Elham Al_Bassam SYLLABUS 193/01A Introduction to Comparative Literature
Website : elmbsm193.yolasite.com and elmbsm193.weebly.com
Summer Semester 2017/2018 Contact email:
Office Hour: Daily 9:30-10:15 or by Appointment
MyU albasam
Students are introduced to the field of Comparative Literature through a selection of cultural texts and seminal criticism. This course considers how issues to do with, among other things, globalization, multiculturalism, postcolonialism, feminism, and interdisciplinarity have affected the field and explores the many ways comparative practice occurs today. Special attention is given to the wide range of topics possible for comparative study including: languages, cultures, geographies, genres, disciplines, media, histories, etc. Readings will include key historical and contemporary theorists in the field (for example, from Posnett, Gayley, and Auerbach to Said, Spivak, and Apter, among others) to be read in conjunction with a variety of cultural texts (selected by the professor).
Exams:
Exam 1 Wednesday June 20, 2018 23%
Exam 2 Wednesday July 10, 2018 23%
Essay on Comparative literature 7% 7% Final Exam as scheduled by the University ( Saturday July 21,2018 at 11:00)
Syllabus : Classes start on Sunday, May 27 , 2018 and end on TuesdayJuly17, 2018.
Definitions of Comparative literature Today and a brief overview of
the discipline’s historical development will take us from Goethe’s idea of Weltliteratur to some recent debates about literature and globalization.
ComparativeSchools in the 1990s and Comparative Literature and Cultural, translation and Regional Studies .
Comparative Literature through the Imperial perspective and the
Post- Colonial Approaches :Edward Fitzgerald’s ‘low opinion’ of Oriental Literature- translator of
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ,a classic poem, Cultural Colonialism as Shakespeare was imported
to the Arab World or India, among Others and Chinua Achebe’s view of Comparative Literature
in the Post- Colonial Era as a ‘ synonym for the narrow, self-serving parochialism of Europe’
Week 3,4,and 5: Edward Said’s Chapter on’ Narrative and Social Space’
Jane’s Austen’s Mansfield’s Park and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
as representative of overseas possessions and a West Indian Character
Week 6 and 7 : Edward Said’s ‘Camus and the French Imperial Experience’
Nationalism in Ireland and Egypt and Palestine: James Joyce’s
A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Yeats ’s Poetry on Ireland : Edward Said’s ‘ Yeats and
Decolonization’ Mahfouz’s The Cairo Trilogy and Darwish’s poetry on Palestine: S. Bassnett’s
‘ Gender and Themantics’
Weeks 8: Antony and Cleopatra : S. Bassnett’s ‘Constructing Cultures : The Politics of Travelers’ Tales’
Othello : S. Bassnett’s ‘Constructing Cultures: the Politics of Traveller’s Tales’
Student Presentations
Textbooks :
1.Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
2. Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage, 1994.
Next Class: Get the hard copy of “The Story of Scheherezade and Dunzyad” by Meredith Sue Willis and read it from this link:
and read its translation into Arabic from :