Introduction to Comparative Literature

Gateway Course for work in the Comparative Literature Major.

This course is designed to explore foundational narratives of the Americas in the 19th century. We will look at the ways in which the great masters of prose –Cooper, Melville, and Stowe in the United States and Sarmiento, Gómez de Avellaneda, Gorriti, and Matto de Turner  in Latin America–imagined the conflicts of the emerging liberal republic.  In this context, the representation of the North/South divide and the fictions of nation, race, and gender will be important for our discussions as will the inquiry into the nature of comparative work . Our work will be supported by a study of the legacy of romanticism, the status of underlying philosophical inquiry in the early 19th century (both north and south), and the proposals for understanding the split between “civilization and barbarism” that dominated 19th century political and cultural discourses. Travel discourse, the representation of nature, and the formation of modern subjectivities will also be brought into discussion. Finally, we will address the advantages of comparative study and reading across the grain.

Readings will be available in both English and Spanish.

Required texts:

Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans. NY: Barnes and Noble, 2004. OR ANY EDITION.

Gómez de Avellaneda, Gertrudis. Sab and Autobiography.  Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.

Gorriti, Juana Manuela. Dreams and Realities. Selected Fiction by Juana Manuela Gorriti.  Oxford. University Press, 2003.

Matto de Turner, Clorinda. Torn from the Nest.  Oxford, 1999.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, Billy Budd and Other Writings. Ed. G. Thomas Tanselle. NY: Penguin-Putnam (Library Classics of America), 2000. OR ANY EDITION

Sarmiento, Domingo F. Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism. Trans. Kathleen Ross. University of California Press, 2003.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. New York: Dover Editions, 2005. OR ANY EDITION.

Spanish language versions of the following texts:

Gómez de Avellaneda, Gertrudis. Sab. Madrid. Cátedra.

Gorriti, Juana Manuela. Sueños y realidades. Photocopy

Matto de Turner, Clorinda. Aves sin nido. Caracas: Ayacucho. 1994.

Sarmiento, D.F. Facundo o civilización y barbarie en las pampas. Madrid: Catédra. OR ANY EDITION.