What is the view from nowhere? What does the world look like as seen from places made invisible or which no longer exist? With the end of the Cold War also came the obsolescence of the so-called three-world model of culture. The socialist Second World and the decolonizing Third World had represented alternatives to the hegemony of the capitalist “West”—possible paths, which, after 1989, seem to give way to a single (and unequal) global system. In postsocialist East Europe and Eurasia this violent transformation took the forms of free market “shock therapy,” massive declines in living standards, strengthening of nationalist and rightwing movements, civil war, and exile. What had once represented, at least in theory, an alternative center to that of the Western capital was violently remade into a periphery. What’s more, in a world divided up today into a “Global North” and “Global South” the vast area that once comprised the Second World was rendered nearly invisible. In this course we will study literary and cinematic depictions of the complex socio-historical shifts that begin with the collapse of “actually existing socialism” and continue to this day. Our readings and films will help us ask questions such as: what remains of a utopian political imaginary after nearly a generation of postsocialism? In what ways does literary form allow us to critique both the socialist past and the capitalist present? How do authors from the former Second World navigate a global literary marketplace dominated by English-language publishing? What does the view from the periphery tell us about the center? All primary readings and films come from the former Second World with authors hailing from places as distinct as Makhachkala and Zagreb, Kyiv and Uelen. All texts will be available in translation –from languages including Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Polish and Azeri—and no prior knowledge of East European, Russian, or Eurasian languages, literatures or cultures is required. Online instruction. Mostly asynchronous with select synchronous class meetings.

Trips, visions, psychedelic experiences: this course will trace the theme of hallucinations through literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, with some diversions into film, the visual arts, and music. Beginning with early attempts by writers and ending with hallucinations in recent film and literature, this course will focus on a broad treatment of the issue, including novel(s) influenced by schizophrenic experience, works inspired by experiences under the influence of drugs, hippies and other countercultural figures, dreams, spiritual and religious visions, and more. We will look at contemporary discussions of the topic, including science on altered states of mind, philosophical essays, and real first-hand accounts. Students will be encouraged to explore their own interests in the topic, and the culmination of the course will be a research paper due at the end of the course.

The legacy of the medieval Scandinavian myths lives on not only through Hollywood adaptation and popular culture, but also unfortunately through appropriation by extreme political groups. From the Age of Romantic nationalism to the Capitol insurrection of 2020, the use of narrative and iconography stemming from the Scandinavian Middle-Ages has pervaded political and cultural conversations in both Europe and North America. In this course, we will familiarize ourselves not only with the original myths and legends of the Viking Age, but also explore how these narratives have been co-opted over centuries for a multitude of nefarious and well-meaning purposes. In adopting this critical lens, we shall hone our analytical writing and reading skills to interrogate all manner of historical, fictional, and political literature.

The sea has always stood colossal in the human imagination--both life-giving and treacherous, at once full of mystery and beauty. This course will focus on depictions of the sea and its denizens (both real and otherwise) throughout the centuries in Nordic literature. We will explore myths of the ocean in Old Norse poetry and prose, as well as instances of sea monsters and oceanic oddities in medieval sagas and later folklore. We will read stories about the figure of the mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen and Henrik Ibsen, as well as more contemporary imaginings of such creatures. As we look at literary representations of the deep, we will also learn about the historical role of the sea and the creatures that dwell in it in the Nordic region. All texts will be read in English translation. Students will work on improving their writing style, editing practices, and research techniques in this course. Focus will be placed on becoming comfortable with close-reading literary texts, selecting secondary sources, and reading academic articles, with the goal of constructing a research focused paper based on primary and secondary sources by the end of the course. Required texts: They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (ISBN-13: 978-1469028613) Additional materials on bCourses

