School of Comparative Literary Studies Dunton Tower 1701 Telephone: 788-2177 Fax: 788-3544 The School Director of the School: Robert Polzin Assistant Director of the School: G.A. Woods The School of Comparative Literary Studies offers programs of graduate study leading to the degree of Master of Arts in Comparative Literature. These programs, involving courses in comparative literary studies and, where appropriate, up to two courses from other departments, have considerable flexibility in the sense that they can be tailored to suit each student's special interests in particular periods or areas while, at the same time, through the core half courses, Comparative Literary Studies 17.501 and 17.502, and the final comprehensive examination, providing a specialized training in the techniques of comparative literary studies. The purpose of the program in comparative literature is to study literature in its international context, and to relate and compare literary phenomena usually studied in isolation because of linguistic barriers and the traditional departmental division of academic disciplines. Thus, taking into account the interrelation of all humanistic studies, such as the various literatures, philosophy, psychology, sociology, the visual arts, and history, "comparatists" view literary creation within the total complex evolution of world literature. The historical flow of literary archetypes, the role of folklore and myth in literature, recurrent problems of literary theory, and consideration of the less well known literatures of the world are some of the objects of comparative literary studies. The study of this discipline must be based on a truly comparative perspective, on a solid linguistic foundation, and on an awareness of all difficulties that arise in comparative literature, conceived as a domain both within and beyond the limits of national literatures. Students registered in other departments, who wish to register in one or more courses from the comparative literature program, must demonstrate a reading knowledge of the languages required for each course. Such students are encouraged to emphasize their own area of literary study in presentations and essays when the instructor judges that the content of the course(s) so permits. Three years of study at the university level will normally constitute the required level of language proficiency. Qualifying-Year Program The regulations governing admission to the qualifying-year program are outlined in the general section of this calendar. Applicants who hold only a general (pass) B.A. degree will be required to successfully complete the basic half courses, Comparative Literary Studies 17.401: Foundations of Comparative Literary Studies and Comparative Literary Studies 17.402: Theories of Literature, and to take courses from other departments of literature, or comparative literary studies (see Undergraduate Calendar) to achieve the equivalent of a combined honours B.A. with high honours standing. The total course program is to be worked out in consultation with the graduate studies supervisor. Formal admission to the master's program may be considered at the end of the first term. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.401 Foundations of Comparative Literary Studies The history of the discipline of comparative literature will be studied, including its beginnings in nineteenth-century France, its evolution, and its current status in Europe, the United States, and Canada. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Fernando de Toro. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.402 Theories of Literature The course focuses on twentieth-century literary theories in the context of comparative studies, providing the student with an overall view of the theoretical discussion of literature from about 1920 to the present. Included in the study are Russian Formalism, American New Criticism, and such other approaches as the structuralist, semiotic, socio-cultural and hermeneutic. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. (Students enrolling in this course under the cross-listed 38.402 should note the requirements of the Department of Spanish). F.G. Loriggio. Master of Arts Admission Requirements The regulations governing admission to the master's program are outlined in the general section of this calendar. The specific requirements for admission to the master's program in comparative literature are the following: An honours B.A. degree (or equivalent) with at least high honours standing in a literature (studied in the original language) or in two literatures or in a literature and a related arts subject Proficiency in English An ability to work at the graduate level in an additional language approved by the School. Students whose record does not clearly demonstrate this ability will be required to take as part of their program at least one half credit in the literature of this second language in the original language Program Requirements Students accepted into the master's program without having taken the two half courses, Comparative Literary Studies 17.401 and Comparative Literary Studies 17.402 (or their equivalent), will be required to take these courses as extra to the degree. Master's candidates in comparative literature will follow one of three programs. The specific requirements are as follows: * The two half courses, Comparative Literary Studies 17.501: Problems in the Theory of Literature I and Comparative Literary Studies 17.502: Problems in the Theory of Literature II * Two full graduate courses (or the equivalent) selected from those offered by Comparative Literary Studies. With departmental approval, one of these full courses may be a 400-level course. Courses in other programs in the University may also be selected with permission of the Graduate Committee, but normally not in excess of one full course (or the equivalent) * Either Comparative Literary Studies 17.599: M.A. Thesis (equivalent to two full course credits); or Comparative Literary Studies 17.598: Research Essay (one full credit) and Comparative Literary Studies 17.593: M.A. Comprehensives (one full credit); or an additional full graduate course (or the equivalent) and 17.593: M.A. Comprehensives (one full credit) Graduate Courses* A prerequisite for all graduate-level courses is appropriate linguistic ability and approval of the School of Comparative Literary Studies. A student may not receive credit for both a half course and a full course which bears the same topic title. