DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES:
This course will introduce approaches and problems in Comparative Literature. In an age of global culture, comparative literary studies offer an important space for understanding the inter-relatedness of cultures. A comparative approach to literature also stresses interdisciplinary methods of reading literatures. We will study the correlation between theories of literature and theories of identity and representation in other disciplines such as anthropology, philosophy, history, gender studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies. While Comparative Literature once focussed primarily on comparing national literatures in various languages (for example, comparing Chinese and British Literature or Canadian and Latin American Literature), it now encompasses much broader questions about the relationship of literature to other arts (for example, film, painting, popular media such as TV and romance fiction), the relevance of cross-cultural studies within, as well as among, national literatures (for example, migrant, multicultural, diasporic, and regional writing), the postcolonial and gender issues expressed variously in World Literature, the emergence of marginalized and minority writing, and the relationship between literature and other forms of self-expression such as autobiography, oral culture, and performance arts.
This course will introduce approaches and problems in Comparative Literature. In an age of global culture, comparative literary studies offer an important space for understanding the inter-relatedness of cultures. A comparative approach to literature also stresses interdisciplinary methods of reading literatures. We will study the correlation between theories of literature and theories of identity and representation in other disciplines such as anthropology, philosophy, history, gender studies, cultural studies, and postcolonial studies. While Comparative Literature once focussed primarily on comparing national literatures in various languages (for example, comparing Chinese and British Literature or Canadian and Latin American Literature), it now encompasses much broader questions about the relationship of literature to other arts (for example, film, painting, popular media such as TV and romance fiction), the relevance of cross-cultural studies within, as well as among, national literatures (for example, migrant, multicultural, diasporic, and regional writing), the postcolonial and gender issues expressed variously in World Literature, the emergence of marginalized and minority writing, and the relationship between literature and other forms of self-expression such as autobiography, oral culture, and performance arts.
- Enseignant: Rimstead, Roxanne