LLC Courses

All courses in programs in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures are taught in the target language, with the exception of courses listed under the LLC rubric. Elementary and intermediate language courses integrate vocabulary and grammatical structures with cultural materials in order to build students’ linguistic and cultural proficiency. Courses at the 300-level focus on a range of topics: from conversation and composition to culture, civilization and literature. The 300-level literature courses fulfill the field of study literary studies (FSLT) general education requirement and enhance students’ reading ability and analytical skills while also providing deeper insights into the languages and cultures of the regions under study. Courses at the 400-level usually focus on specific topics and periods, with an emphasis on more advanced reading and analytical skills. Through the study of literary texts, films and other documents, students explore historical and contemporary questions in a cultural context.

All courses under the LLC rubric are taught in English with the exception of the self-directed language learning courses which are currently offered in Farsi, Modern Hebrew, Swahili, and Turkish. Approved LLC courses may be counted as elective credit toward a French, German Studies, Italian Studies or Russian Studies major if taken in conjunction with a Language across the Curriculum component (.25 unit).

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

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  • LLC 135 All About America

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): American studies electives (AMER)

    Description
    Explore the foundations, worldviews, and values that shape culture in general and U.S. American culture in particular. Through readings, films, radio podcasts, and other media, we study topics such as politics, U.S. history, education, social relationships, ways of reasoning, and much more. Cultural dimensions, cross-cultural communication, and intercultural competence are critical concepts as well. The course utilizes an experiential learning approach both in and out of the classroom. Beyond the classroom, we explore U.S. culture through purposeful exploration in our community and region. Our course activities promote strengthening English language communication skills such as speaking, listening, and academic discourse. Course is open to international students.
  • LLC 140 How to Write Everything

    Units: 1

    Description
    Good writing is key to academic success; it is integral to developing information literacy and a thirst for life-long learning. Designed for international non-native English-speaking students to strengthen their skills in informal and formal university academic writing. Assignments reflect skills needed for the kinds of academic writing University of Richmond students must master, such as effective structure of essays, research, critical analysis papers, and timed writing. Special attention to research skills, synthesis, critical thinking, and style prepares students for effective writing in most majors at the University of Richmond.
  • LLC 198 Teaching ESL Through Literature and Film

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Linguistics elective (LING)

    Description
    Introduction to methods of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). We will learn sheltered instruction (SI) methods commonly used in language teaching. Class lessons will employ hands-on application of language acquisition theories. The course includes experience with lesson planning, strategies, delivery, and academic language building, among other important pedagogical tools. The last third of the semester offers the UR student teachers a virtual practicum teaching listening and speaking skills to post-secondary English language learners in Indonesia. This course would be useful for any student, U.S. or international, who has an interest in teaching English to international students or who wants to learn more about language learning and teaching. Open to all students.
  • LLC 210 Women, Virtue and Temptation in Literature

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Literary Studies (FSLT), WGSS elective (WGSS)

    Description
    Representation of feminine virtue and vice in world literature.
  • LLC 211 Reading to Live

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Literary Studies (FSLT)

    Description
    Explores the extent to which fiction can enhance (and often inform) our understanding of complex political, social, and economic issues. Students will learn new categories of analysis that will help them understand why fictional depictions of social values, modes of behavior, and moral choices can make both practical and theoretical contributions to the question of how we, as readers and social actors, might more fully live our lives.
  • LLC 215 Foreign Thinking

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Embodied Communication (IFEB), Literary Studies (FSLT)

    Description
    Study of what it means to see the world from a foreign perspective. Development of intercultural and critical-thinking skills by studying literary texts, films, and works of critical theory that are decidedly not “American.” Focuses on questions of gender, race and identity, and class and on environmental issues.
  • LLC 220 Contemporary Chinese Popular Culture

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): GS: Asia (GSAS)

    Description
    Read pop fictions, watch blockbusters, sitcoms, and reality TV shows, and listen to songs that topped Chinese pop music list over the last twenty years. Connect these cultural forms to current conversations and debates concerning youth culture, political participation, identity formation, intensifying globalization, and the loss of tradition. Students may select class readings/viewings and create their own pop culture products.
  • LLC 225 Chinese Culture and Civilization

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Chinese Studies elective (CHIN), Historical Studies (FSHT), GS: Asia (GSAS)

    Description
    Interdisciplinary introduction to Chinese society and culture from earliest times to the present. Explores topics on ancient philosophy, religion, literature, art, architecture, customs, and other aspects of China's rich and diverse heritage, and introduces social transformation from a pre-modern empire to a modern nation state. Questions such as social changes, urban life, popular culture, and the values and ideas that captivate contemporary Chinese people's attention will also be addressed.
  • LLC 227 The Action Genre in East Asian Cinema

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Film Studies Group A (FLMA), GS: Asia (GSAS), Chinese Studies elective (CHIN)

    Description
    The action genre is a persistent film genre with a strong literary, theatrical, and operatic tradition in East Asian cinema. This course traces the historical and cinematic evolution of the action genre from swordplay to kungfu to gunplay in Hong Kong, Japanese, and Korean cinema from the 1960s to the digital age. Students will acquire a critical vocabulary in visual analysis such as classical Hollywood narration, montage, continuity editing, and the "pause-burst-pause" pattern that are central to the punctuation of kinesthetic shocks in the action genre. We will explore how culturally specific codes of honor, loyalty, masculinity, and femininity (rooted in literature and theatrical codes) are lost or gained in translation as a result of film adaptations, international co-productions, and cross-cultural readings. Taught in English. All films are subtitled in English.
  • LLC 243 Political and Social Movements in Modern Middle Eastern Literatures

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Middle East (GSME)

    Description
    Discussion of literary works by writers from the Middle East during the past few decades with an emphasis on the social and political issues these texts address. Examination of these texts as literary products first and foremost and it is within such a status that they can be our entry point to the societies of the Middle East and their problems.
  • LLC 244 Film and Cinema in the Middle East

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Film Studies Group A (FLMA)

    Description
    The course is a survey of film and cinema in the contemporary Middle East. It approaches the latest advances of audio-visual media production in the Arab world, Turkey, and Iran with a focus on their aesthetic, socio-cultural, political, religious, and historical significance.
  • LLC 256 Psychoanalysis, Literature, and Culture

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Literary Studies (FSLT), German studies elective (GEEL)

    Description
    General introduction to use of psychoanalytic techniques to analyze literature and culture. Readings from Freud and post-Freudian theorists used to interpret variety of literary texts, as well as films, ads, and other examples from popular culture.
  • LLC 260 Literature and Social Change in Eastern Europe

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Culture & Comm elective (GSCC), GS: Eastern Europe/Eurasia (GSEE), Russian studies elective (RSEL)

    Description
    Selected readings in 20th century Czech and Polish literature. Analysis of primary texts (in translation) focuses on the representation of both science and socialism as powerful ideological forces.
  • LLC 261 Travel Writing in the Caucasus

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): IF-Written Communication (IFWC)

    Description
    Turn your travel adventures into memorable pieces of writing that other people will want to read. This course is an intensive on-site introduction to skills and practices that allow you to capture the uniqueness of your own experience in written form, moving from rapid journaling and “engaged observation” to more polished pieces of travel writing. Offered during SSA: Caucasus.
  • LLC 262 Literature and Empire

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT)

    Description
    This course outlines the relationship between literary studies and the study of empire, colonialism in the Russian sphere of influence, and the contemporary effects of both. Offered during SSA: Caucasus, this course examines the orientalizing literature of 19th century Russian Romanticism, Soviet and Georgian films, and contemporary novels by female authors from the region. On site fieldtrips to relevant sites included.
  • LLC 265 German Cinema

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), Film studies course (FMST), Literary Studies (FSLT), German studies elective (GEEL), GS: Western Europe (GSWE)

    Description
    Survey of German cinema from the 1930s to the present emphasizing the historical and cultural context in which the films were produced. (Same as FMST 265.)
  • LLC 276 Rings from Brunhilda to Beyonce and Beyond

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Embodied Communication (IFEB), Literary Studies (FSLT)

    Description
    Exploration of the cultural function of rings using methods from literary/cultural studies and anthropology, with a focus on Germanic source legends. Materials include artistic products (epic poetry, opera, fantasy novels, graphic novels) and first-person experiences (journals, interviews). Creative final project that synthesizes results of analysis and field work.
  • LLC 283 Cinema Around the World

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Film Studies Group A (FLMA)

    Description
    Global survey of contemporary cinema. Approaches the cutting edge of audio-visual media production in national and transnational contexts with a focus on their aesthetic, socio-cultural, political, philosophical, and historical significance.
  • LLC 310 Teaching a Modern Language

