World Literatures 177 - Journeys in World Literature: Stupidity: Irony, Mimicry and Social Critique

From the earliest Chinese poetry to the latest Arabic Internet novels, comparative literature makes available new worlds—and “newly visible” old worlds. To become “world-forming,” one must realize one’s belonging to a given world or worlds, as well as one’s finitude. To rethink the relationship between literature and world, each section of this course focuses on a given genre, movement or theme. Through topics such as “Epic Worlds,” ”The Short Story” and “Literature and Medicine,” we consider the creation of worlds through words. May be repeated once with a different topic. Enrollment limited to 20: Irony, often defined as “saying the opposite of what one means” or “saying one thing and meaning another,” spans genres, periods, and cultures. It is entangled with philosophical ideas about language, meaning, and identity and with aesthetic strategies of subversion and of social critique. In this course we will explore irony as a literary concept and across broader cultural registers through multiple literatures and cultural traditions. Readings will be drawn from modern and contemporary European and American literature; theories of camp, drag, and gender performativity; postcolonial African literature; and contemporary cultural studies approaches to mimicry, masquerade, citation, and appropriation. (E)