Course description

• Which literary and artistic phenomena are leading to the increased networking of our world?
• What transformations are literary materials experiencing in graphic, filmic and digital adaptations?
• How can the term “world literature” be thought of today?

These questions are investigated in the classes on the comparative literature master’s programme. It is offered by the Comparative Literature assistant professorship in collaboration with nine subjects from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. This allows a total of 20 languages to be studied. This combining of different languages and literatures is based on an understanding of comparative literature as a network-like structure of order and knowledge. In place of dichotomous, hierarchically organised patterns of comparison, comparative studies is concerned with a rhizomatic interweaving of literatures, media and cultures. Alongside an eye for the big picture, it is characterised by an attention to microscopic detail. It complements the primacy of scientific and rational working with an openness towards those who think differently and to other ways of thinking.
The degree programme is also characterised by specialisms in philological text interpretation and theoretical work and covers a historical period from antiquity to the present day. During the course, you look at the relationship between text and theory and reflect on “world literature” from the viewpoint of literary diversity. By building on your foreign language skills, you acquire the ability to combine linguistic, literary and cultural comparisons with each other. You are also taught to critically investigate historical and current communication processes and intercultural articulations. With attention paid to media storage and transmission techniques, you will be sensitised to the relationships between media and cultural contexts.