Розгорнутий план лекцій
Comparative Studies
General Outline of the Course
Lecture 1-2
Comaparative literature: Subject matter. Major issues. Research domains
1. Introduction into the subject. Definition of comparative literature
2. Aims of comparative literature
3. Defining the terms (comparative literature, national literature, world literature, general literature)
The word 'comparative' originates from the Latin comparare and is defined in Oxford English Dictionary as 'involving comparison between two or more subjects or branches of science'
Comparative literature is a field of literary scholarship focused on comparing aspects of various literary phenomena, such as texts from different cultures and historical periods, texts by different writers, texts from different genres or different texts from the same genre, or two versions of the same text, for instance, in translation, retelling, or adaptation.
COMPARATIVE literature is the study of literature beyond the confines of one particular country, and the study of the relationships between literature on the one hand and other areas of knowledge and belief, such as the arts (e.g., painting, sculpture, architecture, music), philosophy, history, the social sciences (e.g., politics, economics, sociology), the sciences, religion, etc., on the other. In brief, it is the comparison of one literature with another or others, and the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression.
Whatever the disagreements on the theoretical aspects of comparative literature be, there is agreement on its task: to give scholars, teachers, students and last but not least readers a better, more comprehensive understanding of literature as a whole rather than of a departmental fragment or several isolated departmental fragments of literature. It can do so best by not only relating several literatures to each other but by relating literature to other fields of human knowledge and activity, especially artistic and ideological fields; that is, by extending the investigation of literature both geographically and generically.
The purpose of comparison can be a deeper understanding of literary texts in a broader historical, social and literary context; it can also be an examination of influences and intertexts.
In comparing two or several literary works, we pursue the goal of identifying their similarities and dissimilarities as well as providing possible reasons for those.
Some straightforward reasons for similarity can be that the two texts are written by the same author; that they are written within the same genre; or that they are written more or less at the same time and within the same culture. A further reason, frequently employed in comparative studies, is the assumption that a writer has been influenced by another, earlier writer.
Comparative literature VS National literature
There are, however, subjects encountered in comparative-literature research which go beyond national-literature scholarship: the contact or collision between different cultures, in general, and the problems connected with translation, in particular. Other topics inherent in the study of national literature occur in somewhat different patterns and tend to occupy a place of greater importance in comparative-literature research: vogue, success, reception, and influence of literature; travel and intermediaries.
Comparative literature VS World literature
Differences are based on:
- the geographical factor
- recognition throughout the world
- an element of time
- interdisciplinary character
- method
Comparative literature VS General literature
The term “general literature” refers to literary trends, problems and theories of "general" interest, or to aesthetics. General literature fails to prescribe a comparative method of approach.
Paul Van Tieghem:
To him, national literature, comparative literature and general literature represent three consecutive levels. National "literature treats questions confined to one national literature; comparative literature normally deals with problems involving two different literatures; general literature is devoted to developments in a larger number of countries making up organic units, such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Europe, North America, Europe and North America, Spain and South America, the Orient, etc. Expressed visually, national literature would be the study of literature within walls, comparative literature across walls, and general literature above walls. In a comparative-literature study, national literatures would remain primary factors, serving as anchors of investigation; in a general-literature study, national literatures would simply provide examples for international trends. According to van Tieghem, a study of the place of Rousseau Nouvelle Héloïse in literature would be part of national literature; a paper on the influence of Richardson on Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse would belong to comparative literature; a survey of the European sentimental novel would be general literature. Van Tieghem himself has written a number of works illustrating his ideas of general literature: Latin Literature of the Renaissance, Literary History of Europe and America since the Renaissance, Pre-romanticism, European Romanticism, and the Discovery of Shakespeare on the Continent.
