Introduction to Comparative Literature

What does it imply to ‘say I’ in a literary work? In this course we will study the construction of the self in Western literature (Ancient to Modern) across a variety of epochs, genres, and authors, ranging from the earliest texts in which protagonists tell about themselves (Homer, Odyssey) via foundational autobiographical texts as Augustine (Confessions), Rousseau (Confessions), or Nabokov (Speak Memory) to more complex constructions where author and character are identical, but situated in a clearly fictional realm.

Key questions that will interest us include the relationship between self-narratives and literary genres or typical plots; the differences between inventing and disclosing a self; the tensions between memory/imagination and ‘truth’; the rhetorics of authenticity; the social, political, and cultural conditions that create the epistemic space for an ‘inner self’ to be revealed.

We will also read some seminal texts from the theoretical literature on the self (M. Foucault; J. Butler) and use S. Smith/J. Watson (eds.), Reading Autobiography. A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives.

All texts will be read in English translation, but students are encouraged to study the works written in ‘their’ language(s) in the original. Most theoretical texts will be made available via bspace.

Course requirements: two to three papers; active participation in class; keeping a reading journal; final exam.