COML 2030 - Introduction to Comparative Literature

(LA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Permission of instructor required. Open to incoming freshmen. Students must apply in writing to chair, Department of Comparative Literature, complit@cornell.edu. This course does not fulfill the Freshmen Writing requirement.

D. Castillo, P. Vaziri.

Take your love for literature into uncharted waters. “Introduction to Comparative Literature” journeys beyond national and disciplinary borders to explore the far-reaching implications of our increasingly globalized world. In this fast-paced survey of the field, you’ll be exposed to the cutting-edge of the discipline as we survey debates in world literature, literary theory and philosophy. Exploring a range of literatures from across the globe, we’ll read authors including Ovid, Aimé Césaire, Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Punctuated by special guest lectures by innovative scholars in the field, this course will expose you to a wide array of topics: postcolonial literature, literary theory, animal studies, ecocriticism, and media studies. Students will emerge from this course with new awareness of the global literary scene and with the ability to read critically and write with clarity.