CJLB407 Book within the Book

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Jitka Bednářová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Zbyněk Fišer, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Literature – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Veronika Bromová, Ph.D.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 1/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
In some books we find the image of the reader. Sitting or lying down, holding a book, contemplating it, reading from a book or listening to a narrative, writing in a diary or creating on his own. The book intervenes in his life, influences and transforms him. Something new emerges from the contact of two texts. We are such readers, too, as we follow this book within a book - its meaning for the whole axis of the narrative and for ourselves. The book as the subject of another book will be the focus of this seminar in comparative literature. Using several works of Czech and world literature, we will ask what meanings are created by this intimate encounter between two or more texts, whether it takes the form of allusion, quotation, paraphrase, whether a classic or lesser-known work enters the book. How are writing, reading, translating and artistic production treated in the work in question? What does this line of meaning bring to the work in question, what does it bring to us, the readers? Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Learning outcomes
- The student will have read several works of world literature that will be discussed in the seminar; - understand the concept of "comparative literature" and the concept of "book within a book"; - will acquire a variety of different approaches to interpreting reading, writing and translating in novels; - be able to reflect on the function of one artistic text in another.
Syllabus
  • Examples of works we can work with in the seminar: - Don Quixote (Part I in Part II) - Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time (Homer, Madame de Sévigné); - Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment (The Gospel); - Maurice Baring: Daphne Adeane (ancient drama, contemporary literature); - Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago (Eugene Onegin); - Italo Calvino: When One Winter's Night Passengers (defense of the novel); - Antonio Tabucchi: Pereira claims (Balzac, Daudet); - David Lodge: Nice Work (Jean Austen, literary scholarship); - Elena Ferrante: My Brilliant Friend (L. M. Alcott).
Teaching methods
Ongoing work in the seminar. Detailed knowledge of all the novels we will be working with. Joint discussion, individually and in groups. Preparation of the report.
Assessment methods
Credit terms: - continuous work in the seminar - detailed knowledge of the novels to be agreed upon - reasonable attendance (2 absences allowed)
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/CJLB407