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Lecturer(s)
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Vrajová Jana, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Kolářová Jana, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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1) DEFINING THE TERMS WORLD LITERATURE AND NATIONAL LITERATURE, POSTCOLONIALISM 1a National literature, comparative literature, and world literature: concepts, boundaries, and mutual relations. 1b Three conceptions of world literature: Goethe's, the quantitative, and the canonical approach. 1c Cultural transfer and international literary communication: antiquity, the Bible, translation, periodicals, travel writing, and other media of exchange. 1d Postcolonialism and Orientalism: critique of Western hegemony and the transformation of the traditional literary canon. 1e Comparative imagology and stereotyping: images of nations, auto- and heterostereotypes, and representations of the Other in literature. 2) MEDIEVAL, RENAISSANCE, AND BAROQUE LITERATURE 2a Medieval literary culture: manuscript culture, orality, Latin and vernacular writing, allegory, topoi, and authorities. 2b Genres and works of the European Middle Ages: legend, chronicle, heroic epic, courtly lyric, courtly romance, and the major works of Dante and Chaucer. 2c Renaissance and Humanism: the return to antiquity, anthropocentrism, the Reformation, printing, and the development of vernacular languages. 2d Renaissance literature in European countries: Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Cervantes; the novella, drama, satire, and the modern novel. 2e European Baroque: symbol, allegory, theatrum mundi, metaphysical poetry, drama, and prose in Italy, Spain, the German-speaking lands, England, France, and the Czech lands. 3) CANONICAL AUTHORS IN CONTACT WITH NINETEENTH-CENTURY CZECH CULTURE 3a Literary reception and cultural transfer in the nineteenth century: influence, translation, allusion, adaptation, parallel, epigonism, and creative rivalry. 3b Lord Byron, Byronism, and Karel Hynek Mácha: Romantic individualism, Weltschmerz, the Czech National Revival, and the contemporary reception of Máj. 3c George Sand in Czech culture: Božena Němcová, Sofie Podlipská, women's emancipation, otherness, and the pitfalls of constructing a "Czech George Sand." 3d Edgar Allan Poe and Heinrich Heine in Czech literature: the emergence of the romaneto, popular reading, irony, scepticism, and transformations of poetry in the works of Arbes, Hálek, and Neruda. 3e Walter Scott and Henrik Ibsen as generic and ideological impulses: Alois Jirásek's historical novel and titanism in the late works of Teréza Nováková.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook), Group work
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Learning outcomes
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The aim of the course is to provide students with basic knowledge of the relationship between world literature and national literatures, an understanding of the forms of cultural transfer, familiarity with the relevant scholarly terminology (comparative literature, postcolonialism), and the ability to interpret specific works of earlier literature (from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century) in their historical context.
The student will gain an understanding that national literatures have their own linguistic and cultural characteristics, yet emerge and develop through continuous contact with other literatures. The student will be able to explain the difference between world literature understood as a process of international communication, as the totality of the world's literatures, and as a selection of canonical works with transnational impact. The student will understand the historical role of translation, periodical publishing, travel writing, reading communities, and other means of cultural exchange in the circulation of literature. The student will be able to describe the basic principles of postcolonial criticism, Said's concept of Orientalism, and the concepts of comparative imagology. The student will be able to identify national stereotypes, cultural constructions, and ideological distortions in literary texts and to think critically about Eurocentrism, the selection of works, and the possibilities of a culturally diverse canon of world literature. The student will also understand the basic periodization of European literature from the Middle Ages to the Baroque and will be able to characterize individual periods within their broader cultural and historical contexts. The student will understand Czech literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as part of a broader international cultural space rather than as an isolated national entity. The student will be familiar with the principal cases of the reception of Byron, George Sand, Poe, Heine, Scott, and Ibsen and will be able to relate them to the works of Czech authors. The student will understand that literary influence is not a matter of mechanical imitation, but rather a selective and creative process conditioned by differences in historical period, language, social circumstances, and the function of national literature. The student will be able to work with concepts such as reception, cultural transfer, translation, allusion, etc.
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Student performance, Seminar Work
Completion of a seminar paper on a selected topic (an interpretation of a chosen text of world literature, with particular attention to the Czech context, including translations, reception, etc.).
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Recommended literature
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Bachtin, M. M. Francois Rabelais a lidová kultura středověku a renesance. Praha 2007.
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Corbineau - Hoffmannová, Angelika . (2007). Úvod do komparatistiky. Praha.
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E. R. Curtius. Evropská literatura a latinský středověk, Praha 1998..
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Garin, E. (ed.). (2003). Renesanční člověk a jeho svět. Praha.
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Haman, A. (1999). Česká literatura 19. století a evropský kontext.. Plzeň.
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Hrbata, Zdeněk. (1999). Romantismus a Čechy. Témata a symboly v literárních a kulturních souvislostech. Praha.
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Krejčí, Karel. (1975). Česká literatura a kulturní proudy evropské. Praha.
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Macura, V., aj. (1988). Slovník světových literárních děl. 2 sv.. Praha.
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MACURA, Vladimír et al. (1989). Slovník světových literárních děl. 1., A-L.. Praha.
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Pelán, J. (2000). Kapitoly z francouzské a italské literatury. Praha.
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Pynsent, R. (2008). Ďáblové, ženy a národ: výbor z úvah o české literatuře. Praha.
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Villari, Rosario (ed.). Barokní člověk a jeho svět. Praha 2004..
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