Bachelor 2021/2022

Comparative History of Literature

Type: Compulsory course (Philology)

Area of studies: Philology

Delivered by: Department of Philology

Where: School of Arts and Humanities

When: 4 year, 1, 2 module

Mode of studies: distance learning

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Ivan Delazari, Vadim Shkolnikov

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Contact hours: 48

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course, which marks the culmination of the core curriculum in Russian and World Literature, consists of two distinct portions, arranged chronologically and focusing on a range of issues in the history of Western cultures from the 19th century to the 2010s. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the interaction between literature and other media.

Learning Objectives

• The overall objective of this course is to provide students with theoretical tools and material substance for comparative analysis of trends, authors, and texts across national, cultural, and medial borders.
• Retracing the material of the entire Program's literary curriculum, the course enables students to obtain and finalize a panomaric view over the cultural and literary scene of the 19th to 21st centuries, as well as revise and sharpen their critical thinking about methods in comparative literature studies.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• analyzes, relates, and compares literary texts across lingual and cultural borders
• demonstrates a potential for undertaking independent research in the area of comparative literature studies
• questions and thinks critically about the historical, cultural, formal, ideological, and medial distinctions accepted normatively in comparative literature studies and related disciplines within arts and humanities
• understands and explains articulately the central theoretical concepts that account for literary relationships among several national traditions of the last two centuries in comparative terms

Course Contents

• The Political Unconscious of Nineteenth-Century Realism in Literature and Art
• The Indiscipline of Comparison in the Twentieth to Twenty-First Century

Assessment Elements

• Essay 2
  Plagiarism is any amount of ideas and/or phrasings featured in the text submitted by the student with no reference to their source. If the final paper (exam) is plagiarized, the student fails the entire course, so that all other results of the course assessment components are blocked. Double submission (handing in the same paper for two different courses) counts as plagiarism, unless its terms and conditions are discussed with and endorsed by the course instructor well in advance. To retake the exam, the student must write a different paper on a different subject, which needs to be approved by the course instructor in advance, during the reexamination period. If the new essay contains no plagiarism, it is marked according to the normal assessment scale, and the previous coursework assessment items are restored.
• Participation 1
  Students attend lectures and seminars and participate in discussions, respond to presentations, and raise issues related to the subject of each class. During classes, students demonstrate that they have done their assigned readings by responding to the course instructor’s introduction, answering questions, commenting, and asking further questions to engage the class in a meaningful intellectual exchange.
• Participation 2
  Students attend lectures and seminars and participate in discussions. During classes, students demonstrate that they have done their assigned readings by responding to the course instructor’s warm-up introduction of the topic, answering questions, commenting, and asking further questions to engage the class in a meaningful intellectual exchange
• Essay 1
  Students submit a short research paper (approximately 1500 words in English) on a topic directly related to the content of the course. The important thing is the sophistication of your analytical approach. Therefore, you should refer to at least 1-2 of the theoretical/scholarly works from the syllabus (or other equally important theoretical/scholarly works).
• Presentation
  In English; preferably in pairs; approximately 7-8 min. per person. The presentation should avoid simply summarizing the text and excessive background information; instead students should present a sustained analytical argument with a strong thesis. The presentation should conclude with a question (or two) addressed to the class for further discussion.

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 1st module
  0.29 * Presentation + 0.21 * Participation 1 + 0.5 * Essay 1
• 2021/2022 2nd module
  0.2 * Participation 2 + 0.5 * 2021/2022 1st module + 0.3 * Essay 2

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Behdad, A., & Thomas, D. R. D. (2011). A Companion to Comparative Literature (Vol. 1st ed). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=391356
• Brooks, P. (2005). Realist Vision. New Haven: Yale University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=187667

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Damrosch, D. (2017). How to Read World Literature (Vol. Second edition). Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1553409
• Ivan Delazari. (2021). Musical Stimulacra : Literary Narrative and the Urge to Listen. Routledge.