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Compared Literature

Code: 106743
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture FB 2

Contact lecturer

Name :
Pere Ballart Fernandez
Email :
pere.ballart@uab.cat

Teaching staff

David Roas Deus

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Since the students have duely given evidence of having acquired the basic competences of the subject, they will need to be able to express properly their ideas both in oral and in written form. Spelling mistakes will be marked down. Coursework will have to be original work and plagiarism either partial or total will be penalised with a failure (0) in the final assessment. The students are expected to be acquainted with the basic rules of academic language and presentation, and also follow the instructions and conventions indicated by the teacher.

Objectives

The course is a general introduction to the study of literary works from a theoretical and comparative perspective, and it makes available to its students a selection of the most appropriate concepts and procedures for the analysis and interpretation of the literary text mainly in an immanent sense, namely, regardless of its historical circumstance and national differences. The reflection on problems related to the definition of the nature of the literary work will be completed, in the second part of the program, by a characterization of its main generic varieties (poetry, narrative and drama), and a study of the conventions that in each case determine their reading, understanding and evaluation.

Learning outcomes

  1. Create an organised and correct discourse, spoken and in writing, in the corresponding language.
  2. Identify the primary and secondary ideas and express them correctly.
  3. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  4. Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
  5. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  6. Offer argument on different topics and literary problems about different works and evaluate all the results.
  7. Identify and explain the basic characteristics of literary texts.
  8. Apply different instruments of analysis to different kinds of literary works.
  9. Comment on literary texts, applying the instruments acquired, taking account of the historical and sociocultural context.
  10. Interpret literary works critically taking into account the relations between the different areas of literature and its relation to human, artistic and social areas.
  11. Explain the basic characteristics of comparative literary texts.
  12. Analyse literary texts using the different concepts and methods of comparative literature.
  13. Interpret and illustrate the main concepts of language and literature.
  14. Recognise the aesthetic characteristic of Spanish literature from the Medieval Period and the Golden Age.
  15. Recognise the aesthetic characteristics of Spanish literature from the Enlightenment to the present day.
  16. Put into historical context literary production from the Middle Ages to the Golden Age.
  17. Put into historical context literary production from the Enlightenment to the present day.
  18. Describe and explain generic concepts applied to the main literary production in the Middle Ages to the Golden Age and their overlap between tradition and modernity.
  19. Describe and explain generic concepts applied to modern and contemporary Spanish literature and their overlap between tradition and modernity.
  20. Analyse complete works from the literary production of the Middle Ages to the Golden Age.
  21. Analyse complete works from modern literary production, from the literature of the Enlightenment and Neoclassical period to Modernism and the dawn of contemporary literature.
  22. Comment on literary texts from the medieval era and the Golden Age.
  23. Comment on modern and contemporary texts.

Contents

I. LITERARY STUDIES AND THEIR DISCIPLINES


0. An aesthetic approach to the literary phenomenon


1. The place of theory of literature and comparative literature in literary research.


II. THE LITERARY SYSTEM


2. The notion of "literature".


3. Literary communication: author, text, reader, context.


4. Intertextuality.


5. Literary genres.


III. GENRES, FORMS AND TOPICS


6. Poetry


7. Narrative.


8. Drama.


IV. THE LITERARY TRADITION AND THE CANON


9. The "classics". Tradition and modernity. The notion of canon.


Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Master classes and sessions of seminars and practices led by the teaching staff 52.5 2.1 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Programmed tutorials 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Autonomous work 75 3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

The subject combines the format of the master class, always on the basis of the theoretical texts, with the seminar to discuss creation texts, in which the student's collaboration is necessary. Periodically, students will be invited to perform several exercises (from the review to the monographic work) on certain aspects of the syllabus.

The learning of this subject by the students is distributed as follows:

Directed activities (35%). These activities are divided into master classes and seminars and classroom practices led by the faculty, in which theoretical explanation is combined with discussion of all types of texts.

Supervised activities (10%). These tutorials are programmed by the teacher, dedicated to correcting and commenting on problems at different levels of literary analysis.

Autonomous activities (50%). These activities include both time devoted to individual study and production of papers and analytical comments written, as well as oral presentations.

Evaluation activities (5%). The evaluation of the subject will be carried out through written tests.

