European Literature and Culture Minor Concentration (B.A.) (18 credits)
Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
The Minor Concentration in European Literature and Culture provides students with a broad foundation for understanding the development and interconnectedness of European culture, and its relevance for the comprehension of today’s world through the study of literature and the arts from the Middle Ages to modern times. Knowledge of a language other than English is not required to complete the program.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Course (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| LLCU 210 | Introduction to European Literature and Culture. | 3 |
Introduction to European Literature and Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the study of European culture and literature through an examination of major works and periods of European literature, philosophy, and religion. All readings will be in English translation. | ||
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
9-15 credits selected from the list below. At least 6 credits should be at the 300-level or above.
Students with an advanced knowledge of German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish can count GERM, HISP, ITAL, and RUSS literature courses taught in those languages toward the Minor Concentration. No more than 6 credits in any given area (LLCU, GERM, HISP, ITAL, and RUSS) shall count toward the Minor Concentration (not including LLCU 210 Introduction to European Literature and Culture.).
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| GERM 355 | Nietzsche and Wagner. | 3 |
Nietzsche and Wagner. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the relationship between the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the composer Richard Wagner. It explores their intellectual kinship, their view of art, music, and philosophy in the context of Nietzsche's critique of modernity and decadence and analyzes the Third Reich's and Hollywood's appropriation of Nietzsche and Wagner. | ||
| GERM 357 | German Culture in European Context. | 3 |
German Culture in European Context. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A comparative examination of selected moments in German literary, artistic and cultural history in relation to broader European movements; focus on influences, exchanges and dialogues across national boundaries. | ||
| GERM 358 | Franz Kafka. | 3 |
Franz Kafka. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will look at the works on Franz Kafka, a "classic" modernist author, in three characteristic genres: the story, the novel, and the short prose piece. A selection of Kafka's letters and diary entries as well as critical approaches to his work will also be studied. | ||
| GERM 364 | Gender and Society in German Literature and Culture. | 3 |
Gender and Society in German Literature and Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In connection with notions of identity, nationhood, political change, and cultural difference, this course investigates concepts and issues of gender in contemporary German Society. The readings include critical essays and literary texts by writers, scholars, philosophers, journalists, politicians, and political activists. | ||
| GERM 365 | Modern Short Fiction. | 3 |
Modern Short Fiction. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of short prose forms in German throughout history. | ||
| GERM 367 | Topics in German Thought. | 3 |
Topics in German Thought. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A variety of issues significant to the development of German cultural and intellectual life. | ||
| GERM 368 | Fin-de-Siècle Vienna. | 3 |
Fin-de-Siècle Vienna. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Interdisciplinary study of one of the formative periods of modern European culture; examination of literature, art, thought, culture and politics in Vienna around 1900. | ||
| GERM 369 | The German Novel. | 3 |
The German Novel. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Sustained engagement with the major texts of the German novel from Grimmelshausen to the present. | ||
| GERM 370 | Special Topics in German Film. | 3 |
Special Topics in German Film. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Intensive study of selected topics and periods in German film history. | ||
| HISP 225 | Hispanic Civilization 1. | 3 |
Hispanic Civilization 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of historical and cultural elements which constitute the background of the Hispanic world up to the 18th century; a survey of the pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations (Aztec, Maya and Inca) and the conquest of America. | ||
| HISP 226 | Hispanic Civilization 2. | 3 |
Hispanic Civilization 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the constitution of the ideological and political structures of the Spanish Empire in both Europe and America until the Wars of Independence; a survey of the culture and history of the Hispanic people from the early 19th Century to the present. | ||
| HISP 301 | Hispanic Literature and Culture in English 1. | 3 |
Hispanic Literature and Culture in English 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A topic in the literatures and/or cultures of the Hispanic world will be studied, with all readings and discussion in English. | ||
| ITAL 355 | Dante and the Middle Ages. | 3 |
Dante and the Middle Ages. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the work of Dante Alighieri, a pillar of medieval European literature. The times in which he lived, the institutions and cultural shifts of that era, the influence exercised by Dante's work, as well as how it has been perceived in our time. | ||
