MELA46130: Selected Topics of World Literature

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• To provide students with a brief overview of debates in comparative and world literary studies.
• To equip them with methodologies and critical tools for the study of literatures and cultures.
• To train students to engage critically with literatures from across different cultures.

• "World Literature" has in recent years emerged as the most visible and most highly debated successor to "comparative literature." This module will briefly introduce these debates. The module as a whole will focus on literatures from around the world, organized around topics that recur in different literatures as they speak to the experience of living in the pre-modern and/or modern world. Texts will be read in translation, but students will be encouraged to engage with texts in their original language if they are able to do so. Topics may include (but are not limited to) a number of the following: "Literature of the City"; "Gothic and Monstrous Narratives"; "Literature and the Sacred"; "Revolution and Aesthetics"; "Environments"; "Justice and Rights"; "Transnational Imaginaries;" "Gender, Sexuality and Literature;" "Literature and the Visual."

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of this module students should be able to demonstrate:
• Critical understanding of different debates around comparative literary studies.
• Advanced understanding of a range of different topics in world literature.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of this module students should be able to demonstrate:
• An advanced ability to engage critically with cultural texts within their specific context.
• An advanced ability to engage critically with different world literary topics.

Key Skills:

• By the end of this module students should be able to demonstrate:
• An advanced ability to engage cultural analysis.
• Developing independent research skills, using a wide range of subject-specific search tools and sources.
• An advanced ability to synthesise complex material from a wide range of sources in order to produce effective written documents.
• Demonstrate competence in appropriate information technology skills.
• Demonstrate professional conduct through observation of professional and academic standards, including correct editorial referencing of sources.
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrate organisational skills, including time management.

• The module will be taught by means of 10 sessions which will be a combination of lectures, seminars and student presentations. Students will be required to prepare for each seminar by set reading, and to play an active role in discussing issues that arise. Summative assessment will consist of a multimedia essay.

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