Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
Code: 100255Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Humanities | OP | 3 |
| Humanities | OP | 4 |
| Spanish Language and Literature | OP | 3 |
| Spanish Language and Literature | OP | 4 |
| English Studies | OP | 3 |
| English Studies | OP | 4 |
| Science, Technology and Humanities | OP | 4 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- Antonio Penedo Picos
- Email :
- antonio.penedo@uab.cat
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
By obtaining the minimum of credits in basic training subjects, students have demonstrated to have acquired the basic competences and they will be able to express themselves orally and in writing. For this reason, any spelling and expression errors that may be committed will lead to a score decrease in the final grade.
Activities, practical sessions and papers submitted in the course must be original and under no circumstances will the total or partial plagiarism of third-party materials published on any medium be admitted. Any submission of non-original material without properly indicating its origin will automatically result in a failure rating (0) and the taking of disciplinary sanctions (such as written information to the competent bodies of the university and which will also suppose the absolute impossibility of any option to re-evaluation).
It is also expected that students know the general rules of submission of an academic work. However, students could apply the specific rules that the teacher of the subject may indicate to them, if they deem it necessary.
Objectives
The subject is aimed at all those who wish to acquire training in new methods for the study of literature within the general field of culture. The new disciplines that study the literary phenomenon but also the artistic one in general will be exposed in order to arrive at a rethinking of the New Humanities in the 21st century. Therefore, the approaches will also involve areas of knowledge such as sociology, politics, philosophy, sciences and new technologies. Cultural Studies tries to explain any activity (in our case, aesthetic practices) as generators of identity, knowledge and social influence. Therefore we are facing the most advanced and recent perspective -in the international framework- that is being experienced to analyze and understand cinema, art, literature, music and, in general, the artistic fields that manifest themselves in cyberculture, digital culture and audiovisual media.
Cultural Studies deals explicitly with the construction and deconstruction of identities in their different meanings: national, sexual, ideological, spiritual. These are issues that the model requires as a necessary fulfillment, since culture is not just a reception of data but the incorporation into our personality of all those discourses. Therefore, they will be treated openly, freely and plurally, always from a creative and critical analysis where freedom of expression -in mutual respect- and learning in listening to different positions will be assured. This must be the meaning of the University.
The course aims to integrate in a coherent and understandable way this new way of thinking by the Studies of Arts and Humanities in the globalized world and to ensure that what is learned allows a transfer of knowledge between university and the working world. Empowering students in this diversity of approaches is expected to facilitate their employability in all possible scenarios. In short, it is about Arts and Humanities Studies occupying the rightful central position in the refounding of the society.
Learning outcomes
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
- Interpreting the regulatory information that is located in the web pages of regulatory institutions.
- Preparing a summary from a given text.
- Identifying and explaining the basic structures of literary works.
- Analysing literary texts using different concepts and methods of comparative literature.
- Describing the characteristics of a literary text and the characteristic methods of analysis of the discipline.
- Explaining the basic characteristics of literary texts.
- Identifying various literary elements and inserting them into different texts and discursive styles.
- Solving problems related to the study of different literatures.
- Solving tasks about authors, methods and currents of the comparative literature.
- Make a plan for producing a paper on the subject area.
- Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in its several fields of study.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Identify and explain the basic characteristics of literary texts and the interpretation process.
- Commenting on literary texts, applying the acquired tools and taking into account the historical and sociocultural context.
- Solving problems about authors and currents of comparative literature, connecting them with knowledge of other humanistic disciplines.
- Match literary texts to their corresponding formal and cultural contexts.
- Solve problems related to methods of study of different literatures.
- Solve problems related to the theoretical foundations and the main concepts in the study of literary criticism.
- Solve problems related to the historical placement of literary texts.
- Explain the basic characteristics of the compared literary texts.
- Identify different literary elements and their insertion in different texts and styles of discourse.
- Analyse literary texts using the different concepts and methods of comparative literature.
- Identify and explain the basic structures of literary works.