Lecture 3
THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES
1. The stages of development of comparative literature
2. The development of comparative literature in Ukraine
3. Modern trends in the comparative literature studies
The stages of development of comparative literature
1. Passive (pre-scientific) stage
VI c. BC – beginning of XIX c.
a) Antiquity
b) Renaissance
c) Classicism
d) Enlightenment
2. Active (scientific) stage
2 half of XIX c. - today
a) Preparatory (transitory) stage
30s – 80s XIX c.
b) Stage of general acknowledgement and academic development of comparative literature
1885 – 40s XX c.
c) Stage of improvement and revision of fundamental principles (The first crisis)
50s XX c.
d) Stage of global dissemination and intensification of comparative literature studies
60s – 90s XX c.
e) “Second revision” of the fundamental principles (The second crisis)
Comparative Literature in Ukraine
• 1. First (early, classical) stage
last third of XIX c. – beg. of XX c.
• 2. Second stage (20s XX c.)
• 3. Third stage (30s – 50s XX c.)
• 4. Fourth stage (1953 – 80s XX c.)
• 5. Fifth stage (1991 - today)
Current developments
Methodological pluralism
• New Historicism
• Cultural Materialism
• Reception Aesthetics
• Postcolonial studies
• Gender studies
• Queer studies
• Feminist studies
• Intertextuality
• Intermediality
Lecture 4-5
Comparative Analysis of Literature and Media Genres
- From Literary to Media Studies
- Literary Studies and Media History
- Inter-Art Studies / lntermediality: Literature and Other Art Forms
a) Music and Literature
b) Art and Literature
c) Photography and Literature
d) Film and Literature
“...for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.” — Flaubert, Gustave, Madame Bovary
Media-oriented interpretation investigates
- the thematization of other media;
(Thematization - the mental act or process of selecting particular topics as themes in discourse or words as themes in sentences)
- the relationship between media within literary texts;
- the influence of technological innovations and the appearance of media such as photography, radio, film and television on literature.
Media convergence
Hybrid forms - combinations of elements from areas that were originally separate
It can be:
- combinations of attributes that are traditionally regarded as male and female,
- between diverse materials, styles and colours in the fashion industry,
- between the private and public spheres in architecture or television, etc.
Hypertexts and internet literature
In 'hyperfictions', or fictional hypertexts the linearity of the text is broken and the roles of the author and reader have changed by the empowerment of the recipient in the reading process
→ The author of a hypertext does not dictate the sequence of episodes within the text.
→ The reader is free to decide in what order he or she wishes to read the individual parts of the text.
→ The 'text' therefore offers a variety of readings rather than a single story.
Characteristics of hyperfictions:
- non-linearity
- interactivity
- intermedial features
Inter-Art Studies / lntermediality: Literature and Other Art Forms
Intermediality - interaction between art forms, between literature and other media
The most common topics:
- the thematization and formal representation of music, painting, photography and film within literature.
- adaptations of literary works in other media (for example, electronic media such as television, radio or video).
a) Music and Literature
Three main areas of study:
• literature in music (for example, programme music),
• combinations of music and literature (for example, vocal music),
• thematic and formal references to music in literature (for example, the thematization of music and musicians, verbal music, word music, formal and structural parallels with music) - Musicalization of fiction.
Popular music analysis
interpretation of the language + musical analysis:
- rhythm (with beat as a means of emphasising elements)
- melody and harmony
- sound
- production and marketing strategies (media presentation and star cult)
b) Art and Literature
• structural correspondences between various artistic and literary procedures (for example in the case of the collage)
• coincidental convergence between art and literature when artists and authors react to specific cultural topics
• images that are based on texts (for example representations of biblical or mythical material or historical paintings based on works of historiography)
• descriptions of images (‘ekphrasis’)
• text-image combinations; 'emblems', consisting of a title, an image and a short text describing the image and its relation to the title
c) Photography and literature
- photographs give the impression of representing immediate reality, although they in fact always depict past realities
- precise and detailed reproduction of its object, an extremely objective medium
d) Film and literature
1. transferral of a work from one medium to another
2. ‘multimedial transposition' of material by one or several authors
3. the adaptation of individual motifs or structural techniques from film in the medium of literature, and vice versa
4. comparative analysis of the characteristics of filmic and literary codes and the conditions of production and reception specific to the two art forms
Screenplays
functional screenplays vs literary screenplays (published after major cinematic successes)
Film adaptations of literature
Areas of study:
1. the content of a film
2. various formal aspects
- character constellation
- narrative perspective
- spatial and temporal structure
- dialogue
- the distribution of the sections of narrative
- means of creating distance or an alienation effect, etc.
