Metaforms and Comparative Literature: Conversations across Time and Space - MA Seminar 1 3301-LBS1KSI
The seminar will focus on connections and contrasts between literary works originating from various cultures.
The key focus will be on metaforms: works of art which not only create an illusion of a world, but also reveal that this world is an illusion, and expose the mechanism by which imaginary realms are constructed. It is a game with the reader or spectator which invites them into labyrinths of texts, images, allusions, meanings, creating a space for imaginative interpretations and critical reflections on reality. In short, it is an artistic work which is self-conscious about its own status as artifice, and which makes visible creation of meanings, reflection on the nature of reality in all its contexts and our relationship with it
The discussions during the first semester will introduce the rudiments of comparative studies and foster the skills of reading across linguistic, spatial and temporary boundaries, observing transformations of familiar themes and emergence of new concepts and ideas, transmutations and reinterpretations of traditional narratives across genres and literary forms as well as responses of contemporary writers to voices of their predecessors, and transformations of literary works in visual culture. This approach will encourage students to address cultures as both unique and interconnected, and attempt to understand them on their own terms.
The seminar will focus on close textual analysis, but will also explore connections of literature with history.
During the first semester examples of texts will be provided by the instructor, later on students will select their own texts and contexts, gradually formulating and presenting their projects for open discussion and peer-review in class.
The first semester will be dedicated to overview of theoretical background which will be useful for the projects, as well as analysis of selected texts.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge
Students will be able to:
K_W04,
- Characterize on an advanced level the principles of research design in literary and culture studies with special focus on the application of methods and tools in formulating research problems in comparative studies and analysis of metaforms
- exhibit enhanced understanding of comparative studies and adaptation theory, methodologies of dealing with literature and visual culture,
as well as of the role of intercultural connections and transference of ideas and themes between cultures, literatures and other media
K_W05
- Identify the notions and principles pertinent to intellectual property and copyright in relation to their MA projects
K_W06
- Characterise economic, legal and other factors relevant for various kinds of professional activities related to the study of literary metaforms across literatures and cultures.
Skills / Abilities
Students are able to:
K_U01
Apply advanced terminology and notions pertinent to comparative studies and analysis of metaforms
K_U02
Apply advanced research methodology within comparative literary studies and studies of visual culture / performative arts, respecting ethical norms and copyright law
K_U03
Apply knowledge obtained during the seminar to account for and solve a problem, thereby completing an MA dissertation related to the examination of metaforms in comparative studies
K_U04
Analyze linguistic, literary and cultural phenomena whithin the works studied during the seminar and those examined in personal MA project and draw generalizations on their basis in the context of societal, historical and economic factors on an advanced level
K_U06
find information in various sources and critically assess its usefulness for research related to the topic of the MA project, in particular prepare comprehensive bibliography of sources and define elements necessary as theoretical background for the dissertation topic
K_U07
Use modern technology in the process of learning and communicating with academic teachers, colleagues, representatives of various institutions and fellow participants in classes and projects, applying various channels and techniques of communication, including moodle platform, sharing documents, preparing audiovisual presentations, etc.
K_U11
Design one’s own development during preparation of the thesis and in the future.
Social competences
Students are ready to:
K_K02
Apply knowledge and skills obtained during the seminar such as ability to analyze a complex cultural text across several cultures, think critically about political and historical discourse, etc. to undertake lifelong learning, as well as personal and professional development
Assessment criteria
Students get their credit based on regular attendance, active participation in discussions and completing their MA dissertations.
1st semester: selection of the topic for their MA dissertation, writing a short abstract ("stub"), outline of the thesis, basic bibliography (chapter by chapter)
Bibliography
Metafiction:
Robert Alter, Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre (Berkeley: U of California Press, 1975)
Marc Currie (ed.), Metafiction (Hoboken: Routledge, 2014)
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, "Self-reference in Literature," Poetics 18 (1989), pp. 491–515
Monika Fludernik, “Metanarrative and Metafictional Commentary: From Metadiscursivity to Metanarration and Metafiction,” Poetica 35 (2003), pp. 1–39
Linda Hutcheon, Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox (New York and London: Methuen,1985)
Linda Hutcheon, “Incredulity toward Metanarrative: Negotiating Postmodernism and Feminisms.” K. Mezei (ed.). Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers (Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1996), pp. 262–267
Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, “Metanarration and Metafiction.” In: Handbook of Narratology, eds. Peter Hühn, John Pier, Wolf Schmid and Jörg Schönert (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2009), pp. 204-211
Joan D. Peters, Feminist Metafiction and the Evolution of the British Novel (Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2002)
Robert Scholes, Fabulation and Metafiction (Urbana: Universtiy of Illinois Press, 1980)
Patricia Waugh, Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction (London and New York: Routledge, 1988)
Comparative studies:
Ahearne, Ed, and Arnold Weinstein. "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time: The Promise of Comparative Literature." Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism. Ed. Charles Bernheimer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995. 77-85.
Alexandrov, Vladimir E. "Literature, Literariness, and the Brain." Comparative Literature 59.2 (2007): 97-118.
Amaral, Genevieve. "Edgar Allan Poe's Fear of Texts: 'The Man of the Crowd' As Literary Monster." Comparatist: Journal of the Southern Comparative Literature Association 35 (2011): 227-38.
Andrew, Joe, Malcolm Crook, and Michael Waller, ed. Why Europe? Problems of Culture and Identity: Political and Historical Dimensions. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
Arens, Katherine. "When Comparative Literature Becomes Cultural Studies: Teaching Cultures Through Genre." Comparatist: Journal of the Southern Comparative Literature Association 29 (2005): 123-47.
Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Bassnett, Susan. "Reflections on Comparative Literature in The Twenty-First Century." Comparative Critical Studies 3.1-2 (2006): 3-11.
Bennet, Milton J. “Towards Ethnorelativism: A Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity”. In Education for the Intercultural Experience, M. R. Paige (ed). Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, 1993, pp. 22-73.
Bluestone, George. Novels into Film. Michigan: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1957.
Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film, Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1978
Chatman, Seymour. “What Novels Can Do That Films Can't (And Vice Versa)”, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 7, No. 1, On Narrative (Autumn, 1980), pp. 121-140.
Delage-Toriel, Lara. “Shadow of a Double: Taking a Closer Look at the Opening of Kubrick's Lolita,” Miranda 3 (2010)
Durantaye, Leland de la. "The Facts of Fiction, or the Figure of Vladimir Nabokov in W. G. Sebald." Comparative Literature Studies 45.4 (2008): 425-45.
Heidmann, Ute, and Jean-Michel Adam. "Text Linguistics and Comparative Literature: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach to Written Tales: Angela Carter's Translations of Perrault." Language and Verbal Art Revisited: Linguistic Approaches to the Study of Literature. Ed. Donna R. Miller and Monica Turci. London: Equinox, 2007. 181-96.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. London and New York: Routledge, 2013.
McFarlane, Brian. Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford: Claredon Press, 1996.
Mitchell, J.W.T. Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Mitchell, J.W.T. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Williams, Lisa. The Artist as Outsider in the Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf. Westport: Greenwood, 2000.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: