Content (Syllabus outline)

The difference between premodern and modern interliterarity is explained against the backdrop of globalization and world systems theories. From the eighteenth century onwards, the exchanges between literatures in various languages known since pre-Antiquity have been determined by asymmetrical (and marketing) relationships between cores and peripheries in the emerging world literary system. The course presents whether and how the world literary system agrees with the systems of economy and politics. In the second part of the lectures, students learn how from the eighteenth century onwards Slovenian literature, conceived as an aesthetic and “nation-building” practice, has been established in relation to the world literary system and its regional subsystems. The focus is on poetry and novels.

Readings

• Beecroft, Alexander. An Ecology of World Literature: From Antiquity to the Present Day. London:Verso, 2015.
• Cheah, Pheng. 2016. What Is a World?: On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016.
• D’haen, Theo, César Domínguez in Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, ur. World Literature: A Reade London & New York: Routledge, 2012.
• D’haen, Theo. The Routledge Concise History of World Literature. London: Routledge, 2012.
• Damrosch, David. What Is World Literature? Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.
• Ďurišin, Dionýz. Čo je svetová literatúra. Bratislava: Obzor, 1992.
• Frank, André Gunder & Barry K. Gills. The Five Thousand Year World System: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 18.1 (1992): 1–80.
• Habjan, Jernej. The First Slovenian Novel and the Literary World-System. Journal of World Literature (2018): 512–523.
• Helgesson, Stefan, and Pieter Vermeulen, ur. Institutions of World Literature: Writing, Translation, Markets. New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Juvan, Marko, ur. Svetovne književnosti in obrobja. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012.
• Juvan, Marko, ur. World Literatures from the 19th to the 21st Century = CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture5 (2013).
• Juvan, Marko. Prešernovska struktura in svetovni literarni sistem. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2012.
• Juvan, Marko. Worlding a peripheral literature. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, cop. 2019.
• Moretti, Franco. Grafi, zemljevidi, drevesa in drugi spisi o svetovni literaturi. Izbor, prevod, spremna beseda Jernej Habjan. Ljubljana: Studia humanitatis, 2011.
• Virk, Tomo. Primerjalna književnost na prelomu tisočletja: kritični pregled. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2007.

Objectives and competences

Students are introduced to and test the analytical value of the world-systems approach to cultural production. They are acquainted with the history of the concept and practices of world literature from the early nineteenth century (the British cycle in the development of the global economy) to today’s globalization and its crisis (the decline of the American cycle). They discover the role of translation and publishing in the international circulation and supranational canonization of literature, and learn about the role of (semi-)peripheral literary systems, such as the Slovenian system, in the framework of systemic asymmetries.

Intended learning outcomes

Students use the knowledge acquired in the course to write a piece of academic writing that can serve as a draft of a dissertation chapter or a research article.

Learning and teaching methods:

Types of learning/teaching:

• Frontal teaching
• Work in smaller groups or pair work
• Independent students work
• e-learning

Teaching methods:

• Explanation
• Conversation/discussion/debate
• Work with texts
• Case studies

Assessment

Long written assignment (70 %), presentation (20 %), Active participation in lectures and seminars (10 %).