| ITAL 365 | The Italian Renaissance. | 3 |
The Italian Renaissance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A presentation of the main ideas and literary masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance (13th-17thC), in the context of Italy's social, political, religious and cultural climate. Reading and discussion of selected literary texts and visual material. | ||
| ITAL 374 | Classics of Italian Cinema. | 3 |
Classics of Italian Cinema. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Key works in the history of Italian cinema; an in-depth analysis of a few exceptional works; emphasis on the complex web of relationship connecting each work to a wide range of cultural products and expressions, from literature to popular culture, in Italy and internationally. | ||
| ITAL 450 | Italy and the Visual Age. | 3 |
Italy and the Visual Age. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the emergence of a mass culture industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, through the survey of a variety of visual sources. | ||
| ITAL 464 | Machiavelli. | 3 |
Machiavelli. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Machiavelli, the political thinker and man of letters. A portrait of Machiavelli as political strategist, playwright and observer of his times. Reading of The Prince as well as selected plays, letters and other writings. | ||
| ITAL 465 | Religious Identities in Italy. | 3 |
Religious Identities in Italy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the role played by religion in shaping Italian identities by looking at the works of Dante, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico, Galileo Galilei and other Early Modern authors in their cultural and institutional contexts. By looking at how these authors expressed their beliefs and interacted with religious institutions, students are invited to critically engage on the concept of "religion". | ||
| ITAL 477 | Italian Cinema and Video. | 3 |
Italian Cinema and Video. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Different Italian film maker or videomaker every year, presenting a selection of his/her significant works. Discussions will include script analysis, interviews, articles and books by the director in focus, in addition to theoretical and critical statements by scholars. Established and new directors will be considered alternately. | ||
| LLCU 200 | Topics in Film. | 3 |
Topics in Film. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar focuses on a special topic in European and/or transatlantic film and visual culture. | ||
| LLCU 201 | Literature and Culture Topics. | 3 |
Literature and Culture Topics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Special topics seminar focusing on a particularly relevant theme, recurrent motif, or a seminal movement in European and/or transatlantic literature. | ||
| LLCU 220 | Introduction to Literary Analysis. | 3 |
Introduction to Literary Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A literary analysis course that introduces the tools and critical terms needed for studying poetry and prose fiction, discussing formal and stylistic differences, organizing and writing critical essays. | ||
| LLCU 230 | Environmental Imaginations. | 3 |
Environmental Imaginations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will provide a cultural framework for examining representations of environmental issues in literary texts and films. The emphasis will be on the ways issues such as global warming, ozone depletion, and extreme weather patterns are imagined in specific cultural productions. | ||
| LLCU 279 | Introduction to Film History. | 3 |
Introduction to Film History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to representative periods, movements and styles in the history of cinema, as well as questions of film historiography. | ||
| LLCU 300 | Cinema and the Visual. | 3 |
Cinema and the Visual. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar examines topics in European and/or transatlantic cinema and visual culture, including film theory, aesthetics and historiography; media archeology; cinema and the digital; film and philosophy; cultural histories of the cinema; and approaches to moving images. | ||
| LLCU 301 | Topics in Culture and Thought. | 3 |
Topics in Culture and Thought. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Special topics focusing on European or transatlantic intellectual traditions and movements. | ||
| RUSS 217 | Russia's Eternal Questions. | 3 |
Russia's Eternal Questions. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of cultural archetypes defining continuity and change from Peter the Great to the present; the Russian national identity, double-faith, Western and Slovophile influences, Mother Russia, superfluous men and the Eternal Feminine, anarchism, the avant-garde, Stalinism. Recurring themes traced in literature, art, film, music, pop culture and the applied arts. | ||
| RUSS 218 | Russian Literature and Revolution. | 3 |
Russian Literature and Revolution. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The dramatic developments in Russian literature of the 20th century, from revolution, through conformity, to the ironies and anxieties of the post-Soviet era. Comrades, iconoclasts, absurdists, proletarians and aesthetes; the Gulag, the literary café, the music of the spheres, the crumbling Russian village; the reforging of humanity and the rediscovery of tradition. | ||
| RUSS 223 | Russian 19th Century: Literary Giants 1. | 3 |