- Perform tasks on authors, methods, and currents in Comparative Literature, linking them to content from other human disciplines.
- Critically interpret literary works, taking into account the relationships between the different areas of literature and the relationship between literature and the human, artistic and social areas.
- Arguing about several issues and literary problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
- Critically interpreting literary works taking into account the relationships between the different areas of literature and its relationships with human, artistic and social areas.
- Solving problems about writers, methods and currents of comparative literature, and connecting them with knowledge of other humanistic disciplines.
- Write text commentaries from a critical standpoint.
- Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
- Explaining the basic characteristics of comparative literary texts.
- Analyse literary texts using the different concepts and methods of comparative literature.
- Use the skills acquired with autonomy.
- Express oneself effectively by applying argumentative and textual procedures in formal and scientific texts.
- Critically interpret literary works taking into account the relationships between the different fields of literature and their relationship with human, artistic and social areas.
- Argue on various literary themes and problems in relation to different works and evaluate the results.
- Identify and explain the basic characteristics of literary texts and the process of interpretation.
- Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
Contents
I.COMPARATIVE
LITERATURE AND CULTURAL STUDIES: MAPPING A METHODOLOGICAL CROSSROAD
• On the cultural turn. The crisis of the canon and the opening towards transdisciplinarity.
• The epistemological relevance of the transdisciplinary model: overcoming sociological reductionism and integrating levels of reality into contemporary comparative analysis.
• Literature as a cultural practice and an archive of collective memory.
II. CULTURE AS REPRESENTATION: REALITY(IES), SIGNS, AND DISCOURSES
• The world as text: Mimesis, construction, and performativity.
• The pitfall of methodological reductionism and the necessity of anchoring the sign within human experiences.
III. HUMANISM, SCIENCE, AND CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
• The archetypal matrix of imagination: Carl G. Jung and the collective unconscious. The transhistorical symbolic substrate as the foundation of Comparative Literature.
• Why algorithmic code lacks a numinous root.
• The poetics of the future and the utopian impulse: Ernst Bloch and hope as a social principle. The artwork as a creation of the "not-yet-conscious." Human desire and finitude as irreplaceable generators of fictional creation.
• The feeling brain and the aesthetic experience versus functionalist reductionism (Daniel Dennett).
• Brain, mind, and states of consciousness: the modulation between matter and consciousness.
• The neurobiology of empathy by Antonio Damasio and Francisco J. Rubia: feeling, body, and consciousness as premises of reading. Why AI lacks emotional semantics.
• The common filiation of artistic creativity: The unified origin of the species (S. Oppenheimer's mitochondrial DNA) and biological cooperation (Lynn Margulis' symbiogenesis) versus social Darwinism.
IV. COMMUNITY AND RECEPTION IN THE DIGITAL PRESENT
• After the eclipse of grand narratives and the drift of radical skepticism.
• The current debate: the search for a new community and human communication in the digital era.
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preparation of classes, tests and papers | 75 | 3 | |
| Theoretical-practical classes | 60 | 2.4 | |
| Tutorials and assessment | 15 | 0.6 |
The methodology will be very simple: the classes will consist of the teaching presentation of the programmed contents and their reflection thanks to the students' participation. In order to give the information it will be necessary be supported by a dossier of translated articles that will be explained during the classroom work. On the basis of the oral enunciation and the written material, a set of arguments and perspectives will be obtained, whose coherence and effectiveness will be achieved at the end of the course.
Assessment
Continuous assessment activities
| Title | Weight | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final work | 50% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 |
| Test 2. | 25% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 |
| Test 1. | 25% | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 |
1. The test delivery date will be announced at the beginning of the course.
2. All tests wil be submitted by email.
COMMON CRITERIA FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AND SINGLE ASSESSMENT
4. The use of any material distribuited in previus courses that is not included en the current course's virtual campus is prohibited. It will not be evaluated and, depending on its use, will result in a progressive reduction in the grade.
