Polish Language and Literature   

GRADUATE COURSES:

SLA 1304H
Staging God, Man, and History. Polish Drama and Theater in Context
Combines theoretical investigations of drama as a literary and theatrical genre (from the 16th to the 20th centuries) with the exploration of the role of the theater as cultural institution in different periods of Polish history.

SLA 1305Y
Polish Fiction or a Disrupted Funeral of the Novel
Theoretically informed reading of Polish fiction from 18th to 20th centuries, including narrative strategies, the function of language and literary conventions, various styles and poetics, and the issue of representation. Study engaged in the issues of aesthetics, politics, and epistemology.

SLA 1306H
Polish Poetry: Shaping the National Canon
A journey from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassicism, to Romanticism with particular emphasis on the canonical, the challenging, the ambiguous, and the rebellious in Polish poetry. Contextualizing Polish poetry within European traditions.

SLA 1307H
Polish Poetry in the 20th Century: Metaphysics, Ethics, and Aesthetics
Study of metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic choices in Polish poetry and its functioning in the politically and ideologically challenging circumstances of the 20th century.

SLA 1308Y
Topics in Polish Literature

SLA 1309H
The Question of the Other in Polish Literature and Culture
Examining the linguistic and literary means of constructing the image of the other and investigating cultural, political, and historical reasons for such constructions. Literary texts in which "the other" plays a major role in the self-definition of Polish cultural identity.

SLA 1310H
Revolutions in the Theater: Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Grotowski, and Kantor
Theoretical thought and theater practice of these directors are placed within a context of theater reforms in the 20th century (naturalism and symbolism, the search for the absolute autonomy of theater performance, the attempts to retheatricalize the theater, and to create a ritualistic and mythic holy theater).

SLA 1312Y
Modernism and Postmodernism in Polish Literature
Study of the "five faces of modernity" and of the history of different ideas underlying each concept. Disucssions of the results of terminological wars and conflicting understandings are aided by a few literary works of Polish modernism and postmodernism, literary theory, concepts developed by sociology and political science.

SLA 1037Y
Theater and Cinema in Extremis: Staging the 20th Century Aesthetics and Politics (co-taught with Prof. V. Ambros)
A study of the effects of extreme experiences in Russian, Polish, Czech, and Slovak histories on theater and cinema (including the issues of utopia and dystopia; Nazism and Communism; modernism, avant-garde, socialist realism; identity; exile and dissent). Co-taught course (Profs. V. Ambros, T. Trojanowska).

SLA 1036H
Metamorphoses of Modernity in Central Europe
(co-taught with Profs. V.Ambros and G. Bistray) The much discussed problems of modernity are put into a Central European context. Major concepts of modernity are analyzed with the help of works from Czech, German, Hungarian, and Polish literatures. Co-taught course (Profs.: V.Ambros, G.Bistray, T.Trojanowska).