Russian 19th Century: Literary Giants 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The Golden Age of Russian literature: from Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol to the first works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. This course traces the rise of a coherent literary tradition in Russia, exploring authors’ relationships to the burgeoning tradition and to their historical and cultural context. | ||
| RUSS 224 | Russian 19th Century: Literary Giants 2. | 3 |
Russian 19th Century: Literary Giants 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores the masterpieces of late nineteenth-century Russian literature. From psychological realism and the novel of ideas to the rise of the great short story; Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Leskov, and Chekhov. | ||
| RUSS 330 | Chekhov without Borders. | 3 |
Chekhov without Borders. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Chekhov’s short stories and plays. The genre of the short story and its relationship to realist, modernist, and postmodernist aesthetics. Chekhov’s influence in Russia and abroad. | ||
| RUSS 337 | Vladimir Nabokov. | 3 |
Vladimir Nabokov. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Cross sampling of short stories and major novels by Vladimir Nabokov; his life-long love affair with language and "aesthetic bliss"; his flouting of convention from Russia's Silver Age to post-McCarthy America. Lolita in and beyond the Russian context. | ||
| RUSS 340 | Russian Short Story. | 3 |
Russian Short Story. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Russian stories that encompass the major aesthetic and thematic concerns of the short story genre. Recurrent themes of language's power and limits, of childhood and old age, of art and sexuality, and of cultural, individual, and artistic memory. | ||
| RUSS 357 | Leo Tolstoy. | 3 |
Leo Tolstoy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An in-depth exploration of the literature and thought of Leo Tolstoy. This course will cover his major works of fiction as well as non-fiction essays, diary entries, and letters, with the majority of the semester devoted to his great masterpiece, War and Peace. | ||
| RUSS 358 | Fyodor Dostoevsky. | 3 |
Fyodor Dostoevsky. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An in-depth study of the writing and thought of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Through reading Dostoevsky's major novels as well as some of his short fiction and journalism in the context of his times, this course will explore Dostoevsky's contributions to literature and philosophy. | ||
| RUSS 385 | Staging Russianness: From Pushkin to Chekhov. | 3 |
Staging Russianness: From Pushkin to Chekhov. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Masterpieces of the Russian stage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the emergence of a uniquely Russian dramatic sensitivity against prevailing European trends; the literary word in a public, political and/or avant-garde forum. | ||
| RUSS 427 | Russian Fin de Siècle. | 3 |
Russian Fin de Siècle. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Russian poetry, prose, drama, book design and the visual arts from the Silver Age to WWI, from Chekhov to Blok and Belyi. The crisis of realism, decadence, symbolism, and its waning traced through the eternal feminine, the devil, the city, poetry as pure creation, and millennial crisis. Not open to students who have taken or are taking RUSS 465. | ||
| RUSS 428 | Russian Avantgarde. | 3 |
Russian Avantgarde. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Russian poetry, prose, drama, the manifesto, street festivals and the explosion of experiment in the visual arts from WW1 to 1930. The avant-garde anticipates, transcends, responds and then succumbs to revolution. | ||
| RUSS 430 | High Stalinist Culture 1. | 3 |
High Stalinist Culture 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Novels, films, art, architecture, pageantry, rhetoric and routine of the Stalinist 1930s-40s, including socialist realism as an aesthetic doctrine, utopian blueprint, target of parody, amalgam of a submerged avant-garde and state-controlled pop culture, precursor of the postmodernist simulacrum, self-proclaimed international style and/or uniquely Russian 20th-century project. | ||
| RUSS 440 | Russia and Its Others. | 3 |
Russia and Its Others. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In-depth historical approach to cultural construction of Russian national identity and to the concept of the Other as a condition of self-representation: East, West, America, class enemies, dissidents, ethnic and sexual minorities, etc. Introduction to theoretical tools for approaching issues of national identity, alterity, (post)colonialism, exoticism, and orientalism. Not open to students who have taken RUSS 475 in 201301. | ||
| RUSS 454 | Narratives of Desire. | 3 |
Narratives of Desire. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An exploration of desire as it was narrativized in Russian literature 1860-1900. The course draws on comparative examples from European literature as well as various theoretical approaches for conceptualizing love and desire. | ||
0-6 credits in literature courses offered by Classical Studies (CLAS), English (ENGL), and French (FREN) selected from the following list:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CLAS 203 | Greek Mythology. | 3 |
Greek Mythology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the myths and legends of Ancient Greece. | ||
| CLAS 301 | Ancient Greek Literature and Society. | 3 |
Ancient Greek Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Survey of ancient Greek literature in translation, covering the key genres and texts in their social and historical contexts. The material to be discussed includes Archaic epic, lyric, and elegy; Classical tragedy, comedy, and historiography; Hellenistic poetry, and literature of the Roman Imperial period. | ||
