Introduction to Comparative Literature

Comp. Lit. 100 is designed to present students with texts from various genres and historicial periods, to introduce them to the methods of comparative study.  The thematic focus of this course will be crises of patrilinearity—family romances gone sour. More specifically, we will be looking at how such family crises enable and generate narratives, but also perturb them; how subjects are constituted and deconstructed through descent groups; how the crisis of patrilinearity can become an emblem in literary texts for other cultural crises; and how this theme intersects with the issues of gender and race. Course requirements include three short writing assignments and a final paper based on an oral presentation of a text chosen by the student and read outside of class. Our reading will embrace both literary texts and theoretical/critical discussions of them.

Primary reading will include

Homer Odyssey;

Aeschylus Oresteia;

Sophocles Oedipus the King;

Euripides Medea;

Shakespeare King Lear;

Balzac Père Goriot;

Faulkner Absalom, Absalom!;

Toni Morrison Beloved.

(All texts will be read in English.)