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Italian studies elective (ITEL), Linguistics elective (LING), AI-Social Inquiry (AISO), IF-Embodied Communication (IFEB)

    Description
    Theory and practice of teaching modern second language at the K-12 levels. Designed to enable teachers to meet state licensure requirements.
  • LLC 321 Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Eastern Europe/Eurasia (GSEE), Russian studies elective (RSEL)

    Description
    Introduction to Russian literature and critical literary analysis. Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others.
  • LLC 322 Introduction to Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Russian Literature

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Eastern Europe/Eurasia (GSEE), Russian studies elective (RSEL)

    Description
    What makes literature seem real? Deep? Mind-blowing? Funny? In the Soviet Union, people read literature as if their lives depended on it. Official sources of information were heavily censored, so the “voice of the people” was channeled instead through short stories, science fiction, satire, and other imaginative forms of truth-telling. This course focuses on Russian and Ukrainian authors from the Soviet and contemporary post-Soviet period. In translation, no prerequisites. Fulfills FSLT.
  • LLC 325 Revolution and Modernity in Chinese Literature

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Chinese Studies elective (CHIN), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Asia (GSAS)

    Description
    Exploration of modern Chinese literature, visual culture, and critical thought from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Mao era (1911-1976). Focus on the use of literature in "saving the nation" as a response to imperialism and the challenge of the West in the early twentieth century. Discusses how various writers and genres such as the short story, prose poetry, novella, and film convey and advocate ideas about "revolution" and "modernity".
  • LLC 329 Francophone African Novel

    Units: 1

    Description
    Exploration of selected novels from Francophone speaking countries in Africa. Critical and interpretive theoretical strategies to engage texts and films. Readings and discussions in English; students may opt to register for a C-LAC component in the French language for French elective credit.
  • LLC 331 Russian and East European Film

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Eastern Europe/Eurasia (GSEE)

    Description
    An introduction to 20th century Russian and East European film raising questions on ideology, propaganda, violence, identity, authenticity, and representations of history. Discussion of how various cinematic narrative techniques influence and build viewers’ understanding of historical events and the larger implications of film genre, production, censorship, and cultural setting. Selected films from the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Soviet republics will be screened, as well as post-Soviet films from various countries. Taught in English; all films have English subtitles.
  • LLC 335 Bolsheviks, Bombs, and Ballet: Soviet Culture and Civilization

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Historical Inquiry (AIHS), Historical Studies (FSHT), GS: Eastern Europe/Eurasia (GSEE), Russian studies elective (RSEL)

    Description
    Survey of intellectual and scientific life, artistic movements, and popular culture under communism in the Soviet Union. Interdisciplinary focus on the arts, music, science, and literature with attention to complicated relations between official and private culture.
  • LLC 341 Gender and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Literary Studies (FSLT), WGSS elective (WGSS)

    Description
    Examines representations of gender and sexual identity in 19th-century France as demonstrated in literature, film, and historical documents.
  • LLC 346 Insiders and Outsiders: Arabic Encounters with the West

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Written Communication (IFWC), Literary Studies (FSLT), GS: Complex Problems (GSCP), GS: Middle East (GSME)

    Description
    Study of texts from throughout Arab history since the expansion of Islam until today, in which travelers and thinkers, academics and politicians, everyday people and people with religious or other ideological agendas describe their encounters with the world outside their own cultural environment. These texts will be analyzed less for the information they contain about the world they describe, but for what the views and thoughts their writers reveal about their own world and frame of mind. The texts will be read in translation and will cover material from the earliest Islamic travelers such as Ibn Fadlan to figures of current history such as Usama bin Laden.
  • LLC 347 Islam, Nationalism, and the West: Modern Thought in the Arab World

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Historical Studies (FSHT), GS: Middle East (GSME)

    Description
    Historical survey of the main thinkers and ideas in the Arab world during the past two centuries. Emphasis on the different and contending reactions to the challenges of modernity and the West as well as the relation to indigenous and traditional ideas, especially religion.
  • LLC 355 Chinese Cinema

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Chinese Studies elective (CHIN), Film Studies Group A (FLMA), GS: Asia (GSAS), AI-Literary & Textual Analysis (AILT), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE)

    Description
    An introduction to Chinese cinema in relation to issues of modernity, nationalism, gender, cultural identities and beyond. Selected canonical films of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be introduced.
  • LLC 357 The Idea of the Renaissance: Self, History and Knowledge

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Italian studies elective (ITEL)

