This course will provide an introduction to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary analysis by familiarizing students with comparative and theoretical approaches to Literary Studies. We will undertake this work by examining the Adulteress and her role in literature from Antiquity to present. Our readings will include the Bible, Chaucer, Cervantes, Flaubert, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, as well as medieval Chinese and contemporary African authors. We will also view several films that focus on the Adulteress, such as Double Indemnity and Crucified Lovers. To complement these literary and cinematic texts, we will read historical and theoretical works, which will allow us not only to place the fictional Adulteress in her appropriate cultural context, but also to forge meaningful links between the different incarnations of the Adulteress that we will encounter during the semester. All reading in English. Requirements: active class participation, three short papers, and a final 10-page paper. No prerequisites.

Hour: CASSIDAY