Introduction to Comparative Literature (invitation only)

Beginning with Aristotle’s Poetics, this course will be a historical introduction to the study of
Comparative Literature. We will explore key moments in the history of literary aesthetics, with
particular emphasis on Greek, German, Russian, and French sources. We will pay some attention to
the reception of Tragedy in the German tradition, Kant, Phenomenology, and the Intellectual History
of Romanticism.
This course will examine different approaches and schools of interpretation: Classical Aesthetics,
Critical Theory, Psychoanalysis.