PM TR Brantly, Susan
002 12:05-12:55 PM TR Brantly, Susan
301 1:20-2:10 PM R
302 12:05-12:55 PM W
Meets with Scand St 374
Open to Freshmen. 4th credit for Com-B students only
Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for Lit Trans 274. Students taking the class as Scand 374 must have 2 years of a Scand language. Scand 374 counts towards the Scandinavian Certificate or Major.
*Those taking the class for 4 credits should be signed up for a Comm-B section (either discussion section 301 (R 1:20 PM-2:10 PM) or 302 (W 12:05 PM-12:55 PM)).
Can thrillers, science fiction novels, or films be literary masterpieces? Yes they can! Explore the changing fashions in literature throughout the 20th Century, while you learn important survival skills for the media age. Everybody wants something, so how do you assess what different writers want from you, and what tricks do they use to go about getting it? Through a selection of short texts, novels, and plays, we’ll be learning from some of the best: Nobel Laureates (Knut Hamsun, Pär Lagerkvist), medical doctors (P.C. Jersild), and other provocateurs (August Strindberg, Isak Dinesen, Ingmar Berman, Peter Hoeg, and the rest).
Please contact sbrantly@wisc.edu with any questions.
LITTRANS 275 In Translation: The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
001 11:00-11:50 AM MWF Andersen, Claus
002 11:00-11:50 AM MWF Andersen, Claus
003 Online Mellor, Scott
301 12:05-12:55 PM M
302 4:00-4:50 PM M
303 12:05-12:55 PM W
304 2:25-3:15 PM R
Open to Freshmen. 4th credit for Com-B students only
LITTRANS 276 Special Topics in German World Literature/s
001 1:00-2:15 PM TR Tales of Brother Grimm: From Nation to the World
LITTRANS 277 Topics in Twentieth-Century German Literature (in Translation)
001 11:00-12:15 PM TR Adler, Hans Kalfka and the Kalfkaesque
Meets with German 275
Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924) is an author whose impact on world literature cannot be overestimated. Born an Austrian Jew and living in the German-speaking Diaspora of Prague, he spent his days making a living as a successful employee of an insurance company and his nights desperately trying to create fiction that met his own exacting expectations. Constantly at odds with the demands of his family, friends, and fiancées/female acquaintances and plagued by poor health, Franz Kafka struggled his entire life long to reconcile the irreconcilable: life and writing. He published only very few texts during his lifetime and on his death bed he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all remaining manuscripts—a last will which Brod did not execute.
Kafka is an “international” author of a new type of “world literature,” the quality of which is irrefutable yet challenges traditional approaches and standard modes of reading. It is perplexing: We understand the words and sentences of Kafka’s texts, but when it comes to envisioning the universe therein and the texts’ internal logic, we encounter almost insurmountable barriers. Similar to Kafka’s characters, who are losers from the outset, the readers of Kafka’s texts seem doomed to fail in their attempts to understand this uncanny world, created out of common language. And here lies the uncomfortable paradox: We may understand his texts but we struggle to follow their logic and the mysterious world created by them. Even when our imagination and comprehension fall short of grasping the textual world we remain mesmerized by it. Thus, Kafka’s texts demand a transdisciplinary and comparative approach.
Kafka’s texts forged a new level and quality of literature that has triggered innumerable responses in many languages, media, and discourses, and the term Kafkaesque makes clear that the type and dimension of Kafka’s texts have been perceived as strange, uncanny, and resistant to any classification. In the attempt to adopt or imitate the Kafkaesque, other authors situate themselves in the literary tradition of the uncanny, which in part relies on the mystified city of Prague with its long Jewish tradition, as well as on the tradition of Romantic and ‘Gothic’ texts.
In this course, we will read a wide selection of texts by Franz Kafka in order to approach an understanding of his universe and prepare ourselves to view this universe in comparison with other contemporary authors as well as authors from other cultures and eras (N. Gogol, W.G. Sebald, T. Pynchon, H. Mulisch, P. Roth). Lectures will also highlight literature, film, and art works in the tradition of the Kafkaesque. There will be a midterm and a final exam. A small number of short writing and drawing assignments may be required. This course is open to freshmen. Please note that this specific “German 275” course does not count for the German Certificate since it is taught in English. German majors may count it as a cognate course for the major.
