Comparative Literature

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the discipline and methods of comparative literature. It introduces some of the key concepts and practical issues via literary works of major significance from the classical age to the present day, using one or more such works (in a variety of genres) as practical examples in each teaching session. In its modern understanding comparative literature is a wide-ranging discipline that explores the ways in which literature (both canonical and popular) interacts with its contexts, literary, historical, philosophical, intermedial, and others.

This course is based on the France Culture Novel Prize wherein students vote informally for one of the novels in the selection. Various exercises and discussions refine literary sensibility and critical thinking in order to choose the winning novel.  Throughout the semester, students progress through the readings and are invited to complete a personal reading journal. Discussion includes what makes a good novel, literary criticism, the origins of literary prizes, how to lead a literary discussion, reflection and debate, reading and analysis of excerpts, institutions behind the literary canon. The course includes meetings with the authors.

This course begins with the representation of animals in literature, examining the relationship between literary imagination, the symbolic meaning of animals, and real animals. It explores how different imaginations and representations of animals affect their fate in human society. In addition to analyzing and interpreting the literary meanings of selected texts, the course focuses on the issues that emerge when these works are examined in the context of animal protection. It also introduces theoretical perspectives from animal studies, including psychoanalysis’s exploration of animal fear and the intersections of feminism and postcolonialism. The course is conducted in Chinese but uses English text books.

This course examines the anonymous song-poetry which stands in contrast to the 'court' tradition of panegyric and learned poetry of the 17th century. Neglected by most of the early collectors, it has been regarded by some critics as containing some of the most powerful Gaelic poetry extant. The course considers (1) questions of definition, range and subject matter, authorship and transmission; (2) the evidence of the orain luaidh, which raise all these questions in acute form; (3) the relationship between these 'sub-literary' compositions and the rest of the Gaelic tradition; and (4) the assessment of these songs from a literary point of view. The lecture in the first hour will be delivered in English. The tutorial in the second hour is available in either Gaelic or English, dependent on individual degree programs.

This course explores Korean literature from the perspective of performativity. Although many literary works that have been passed down to us exist in printed form, examining their production and distribution processes reveals that their original forms were quite different. We particularly focus on works based on orality that have gone through performances, reinterpretations, and recreations. Through this exploration, we come to understand that the creation and enjoyment of literature have not been limited to "writing" alone but have continuously evolved within diverse cultural ecosystems. As a way to produce new understanding beyond what is stored in traditional, text-centered archives, we look into the intertextual relations between the performative dimension and literature, and seek to produce robust knowledge about human agency and creativity. Along with reading literary canons of Korea, we examine how their aesthetic, social, and political significance of performativity have documented and transformed literary history of Korea. Topics include the following: (1) Traditions of oral literature and their modern revival, (2) Poetry in performance: recitation, slam poetry, and hip-hop, and (3) Literature as an interruption in the quotidian or an intervention into the political.

This course examines representative narrative works from various periods of Western civilization, analyzing their overarching themes and close textual details to highlight the distinctive features of Western narrative literature and its evolution throughout history.

This cours centers on the theme of, "The Samurai across Time and Space." Focusing on the samurai as one of Japan’s most distinctive and enduring cultural icons, it examines various sources, including myths, warrior narratives, medieval tales, dramatic literature, paintings, and samurai films produced within and outside Japan. The course offers a comprehensive view of the history and diversity of samurai representations, revealing how images of premodern Japan and its people have been received and shaped both in Japan and abroad.

This topical course surveys specific areas, genres, or authors of modern European literature. The readings focus on the literary discussions and representations of the encounter between the East and the West. In addition, the historical events that ushered in the new era, shaping and developing modern European literature are examined. 

Under the premise that the West was constructed through encounters with non-Western and that its aspects appear in Western modern literature, the first half of the lecture examines how the discovery of the 'New World' is analyzed, discussed, and embodied in literary works, among the various events that determined the character of Western modernity, and the second half of the lecture points the point of contact between Western imperialist expansion and modern literature.  

The particular literature or genre selections may change from term to term. 

This course explores Berlin through the lens of émigré and exile literature, examining works by writers who either left Berlin or found refuge within it. Through close readings of texts spanning from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to contemporary works, students analyze how experiences of exile, migration, and displacement shape literary imagination and cultural identity. The course moves through Berlin's key historical moments—from the Russian émigré communities of the 1920s, through the forced exile of Jewish writers, to post-war Turkish-German literature and contemporary refugee narratives. By pairing literary texts with theoretical frameworks and conducting original ethnographic research, students investigate how different waves of migration have transformed both Berlin's physical spaces and its literary landscape. Special attention is paid to how writers represent specific Berlin neighborhoods and how various communities have shaped the city's cultural geography. Through engagement with memoir, fiction, poetry, and first-hand accounts, students explore themes of memory, nostalgia, linguistic displacement, cultural adaptation, and the evolving relationship between place and identity in émigré writing.

This topical course covers Twentieth-Century American Crime Fiction. This is one of the most popular genres worldwide—especially in the United States. Despite its enormous impact on popular culture, this genre remains one of the least developed areas in terms of recognized literary value, which makes it a fascinating subject for study. In this course, we read a variety of crime fiction works that have captured the American imagination throughout the twentieth century, and we will: 1. Examine each text in detail, discussing its aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic qualities; 2. Explore how the genre has evolved in conversation with popular culture, in order to better understand the sociocultural significance of crime fiction in America; 3. Use crime fiction as a lens through which to critically engage with existing theories of genre in literary criticism.