Komparatistika

According to the classical saying, history (as a discipline) is as much an art as it is a science. Historians have been both boasted and loathed for being too narrative, too ornamental, too skillful a storytellers. After all, history even has its own muse: Clio. Historians themselves often found this heritage troubling, and the discipline always laboriously negotiated its relationship with other sciences.
The class will explore links between literature and history, narration and telling the truth, a bond that is as inspiring as it is troublesome. In doing so, it will address some of the landmark texts of both literary theory and historical thinking that contributed to this debate. During our lectures, we will also ask broader questions: Does narrating necessarily turns history into fiction? Could it not be that the truth benefits from being told with the help of fiction? And what role does the notion of time play here? Is it not that history is, in the first place, our way of narrating past, present and future?
The class will be held in seminar form and requires reading of texts on weekly basis and active participation of enrolled students. All texts will be distributed in the class. Two courses will be held as workshops and invite everyone to share their various cultural, ethnic, or language experience.