Department of Comparative Literature
Minor in Comparative Arts
Students on Summer 2019, Fall 2019, or Spring 2020 requirements CMPARTMIN
The Minor in Comparative Arts is ideal for students who want to explore creativity without boundaries, bringing the worlds of literature together with the arts with as much freedom and flexibility as possible. Comparative Arts explores the dynamic interactions among literature, film, media, architecture, the visual arts, music, theatre, and the performing arts from multiple national traditions. By focusing on the interrelationship and cross-pollination of the arts, Comparative Arts asks fundamental questions about creativity, innovation, and human nature.
Humanities majors will gain new perspectives on their major fields through our interdisciplinary approach. Students in STEM fields will find the study of comparative arts particularly useful in thinking about questions of perception, sensation and sense-making, and in experimenting with different forms to express their ideas.
Requirements
The minor requires at least 15 credit hours*, including the requirements listed below.
- Five (5) courses from the Comparative Arts list.
- CMLT-C 151 Introduction to Popular Culture
- CMLT-C 155 Culture and the Modern Experience: An Interdisciplinary and International Approach
- CMLT-C 251 Lyrics and Popular Song
- CMLT-C 252 Literary and Television Genres
- CMLT-C 255 Modern Literature and Other Arts: An Introduction
- CMLT-C 256 Literature and Other Arts: 1870-1950
- CMLT-C 257 Asian Literature and Other Arts
- CMLT-C 291 Studies in Non-Western Film
- CMLT-C 310 Literature and Film
- CMLT-C 351 Adaptations: Literature, Stage, and Screen
- CMLT-C 355 Literature, the Arts, and Their Interrelationship
- CMLT-C 357 The Arts Today: From 1950 to the Present
- CMLT-C 358 Literature and Music: Opera
- CMLT-C 361 African Literature and Other Arts
- CMLT-C 492 Comedy in Film and Literature
CMLT-C 151 Introduction to Popular Culture
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The serious study of entertainment for mass consumption, including popular theatre and vaudeville, bestsellers, mass circulation magazines, popular music, phonograph records, and popular aspects of radio, film, and television. Provides the basic background to other popular culture courses in comparative literature.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
- Fall 2024CASE DUScourseSummer 2024CASE DUScourseSpring 2024CASE DUScourse
CMLT-C 155 Culture and the Modern Experience: An Interdisciplinary and International Approach
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- This course, which is interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, introduces students to an inclusive study of major cultural parallels, contrasts, and developments across the arts and beyond national and continental divides. Syllabi and selections of course materials will reflect the specialties of individual instructors.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
- Fall 2024CASE GCCcourseSummer 2024CASE GCCcourseSpring 2024CASE GCCcourse
CMLT-C 251 Lyrics and Popular Song
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Survey of popular songs of Europe and the Americas, including modern ballads, cabaret songs, Spanish flamencos, Mexican rancheras, Argentine tangos, country western, and rock lyrics. Discussion of literary qualities of lyrics in context of musical setting and performance and independently as literature.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 252 Literary and Television Genres
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Comparative study of popular literary and television genres, such as farce, domestic comedy, melodrama, biography, mystery, adventure, western, the picaresque. Theoretical, technical, and ideological contrasts between the literary and television media.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 255 Modern Literature and Other Arts: An Introduction
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The study of literature, painting, and music and the ways in which meaning is expressed in such forms. Investigates similarities and differences among the arts. Examples selected from the past 200 years. No previous knowledge of any art required.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 256 Literature and Other Arts: 1870-1950
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Interaction of the arts in the development of Western literature, painting, and music in movements such as impressionism, symbolism, constructivism, expressionism, dada, and surrealism.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 257 Asian Literature and Other Arts
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores selected literary texts of Asia in the context of the art forms and cultures of a particular country or region. Geographical regions covered vary each term.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated once with different topic.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 291 Studies in Non-Western Film
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Emphasis on non-Western film in relation to literary and cultural texts. Films may be studied as adaptations of literary works, as reworkings of generic or ideological traditions, and in their engagement with the aesthetics of non-Western theater and Hollywood. Focus on one regional tradition (African, Asian, Middle Eastern) each time the course is offered.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 310 Literature and Film
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: CMLT-C 205 or 3 credit hours of literature
- Description
- Analysis of the processes and problems involved in turning a literary work (novel, play, or poem) into a screenplay and then into a film. Close study of literary and film techniques and short exercises in adaptation.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 351 Adaptations: Literature, Stage, and Screen
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: 3 credit hours of literature
- Description
- Adaptations of literary texts into new literary works or art forms such as theatre, film, opera, music, and digital media. Examination of the historical, cultural, and aesthetic issues involved in revising and reimagining source texts.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 355 Literature, the Arts, and Their Interrelationship
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: CMLT-C 255
- Description
- Discussion of theoretical foundations for study of the relationship of the arts; detailed analysis of specific works illustrating interaction of literature with other arts.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 357 The Arts Today: From 1950 to the Present
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: CMLT-C 255 and CMLT-C 256
- Description
- Shared trends in literature, the visual arts, music, dance, and theatre. The heritage of dada and surrealism, the absurd, and constructivism; the new realism. Happenings, minimal art, conceptual art, antiart, participatory and environmental art. New materials, mixed media, multimedia and intermediality.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 358 Literature and Music: Opera
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Selected opera libretti from various periods. Comparison of libretti with their literary sources; emphasis on specific problems connected with the adaptation of a literary work to the operatic medium. Evaluation of representative libretti as independent literary works.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 361 African Literature and Other Arts
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Notes
- R: CMLT-C 205 or 3 credit hours of literature
- Description
- A focus on critical issues in the field of African letters, such as transnationalism, the question of orality, choice of language, the economics and politics of publishing--both within and outside the continent, and their impacts on cultural forms including new, non-literary media. Authors such as Achebe, Aidoo, Armah, Diop, Farah, Head, Kunene, Ngugi, p'Bitek, Sembene, and Soyinka.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
CMLT-C 492 Comedy in Film and Literature
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Evolution, styles, and techniques of film comedy in America and Europe from the beginnings of cinema to the present. Theories of comedy and humor; relationship of film comedy to comedy in fiction, drama, pantomime, circus, and vaudeville. Work of leading film comedians.
- Fall 2024CASE AHcourseSummer 2024CASE AHcourseSpring 2024CASE AHcourse
- Minor GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
- At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300–499 level.
- Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
- A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the minor—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
- Exceptions to minor requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Notes