Column "Uni live": It's like the European nobility

As every semester, a group of young people feel called to study general and comparative literature this summer, also known as comparative literature.

I too have taken this path and have never regretted my decision.

Studying literature can be great if you recognize the strengths of the subject and at the same time know how to use the idiosyncratic traits of comparative literature to your own advantage.

In order to arrive in the subject, as a student you first need the right habitus.

This includes, for example, the conviction that the subject has clear advantages over the individual philologies: Comparatists seem to switch effortlessly between foreign languages ​​and combine reading epics thousands of years old with the most modern poetry, as if it were nothing.

However, the focus of the course is on literature from the 18th century to the present day from English, German and French-speaking countries.

Fluency in reading and translating texts from these three languages ​​is therefore a central part of the course.

Being able to gush out French sentences like a waterfall is especially useful when going to internal professional conferences.

Sometimes it's like the European nobility in the 18th century: anyone who is self-respecting converses in French.

At least three books must be carried with you at all times

Appearance is also important to literary scholars.

Almost all students carry some utensils with them: large glasses, worn clothes and at least three books.

There is a practical explanation for each of these elements: The glasses signal that the eyes have become bad from a young age from a lot of reading.

And since everything that takes place in the mind is much more important than outward appearances, clothing is usually applied.

Carrying books is a matter of course, because literary scholars are mostly found reading when they are awake.

They always carry at least three books with them: one is usually reading for the seminar (e.g. the essays by Michel de Montaigne), one is for private reading (e.g. “War and Peace”) and one is there more by chance (e.g the "Ars amatoria"

a didactic poem by Ovid on the art of love - or the Guinness Book of Records).

This brings us to the central subject of the course: reading.

It is not only important to read as much as possible, but also to choose the right reading material.

Knowledge of relevant classics is essential, because everything from Shakespeare and Goethe to Kafka and Flaubert to Tolstoy and Austen is discussed at length during the course.

Otherwise, the great theorists of the 1960s and 1970s are still very popular, primarily from France: all works by Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida should have been read or at least read at some point during your studies so that you are not shocked asks who has just died when the author's death is mentioned again.

Also, it's always good

When writing essays and homework, there are two main terms that are not worth doing without, as they evoke real delight in some lecturers:

and

Experts in their field speak of the "subject of a novel" instead of its central theme.

And of course there is always some kind of discourse going on that can be described - discourse sounds like science, it sounds like debate and trying to find the best argument.

You don't have to define the terms very precisely, after all, the readership is highly educated itself.

The meaningfulness of the chosen homework topic will also open up to her as if by itself.

What else is recommended?

When studying literature, it is important to pursue those texts and topics that inspire without taking themselves too seriously and that easily get people talking.

It's good to make an effort without despairing if, for example, learning Russian doesn't really work out on the third try.

And, to conclude with advice from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: "While it's all right to study in a great library for a while, burying yourself in it is a frenzy."

Laura Kinzig

, 25 years old, is doing her doctorate in literary studies at the University of Göttingen on the understanding of literary texts.

She collects her favorite foreign language words like other people collect stamps and wonders how to turn the discipline of reading six books at the same time into a career.