Particular offerings of this course seek to introduce the student to the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading and the study of literature. This course is designed as an introductory course to the Comparative Literature major and other literature and humanities majors. It is recommended that students complete English/Writing 5 before enrolling in Comparative Literature 10.
Summer 2012: Milich (2A)
Robbers, Pirates, and Terrorists: Forms of Individual Resistance in Literature and Film
Robin Hood, the archetypal, courteous, pious and swashbuckling outlaw of the medieval era, has become an English (literary) folk hero. He robbed the rich to provide for the poor and fought against injustice and tyranny. From Robin Hood via actual and legendary robbers, rebels, pirates, and corsair in the 17th and 18th centuries, to present day pirates, terrorists and guerilla groups in Somalia, Latin America, Italy, Germany, and the U.S., individuals have always been involved with what they considered legitimate (though illegal) resistance against poverty, authority, patriarchy, feudalism, capitalism, and imperialism. Their action evokes a crucial question, what legitimizes individual justice versus socially controlled jurisdiction and vigilantism from politics? Starting from the dichotomy between legitimacy and legality—what is ethically or religiously legitimate isn’t necessarily legal, and vice versa—this course will focus on representations of rebels and outlaws in different cultural contexts, historical periods, and cultural genres such as novels, movies, dramas, and diaries, and operas. (LIT/W)
