Last updated: June 8, 2022 @ 09:05AM
Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts
Master of Arts in Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts
Dean
Carol U. Merriam
Faculty of Humanities
Associate Dean
Keri Cronin
Faculty of Humanities
Core Faculty
Professors
David Fancy, Dramatic Arts
Brian E. Power, Music
Associate Professors
Renée-Claude Breitenstein, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Natalee Caple, English Language and Literature
Alex Christie, Centre for Digital Humanities
Carmela Colella, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Tamara El-Hoss, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Derek Knight, Visual Arts
Nigel Lezama, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Jean Ntakirutimana, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Catherine Parayre, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Assistant Professors
Nicholas Hauck, Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Graduate Program Interim Director
Nigel Lezama
nlezama@brocku.ca
Administrative Assistant
Brittany Nagy
(905) 688-5550, extension 3837
moderns@brocku.ca
brocku.ca/modernlanguages/scla.htm
Program Description
The MA in Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts is an interdisciplinary and interfaculty program that not only focuses on the study of literature from different nations, but also examines the ways in which literature enters into dialogue with the fine and performing arts. Throughout the program, students examine contemporary approaches to texts of various types, as well as the possibilities and problems that arise in comparative studies, including issues related to the translation and adaptation of works. Through coursework, students are encouraged to develop a cross-disciplinary understanding of how works of art or cultural production evolve, are received, and are interpreted.
Some graduates from our program have continued on to further studies at the PhD level in comparative literature, English and the humanities; or other graduate programs in disciplines such as art and visual culture, popular culture; as well as education. Other graduates have gone on to careers such as: museum educator; freelance photographer; and freelance translator; others have pursued teaching performing arts at the university level; and writing, directing and acting in theatre.
Admission Requirements
Successful completion of four year Bachelor's degree, or equivalent, in a relevant discipline or interdisciplinary program (for example, Modern Languages and Literatures, Comparative Literature, English Language and Literature, Classics, Dramatic Arts, Visual Arts, Music, Film Studies, Communication Studies, Cultural Studies, Canadian Studies, or Women's Studies, with an average of not less than 75%. Applicants with an honours degree in a discipline not listed above should have completed some courses related to literary, performing, or visual arts as part of their undergraduate program. Students entering the program are expected to have a reading knowledge of at least one language other than English.
The Graduate Admissions Committee will review all applications and recommend admission to a limited number of suitable candidates.
Part-time study is available.
Degree Requirements
While the program offers both a thesis and a major research paper option, students are strongly encouraged to pursue the major research paper option, as the additional coursework required by this choice provides more opportunity for comparative analysis across the arts. The thesis option is by application and recommendation of the Graduate Program Committee.
Major Research Paper Option
Students pursuing the major research paper option are required to take six half-courses: the three core courses (SCLA 5P01, SCLA 5P02, and SCLA 5P03) and three elective course. Two of these electives must be selected from SCLA 5P60-5V99 and the third from a graduate level course in another graduate program. The third elective will be arranged in consultation with the Graduate Program Director and the student's MRP supervisor. In addition to the courses, each student must complete a major research paper (SCLA 5F91) of 40-50 pages. Full-time students normally complete the program in three terms.
Thesis Option
Students approved for the thesis option will take five half-courses: the three core courses (SCLA 5P01, SCLA 5P02 and SCLA 5P03) and two elective courses (selected from SCLA 5P60-5V99). In addition to the courses, each student must complete and defend at a public oral examination a thesis (SCLA 5F90) of 75-100 pages. Full-time students normally complete the program in four terms.
Course Descriptions
Note that not all courses are offered in every session. Refer to the applicable timetable for details.
Students must ensure that prerequisites are met. Students may be deregistered, at the request of the instructor, from any course for which prerequisites and/or restrictions have not been met.
SCLA 5F90
MA Thesis
An extended research project which meets the conditions specified in the description for SCLA 5F91. The thesis involves a more substantial level of research and a fuller treatment of the selected subject. It will be examined by an external reader and will require a public defense.
SCLA 5F91
Major Research Paper
A research project on a subject determined in consultation with the Graduate Program Director and faculty supervisor. The paper should give evidence of original thought as well as a command of primary and secondary sources. It is expected that the project will be comparative in scope, and therefore engage with both literary texts and works from at least one of the other arts.
SCLA 5P01
Comparative Critical Theory in Literature and the Arts
Contemporary approaches to texts of various types, discursive and aesthetic traditions, possibilities and problems arising from comparative studies. Theories of translation and adaptation.
SCLA 5P02
Comparative Methodologies
Applications of critical theory to the interdisciplinary study of literatures and arts.
SCLA 5P03
Critical Theory and the Arts
An examination of the modes of production, reception and analysis of art from its inception to its cultural, institutional or ideological transformation. Workshop format.
Note: field trips may be required.
