CO3001 The Literary Canon

Combining a theoretical framework with a number of case studies, this module will introduce students to the history and changing conceptions of the literary canon and its construction, exploring questions such as 'what do we mean by a "classic" and who decides?'; 'why do some texts survive whilst others do not?'; 'what different factors - e.g. educational and other institutions, the material conditions of production, reception and distribution, the politics of reading and writing, contemporary technologies - affect the formation of the canon in different periods and different countries?' A range of theories of canon formation will be discussed, ranging from humanist conservatism to liberal pluralism to sociological empiricism.

CO3002 Literature and History

Building on Semester 1's exploration of Canon Formation (CO3001), CO3002 is concerned with the relationship between history and literature and the manner in which the past has been depicted and reconstructed in fictional and non-fictional texts from different parts of the world, adopting a comparative perspective. The module focuses on a combination of primary texts (novels and plays by authors such as Charles Dickens, Alessandro Manzoni, Leo Tolstoy, Pedro Calderan de la Barca, Friedrich Schiller, Pierre Corneille, Patrick Susekind, Carlos Fuentes, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and theoretical models such as those elaborated in Alessandro Manzoni's 'On the historical novel', Georg Lukacs, 'The Historical Novel', and Hayden White, 'The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation'. Its aim is to study a representative and canonical range of fictional works from a number of European and non-European literatures concerned with representing the historical past, applying the theoretical models analysed in the first three weeks of the course.

CO4001 Found in Translation

This is a comparative, interdisciplinary module, which explores the importance of translation in the field of comparative literature as well as the concept of cultural translation. Students will have as compulsory reading a range of chapters from theoretical works on translation and comparative literature. The module will offer a number of texts in translation (different genres, periods and national literatures), along with a theoretical introduction. The three main areas of study are (i) translation issues (as they relate to different genres, periods, cultures and disciplines), (ii) literary translation and (iii) cultural translation.

CO4002 Literature and the Bible

This module will build on the knowledge of translation issues gained in CO4001 and apply it to arguably the most significant source for the European and American literary traditions - the Bible. Conceiving the relationship between individual authors and the biblical sources on which they draw as dynamic and symbiotic, it will analyse the role assumed by the Bible in the work of authors from different linguistic traditions. Its central concern is to give students the conceptual tools necessary to interpret the influence of this religious text, or collection of texts, in works that depart from canonical articulation or sanction, and to chart the historical development of its literary representation to the present day.