15 minutes of a class will be set aside, within the calendar established by the center/degree, for students to complete the evaluation surveys of the teachers' performance and the evaluation of the subject.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Oral presentations and written appraisals Periodical assessment of the acquisition, collective and individual, of concepts and analytic strategies 7.5 0.3 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

According to a continuous conception of evaluation, students must adopt the skills achievement of the course through the elaboration of two mandatory final exams with a proportional value of 40% each: a theoretical one, with questions of a thematic nature, and another practical, focused on the commentary of specific texts. The remaining 20% may be obtained as a result of a practical, written, literary analysis and interpretation exercise (genre to be determined), which will be requested mid-semester. Also, the final grade may be susceptible to an upward correction, as long as the student has actively participated in the sessions of the course.


Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items. Only students who have been previously evaluated in a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade and who have obtained a minimum grade of 3.5 in the average of the course can be submitted to the recovery of the course. This one will take place at the end of the semester and will consist of a single test, on the basis of the previously failed exam(s). On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle or e-mail) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will take place.


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 (copy, unauthorized use of AI, etc.), the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.


This subject entirely prohibits the use of AI technologies in all of its activities. Any submitted work that contains content generated using AI will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade will be awarded a zero, without the possibility of reassessment. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.


SINGLE ASSESSMENT

This subject does not use the single assessment system.

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY


ABELLAN, Joan; BALLART, Pere; SULLÀ, Enric

1997 Introducció a la teoria de la literatura, Manresa, Angle Editorial.


AGUIAR E SILVA, Vítor Manuel de

1972 Teoría de la literatura, tr. Valentín García Yebra, Madrid, Gredos.


BALLART, Pere

1998 El contorn del poema, Barcelona Quaderns Crema, 1998 (versió espanyola: Barcelona, El Acantilado, 2005).

2023 Primera lliçó de literatura, Barcelona, Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat.


BERISTÁIN, Helena

1995 Diccionario de retórica y poética, Mèxic, Porrúa.


BRIOSCHI, Franco i DI GIROLAMO, Costanzo

1988 Introducción al estudio de la literatura, tr. Carlos Vaíllo, Barcelona, Ariel.


CESERANI, Remo

2004 Introducción a los estudios literarios, tr. David Roas, Barcelona, Crítica.


COMPAGNON, Antoine

2015 El demonio de la teoría. Literatura y sentido común, Barcelona, El Acantilado.


CULLER, Jonathan

2000 Breve introducción a la teoría literaria, tr. Gonzalo García, Barcelona, Crítica.


DOMÍNGUEZ CAPARRÓS, José

2009 Introducción a la Teoría Literaria, Madrid, UNED.


EAGLETON, Terry

1988 Una introducción a la teoría literaria, tr. José Esteban Calderón, Mèxic, FCE.

2013 El acontecimiento de la literatura, Barcelona, Península.


ESTÉBANEZ CALDERÓN, Domingo

1996 Diccionario de términos literarios, Madrid, Alianza Editorial.


FELSKI, Rita

2008 Uses of Literature, Oxford, Blackwell.


GRILLO TORRES, María Paz

2004 Compendio de teoría teatral, Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva.


KING, Stephen

2018 Escriure. Memòries d'un ofici, Barcelona, L'Altra Editorial.


LODGE, David

1998 L’art de la ficció, tr. Montserrat Lunati i Jordi Larios, Barcelona, Empúries.


MEDEL, Elena

2018 Todo lo que hay que saber sobre poesía, Barcelona, Ariel.


NÚÑEZ RAMOS, Rafael

1992 La poesía, Madrid, Síntesis.


PAVIS,Patrice

1980 Diccionario del teatro, tr. Fernando de Toro, Barcelona, Paidós, 1999.


SULLÀ, Enric (ed.)

1985 Poètica de la narració, Barcelona, Empúries.


VILLANUEVA, Darío (coord.)

1994 Curso de teoría de la literatura, Madrid, Taurus.

2016 Lo que Borges enseñó a Cervantes. Una introducción a la literatura comparada, Madrid, Taurus.


WELLEK, René i WARREN, Austin

1979 Teoría literaria, tr. José Mª Gimeno, Madrid, Gredos.


WOOD, James

2009 Los mecanismos de la ficción. Cómo se construye una novela, tr. Ana Herrera, Madrid, Gredos.


Software

The course will not have any specific computer requirements.

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