| CLAS 302 | Roman Literature and Society. | 3 |
Roman Literature and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An exploration of Roman texts written during the Republican and Imperial periods (200 BCE-400 CE) and the study of social contexts in which they were written. | ||
| CLAS 306 | Classics in Modern Media. | 3 |
Classics in Modern Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Receptions of the classical paradigm of Ancient Greece and Rome in modern media, the classical tradition, and current scholarship. | ||
| CLAS 336 | Modern Greek Literature. | 3 |
Modern Greek Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Offers a panorama of Modern Greek literature in translation. It examines a corpus of texts selected according to each year's thematic topic of study. | ||
| ENGL 200 | Survey of English Literature 1. | 3 |
Survey of English Literature 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of English literature before 1750 for students not registered in English programs. | ||
| ENGL 201 | Survey of English Literature 2. | 3 |
Survey of English Literature 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of English literature after 1750 for students not registered in English programs. | ||
| ENGL 215 | Introduction to Shakespeare. | 3 |
Introduction to Shakespeare. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of a selection of plays, in their intellectual and theatrical context, with an emphasis on the interplay of text and performance. | ||
| ENGL 310 | Restoration and 18th Century Drama. | 3 |
Restoration and 18th Century Drama. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of works of Restoration and 18th century drama. | ||
| ENGL 314 | 20th Century Drama. | 3 |
20th Century Drama. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of selected representative works in modern drama and theatre. | ||
| ENGL 329 | English Novel: 19th Century 1. | 3 |
English Novel: 19th Century 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of representative novelists of the earlier 19th century. | ||
| ENGL 337 | Theme or Genre in Medieval Literature. | 3 |
Theme or Genre in Medieval Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Study of a particular theme or genre of significance to the development of medieval literature. | ||
| ENGL 347 | Great Writings of Europe 1. | 3 |
Great Writings of Europe 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of selected texts that significantly enhance understanding of English literature. | ||
| ENGL 349 | English Literature and Folklore 1. | 3 |
English Literature and Folklore 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of representative texts from Beowulf to the late Renaissance period in relation to their background in folk tradition. A focus on the origin and development of folklore motifs. | ||
| ENGL 356 | Middle English. | 3 |
Middle English. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of works in Middle English. | ||
| ENGL 447 | Crosscurrents/English Literature and European Literature 1. | 3 |
Crosscurrents/English Literature and European Literature 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative study of English and European literature. Topic varies by year. | ||
| ENGL 456 | Middle English. | 3 |
Middle English. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of works in Middle English. | ||
| FREN 355 | Littérature du 20e siècle 1. | 3 |
Littérature du 20e siècle 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française depuis 1900. | ||
| FREN 360 | La littérature du 19e siècle 1. | 3 |
La littérature du 19e siècle 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 19e siècle. | ||
| FREN 362 | La littérature du 17e siècle 1. | 3 |
La littérature du 17e siècle 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 17e siècle. | ||
| FREN 364 | La littérature du 18e siècle 1. | 3 |
La littérature du 18e siècle 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 18e siècle. | ||
| FREN 366 | Littérature de la Renaissance 1. | 3 |
Littérature de la Renaissance 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 16e siècle. | ||
| FREN 453 | Littérature du 20e siècle 2. | 3 |
Littérature du 20e siècle 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs et de thèmes importants de la littérature française du 20e siècle. | ||
| FREN 455 | La littérature médiévale 1. | 3 |
La littérature médiévale 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du moyen-âge (des origines au 15e siècle). | ||
| FREN 456 | La littérature médiévale 2. | 3 |
La littérature médiévale 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du moyen-âge (des origines au 15e siècle). | ||
| FREN 457 | La littérature de la Renaissance 2. | 3 |
La littérature de la Renaissance 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 16e siècle. | ||
| FREN 458 | La littérature du 17e siècle 2. | 3 |
La littérature du 17e siècle 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 17e siècle. | ||
| FREN 459 | La littérature du 18e siècle 2. | 3 |
La littérature du 18e siècle 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'ceuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 18e siècle. | ||
| FREN 482 | La littérature du 19e siècle 2. | 3 |
La littérature du 19e siècle 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Étude d'oeuvres, d'auteurs ou de courants de la littérature française du 19e siècle. | ||
| FREN 485 | Littérature française contemporaine. | 3 |
Littérature française contemporaine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Études d'ceuvres, d'auteurs ou de thèmes importants de la littérature française récente et actuelle. | ||