If you have ever wondered (while reading Shakespeare or Wordsworth) what the rest of the world has been writing about for the last 2500 years, this is the course of for you. Comparative Literature is the study of all literature, of literature seen as a whole, rather than fragmented into nationalities and languages. Fortunately, you don't have to read everything ever written or know every language to get a sense of what "literature" has meant through history. This course offers a sampling of traditional ways of approaching literature (by genre & period), along with a few examples of recent developments in literary study (out of the many possible choices, we will examine feminist criticism and post-colonial studies). After a consideration of the problems of literary translation, the course will conclude with a look at how literary works become "canonized," that is, how we end up reading and teaching certain works but not others. Along the way we'll even read some Shakespeare and Wordsworth (as well as Sophocles, Euripedes, Kalidasa, Motokiyo, Kleist, Keats, Buchner, Yeats, and others).
One unique aspect of the course is the series of guest lectures I have scheduled, in which experts in French and Spanish literature, in feminist and postcolonial criticism, and other fields will talk to the class.
ENG/CLT 385 is the introductory course in the Minor in Comparative Literature. It is suitable both for future Comparative Literature students and for majors in either English or Foreign Languages. This course requires no advanced foreign language skills.
Required Texts: Lefevere, Translating Literature
Yohannan (ed.), A Treasury of Asian Literature
A packet of xeroxed materials will be available on reserve at the library. We will also draw on the four standard textbooks for the English 251, 252, 253 sequence: the Norton anthologies (World Masterpieces, Vols. 1-2) and the Prentice Hall anthologies (Literature of the Western World, Vols. 1-2). You should have had to purchase at least one of these already, and my hope is that you will cooperate with other students in pooling your resources, sharing books, and making your own copies of the reading assignments as necessary. I certainly don't want you to buy all of these now!!
Grading: Based on five short written exercises, participation, a midterm, and a final.