Checking date: 30/04/2025 09:20:43


Course: 2025/2026

Comparative Literature
(13806)
Bachelor in Humanities (Study Plan 2018) (Plan: 407 - Estudio: 213)


Coordinating teacher: CHECA PUERTA, JULIO ENRIQUE

Department assigned to the subject: Humanities: Philosophy, Language, Literature Theory Department

Type: Compulsory
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:




Requirements (Subjects that are assumed to be known)
None.
Objectives
This course is intended to introduce students to a range of theoretical approaches to Comparative Literary study. By the end of the course the student should be able to: -Know the current place of Comparative Literature within the Literary and Cultural Studies. -Develop the history of the discipline, its problems and subjects of study as well as its latest trends. -Articulate from the comparative perspective, the emerging processes, the consolidation and the predominance of national literatures. -Explain the international dynamics, essential elements to understand how modern literary and contemporary systems work. -Identify several ways of reading (Hemeneutics) and empirical analysis that Comparitive Literature uses to study cultural space, intersection and hibridization such as Colonial and Postcolonial Discourses, Images of the Other, Literary Travels, Multilingualism in National Literatures, etc. -Assimilate instruments of analysis to study the complex field of Inter-Art relations: Literature and Visual Arts; Literature and Cinema; Literature and Media, etc.
Learning Outcomes
LEARNING OUTCOMES 1.Have acquired advanced theoretical and practical knowledge and demonstrated an understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects and working methodologies of the Humanities, so as to achieve a high level of knowledge generation. 2.Be able, by means of arguments or procedures developed and supported by themselves, to apply their knowledge, understanding and problem-solving skills in complex areas concerning the Humanities, including specialised professional activities requiring the use of creative and innovative ideas. 3.Have the ability to collect and interpret data and information on which to base their conclusions, including, where necessary and relevant, reflection on social, scientific or ethical issues in the field of the Humanities. BASIC COMPETENCES 2.Students are able to apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and possess the competences usually demonstrated through the development and defence of arguments and problem solving within their field of study. 3.Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgements which include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues. 4.Students should be able to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialist and non-specialist audiences. GENERAL COMPETENCES 1.Acquire the essential knowledge of the various subjects of the humanities disciplines: History, Art, Philosophy, Literature, Spanish Language, Languages, Geography and Classical Culture; of their epistemological evolution and of the relationship of each one with related scientific disciplines, starting from the knowledge acquired in secondary education and up to a level that guarantees knowledge of the state-of-the-art in the study of the Humanities. 3.Acquire the different methods of analysis, synthesis, research and thought corresponding to the humanities disciplines studied. 4.Learning to produce ¿knowledge¿ related to the various humanities subjects. 6.Acquiring the ability to introduce and apply critical thinking when analysing information, data, ideas, opinions and concepts related to the world of the Humanities. 7.Acquiring the ability to tackle problems and provide solutions concerning issues related to humanities disciplines. SPECIFIC COMPETENCES 1.Knowing and being able to define and relate the concepts, limits and sources of the subjects concerning humanistic disciplines, as well as knowing the main lines of work and analysis of history, geography, culture, thought and language. 2.Knowing and being able to interpret texts, materials and creations linked to the world of thought, history, geography, theoretical reflection, culture and art, through their correct spatio-temporal contextualisation. 3.Being able to identify and analyse common processes, throughout history, in the relations between society and its intellectual, artistic and cultural productions. 4.Being able to produce analytical texts, essays and reports with rigour and applying a scientific method in accordance with good research and professional practices. 6.To be able to relate the theoretical knowledge acquired with other forms of artistic and intellectual expression, through the application of the interpretative skills acquired in the degree studies. 7.Learning and being able to apply the interdisciplinary approach of the degree in related disciplines, both in the world of culture and in the world of thought, communication, historical and geographical studies and creation and representation.
Description of contents: programme
PROGRAM: -Presentation and definition of Comparative Literature within the Literary and Cultural Studies. -A brief history of Comparative Literature and the latest trends. World Literature. East & West and the concept of tradicion. -The construction of national literatures and the identity processes. Dialogical relationships between National literature and World literature. -How Comparative Literature influences identity processes such as: Images of the Other, Gender Studies and Postcolonial Literatures. -Inter-Art relations: Literature and Visual Arts; Literature and Cinema; Literature and Media. SYLLABUS: Unit 1.- Origins of the Comparative Literature Unit 2.- The Concept of Comparative Literature and Literary Genre Unit 3.- Paradigms of Comparison. Themes and Myths Unit 4. Methods and Perspectives on Comparative Literature Unit 5.- Literature and the Arts Unit 6.- Literature and Philosophy. On the Beautiful and the Sublime Unit 7.- Otherness and Identity. The role of the 'doppelgänger' in Fantasy Literature Unit 8. Imagology, Postcolonialism and Gender Studies READINGS AND AUTHORS A selection of texts from, among others, the following authors: Charles Baudelaire, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett, César Vallejo, Henry James, Jorge Luis Borges, Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers.
Learning activities and methodology
1.- Practical lectures will focus the literary analysis of a particular text 2.- Theoretical lectures will focus the presentation of the theoretical framework
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination/test 40
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 60




Extraordinary call: regulations
Basic Bibliography
  • Aldridge, Owen, (ed.). Comparative Literature. Matter and Method. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1969. .
  • Bassnett, Susan. . Comparative Literature. A Critical Introduction. . Massachusetts UP: 1993. .
  • Bernheimer, Charles, (ed.). Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1995. .
  • Valdés, Mario J. (ed). Toward a Theory of Comparative Literature. Nueva York: Peter Lang, 1990..

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.