Lecture 6
New Media Genres
1. Diversity of media genres
2. Functions of media genres
3. Aspects of Radio Play Analysis
4. Aspects of Film and Television Analysis
Generic classification of individual programmes
• medium: print medium; acoustic medium; audiovisual medium
• main function of medium: report; reflection; appeal; game; reproduction
• thematic specifics: thematizing a milieu (for example, hospital, drug scene); topic-/story-oriented (for example, crime, sport)
• relation of medium to reality:
- with reference to people: credible/not credible (for example, news reader versus emotional witness);
- with reference to statements: true/false, factual/non-factual, fictitious;
- with reference to time: live, recorded or anticipatory presentation
Areas of enquiry in the analysis of radio plays
1. WORD
2. VOICE
3. MUSIC
4. NOISE
5. SILENCE
6. STEREOPHONIC SOUND
7. DISTANCE
8. RADIOPHONIC EFFECTS
Aspects of Film and Television Analysis
Main characteristics of the hybrid genre are:
• concentration on acoustic/visual units of 30 to 90 seconds (sound-vision bytes)
• the integration of elements from a variety of genres
• the incorporation of a variety of non-linear, overlapping plot structures
• loose ends in the final episode of the series
• a relatively clear structure of episodes and plots as well as repeated transmission of the same information
• a carefully-timed alternation between periods of suspense and emotional climaxes
• focus on reception-oriented aesthetics
Approaches towards the study of films
• Biographical
• Psychological
• Sociological
• Structuralist
• Hermeneutic
• Deconstructionist
• Feminist
Main factors in film analysis
• story
• narrative mode
• image
• sound
Representation of space:
mechanical space and narrative space
‘mechanical space' refers to the space that is visible in the film
'narrative space’ is constructed by the viewer on the basis of these fragments to form the location in the fictional world where the action takes place
Multimedial channels used for communicating information in film
Auditory channel
↓ ↓
kind point of origin
- Noise - on-screen
- Voice - off-screen
- Music ↓ ↓
earshot commentative
Visual Channel
↓
nature of image
↓ ↓ ↓
actor location prop
↓ ↓
appearance performance
Visual Channel
↓
treatment of image
↓ ↓
cinematography editing
- Lighting - Rhythm
- Color - Type
- Mise-en-scene (straight cut,
- Camera fade, etc.)
↓ ↓ ↓
*distance *angle *movement
Lecture 7
Literary Indebtedness
- Main shapes of literary indebtedness
- The notion of intertextuality
- The Art of Translation
Main shapes of literary indebtedness
• translations
• imitations
• stylizations
• borrowings
• sources
• parallels
• influence
External evidence
• Mentions
• Allusions
• Quotations
• Diaries
• The evidence of contemporaries
• The evidences of an author's reading
+ the essential test must be within the works themselves.
Intertextuality - the explicit and implicit relations that a text or utterance has to prior, contemporary and potential future texts.
Gerard Genette’s classification (the notion of transtextuality)
• intertextuality: quotation, plagiarism, allusion
• paratextuality: the relation between a text and its 'paratext' - that which surrounds the main body of the text - such as titles, headings, prefaces, epigraphs, dedications, acknowledgements, footnotes, illustrations, dust jackets, etc.
• architextuality: designation of a text as part of a genre or genres
• metatextuality: explicit or implicit critical commentary of one text on another text
• hypertextuality: the relation between a text and a preceding text or genre on which it is based but which it transforms, modifies, elaborates or extends (including parody, spoof, sequel, translation)
Methodological algorithm
- Why are you doing it?
What questions do you hope to answer?
- Identify the specific texts you want to examine
- Identify the traces of other texts
- Make a list
- Look for a pattern
- Make observations and interpretations