    Description
    A comparative and interdisciplinary investigation of the period in European history known as the Renaissance through the lens of some of its most well known and compelling works.
  • LLC 358 Desire and Identity in the Renaissance: The Lyric Tradition

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): English group A electives (ENGA), Literary Studies (FSLT), Italian studies elective (ITEL)

    Description
    A comparative investigation of Italian, French, and English Renaissance lyric poetry. (Same as English 309.)
  • LLC 360 Representing the Holocaust

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): GS: Int Econ history/culture (GSHC), German studies elective (GEEL), GS: Complex Problems (GSCP), Italian studies elective (ITEL), GS: Western Europe (GSWE)

    Description
    Examines representations of the Holocaust in a historical and international context from survivor testimonies to museum culture to Hollywood film; ideological aspects of Holocaust representation; and Holocaust denial. Elective for German Studies, Global Studies, and Jewish Studies.
  • LLC 362 The History of the Romance Languages

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Italian studies elective (ITEL), Linguistics elective (LING)

    Description
    Readings and tasks designed to develop students' understanding of language change as exemplified by the evolution of the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.) from Latin. Includes linguistic terminology, discovery of the origins of the similarities and differences apparent in the Romance languages, experience with written evidence of language transformation, and exploration of the impact of historical events on language.
  • LLC 388 Individual Internship

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Internship experiences outside of the department in fields related to LLC programs. No more than 1.5 units of internship in any one department and 3.5 units of internship overall may be counted toward required degree units.
  • LLC 389 Practice Assistantship

    Units: 0-0.25

    Description
    Students lead practice sessions associated with the elementary and intermediate language sequences outside of the regularly-taught program languages. The practice assistantship does not count as credit toward the major or minor. Up to one unit can be applied toward graduation credit.
  • LLC 390 Performing Sex and Gender

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): AI-Visual & Performing Arts (AIVP), IF-Power/Equity/Identity/Cult (IFPE), Theatre elective (THEL), WGSS Transnational Perspective (WGTP)

    Description
    Analysis of gender, sex, and sexuality through the lens of theater and performance studies. Applies ideas from gender and queer theory to facilitate close readings of plays from and about Germany and to guide students through the process of devising their own performance.
  • LLC 397 Selected Topics

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Special interest topics offered at department's discretion.
  • LLC 406 Summer Undergraduate Research

    Units: 0

    Description
    Documentation of the work of students who receive summer fellowships to conduct research [or produce a creative arts project] in the summer. The work must take place over a minimum of 6 weeks, the student must engage in the project full-time (at least 40 hours per week) during this period, and the student must be the recipient of a fellowship through the university. Graded S/U.

     

    Prerequisites

    Approval by faculty member

  • LLC 495 Independent Study

    Units: 0.5-1

    Description
    Special projects individually pursued under supervision of faculty member.
  • LLC 497 Selected Topics

    Units: 1

    Description
    Experimental and special interest topics offered at department's discretion.
  • SDLC 105 Introduction to Self-Directed Language Learning

    Units: 0.5

    Description
    Development of skills needed to become autonomous learners of language and culture, including how to create a learning plan, use multimedia resources, work with language tutors, and assemble a learning portfolio. Development of basic understanding of the structure of human languages and the relationship between language and culture.
  • SDLC 110 Self-Directed Language Learning I

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking a new language. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SDLC 110

  • SDLC 111 Self-Directed Language Learning II

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking a less-commonly-taught language. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SDLC 110

  • SDLC 112 Self-Directed Language Learning III

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking a less-commonly-taught language. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SDLC 111

  • SDLC 113 Self-Directed Language Learning IV

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking a less-commonly-taught language. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SDLC 112

  • SWAH 110 Mentored Self-Instruction in Swahili I

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking Swahili. Investigation of the history of the language and the cultures of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination.
  • SWAH 111 Mentored Self-Instruction in Swahili II

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking Swahili. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.
  • SWAH 112 Mentored Self-Instruction in Swahili III

    Units: 1

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking Swahili. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SWAH 111

  • SWAH 113 Mentored Self-Instruction in Swahili IV

    Units: 1

    Fulfills General Education Requirement(s): Second Language Proficiency (SLP), Communication-Foreign Language (COM2)

    Description
    Development of skills in reading, writing, and speaking Swahili. Investigation of the history of the language and the culture of the areas in which the language is used. Assessment of progress through examination and the evaluation of a student-created portfolio.

     

    Prerequisites

    SWAH 112