COMPLIT
600. Topics in Theory
Section 001 — Value and Valuation
James I Porter (jport@umich.edu)
F
2003
The first part of a two-part introductory sequence to Comparative Literature,
this course will explore the intersection of literature, aesthetics, and the
discourse of value in the sphere of culture. Conceived as providing a foundation
for future study in any number of disciplines both within and beyond comparative
literature, the seminar is intended for anyone interested in any one or all
three of these elements.
Problem areas to be discussed will include beauty, the sublime, literary
value, moral value, political economy, classical values and classicism,
canonicity,
the anthropology of value, and the emergence of criticism (evaluation) as
a cultural and professional category.
Readings will be drawn from various places, including Aristophanes, Aristotle,
Longinus, Winckelmann, Hume, Kant, Marx, Arnold, Nietzsche, Freud,
Weber, Mukarovsky, T.S. Eliot, Adorno, Althusser, Barbara
Herrnstein Smith, Bourdieu, Eagleton, Carson, Scarry, Nehamas, Guillory,
and E. Anderson.