Sanja Vaudano
I had the great pleasure to attend the sixth installment of the “Institute for World Literature” Summer School that took place at Harvard University during the summer of 2016. The aim of this program is to reflect on the position of World Literature as a discipline in the ever-changing contemporary world and it successfully feeds your passion for literature, intellectual exchange and stimulating discussions. My expectations were quite high to begin with, but the actual experience exceeded them in so many ways. It opened up many new paths for thinking and provided me with numerous ideas for potential scholarly work.
The participants were involved in various types of classes, such as seminars chosen by the students themselves according to their specific fields of interest within literary studies. All classes were taught by leading scholars in the discipline of World Literature. Having David Damrosch as instructor, or listening to a lecture by Homi Bhabha, is indeed as spectacular as it sounds. Lectures, diversely focused panels and colloquium groups also contributed to the great success of our days in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The people that you meet during the sessions are at different stages of their academic career and they come from different parts of the globe, consequently bringing with them their unique cultural, theoretical and academic backgrounds. This diversity made for very informative and surprising seminar debates. Also, having the chance to hear about the research projects of others sparked my own thinking in ways I have never thought possible. Apart from forming new friendships at the personal level, the connections you establish might be very valuable for your future studies as well. The texts we read surpassed every national border and this allowed us to work with and analyze - within the same morning! - contributions to World Literature coming from, for example, the English, Russian and Japanese literary traditions. In the seminars I attended we also paid particular attention to intermediality and the relation between film and the literary text as well as to translation theory and comparative methodologies. Any imaginable cross-reading and interpretation was welcome. The environment in class was very friendly and everybody was very open to discussion. Everything you have ever wished to say, any literary assumption you have wanted to question, here would be taken seriously, appreciated and encouraged.
Being at Harvard was an overwhelming feeling, and the campus environment is more than conducive to studying, research and immersing yourself into the world of books. The best libraries, the most famous museums and the particular atmosphere of Boston will inspire you to give your best and go that extra mile.
I wish to wholeheartedly recommend the IWL experience to anyone who is interested in literature and literary studies. It was all the aforementioned and so much more. You'd simply have to experience it on your own. Good luck with your application!
