CMLT 50106: "Literary Theory: Pre-Modern, Non-Western, Not Exclusively Literary"
CMLT 50106: "Literary Theory: Pre-Modern, Non-Western, Not Exclusively Literary"
CMLT 50106: "Literary Theory: Pre-Modern, Non-Western, Not Exclusively Literary"
Course Summary: Readings in theories of literature and related arts from cultures largely
outside the post-1900 industrialized regions. What motivated reflection on verbal art in
Greece, Rome, early China, early South Asia, and elsewhere? Rhetoric, hermeneutics,
commentary, allegory, and other modes of textual analysis will be approached through
source texts, using both originals and translations. Authors to be considered include
Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Zhuangzi, Sima Qian, Augustine, Liu Xie, Averroes,
Abhinavagupta, Dante, Li Zhi, Lessing, and Schlegel, with a few framing references to
contemporary theory.
This course fulfills the “501” core requirement for first-year Ph.D. students in
Comparative Literature.
Readings: A few books have been ordered as required texts at the Seminary Coop.
Knowing how expensive books are, I’ve chosen books that I hope will serve you for the
rest of your career. Other readings will be made available in PDF form through the
course’s Canvas site (below, these are signaled by *), or can be found on external sites.
Some e-books can be accessed through the Library catalogue.
Books Ordered:
Aristotle, The Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle, tr. Rhys Roberts and Ingram Bywater.
New York: Modern Library, 1984.
David Damrosch, Natalie Melas, and Mbongiseni Buthelezi, eds., The Princeton
Sourcebook in Comparative Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Giambattista Vico, The New Science, tr. Jason Taylor and Robert Miner. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2020.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Laocöon, tr. Edward Allen McCormick. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Schedule and List of Readings
Week Two (Oct. 7). An ethnography of literary reading, starting from a basic theoretical
object: “the author.”
Mary Lefkowitz, Lives of the Greek Poets (selections) *
Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?” (1966), from Aesthetics, Method, Epistemology,
ed. James D. Faubion (New York: New Press, 1998) *
Sima Qian 司馬遷, biography of Zhuangzi 莊子 from Shiji 史記 (Records of the Grand
Historian) *
Week Four (Oct. 21): Comparative poetics and universal laws. Are “mimesis” and
“catharsis” properties of human nature or terms that have meaning only in Greek culture?
Earl Miner, Comparative Poetics (1990), 12-33, 82-134 *
Plato, Republic, sections 391a-415d *
Aristotle, Poetics, sections 1448a-1452a (Penguin ed., pp. 5-17)
Xunzi 荀子, tr. Eric Hutton, “Discourse on Music” (218-223), “Human Nature is Bad”
(248-257) *
Liu Yiqing 劉義慶, Shishuo xinyu 世說新語 (A New Account of Tales of the World),
selections *
Please email final paper proposals to me during Week 5; take advantage of office hours
to try out possible topics
Week Six (Nov. 4): Mimesis as persuasion and evaluation. Performance as capture of
essences?
Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics, excerpts *
Jorge Luis Borges, “Averroes’ Search” *
Aristotle, Rhetoric 1354a-1358a (outline of rhetoric); 1360b-1362a (motives of action);
1366a-1368b (praise and blame); 1377b-1378b (on the emotions generally); 1381a-1383b
(on fear); 1385c-1386b (on pity)
[e-book accessible through UChicago Libraries] Sheldon Pollock, A Rasa Reader, 47-65
(Bharata), 193-218 (Abhinavagupta)
Week Eight (Nov. 18): Non-classical or post-classical writing; the exaltation of the
fragment, creation as critique.
Zhuangzi 莊子, “The Way of Heaven” 天道 *
Sei Shōnagon 清少納言, Makura no sōshi 枕草子 (The Pillow Book, tr. Ian Morris)
(excerpts) *
Dante, De volgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular) *
Li Zhi 李贄, Fen shu 焚書 (A Book to Burn, 1584), 15-18, 102-106, 278-281 *
Germaine de Staël, “Of the General Spirit of Modern Literature,” 10-16 in Princeton
Sourcebook
Week Nine (Dec. 2): Media-specificity, culture-specificity, and the human body as a
medium.
Giambattista Vico, The New Science
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Laocöon
Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments (excerpts) *
Final papers will be due (please send to me via email) by 5 pm on December 11. If you
are graduating in Fall quarter, please speak to me about an earlier date.