5. Those who have not submitted more than 30% of the assessment tests are considered 'non-evaluable'.
6. To pass the subject, a final average grade of at least 5 must be obtained.
7. Those who have completed at least two-thirds of the assessment tests are entitled to re-evaluation.
8. Those with an average grade lower than 3.5 will not be able to take the re-evaluation.
EVALUATION TESTS:
1. The first test will consist of preparing a research project on a
literary topic: a full-page table of contents and outline, a five-pages thesis and hypothesis, and a bibliography on the final page. It will account for 25% of the grade.
2. The second test will consist of a five-page critical analysis of a current article related to the course. It will account for 25% of the grade.
3. 50% of the grade will be contributed by the 3 test of the subject, whose elaboration rules are broken down in the following sections.
RULES FORTHE ASSESSMENT OF THE 3 TEST:
1st The work will be evaluable only when it reaches a minimum extension of 15 pages. Otherwise it will be considered a 'non-assessable' test.
2nd Chapters, paragraphs, sections (regardless of the division chosen) can't coincide with the title and author of the dossiers: It is not about making a summary, separately, dossier by dossier.
3rd Thedossiers that must be treated can't be selected: all must be explicitly used.
4th There must be, for each dossier, explicit bibliographical citations (locating text and page).
5th The entire teaching discourse taught in class by the subject's teacher is considered to be matter for evaluation. The progressive lack thereof will proportionally reduce the grade obtained.
6th The work will consist in the definition, use and detailed reflection of eachand every one of the concepts,questions and scopes of analysis developed during the course. It will not consist of a synthesis or short selection of them.
7th The course syllabus and the disciplinary approaches - supported by the articles explained in class - will serve as an orientation and guide for the development of the previous section.
9th There is total freedom in the way of reordering and distributing the material, as well as in the decision about the main thesis on which the process of argumentation of the work is to be built.
10th Personal opinions are not evaluable, only respectable.
11th The evaluation will consist of the reasoned and documented ability to argue freely, critically about the approaches that students wish to develop from the subject matter.
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject. It is recommended to specify that those assessment acts in which there have been irregularities (copying, unauthorized use of AI, etc.) are not recoverable. It is strictly prohibited to present as work of human authorship any evaluation test generated by 'artificial intelligence' programs.
*By means of an oral tutorial, the original authorship of the tests signed by the student can be verified.
SINGLE ASSESSMENT:
1st test: Preparation of a research project on literay topic: index, outline,thesis and bibliography (in no case the development of these points, but the hypothetical proposal of the project, in an extension of 1+5+1 pages). 25% of the grade.
2nd test: Critical analysis in 5 pages of a current article, related to the concepts of the subject. 25% of the grade.
3rd test: Preparation of a 15-page final paper, where the concepts, perspectives and arguments developed during the course are exposed and reflected upon. The work must necessarily contain bibliographical citations of the articles studied in class, ACCORDING TO THE RULES FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE FINAL YEAR PROJECT. 50% of the grade.
The three tests must be submitted in the same submission date of the test 3 of the continuous assessment.
The re-evaluation will follow according to the faculty calendar.
Bibliography
COMPLEMENTARY AND TRANSDISCIPLINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Alonso, Andoni e Iñaki Arzoz (2002): La nueva Ciudad de Dios. Un juego cibercultural sobre el tecno-hermetismo. Madrid: Siruela, 2002.
- Bassham, Gregory (2015): Culturas de la empatía. Buenos Aires: Katz Editores, 2017.
- Bauman, Zygmunt (2001): La sociedad individualizada. Madrid: Cátedra, 2001.
- Bauman, Zygmunt (2001): Comunidad. En busca de seguridad en un mundo hostil. Madrid: Siglo XXI, 2003.
- Baudrillard, Jean (1981): Cultura y simulacro. Barcelona: Kairós, 1993.
- Badiou, Alain (1998): Breve tratado de ontología transitoria. Barcelona: Gedisa, 2002.
- Borrás, Laura (Ed.) (2005): Textualidades electrónicas. Nuevos escenarios para la literatura. Barcelona: UOC, 2005.
