COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Course objectives

The students will acquire the knowledge of the main literary theories and the tools of comparative literature and demonstrate the knowledge of the principal issues in this field of study. The students will understand how the theories and themes in the field of comparative literature are relevant at a national and international level and relate such theories and themes to a broader literary, historical and cultural context. The students will acquire the ability to create a continuum among the different issues and to shape, formulate and communicate independent thoughts on such issues. The students will acquire the maturity that will allow not only to employ the acquired knowledge independently in the field of comparative literature, but also to utilize it as the foundation for other courses in literary studies and other related disciplines (such as linguistics, philology, history). Didactical Aims
: the module is aimed at introducing students to some aspects of comparative literature and literary criticism.

Channel 1
JACOB DEUTSCH BLAKESLEY Lecturers' profile

Program - Frequency - Exams

Course program
In Italian universities, Dante’s Commedia is always taught as a work of Italian literature. Yet, as even Italian philologists know, Dante’s work is among the most translated in the entire world. What happens then if we decide to study the Commedia not in its Italian edition but in translation? And not only in its English, French, German, and Spanish translations, but also in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish translations? How might the rich, multilayered Italian text be translated and rewritten in other languages, cultures, and societies? How does the fundamental theological framework of the poem, with the Catholic notions of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, get transferred into languages without such religious concepts, for instance? We will also examine the reception of Dante’s text in Wikipedia editions as well as in libraries across the world.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites
Books
1. Dante, Divina Commedia (any complete edition); 2. Giorgio Inglese, Dante: guida alla Divina Commedia, nuova edizione (Carocci, 2025); 3. Critica del testo XIV/3, 2011. Dante, oggi / 3. Nel mondo, pp. 119-438; 4. Lawrence Venuti, Contra Instrumentalism: A Translation Polemic (University of Nebraska, 2019), pp. ix-40; 5. Lawrence Venuti, ‘Introduction: Conditions of Possibility’, in The Translator’s Invisibility (Routledge, 2018); 6. Jacob Blakesley, ‘Comparing Translations of Dante’s Commedia’, CCS 20.2-3 (2023), pp. 293-318; 7. Jacob Blakesley, ‘The global popularity of Dante’s Divina Commedia: translations, libraries, Wikipedia’, Bibliotheca Dantesca 5 (2022), pp. 153-181.
Frequency
In person classes
Exam mode
The oral exam will consist in discussing the assigned texts.
Bibliography
This will be given during the course.
Lesson mode
There will mostly be lectures, but there will also be some seminars
  • Lesson code1056077
  • Academic year2025/2026
  • CourseOriental languages and civilizations
  • CurriculumLingua cinese
  • Year3rd year
  • Duration12 months
  • SSDL-FIL-LET/14
  • CFU6