General and Comparative Literature : Methods and Practices

Teacher(s)

Sábado Novau Marta;

Language

French

Prerequisites

This course completes the introduction to European literature begun in course LFIAL 1130, which is a prerequisite.

Main themes

Based on a specific theme, which may change from year to year, this course introduces students to the comparative study of literature. The study of literary works will be put into perspective by a cross-disciplinary approach to literature: the aim will be to link literature with other arts and disciplines. In addition, this course also emphasises literary analysis and the interpretation of texts through the comparative study (essay, commentary) of works. By comparing texts with one another, this course introduces students to a reading that invites a more off-centre view.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

By the end of this unit, students will be able to :   In practical terms, this course focuses on the comparative method in the study of literary works. Through this systematic introduction to the discipline, the student acquires the tools for reading it, and in particular learns to draft written works based on comparative argumentation (comparative commentary, comparative essay).  In terms of content, students will be able to understand how the world's literatures feed off each other to form a dynamic, unified and diverse network. Each student's specific literary training will be enriched by the establishment of a broad framework, involving several languages, countries, arts and disciplines.  Other AAs:  1.5 ; 2.6 ; 3.5 ; 4.3 ; 5.6

Content

Since the emergence of modern cities in the early 19th century, writers and poets have made the city a favourite literary subject. This course takes a historical and thematic look at the links that literature has maintained with the city, both as a real and material space and as an imaginary one. Students will be invited to read texts that have marked the history of the relationship between the city and literature, from Balzac and Baudelaire to Orhan Pamuk and Elena Ferrante, via Edgar Allan Poe, Walter Benjamin, Italo Calvino, Georges Perec and Paul Auster. Using a varied, multilingual corpus as a starting point, the course will explore a number of current issues: memory and history as inscribed in urban space, the flâneur as a conceptual figure, the notion of the urban landscape, the tension between centre and periphery, the city as a text to be deciphered, and so on. The course, which is resolutely interdisciplinary, shows how literary works have an impact on social issues affecting other human and social sciences such as geography, sociology, gender studies, architecture, urban planning, etc. Sessions will alternate between lectures and reading and comparing texts in order to introduce the practices and methods of comparative literature. Five practical work sessions will supplement the lectures.

Teaching methods

This course will combine lectures and literary interpretation where students will be asked to discuss the texts.

Bibliography

Lectures obligatoires

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway, Folio Gallimard, Paris, 1994 [1925].
• Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul, Folio, Gallimard, Paris, 2008 [2003].
• Elena Ferrante, L'amie prodigieuse, t. 1, Folio, Gallimard, Paris, 2016 [2011].
   
• Ainsi que les différents extraits d'oeuvres que l'enseignante mettra à dispostion des étudiants sur Moodle: Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, Paul Auster, Eduardo Mendoza, Annie Ernaux, etc. Les textes théoriques font également partie des lectures obligatoires.

Nota bene : Les étudiant·es sont encouragé·es à lire les oeuvres en langue originale, ils et elles peuvent prendre l'initiative de se procurer le livre dans la langue étrangère directement.

Teaching materials

• Les diaporamas des cours, les trois romans obligatoires et les textes littéraires et théoriques mis à disposition des étudiants sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

> FIAL