Comparative literature

In the field of comparative literature, we study literature as something that both reflects the world and contributes to shaping and changing our worldviews, both past and present. We are interested in the perspectives literary texts can provide on contemporary ethical and political challenges such as climate change, cultural interactions and globalisation

We study literature across languages, regions, media, genres and historical periods, from Greek tragedy and postcolonial novels to digital texts and graphic novels. This wide range of subjects provides, on the one hand, a better understanding of differences between cultures, periods and media, and on the other an opportunity to observe influences, traditions, continuities and cross-fertilisation. We look at changes in the function of literature and its relationship to political institutions and cultural and social communities.

Literary research involves developing increasingly precise terms to describe what is special about the literary form (e.g. metaphors, figures, plot and types of narrators) as well as incorporating and further developing concepts from other disciplines (such as political theory, philosophy, cultural history, sociology, anthropology and psychoanalysis) that can contextualise and shed light on the forms, functions and themes of literary texts.