Approaches to Comparative Literature

This course serves as an introduction to the field of Comparative Literature. In the first half of the semester, we will take up the question, “What is literature?” Readings will include Roman Jakobson, Viktor Shklovsky, Tzevtan Todorov, Roland Barthes, Raymond Williams, Jacques Derrida, and others. In the second half of the semester we will ask “What is Comparative Literature?” Readings from Erich Auerbach, Edward Said, Catherine Gallagher, Jonathan Culler, and Pascale Casanova. Although this is a proseminar intended for first-year students in Comparative Literature, graduate students from other departments are welcome to enroll.

Books: Aristotle, Poetics (Norton); Erich Auerbach,Mimesis. All other readings except the Bible and the Odyssey (both of which you should own or can easily find on the internet) will be available in pdf form on B-courses.