Comparative Literature 400 / Global Literary Studies 450
Imitation and Authorship: From Aristotle to A.I.
This course will offer an overview of literary theory from classical antiquity to the present through an exploration of the evolving history of two fundamental and defining concepts: imitation and authorship. In recognition of the expansiveness of this topic, we will focus on a curated selection of texts from four key moments in the Western tradition. Our journey will commence with the ancients, writers like Plato and Aristotle, whose ideas about poetry serve as a touchstone for literary theorists and critics up to the present. We will next jump several centuries to consider how these classical ideas—and the notion of “imitation” in particular—are transformed at the dawn of the modern period through an exploration of selected readings by the likes of Dante, Cervantes, and Montaigne. From there, we will move on to the turn of the nineteenth century when the emergence of European Romanticism initiates a revolution in thinking about the creative process. Finally, our overview of earlier approaches to literary analysis will provide us with a historically informed perspective from which to consider developments in contemporary theories of literary production.