The class will approach major questions in the comparative study of literatures and societies, through the concept of the human. In investigating how different disciplines approach the question of the human we will seek to untangle the complex relation that comparativism must negotiate among different linguistic, literary, historical and political contexts. Paying special attention to the stakes of interdisciplinary methods in comparative scholarship, we will work through alternative methods of comparative study and focus our discussions on fields of inquiry that combine strategies of research and analysis from various disciplines: anthropology, geography, law, literary theory and philosophy. Readings will include texts by philosophers Roland Barthes, Roberto Esposito, Gilles Deleuze, Edouard Glissant, Michael Marder; anthropologists Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo Kohn, Sidney Mintz and Michael Taussig; legal theorists Colin Dayan and Jeremy Waldron; and literary works by René Depestre, Patrick Chamoiseau and Marie Vieux-Chauvet. Enrollment is limited and the seminar is designed for graduate students working toward a degree in Comparative Literature and Society. Students are expected to have a preliminary familiarity with the discipline in which they wish to do their doctoral work.
Please note: This course is required for ICLS graduate students, and priority will be given to these students. Contact the ICLS office for more information at (212)854-4541.
