ENGL 3390 - Topics in Comparative Literature: Forms, Genres, History

(3 CR, 3T + 0L)

This course offers an introduction to literary and critical study from a comparatist perspective. It focuses on a relatively small number of texts and examines topics such as: how literary forms and genres shape our reading of texts: how their conventions manifest themselves; how these conventions vary within different cultural traditions; how the functions and effects of literary texts change over time, and from place to place; and how such texts (orals, written, visual; canonical or “popular”) provide occasions for revealing and refining their readers’ values and for sharpening their critical thinking. Students will examine the ways in which authors’ words and ideas - presented in common shared texts - construct for their readers differing, even contradictory, meanings and carry varied significance for individual readers.

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1120