Courses: World Cultures and Literatures (WCL)College: Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Any TCCN equivalents are indicated in square brackets [ ].

WCL 2351: World Cultures Through Literature and the Arts
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304 or the equivalent. Works of literature, painting, film, to explain contemporary global/local developments, conflicts. Cultural areas and topics may vary.

WCL 2352: World Cinema
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Major cinematic works from Latin America, Asia, Middle-East, Europe, and Australia in relation to contemporary topics such as globalization and migrations. Cinema as a global art form.

WCL 2370: Cultures of India
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Introduction and exploration of cultural diversity and identity on Indian subcontinent. Special emphasis on transnationalism, modernity, and development through contemporary literature and film.

WCL 2380: Introduction to Jewish Studies
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Introduction to Jewish culture through literature, history, and arts.

WCL 3341: Early Islamic Society: Literature and Thought
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Study of texts reflecting various trends in religious, political, philosophical, social and economic developments in early Islamic Civilization.

WCL 3351: Introduction to Latino Cultural Studies
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Basic cultural dimensions of U.S. Latino communities through literature and the arts, including ethnic minority formation, immigration and transnational processes.

WCL 3355: Women East and West: Global Representations of Female Divinities
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: WCL 2351 or 2352 or permission of instructor. Representations of female dieties from an East -West perspective.

WCL 3362: U.S. Latino Literature
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Major trends, traits, works, authors, and issues of Chicano, and other Latino literatures.

WCL 3364: World TV
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Major TV Series and Miniseries from Latin America, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and Australia concerning contemporary issues. TV Fiction as a global art form.

WCL 3365: World Fiction & Reportage
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Recent works of transnational literature or national literature with transnational appeal, including both fiction and reportage that highlight world issues and global awareness.

WCL 3366: Latin American and Latino Film Studies
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Latin American, Latino films, telenovelas and TV documentaries. Issues regarding immigration, urban/rural, ethnic, gender and class, border and transnational, poverty, violence, and aesthetics. Taught in English.

WCL 3367: National Cinema in a Global Perspective
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. National cinema in its relationship with global film industry, international production and transnational issues.

WCL 3368: Pop Cultures and World Media
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Popular culture in its diverse forms with particular focus on visual media. Genres including films, music, reality television, social media, graphic novels, and literature.

WCL 3371: Cities in Film and the Arts
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Cities and urban life worldwide from the advent of modernity to postmodernity and globalization, as expressed in visual arts, film, theory and literature.

WCL 3372: Indian Film: Bollywood and Beyond
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Exploration of the history, development, and evolution of Indian Film since Partition, the Golden Age, and New Wave through essay and film.

WCL 3373: Gender and Sexuality in World Film
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Introduction to representations of gender and sexuality in important films from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle-East, Europe, and Australia, and to major developments in global feminist film theory.

WCL 3376: Visual Stories - Local and the Global
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: WCL 2351 or 2352 or consent of instructor. Globalization of Houston is documented and analyzed conducting a visual and textual ethnography.

WCL 3377: The Modern Middle East: Literature, Politics, and Ideas
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Survey of major landmarks in the literature and thought of the Middle East after 1798, examining them in the context of the region's political history. Taught in English.

WCL 3380: American Jewish Culture
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Exploration of American Jewish culture from Eastern European immigration to the present. Analysis of literature, film, popular materials and everyday practices that illustrate the transformation of Jewish immigrants into American Jews.

WCL 3381: Global Representations of HIV/AIDS
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Examination of representations of HIV/AIDS in literature and film from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle-East, Europe, and Australia, focusing on their relations to cultural responses to the epidemic.

WCL 3382: Global Queer Culture
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Exploration of queer culture in a global context through major historical and present-day works of literature, art, and film.

WCL 3384: Jewish Women Through Biography
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Study of Jewish women's history through the ages and across cultures.

WCL 3392: Introduction to Latin American Cultural Studies
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Basic dimensions of Latin American cultural processes. Focus on indigenous/Spanish/African/Asian heritages and transformations; including mestizaje, transculturation, hybridization. Globalization and transnational patterns.

WCL 3397: Selected Topics in World Cultures and Literature
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Topics in world cultures and literature. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

WCL 4301: Culture and Communication: Methods in Linguistic Anthropology
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: junior standing. Multiple methodologies that exist for researching language as a mode of communication and interaction within the field of linguistic anthropology.

WCL 4322: Seminar in Scholarly Production
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: WCL 2351 or 2352 or consent of instructor. Advanced manuscript writing, critique and selection, editing, translating, proofing, and other skills relevant to scholarly publication. Related to WCL's Global CASA and LACASA Publications series and Urban Research Initiative.

WCL 4351: Frames of Modernity I
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: ENGL 1304. Major theoretical trends in Western & non-Western culture from the Renaissance to World War II.

WCL 4352: Frames of Modernity II
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: ENGL 1304. Major theoretical trends in contemporary World Cultures from the end of World War II to present.

WCL 4353: Frames of Modernity III: Classics and Modernity
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: ENGL 1304. Use of ancient Greek and Roman concepts by modern and postmodern thinkers, artists, and authors. Taught in English.

WCL 4356: World Film & Film Theory
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. An introduction to the major trends in film criticism and film theory, from the 1920s to the present time, exemplified by classic world films that have generated critical debate.

WCL 4362: Seminar in Latin American and Latino Literatures
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Works of Latin American and Latino literature in translation in relation to other U.S. and worldwide literary works as well as different theoretical frames.

WCL 4364: History of Drama in Northern and Central Europe
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: senior standing or consent of instructor. Historical and critical analysis of European theater from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Readings include dramas and theoretical essays as a means for understanding and representing cultural norms.

WCL 4365: World Documentary Film
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. History, theory, and evolution of documentary film in a global perspective through the examination of significant filmmakers from all parts of the world.

WCL 4367: Voices from Exile and Diaspora
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: junior standing or consent of instructor. Examines the experience of exile, displacement, and diaspora reflected in 20th-21st century literature and film and theoretical approaches to migration and diaspora.

WCL 4374: Sex and Gender in Antiquity
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisites: ENGL 1304 and junior standing. Issues of sex and gender in ancient Greece and Rome through the study of literature, art, and science.Works of Latin American and Latino literature in translation in relation to other U.S. and worldwide literary works as well as different theoretical frames.

WCL 4378: Cultures of Dissent: A Global Perspective
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: junior standing or permission of instructor. Global opposition movements as reflected in literary, autobiographical, and theoretical writings of 19th through 21st century authors as well as in film and the visual arts.

WCL 4379: Critical Theory and Globalization
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Intensive study of critical theory in light of globalization, migration shifts, and late 20th century social theory and literary criticism.

WCL 4380: Jewish Expulsion and Aftermath: Spain, 1492 and After
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: junior standing or permission of instructor. Study of events leading to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and its consequences.

WCL 4381: Seminar in Latin American and Latino Cultural Studies
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Key themes and debates regarding Latin American/Latino cultural processes in the arts, politics, and everyday life. Modernity/postmodernity, coloniality/postcoloniality, globalization, urban, border, transnational, ethnic, genera, and subaltern perspectives. Taught in English.

WCL 4394: Sexuality in Latino Culture
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Sexual relationships in Latino culture, gender theory, art, politics, everyday life, transnational perspectives.

WCL 4396: Special Topics in World Cultures and Literature
Cr. 3. (3-0). Prerequisite: ENGL 1304. Topics in cultural and literary theory, criticism and history, major cultural trends in postmodernity and globalization. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

WCL 4398: Independent Study
Cr. 3. Prerequisites: senior standing and consent of instructor. Independent study for special research projects.

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Catalog Publish Date: August 22, 2012
This Page Last Updated: April 16, 2013