University of Zagreb
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Croatian Language and Literature
Ivana Lučića 3, Zagreb
Prof. Leo Rafolt, PhD
leo.rafolt@zg.t-com.hr
Subject: Introduction to Literary Anthropology
Language: English
Subject type: elective, for any semester of graduate studies program
Study level: graduate
Teaching hours: 28 (total), 2 (per week)
ECTS points 5
Summary:
Literary Anthropology is often defined as an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary hermeneutic
concept with its roots in different interpretative paradigms, such as ethnography, ethnology,
semiotics, cultural studies and poststructuralist critical theories. Its field is enormous, ranging
from interpretation of identity, stereotypes and prejudice, cultural concepts and/or problems of
interculturalism, transculturalism and multiculturalism, strategies of political discoursification etc.
This class will try to define the field from most of its inner perspectives, cultural as well as
primary literal (critical), and, furthermore, it will try to inform the listeners about some of the
most influential authors experimenting in the field of literary-anthropological research, such as W.
Iser, F. Poyatos, R. Girard, J. Clifford, Tz. Todorov and others, but, more important, it will
emphasize the peripheral and unstable – almost indefinable – status of the field.
Teaching units (syllabus):
First lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology as an interdisciplinary field of literary, social and cultural
studies (First lecture will try to explain the specter of borders of literary anthropology as a crossepistemological discipline and as a hermeneutic field of literary studies. The focus will be put on
the hermeneutic turn in humanities and social studies since the 1980s that, according to some
recent scholars, led to the general hybridization of humanities and socio-cultural studies.)
Second lecture and seminar: Literary and critical background of the discipline (This lecture will try to
introduce the literary and especially literary or critical background of literary anthropology as a
discipline, above all aesthetic of reception by W. Iser and some of the traditional structuralist and
poststructuralist turns towards anti-immanent readings. Example: R. Lachmann.)
Third lecture and seminar: Socio-anthropological and cultural background of the discipline I. (The influence
of cultural anthropology, sociology and philosophy of culture, ethnology and folklore research,
ethnography and recent cultural studies will be put into focus in this lecture. Furthermore, critical
theory by Clifford Geertz, as well as his influence will be explained).
Fourth lecture and seminar: Socio-anthropological and cultural background of the discipline II. (C. Geertz)
Fifth lecture and seminar: Socio-anthropological and cultural background of the discipline III. (J. Clifford)
Sixth lecture and seminar: Socio-anthropological and cultural background of the discipline IV. (Theatre and
literary anthropology in an overview. Examples: R. Schechner, V. Turner, E. Goffman)
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Seventh lecture and seminar: Theoretical background of the discipline (This lecture will focus on the
legacy of French philosopher M. Foucault, especially on his ‘cultural writings’.)
Eighth lecture and seminar: Borders of the discipline (‘generative anthropology’ by R. Girard and E.
Gans.)
Ninth lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology, new historicism and cultural materialism I. (The aim of
this lecture is to focus on some similar points in materialist and anthropological way of literary
production perception.)
Tenth lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology, new historicism and cultural materialism II. (This
lecture will emphasize S. Greenblatt, J. Dollimore, P. Stallybrass, A. White, L. Montrose and A.
Sinfield’s legacy in literary studies as primarily ‘anthropological’.)
Eleventh lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology and the immanent question of reflexivity (This lecture
introduces some self-reflective and self-analyzing theories in the field of anthropological or/and
cultural studies in general, but especially in the field of reflexive anthropology.)
Twelfth lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology in Croatian academic milieu – examples I. (L. Čale
Feldman)
Thirteenth lecture and seminar: Literary anthropology in Croatian academic milieu – examples II. (Reader
Human, Space, Time)
Fourteenth lecture and seminar: Conclusion and evaluation (student’s survey)
General knowledge acquired:
General mission of the course is, first, to introduce literary anthropology in Croatian academic
curriculum, as well as to inform students about the possibilities of the literary-anthropological
interpretation, especially focusing on problems familiar in domestic academic milieu: problems of
identity, stereotypes, interculturalism etc. Students will thus be familiarized with some borderproblems and border-methodologies of literary anthropology as a discipline, such as imagological
or transcultural analysis etc.
Specific knowledge acquired:
Students will be encouraged to perform their own researches in the field of literary anthropology
and, furthermore, to coordinate their own interpretation in interdisciplinary fields. One of the
missions of this course is to aware students of the possibilities of interdisciplinary researches in
general and especially in humanities and social studies.
Lectures: ex cathedrae and seminar research
Exam: research paper and oral examination
Quality survey: student’s survey and final evaluation
References:
1. Bennet, Tony. 1990. Outside Literature, London – New York: Routledge. (A book based upon
a research of interdisciplinarity in social and cultural studies but primarily from a Neo-Marxist
perspective.)
2. Čale Feldman, Lada. 2002. “Science, Space, Time: Contours of (Croatian) Literary
Anthropology”, Narodna umjetnost, 39/1, p. 75-96. (First evaluation of the term in the Croatian
academic milieu, as well as a precise analysis of its consequences.)
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3. Daniel, Valentine E. – Peck, Jeffrey M. (ed.) 1996. Culture/Contexture: Explorations in
Anthropology and Literary Studies, Berkeley – Los Angeles: California University Press. (Research
papers on different aspects of literary, cultural and anthropological cross-referencing.))
4. Iser, Wolfgang. 1993. Prospecting: From Reader Response to Literary Anthropology, Baltimore –
London: The John Hopkins University Press. (Research studies about the inauguration of
literary anthropology in a European academic milieu and its sources in reception aesthetics.)
5. Iser, Wolfgang. 2000. The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology, Baltimore –
London: The John Hopkins University Press. (Research studies about the differences in
perception of fictional and factional worlds from the literary-anthropological standpoint.)
6. Stallybrass, Peter – White, Allon. 1986. The Politics and the Poetics of Transgression, Ithaca – New
York: Cornell University Press. (Research studies reinterpreting M. Bahtin’s critical legacy in a
psychoanalytical and Neo-marxist perspective.)
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