ASIAN 4446 - Classical Indian Poetry and Comparative Poetics

(GHB) (LA-AS, ALC-AS) (EC-SAP)

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with ASIAN 6648.

L. McCrea.

This course will treat the classical Indian tradition as a case study in comparative poetics. We will read works of Sanskrit poetry in translation, along with selections from the works of both Sanskrit and early modern and contemporary Western literary and aesthetic theorists. We will look at the way contemporary developments in aesthetics have shaped the reception of Sanskrit poetry and poetic theory over the past two centuries, as well as using parallel readings in classical Indian and contemporary theory to explore the broader normative question of how theoretical resources should be deployed in the interpretation of other, particularly classical literatures. (LL)