- Capra, Fritjof (1996): La trama de la vida. Una nueva perspectiva de los sitemas vivos. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1998.
- Capra, Fritjof (2002): Las conexiones ocultas. Implicaciones sociales, medioambientales, económicas y biológicas de una nueva visión del mundo. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2003.
- Castells, Manuel (1996-2003): La sociedad de la información (3 vols.). Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2000-2003.
- Castoriadis, Cornelius (1975): La institución imaginaria de la sociedad. Buenos Aires: Tusquets, 1983.
- Chan Kim, W. y Renée Mauborgne (2005): La estrategia del océano azul. Cómo crear en el mercado espacios no disputados en los que la competencia sea irrelevante. Barcelona: Edigrabel, 2008.
- Changeux, Jean-Pierre y Paul Ricœur (1998): Lo que nos hace pensar: La naturaleza y la regla. Barcelona: Península, 1999.
- Claeys, Gregory (Ed.) (2010): The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- Edelman, Gerald M. y Giulio Tononi (2000): El universo de la conciencia: Cómo la materia se convierte en imaginación. Barcelona: Crítica, 2002.
- Felber, Christian (2010): La economía del bien común. Barcelona: Deusto, 2012.
- Florida, Richard (2002): La clase creativa. Barcelona: Paidós, 2010.
- Friedman, Harris y Glenn Hartelius (Eds.) (2013): The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
- Greene, Brian (1999): El universo elegante. Barcelona: Crítica, 2001.
- Greene, Brian (2004): El tejido del cosmos. Espacio, tiempo y la textura de la realidad. Barcelona: Crítica, 2006.
- Johnson, Steven (2001): Sistemas emergentes. O qué tienen en común hormigas, neuronas, ciudades y software. Madrid: Turner, 2003.
- Jung, Carl Gustav (1947-1954): La dinámica de lo inconsciente (Obra Completa 8). Madrid: Trotta, 2004.
- Jung, Carl Gustav (1934-1954): Los arquetipos y lo inconsciente colectivo (Obra Completa 9/1). Madrid: Trotta, 2002.
- Juul, Jesper (2005): Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.
- Lévy, Pierre (1997): Cibercultura. La cultura en la era digital. Madrid: Anthropos / Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, 2007.
- Molinuevo, José Luis (2004): Humanismo y nuevas tecnologías. Madrid: Alianza, 2004.
- Nagel, Thomas (2012): La mente y el cosmos: Por qué la concepción neo-darwinista materialista de la naturaleza es casi con certeza falsa. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2014.
- Nicolescu, Basarab (Ed.) (2008): Transdisciplinarity: Theory and Practice. Cresskill: Hampton Press, 2008.
- Peat, F. David (1987): Sincronicidad. Puente entre mente y materia. Barcelona: Kairós, 1989.
- Rodrik, Dani (2011): La paradoja de la globalización. Democracia y el futuro de la economía mundial. Barcelona: Antoni Bosch, 2011.
- Rubia, Francisco José (2003): La conexión divina. La experiencia mística y la neurobiología. Barcelona: Crítica, 2003.
- Sánchez-Mesa, Domingo (Ed.) (2004): Literatura y cibercultura. Madrid: Arco Libros, 2004.
- Schreibman, Susan (Ed.) (2004): A Companion to Digital Humanities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
- Sloterdijk, Peter (1993): Extrañamiento del mundo. Valencia: Pre-Textos, 2001.
- Steiner, George (1989): Presencias reales. Madrid: Destino, 1992.
- Vilariño, María Teresa y Anxo Abuín (2006): Teoría del hipertexto. La literatura en la era electrónica. Madrid: Arco Libros, 2006.
- Watzlawick, Paul (Ed.) (1981): La realidad inventada. ¿Cómo sabemos lo que creemos saber?. Barcelona: Gedisa, 2005.
Software
No specifications added.
Course groups and languages
The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE
| Type of teaching | Group | Language | Semester | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Spanish | first semester | morning-mixed |