University institutes

Comparative Literature, Faculty of Humanities, University of Turku

The research profile of Comparative Literature is wide-ranging both in terms of its theoretical scope and in geographical and temporal terms. The research topics range from the 17th century to the present. There is on-going research on British, German, French, Russian and Estonian literature as well as on North American, Caribbean and Latin American literature. The theoretical scope includes questions of literary theory, aesthetics, the relation of literature and philosophy, the problematics of subjectivity, identity and temporality, research on ‘race’, gender and ethnicity, multicultural and postcolonial studies, questions of modernity and postmodernity as well as research on literary genres, particularly on the novel and narrative. What all of these approaches have in common is the view that literature functions as a part of society and culture, as an expression of the historically conditioned human existence but also as capable of critically engaging with it and problematizing it. Instead of perspectives purely intrinsic to literature, Comparative Literature stresses contextualizing approaches. This does not entail, however, lack of rigorous analysis of literary forms of representation; instead, it entails seeing them in their social, historical and literary-historical contexts. Comparative Literature stresses the connections between literatures written in different languages. Often the research topics involve comparing and contrasting literatures of different countries and cultures, or the objects of analysis are themselves multicultural “hybrids”; usually at least the theoretical perspectives cross the borders of different national and linguistic traditions. Moreover, comparatists frequently draw attention to the relationship of literature to other arts or, for example, to history and philosophy.

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Turun yliopisto / University of Turku
Faculty of Humanities
Comparative Literature

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Instrumental Narratives: The Limits of Storytelling and New Story-Critical Narrative Theory
Date of publication: 12.12.2018
Last edited: 11.04.2022