Comparative and Global Methods in Literary Studies

Course description

Multilingual and comparative approaches to the study of literature have been around almost as long as literature itself: Travelling manuscripts and the problem of translation were there from the beginning. In the 19th century, specific schools of ‘comparative’ strategies arose. In recent decades, these foundations of literary studies have been subject to comprehensive global methodological attention and development.

This PhD course on Methods in literary studies offers participants the possibility of studying old and new approaches to transnational literary studies and to discuss the relation between foundational texts of comparative literature and the field of world literature. The course has four objectives:

1. Knowledge of recent developments within world literature and the ability to contextualize them historically in relation to comparative literature.
2. A heightened awareness of the transnational importance to the study of literature.
3. Increased awareness of the participants’ own methodological approaches.
4. Excellency of method chapters in UiO dissertations.

A further focus point will be the intersection of empirical and interpretational transnationality. It is evident that authors, manuscripts, and books travelling across language areas or borders are transnational in a literal sense—but what about ideas, theories, metaphors, characters, ideologies, or genres? The course will pay particular attention to this problem and explore ways of developing sound methodologies for both empirical and interpretational transnationality.

This is a 2 ECTS course. The essay pages are counted as 2400 signs per page including spacing.

Course Work:

This course is taught as a one-day seminar in the PhD Week. The first two-hour session will comprise a reading session on three foundational texts of comparative literature, ie Brandes, Curtius and Auerbach. The second part will see a similar approach with a further study session of three foundational texts of world literature, ie. Damrosch, Moretti and Orisini. The day concludes with a discussion of gaps and overlaps, perspectives and methodological possibilities in the historical development of these transnational approaches.

Participants will be required to have studied all six texts in depth prior to the sessions. They will also be required to submit written notes for in Canvas for dissemination among the participants at the course, as the basis of discussions on the course day. The deadline for submitting these written notes is one week in advance. These notes will take the form of a position paper of 1 page, outlining main arguments and perspectives from one of the course texts.

After the course, participants will be required to submit a five-page essay discussing either:

a) one or more texts’ relevance to their own methodological approach, or

b) a principled discussion of an aspect of literary studies which differ between at least two course texts.

Important deadlines:

-> Submit one-page position paper 27 Nov

-> Read the six curriculum texts 4 Dec

-> Submit five-page essay 20 Dec

Reading list

Foundational Texts of Comparative Literature

• Georg Brandes, “Introduction» in Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature (1872). English version online here.

• Erich Auerbach ([1947] 2013). “Prologue” + “Epilogue” + Edward Said, “Introduction to the fiftieth-anniversay edition” in Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature - New and Expanded Edition Mimesis. Online access via Oria. Here.

• Ernst Robert Curtius ([1948] 2013), European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. Willard Trask (Princeton UP, 2013), Online access via Oria. Here.

• “Author’s Foreword to the English Edition” + “Ch. 1: European Literature” + “Ch. 2: “The Latin Middle Ages” + “Epilogue”.

Foundational Texts of World Literature

• Damrosch, David. 2003. What Is World Literature? Princeton: Princeton University Press. Online 

• Kullberg, Christina, and David Watson, red. 2018. Theorizing the Vernacular: Literary Traditions and Modernities. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Introduction : Theorizing the vernacular. Online text

• Moretti, Franco. 2000. "Conjectures on World Literature." New Left Review 1: 54–68. Online text

Orsini, Francesca, "Significant Geographies: Scale, Location, and Agency in World Literature" in Global Literary Studies, 2022. Online text

Course convener

Tonje Vold and Rasmus Vangshardt

Registration

Candidates admitted to the PhD programme at HF are given priority.

Deadline: 13.11.2026

Sign up is now open