Literature | Academic Requirements | Minor in English and Comparative Literature | Courses: 1000–2999 | Courses: 3000–3999 | Courses: 4000–4999 | Faculty

The Literature Program: Lower-Level Courses (LIT 1000–2999)

College Writing
LWR 1110 Refer to Expository/College Writing Courses for description.

Introduction to Literature
LIT 1520 / 4 credits / Every semester
An introduction to the principles and practice of close reading and literary criticism. Readings include a variety of literary modes, including fiction, poetry, and drama.

Description revised Spring 2009 (10/16/08):
Introduction to Lyric Poetry
LIT 1550 / 4 credits / Every year
An examination of a wide array of poems from classical antiquity to the 21st century. In this course, students consider the multiple ways that poetry works to create meaning and emotion and investigate techniques of close analysis. Particularly recommended for students interested in the study of literature, creative writing, and language.

Writing Memoir
LIT 2052 Refer to LWR 2052 in Expository/College Writing Courses for description.

The Ancient Epic
LIT 2080 / 4 credits / Alternate years / Sequence I
A reading of texts embodying the oldest myths of Western culture: the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and Metamorphosis. Works are considered both in their historical context and from the perspective of recent thought.

Introduction to African-American Literature
LIT 2100 / 3 credits / Alternate years / Sequence III
A survey course with emphasis on the major 20th-century works by black American writers (Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paule Marshall, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison). The major periods of black literature (folk materials, post-slavery, Harlem Renaissance, realism and naturalism, assimilation, and the Black Arts Movement) are discussed.

Princes, Priests, and Peasants
LIT 2121 / Sequence I
Refer to HIS 2120 in History Courses for description.

The Faust Legends in Literature
LIT 2175 / 4 credits / Alternate years (Fall)
The legends of Faust, who sold his soul to the devil, constitute one of the central themes in Western literature. This comparative literature course begins with Marlowe’s drama, Doctor Faustus (1604), and traces the theme’s evolution through Goethe, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Mann, Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Szabo’s film, Mephisto.

Introduction to Shakespeare
LIT 2200 / Sequence I
Refer to DRA 2200 in Drama Studies Courses for description.

Prosody: Verse and Versification
LIT 2335 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Concentrates on the technical and formal elements of poetry: in particular, the poetic line and its principles (“prosody”), but also other aspects of structure and arrangement. These are the elements that have historically defined poetry and that have been elegantly reinvented in recent times. Not a writing course (but of interest to serious poetry writers), though a few optional poetry-making exercises might be included.

U.S. Short Story
LIT 2361 / 3 credits / Alternate years
Short stories by important U.S. writers of fiction, from the beginnings of the literary tradition in the earlier 19th century (Poe, Hawthorne, Melville) to current authors. As the sequence of stories unfolds, the development of American issues unfolds as well.

Classics of European Fiction
LIT 2375 / 4 credits / Alternate years
Short works of French, Russian, and German fiction, beginning with 18th-century quarrels between classicism and romanticism and ending with multicultural influences on the creation of 20th-century “classics.”

African Literature
LIT 2385 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
A survey of African literature, including the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods, that concentrates on oral traditions and their evolution and change in written literature. Writers include Tutuola, Mofolo, Ewensi, Achebe, Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Abrahams, and Gordimer. Some attention is also given to French-speaking writers and to African artistic perspectives in the works of Soyinka and Mphahlele.

Introduction to Russian Literature
LIT 2395 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An introduction to the world of classical Russian literature, which is inseparably linked to the tumultuous history of Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Students examine the impact of religion and social theories on the most prominent figures in Russian culture, as well as the role of literature in Russian society. Authors include Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Bunin, Blok, and Akhmatova.

Colloquium I: Studies in Literature
LIT 2450 / 4 credits / Every semester
An introduction to literary study for current and prospective literature majors. Readings are divided among three areas: primary texts, secondary texts that offer contexts for the primary texts, and works that define the study of literature. Each course section addresses its own topic.
Prerequisite: For qualified first-year students, permission of the Literature Board of Study coordinator
Note: The course is generally taken in the sophomore year; transfer students wishing to major in literature must complete LIT 2450 during their first semester at Purchase.

The Bible
LIT 2530 / 3 credits / Alternate years / Sequence I
Readings illustrate the range of issues, styles, and contexts in the Bible, including Genesis and Exodus, Deuteronomic Histories, prophets major and minor, Job and Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, and Apocalypse. This is not a course in religion, but in a literary and cultural tradition deeply concerned with human action in relation to divinity.

Survey of U.S. Literature I
LIT 2560 / 4 credits / Every year / Sequence II
Spans the literature of the European invasion of North America, from the 16th century through the first decades of a national publishing industry of “American” letters following the Revolutionary War. Students consider the connections between writing and colonialism, nation building, and the resistance of these powerful narratives in, for example, the few written words of the indigenous populations and the enslaved.

Survey of U.S. Literature II
LIT 2570 / 4 credits / Every year / Sequence II
An examination of literature written in the U.S. between the 1830s and the beginning of the 20th century. Careful attention is paid to the context of western expansion, slavery and its legacy, industrialization, immigration, and other historical developments. While much of the course is devoted to the “American Renaissance,” students also consider several contemporaneous literary traditions and their interrelationships.

American Drama: From O’Neill to Albee
LIT 2600 / Sequence III
Refer to DRA 2600 in Drama Studies Courses for description.

The Beat Generation
LIT 2680 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly) / Sequence III
Explores the lives, works, and times of the Beat Generation authors, with emphasis on Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Gary Snyder. The course begins with Kerouac’s early novel, The Town and the City, and explores the literary and cultural landscape from which the Beats emerged and their profound effect on the nascent counterculture. It concludes by examining works of the war-resisting generation that followed, in particular the works of Bob Dylan and other folksingers who were strongly influenced by the Beats.

Introduction to Jewish-American Literature
LIT 2717 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
What does it mean to be Jewish, to be American, and to write Jewish-American literature? Focusing primarily on 20th- and 21st-century novels, plays, films, short stories, and autobiographies, this introductory course examines shifting constructions and representations of Jewish-American identity and literature. Also offered as JST 2717.

Cinematic Expression I
CIN 2760 / Sequence III
Refer to Cinema Studies Courses for description.

Added Spring 2009 (10/28/08):
Modernism and the Metropolis
LIT 2825 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly) / Sequence III
The relationship between the developments of urban modernity and aesthetic modernism is charted through the first half of the 20th century in three major metropolitan centers: Paris, London, and New York. The focus is on British and American modernist poetry and novels.

Israeli Literature
LIT 2855 / Sequence III
Refer to JST 2855 in Jewish Studies Courses for description.

The Golden Land: American Jewish Literature and Film
LIT 2872 / 4 credits / Alternate years / Sequence III
Beginning as a response to the immigrant experience, writing by American Jews emerged as a central literary presence and the inspiration for important films. This course traces the evolution from early writers such as Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska, through major figures such as Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, and I.B. Singer, to their contemporaries and heirs, including Stanley Elkin, Joseph Heller, Cynthia Ozick, and Grace Paley. Also offered as JST 2873.

Frontiers of Drama
DRA 2890 Refer to Drama Studies Courses for description.

Updated Oct. 28, 2008