LITTRANS 279 Yiddish Literature and Culture in America
001 1:00-2:15 PM TR Hollander, Philip
LITTRANS 318 Modern Jewish Literature
001 2:30-3:45 PM TR Hollander, Philip
301 9:55-10:45 AM R
302 4:35-5:25 PM T
303 2:25-3:15 PM W
LITTRANS 324 Topics in Scandinavian Literature
001 1:00-2:15 PM TR Schmidt, Agnete Criminal Utopias
Meets with Scand St 436
Science fiction portrays imaginary realms which illustrate the highest potential for the achievements of the human race, both spiritually in conjunction with ideologies, philosophies, and religions, and technologically in conjunction with technical advances, technological inventions, and practical innovations in our contemporary lives. At the same time, science fiction depicts the lowest common denominator of the potential of humanity in its inherent criticism of existing social human interactions, conditions, and societies. Similarly, crime fiction shows the dualistic nature of the human race in its portrayal of the basest acts of humanity and the most exemplary human reaction to such acts. Hence, both genres are related in their exploration of the nature of good and evil and, consequently, eminently capable of spurring existential discussions about the role of humankind and our power to influence our surroundings. They both question the essence of the status quo and yield different answers to such essential questions as the nature of personal identities, values, beliefs, and worldviews. Obviously, since they both allow a critique of contemporary society, it is, then, very relevant to ask why one genre is more popular than the other in Scandinavia. This course will attempt to answer that question. It will, furthermore, include an examination of the origins of science fiction and the crime literature genre in a broader historical perspective, drawing on British and American texts and theories. Through the reading of a variety of novels and short stories, as well as viewing of films, the course aims to heighten the ability of the students to engage in analytical and critical thinking, voice coherent argumentation, explore, examine, reason, and write academic essays. The investigation of human issues is relevant to all literature courses; science fiction and crime literature is particularly relevant in its enquiry into human nature for better and worse, and this course will focus on the particular Scandinavian response to the above-mentioned questions as portrayed in two popular culture genres.
Please email aschmidt2@wisc.edu with any questions.
LITTRANS 326 Topics in Dutch Literature in Translation
001 11:00-12:15 PM TR Taylor, Jolanda Occupation, Holocaust, Memory in Dutch Literature
Meets with German 325 & 625
Participants in this course will consider a variety of texts selected from the Dutch-language literary tradition that engage with the Nazi occupation of the Low Countries during WWII, the Holocaust—from the perspective of the Low Countries–and the memory of both these in later decades.
We will look at the techniques, devices, methods and structures that writers employ to engage and educate the reader, to provide an aesthetic experience, to challenge the reader, and to raise the big questions. This course invites students to read attentively, to think carefully, and to discuss thoughtfully and vigorously – face-to-face, informally online, and in more formal papers and exams.
Learning outcomes:
This course particularly encourages students to expand their knowledge of human cultures, specifically of literature. In acquiring this knowledge, we will practice a range of 21st-century skills, including inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; ethical reasoning.
LITTRANS 335 In Translation: The Drama of Henrik Ibsen
001 1:00-2:15 PM TR Krouk, Dean
Meets with Scand St 422 and Theatre 335
The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is a major figure of world literature whose dramatic works remain fascinating and globally influential today, both as texts and through a large number of performances and adaptations. In this course we read and discuss the “father of modern drama” in English translation, using a variety of critical approaches. We consider Ibsen’s dramatic techniques and the historical and literary contexts of his work, as well as Ibsen’s various connections to feminism, psychoanalysis, and modern culture. This course emphasizes not only the familiar Ibsen of the socially critical realist drama, but also the fascinating strangeness of much Ibsen, which prompted Harold Bloom to write in The Western Canon, “I cannot think of any other Western dramatist of true magnitude who is as consistently weird as Ibsen.”
Please contact krouk@wisc.edu with any questions.
LITTRANS 336 In Translation: The Drama of August Strindberg
001 9:30-10:45 AM TR Brantly, Susan
Meets with Scand St 423 and crosslisted with Theatre 336
August Strindberg is one of the important pioneers of modern drama. His dramatic works fall into two phases: pre-Inferno and post-Inferno. In the works prior to his Inferno crisis, Strindberg, in rivalry with Ibsen, helped to perfect the realistic drama in The Father, Miss Julie, and The Creditors. After his psychological and spiritual crisis of the 1890s, Strindberg, inspired by the Symbolists, essentially invented expressionist and absurdist theatre with To Damascus, A Dream Play and others. This course will explore this astounding shift in dramatic style that had such a tremendous impact on modern literature.
Please contact sbrantly@wisc.edu with any questions.
LITTRANS 343 In Translation: The Woman in Scandinavian Literature
001 11:00-11:50 MWF Schmidt, Agnete
Meets with Scand St 420
In this class, we will read and discuss a selection of writings by and about Scandinavian Women from the 19thcentury and till now. We will include short stories, poetry, essays, and some literary criticism. Active participation is encouraged as the class consists of a mixture of lectures and discussions. Through presentations, students will enhance their understanding of and engagement in the materials. The goal is to create a comprehension of the works based on culture, history, and literature. A further important element is drawing comparisons between the Scandinavian Countries and the USA regarding events, cultural backgrounds, and literary expressions of and about women.
Please contact aschmidt2@wisc.edu with any questions.
LITTRANS 455 Modern Serbian and Croatian Literature in Translation
001 12:05-12:55 PM TR Mitrovic, Dijana
Meets with Slavic 454