“Many foolish men do not believe anything that they have not seen or heard for themselves, especially such things as are far from their own natures, like wise men’s plans, and the strength or bravery—and not less the magic powers—of men of old...” -Sigurðar saga þögla Starting in the thirteenth century, Norwegians began translating French and Latin romances and histories into Old Norse. Very soon thereafter, Icelanders took this narrative tradition, adding elements of their own legendary storytelling tradition to create a new genre of adventure tales. These sagas, known collectively as riddarasögur, highlight a growing desire to produce dramatic, fictional literature in the North. Like the fantasy worlds of The Princess Bride, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings, these medieval Icelandic sagas present a cast of captivating characters who use their courage and martial prowess to navigate the complexities of a sometimes hostile and unforgiving world. As these stories feature the adventures and adversities these individuals encounter, they also illustrate the importance of the ability to use words as a form of power. This section of R5B will explore the importance of such effective communication skills, analyzing how the characters in these sagas convey their desires and denigrate their adversaries through eloquent speech. Students will use these narratives to build their own repertoires of conversational abilities, as they learn the moves that effective readers and writers employ to understand the writings of others and make their own unique voices be heard. Classroom activities will provide a theater for students to hone their skills as writers, both individually and in collaboration with others. Significant class time will also be given to instruction in the skills of essay writing and critical thinking. Students should emerge from this class able to read a variety of text types analytically and critically; to distinguish valid interpretations or arguments from spurious ones; to draft convincing interpretive arguments in clear, standard English; to read their own writing with a critical eye; and to give helpful, responsible feedback to colleagues on their written work.

A survey of the ways in which Americans have discussed their existence as a distinct nation their rights and obligations, and the legitimate modes of political action open to them. Readings cover the 17th through the 20th centuries and may include discussion of sermons, novels, philosophy, social and political theory, autobiographies, declassified government planning documents, Congressional testimony, and films.

In 1978, Phillip K. Dick remarked that “spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups—and the electronic hardware exists by which to deliver these pseudo-worlds right into the heads of the reader, the viewer, the listener”. If anything, today our enmeshment in these conditions appears to have only deepened. In two parts, one historical and the other contemporary, this course will introduce students to some of the essential works of science fiction as well as their scholarly reception. Together we will examine the form, content, history and legacy of seminal science fiction novels, short stories, graphic novels, films, television shows and video games. In the process, we will attempt to unearth clues and develop a framework for registering the history of our species’ technological entanglement. At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to analyze the rhetoric of science fiction and to deploy it as an analytical tool and an historical nexus in order to consider the complex interplay between culture and technology. Primary source authors to be considered in the first part of the course include: J.G. Ballard, Octavia Butler, Arthur C. Clarke, Samuel Delaney Phillip K. Dick, William Gibson, Stanislaw Lem, Neal Stephenson, and Gene Wolfe. In the course's second part, works by N.K. Jemisin, Ann Leckie, Cixin Liu, Arkady Martine, Sam Miller, Annalee Newitz, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeff VanderMeer, Richard Morgan and Martha Wells may be considered.

This course investigates discourses of the self, both contemporary and historical, in a variety of genres, including philosophy, theory, literature, visual media, and new media, depending on the instructor and year. Topics to be covered may include any of the following: problems of the self, identity (racial, ethnic, gendered), self-expression, self-fashioning, self-destitution, and the limits of the self as an experience or a category. No prerequisites.

This course is designed to help transfer students succeed in discipline-specific research and writing at UC Berkeley. To achieve this goal, the course focuses on developing the following skill sets: • Students read and discuss scholarship in writing studies and rhetoric to develop a framework for understanding the conventions of advanced academic writing. • Students identify exemplary writing and writers in their discipline, and research what it means to write successfully in their major. • Students analyze the generic conventions for writing in their discipline to produce an essay that identifies challenges and opportunities specific to their major and to their experience as students.

This course is designed to introduce students to modern theoretical works of central intellectual debates on 20th century international political economy. The course explores alternative explanations for inequality in economic development among nations and economic declines of of the dominate powers. It will also examine tensions between the increasing "globalization" of that economy and continued fragmentation of the international political system in nation-states.