Contact Literature The Literature Department office is located in Humanities 1, room 303, and is open weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. (831) 459-4778litdept@ucsc.edu
"Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life." - Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (13 Mar 1900-1971)
Due to enrollment demand, LIT 90-04, Introduction to Creative Writing, is now opento all students who have frosh, sophomore, or junior standing, and have completed the Entry Level Writing requirement. LIT 90-04 meets on Monday/Wednesday from 5:20 to 6:55 p.m., and Thursdays from 5:20 to 6:55 p.m. The class number is 63643.
Students who have completed LIT 90/Introduction to Creative Writing at UCSC are now able to advance enroll in LIT 91A/Intermediate FictionWriting and LIT 91B/Intermediate Poetry Writing without submitting a writing sample. Transfer students who have completed a creative writing course at a previous institution (but not LIT 90 at UCSC) may get in touch with the Literature staff (litdept@ucsc.edu) for a permission code for LIT 91A or LIT 91B.
Open Spring 2017 Literature Courses
LIT 1/Literary Interpretation/Poblete LIT 61C/The Frame Tale/Gomez-Rivas LIT 61F/Introduction to Reading Fiction: Women and The Apocalypse/Perks LIT 80X/Global Narratives: What is the Novel?/Cooppan LIT 101/Theory and Interpretation: Marxism/Sahota LIT 120H/American Poetry Since World War II: Contemporary Ecological Poetry and Poetics/Peacock H, R, PO, EL, MO LIT 130C/The Global Middle Ages: Marco Polo/Kinoshita G, H, GL, PR, WL LIT 141C/Classical Chinese Culture and Literature, Sixth Century CE through 16th Century/Connery G, H, GL, PO, PR, WL LIT 146D/Nineteenth-century American Fiction: 19th C. American Literature as World Literature/Gillman C, H, EL, MO, WL LIT 90/Introduction to Creative Writing/Staff LIT 91A/Intermediate Fiction/Sneathen LIT 91B/Intermediate Poetry/Harvey LIT 179A/Advanced Writing: Fiction/Sanders-Self R, CR LIT 179B/Advanced Writing: Poetry/Wilson, Rob R, CR LIT 179C/Methods and Materials: Writing as Collective Art-Making/Villaran R, CR LIT 190V/Fiction Senior Seminar/Yamashita M, CR, SR LIT 190W/Poetry Senior Seminar/Young M, CR, SR LIT 182H/Author and Culture: The Cinema of Bruno Dumont/Godzich G, H, FR, MO LIT 183D/German Romanticism/Nygaard H, R, GE, MO LIT 184A/Introduction to Greek Literature: Plato/Hedrick C, H, GR, PR LIT 185A/Italian Literary Genres: Il sonetto. La misura del mondo/Kumar G, H, IT, MO LIT 186A/Introduction to Latin Literature/Lynn C, H, IN, PR LIT 186C/Prose Authors: Cicero’s De Re Publica/Devecka C, H, IN, PR LIT 189F/US Latino/a Writing in Spanish/English and Spanglish/Poblete G, R, GL, SP, MO, WL LIT 189Q/Fiction and Marginality/Smith G, P, GL, SP, MO, WL LIT 190X/Topics in Spanish and Latin American Literature and Culture: Fronteras transnacionales en América Latina: La amazonía/Smith G, H, GL, SP, SR, MO, WL LIT 190A/Topics in Pre and Early Modern Studies: Shakespeare's Late Plays, Mercy, and Forgiveness/Keilen C, H, PR, SR, EL LIT 190Y/Topics in Jewish Literature and Culture: Jewish Comedy/Thompson H, P, SR, EL, MO LIT 190Z/Topics in German Literature and Culture/Bivens G, H, SR, MO
Application Deadline: Tuesday, April 4, 2017. Dean's Awards are granted to 50 undergraduates who have completed an outstanding senior thesis or project during the current academic year. Each recipient will receive a $100 award, and will be considered for a Chancellor's and Steck Award. Application guidelines are available here. Questions regarding the guidelines may be directed to Sara Sanchez.
Call for Papers for the Eighteenth Annual Undergraduate Literature Colloquium
Submission deadline: Friday, April 14, 2017. Students who would like to present a paper at the annual Undergraduate Colloquium should submit their work to litdept@ucsc.edu by Friday, April 14, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. The Literature Undergraduate Colloquium will take place on Thursday, May 18, 2017, and is a day-long event showcasing and celebrating undergraduate academic work in the Literature Department.
The Undergraduate Colloquium is open to the public; audience members include students, faculty, family, and community members. For students who may be considering graduate school, the Literature Undergraduate Colloquium is an excellent opportunity to publicly deliver a paper; it is an exciting event for all participants!
Students of any level may submit papers for the colloquium. Papers in all fields of literary inquiry, including creative writing, are sought.
Papers must be typed and double spaced, with pages numbered. Submissions must include a cover sheet containing the author's name, UCSC email address, and phone number. If the submitted paper was written for a course, please note the course, quarter, and instructor's name on the cover sheet. Papers may be of any length, but accepted submissions will be required to revise (expand or reduce) to a length of 1900-2000 words (excluding notes). Each presentation will be about 15 minutes. Please contact the Literature Department staff (litdept@ucsc.edu; 831-459-4778) for more information.
LIT 102 Translation Theory
Students who plan to take LIT 102/Translation Theory in summer 2017, and who satisfied the one-year language prerequisite at another college or via a UCSC Literature Department proficiency exam, should email the Literature Department litdept@ucsc.edu to request a permission code for LIT 102. Students who satisfied the language prerequisite through coursework at UCSC will be able to enroll without a permission code.
Successful completion of LIT 102 is required of all Literature majors. (Students may substitute one upper-division course in a non-English literature studied in the original language for LIT 102.)
Literature Advising
Faculty advising is available each quarter at the Literature Department office. Professor Akash Kumar is available during spring 2017 on Thursdays 10am - 12,m to meet with students wishing to declare the major or minor, and for general advising. Literature staff advisers Laura McShane and Julie Hannah Brower are also available to meet with students. Please call (831) 459-4778 to schedule an appointment with a Literature faculty or staff adviser.
The Literature Department has drop-in advising available on Fridays.
Literature Language Requirement
The Literature Department language requirement has two parts:
1. Reading proficiency in a second language. Students must present evidence of one of the following: One year (three quarters or equivalent) of college level study of a non-English language (e.g. completion of SPANISH 3 at UCSC) OR demonstrated reading ability at this level.
2. Completion of LIT 102 Translation Theory OR one upper-division course in a non-English literature studied in the original. LIT 102 will be offered in winter 2017.
Reading ability may be demonstrated by successfully completing a language proficiency test. Proficiency tests in Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Urdu are administered each quarter by the Literature Department. All exams take place at the Literature Department Office.
In order to be able to enroll in LIT 102, Translation Theory, during their junior year, students should complete the language proficiency requirement by the end of sophomore year. All students who would like to take a language proficiency test are encouraged to do so. Please contact the Literature Department at (831) 459-4778 for more information and to schedule a language proficiency test.
General Literature Major/Minor Information
All students must complete LIT 1 or its equivalent before declaring the Literature major.
All Literature majors are required to complete Literature 101 prior to enrolling in a Literature senior seminar.
All UCSC students must take a minimum of 75% of their classes for letter grades. Additionally, all Literature majors must take a minimum of 75% of their Literature courses for letter grades. For information on UCSC grade options, please see The Navigator, Chapter 4: Measuring Academic Progress at.
Literature majors must take the senior exit requirement for a letter grade.