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.501W1 Problems in the Theory of Literature I Topic for 1993-94: Specular Narratology The problems studied in this course include the following: what do narratives tell readers about the ways they construct themselves as stories about a certain "reality"? What do they tell us about their own "truth value" and the techniques they use to convey it? What to they tell us about the hermeneutics of either telling or reading a story? Texts by L. Dällenbach, L. Hutcheon, B. McHale, and G. Prince. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. A.W. Halsall. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.502W1 Problems in the Theory of Literature II Topic for 1993-94: Reference, Sense and Meaning: Theoretical Problems in Interpretation This course focuses on some of the theoretical problems that text semantics pose for literary interpretation. Emphasis is placed on exploring the external/internal fields of textual reference, the language-specific sense of discourse and the processes by which meaning effects are conveyed. Literary texts will come from twentieth-century English, French, German and Spanish poetry and short fiction. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. H.-G. Ruprecht. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.522F1 Literary History III: Periods, Styles and Movements Topic for 1993-94: Lowell and Larkin: A Cross-Cultural Comparison A comparison of the work and careers of Robert Lowell and Philip Larkin in the framework of their historical positions in American and British poetry. Particular attention will be paid to their attitudes to Anglo-American modernism. An attempt will be made to attain a focus on differences in development of American and British poetry in the mid-twentieth century. Texts by Lowell, Larkin, and Alvarez. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Before 1991-92 course 17.522F1 was offered as 17.506T2. A.T. Tolley. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.523W1 Literary History IV: Form and Function of Genres Topic for 1993-94: The Poetics of Poetry Lyric poetry poses various problems for literary studies. This course will examine some of these problems. Particular attention will be given to issues pertaining to the place of lyric poetry within poetic genres, to its impact on the idea of modernity, to its relation with paraliterary forms of poetry. W. Goethe, R.M. Rilke, T.S. Eliot, G.M. Hopkins, E. Pound, G. Ungaretti, G. Apollinaire, S. Mallarmé and P. Valéry will be among the authors discussed. Critical writings will include works by poets as well as critics. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Before 1991-92 course 17.523W1 was offered as 17.534F1. Pierre Laurette. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.532T2 Studies in the Literature of Identity Topic for 1993-94: Female Identity: Writing by Women in the Twentieth Century This course will explore topics such as gender and narrativity, women's space, marginalization, women and madness, and mothers and daughters in writing by women in the first half of the twentieth century in northern Europe and North America. The texts will be discussed from a cross-cultural perspective with reference to poststructuralist literary theory, including feminist criticism. Texts include: Dinesen, Woolf, Colette, Stein, de Beauvoir, Skram, Undset, Salverson, and Roy. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. G.A. Woods. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.540T2 Studies in Modernism and Post-modernism Topic for 1993-94: Deconstruction and Post-modernism This course consists of complementary halves. Firstly (fall term) it deals with essential texts on literature by F. Nietzsche, M. Heidegger and J. Derrida in so far as they had an effect upon the "deconstructive" thinking of contemporary critics (P. de Man, G. Hartman, J. Hillis-Miller, H. Bloom, etc.). This includes comparative studies of modern literary works. Secondly (winter term) it is a course on theoretical approaches (I. Hassan, C. Jencks, J.-F. Lyotard, R. Venturi, etc.) to post-modernism in art, architecture, literature, and theatre, including "Post-modern" creative strategies of E. Barba, J.L. Borges, U. Eco, G. Garcia Marquez, A. Warhol, etc. The components of this course are thematically interrelated, thus providing an understanding of the interrelationships between contemporary artistic practice and critical thought. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Before 1991-92 course 17.540T2 was offered as 17.510T2. H.-G. Ruprecht and Fernando de Toro. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.550T2 Cross Cultural Studies I: Literatures Written in the English Language Topic for 1993-94: The Fourth World and the Edge of Empire The course will study the emergence of indigenous literatures in the modern world. Attention will focus primarily on texts from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States but some works by South African and Latin-American writers will also be discussed, as will some works by non-indigenous writers. Among the authors included in the reading list are: Sally Morgan, Hyllus Maris (Australia); Witi Ihimaera, Keri Hulme (New Zealand); Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, Alice Walker (U.S.); Wilma Stockenstrom (South Africa); Marquez (Columbia). Prerequisite: Permission of the School. (Also offered as English 18.504) J.J. Healy. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.551T2 Cross-Cultural Studies II: Literature of the "Francophone" World Topic for 1993-94: Les Littératures francophones des Amériques Présentation de la poésie et des poétiques d'expression française dans l'espace nord américain, spécialement dans la collectivité antillaise (Martinique-Guadeloupe-Haïti). La poésie et les langages poétiques sont analysés dans leurs relations: aux dimensions spatio-temporelles; aux fonctions de communicaton; aux langues; aux traditions orales et sociales; aux perspectives idéologiques; éthiques et politiques. Textes de R. Depestre, J. Des Rosiers, Frankétienne, J. Mettelus, A. Phelps, E. Roumer, A. Césaire, E. Glissant, G. Gratiant, L.-G. Damas. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Pierre Laurette. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.552T2 Cross-Cultural Studies III: Literature of the Luso-Hispanic World Topic for 1993-94: Post-modern Fiction: Representation and the Question of Fiction. The Latin American narrative together with other "marginal" narratives, such as women and ethnic, became the focal point of narrative during the '70s, '80s and '90s. In this course, we will focus our attention on a variety of subjects, particularly on post-modern writing . Writers such as J.L. Borges, J. Barnes, A. Carter, J. M. Coetzee, J. Donoso, U. Eco, G. García Márquez, M. Puig, A. Roa Bastos, M. Vargas Llosa as well as theoreticians such as J. Arac, H. Bertens, C.L. Brown, Karen Olson, T. de Lauretis, D.W. Fokkema, I. Hassan, L. Hutcheon, F. Jameson, C. Jencks, J.-F. Lyotard, and G. Vattimo, will be considered.Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Fernando de Toro. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.553T2 Comparative Canadian Literature Topic for 1993-94: The Diary Novel: Theory and Practice This course aims to define the characteristics of the diary novel/ journal intime "fictif" through the readings of theoretical works from France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. Using a corpus of Québécois and English-Canadian novels, we will study the defining characteristics of this autobiographical sous-genre. Although the course will emphasize the "fictional" diary, we will also look at "non-fictional" diaries. The "fictional/factual" opposition will allow for the discussion of a series of narrative and epistemological questions involving problems of simulation, reference, representation, fictionalization, and the rhetoric of truth claims. Texts by H. Aquin, N. Brossard, D. Marlett, M. Monette, and M. Ondaatje. Prerequisites: A good reading knowledge of French and permission of the School. Julie LeBlanc. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.565F1 Intertextuality: Literature and Other Cultural Phenomena Topic for 1993-94: Intertexuality as Subversion and Manipulation in Modern and Post-modern Theatre This course deals with a variety of intertextual relations in modern and post-modern theatre such as historicity, appropriation, genre subversion, and the Other, as they are presented in the works by B. Brecht, J. Grotowsky, H. Müller, B. Wilson, E. Barba, H. Cixous, and others. Some emphasis will be placed on theoretical writings of these authors and of post-modern theoreticians. Prerequisites: Reading knowledge of French and/or Spanish, German and permission of the School. Before 1991-92 course 17.565W1 was offered as 17.520T2. Fernando de Toro. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.571W1 The Theory and Practice of Translation Topic for 1993-94: The Translation of Literary Texts This course will deal with theoretical as well as practical aspects of translation of poetry. Texts of modern English and French Canadian and of English and American poets will be studied. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. (Also offered as French 20.507) Before 1991-92 course 17.571W1 was offered as 17.505W1. Evelyne Voldeng. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.581T2 Seminar in Comparative Literature Topic for 1993-94: Literary Realism, 1720-1930 The aim of this course will be to discuss the implications, for the literatures compared (English, French and American) of the contradictions evident in these (and other) definitions of the term "Realism". 1) Realism, a term applied to literary composition that aims at an interpretation of the actualities of any aspect of life; 2) Le Réalisme, a movement in the French novel, at its height between 1850 and 1865; 3) Realism, a literary term so widely used as to be more or less meaningless. Literary texts will include novels of D. Defoe, H. de Balzac, C. Dickens, G. Flaubert, U. Sinclair, and T. Dreiser. Criticism by E. Auerbach, W. Trask, G.J. Becker and D. Grant will be discussed. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. Before 1991-92 course 17.581T2 was offered as 17.531W1. A.W. Halsall. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.582W1 Seminar in Comparative Literature Topic for 1993-94: Critical Theory and the Bible An exploration of trends in biblical scholarship influenced by current literary theory and the philosophy of language. Selected biblical texts from Deuteronomy through II Kings are interpreted according to these new approaches. Prerequisite: Permission of the School. (Also offered as Religion 34.520) Robert Polzin. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.593F2, W2, S2 Comprehensives * Comparative Literary Studies 17.595F3, W3 Study Abroad Under the terms of the accord with l'Université de Picardie at Amiens, students may do a part of their work for the M.A. in Comparative Literature at Amiens. The content of the study will be decided by the School of Comparative Literary Studies at Carleton. Only students sponsored by the School under the exchange may take this course. Work done at Amiens will be the subject of a report from l'Université de Picardie and will receive a final grade awarded by the School of Comparative Literary Studies at Carleton.Prerequisite: Permission of the School. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.596T2 Directed Special Studies From time to time, students whose main interests are not covered by courses offered in a given year may pursue independent research, subject to the availability of a qualified adviser and relevant library resources at Carleton. Interested students should apply directly to the supervisor of graduate studies. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.597F1, W1, S1 Directed Special Studies From time to time, students whose main interests are not covered by courses offered in a given year may pursue independent research, subject to the availability of a qualified adviser and relevant library resources at Carleton. Interested students should apply directly to the supervisor of graduate studies. Before 1993-94 course 17.597F1, W1, S1 was offered as 71.598F1, W1, S1. * Comparative Literary Studies 17.598F2, W2, S2 Research Essay * Comparative Literary Studies 17.599F4, W4, S4 M.A. Thesis Courses Not Offered in 1993-94 17.521 Literary History II: Studies of Themes and Myths 17.580 Seminar in Comparative Literature