Comparative Literature 340 - SEM:PROBLEMS IN LITERARY THEOR

Topics course. The concept of cosmopolitanism has recently gone through a process of democratization. Dismissing the singular "cosmopolitanism" as a form of Eurocentric universalism, critics today study a plurality of cosmopolitanisms, focusing on transnational experiences, both elite and subaltern, Western and non-Western. How can we study comparative literature within this new framework? If the Western canon is no longer setting the standards, what are the new aesthetic values? How can we avoid the pitfalls of both cultural relativism and Orientalism, that is, reading unfamiliar literatures through an exotic lens? Does "World Literature" promote reading in translation at the expense of original languages? Authors may include Appiah, Apter, Casanova, Chakrabarty, Damrosch, Moretti, Nussbaum, Robbins, Said, Coetzee, Maalouf, Naipaul, Pamuk and Zadie Smith. The seminar is required of senior majors. Prerequisites: CLT 300 or permission of the instructor.

Topic: Comparative Literature in the Age of Cosmopolitanisms. Instructor permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores