1. Intro
Literature: written works, especially those considered to have artistic or intellectual value
- Mainly focus on individual works, exploring themes, styles, narrative technique and historical contexts
- Within a single cultural and linguistic context
- Goal: understand how authors use language and narrative to reflect and shape human experience and culture
Comparative literature
- An academic field concerned with the study of literature across cultural, linguistic
- Interact with other fields like history, philosophy and cultural studies
- Goal: understand how do literary themes, forms, and styles transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries
Why?
- Understand ourselves and others
- Connect with the past and other cultures
- Challenge and enrich our thinking
2. Basics on Literature
Element
- Plot: the sequence of events in a story.
- Introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution
- Character: complex, multi-dimensional being
- Developement is crucial to the plot
- Theme: a central idea or message in a story
- Setting: time and place in which a story is et
- Style: author’s unique way of writing. Like words choice, sentence structure,
Genres and forms
- Poetry
- Drama, primarily for performance
- Fiction: created from imagination
- Non-fiction: involve factual accounts
- …
Historical context
- Reflecting the Era
- Influencing and influenced by society
- Evolving forms and themes
Narrative technique
- Point of view
- Stream of consciousness: depicts the many thoughts and feeling pass through mind
- Flashback and foreshadowing
- Dialogue and monologue
- Symbolism and imagery: use symbols and vivid descriptions to represent ideas and qualities
3. Comparative Literature
Definition and scope
- Definition: an academic field, examine literature across cultural, linguistic and national boundaries
- Multilingual and multicultural: often require reading and understanding literature in original language
Cross-cultural themes
- Common themes: universal themes live love, death, heroism and conflict
- Comparing these themes in different cultural contexts
- Cultural specificity and universality: explore the balance between
- Cultural specific experiences and
- Universal human conditions
Literary theory
- Structuralism: understanding the underlying structure of literary texts
- Post-colonialism: study in the context of colonial
- Feminism: analyze through the lens of gender
- Other: Marxism, psychoanalytic theory, deconstruction, and ecocriticism.
3.1. Common Rule
Common forms and themes
- Love, conflict, heroism
- Why? Since its the common experiences shared by human
Common purpose for writing
- Expression of personal feeling and thought
- Social and political commentary
- Artistic exploration, experimentation with language and form
- Entertainment and storytelling
Famous conclusion
- Literature can shape societal value and norm
- Universality themes are shared human experience
Best practices
- Authenticity in voice and style, distinctive voice
- Rich character development, multi-dimensional and undergo significant growth or change
- Craft language, strong command of language
- Engaging and coherent plot
- Innovation: innovation plots, narrative structure, unique thematic