SCLA 5P60
Crossover Literature
Contemporary fiction read by a dual audience of children and adults. Impact on literary systems, canons, concepts of readership, and the publishing industry. Role of other media, influence of the marketplace. Novels, short fiction, poetry, picture books, comic books from international sources.
SCLA 5P63
Crossing Cultural Boundaries in the Novels of Umberto Eco
Eco's narrative fiction. Issues include novels as pastiche and palimpsest, open and closed works, intertextuality, high and pop culture, role of the reader, interpretation and overinterpretation, literary genres, translation, visual arts in textual settings.
SCLA 5P64
Space and the Social Ecology of Art
How we construct and adapt to our human or natural environment, how we determine the cultural value or social production of space, and how art, environment and aesthetics interrelate. Topics include urban, suburban and exurban spaces; natural, "naturalized" and simulated environments; site specific, public and installation art.
SCLA 5P65
Violence and Discourses of Otherness in Early Modern Europe
Early modern European literary engagements with discourses of colonial, ethnic, religious and sexual otherness, their cultural functions, and their violent imposition. Selected 16th and early 17th-century English, French and Spanish poetry, prose and drama. Contemporary theoretical examinations of otherness and violence.
SCLA 5P68
Word Painting and Text Setting in Music from the 12th to the Early 17th Centuries
Methods used to highlight, exalt, and illustrate words in music from Biblical texts set in plainchant to secular poetry set by the 16th-century Italian madrigalists.
Note: Ability to read music a strong asset, but not absolutely essential.
SCLA 5P69
Disability in Literature and the Arts: Sites of Resistance
Disability as a site of resistance and creativity in literature and the visual arts. Readings in disability studies. Texts and films from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
SCLA 5P71
Merleau-Ponty: The Art of Perception
(also offered as PHIL 5P71)
Merleau-Ponty's treatments and analyses of the visual (painting and film) and literary arts, seen as products, explorations and distortions of human perception and embodied subjectivity, which shed light on our cultural and pre-cultural experiences of the world.
SCLA 5P73
Witches, Vampires, and Virgins: The Monstrous Depiction of Women
The socio-historical depiction of women as monstrous in Latin-American, British and American art, literature and film. Marginalized, denied, silenced feminine sexuality versus the construction of an authentic feminine identity.
SCLA 5P74
Performance and Performativity
Notions of performance and performativity from various sources in the fields of anthropology, theatre studies, cultural studies and philosophy. Modes of artistic and cultural expression in a world that is increasingly performative in nature.
SCLA 5P75
Advanced Studies in Aesthetics
An in-depth examination of a specific aesthetic question explored by artists and thinkers of a specific time period. Questions may include: the function of art, art as representation, the role of theory in the production of art, the role of art in the development of theory.
SCLA 5P76
Literary Translation: Theory and Experimentation
Definitions and purposes of translation from the past century. Readings by Benjamin, Jakobson, Nabokov, Ortega y Gasset, and Spivak.
Note: Students need not have a background in translation.
SCLA 5P79
The Depiction of the Caribbean and African Exotic
Examination of exoticism in French/Francophone literature and the arts. What makes a literary text or a work of art "exotic"? Critical readings in Alterity and Orientalism. Novels, short stories, poetry, paintings, and/or films from French/Francophone sources.
SCLA 5P80
Transgression, Interdiction, and the Limits of Expression
Death, eroticism, and other limit-experiences in 20th century literature and the arts. Works that attempt to speak, write, and depict that which resists or forbids expression.
SCLA 5P83
Graduate Seminar in Political Theory
(also offered as POLI 5P83)
Explores ethical, ontological, aesthetic and literary interpretations of major texts or issues in political theory.
SCLA 5P90
Directed Reading
Research course with directed study and regular meetings with a faculty member, covering topics not offered in a designated course, and with permission of the Graduate Program Director.
Prerequisite(s): Approval of SCLA director.
SCLA 5P92
Through the Looking Glass: The Past and Future of Virtual Worlds
Revisiting modernist literary and artistic practices in the context of contemporary social and political upheavals. A comparative examination of aesthetic shifts in the early twentieth and twenty-first centuries that emerge from, and respond to, changing modes of political representation. Course materials may include novels, theory, and videogames.
SCLA 5P94
Literatures and the arts in digital expressions
Interdisciplinary study of digital art. Examination of literary texts and artworks adapted for digital expression. Study of literary devices applied to digital art. Curating perspectives in digital art.
SCLA 5P95
Fashion and Luxury: Repressive Desublimation or Sublimated Revolt?
This course will examine fashion and luxury from the 19th century to the contemporary moment via literature, film, music, advertising, contemporary fashion practices and a number of critical theories related to fashion, luxury, production and consumption.
SCLA 5V90-5V99
Special Topics in Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts
Special topics and/or themes in Studies in Comparative Literatures and Arts.
SCLA 5V96
Portraying Displacement
Depicting contemporary displacement in texts, art, and the media.Publishing/curating challenges and ethical questions. Readings in the fields of Postcolonial Studies and Refugee Studies.