Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 334-348
Author(s):  
David Damrosch
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
International Communication ◽  
American Poetry ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Good Setting

This chapter points out the acceleration of globalization that had a major impact on making comparative literature a good setting to explore interests and concerns from the conflictual transformation of the world's economic and cultural landscape. It also discusses the increase in international communication and travel fostered by the internet and deregulated airfares that enables scholars to gather and critique neoliberalism. The chapter explains how postcolonial writing is thought and changed differently within world literature and analyzes the interactions between postcolonial and global or world literary studies. It looks into comparative studies that involve novel intersections of perspectives that can be seen in forward-looking work often pursued by comparatists. It also cites Jacob Edmond's “A Common Strangeness,” in which he examines globalization through case studies in experimental Chinese, Russian, and American poetry.

Against Global Literary Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Edmond
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
The World

Abstract Literary studies has taken a global turn through such institutional frameworks as global romanticism, global modernism, global anglophone, global postcolonial, global settler studies, world literature, and comparative literature. Though promising an escape from parochialism, nationalism, and Eurocentrism, this turn often looks suspiciously like another version of Anglo-European imperialism. This essay argues that, rather than continue the expansionary line of recent decades, global literary studies must allow other perspectives to draw into question its concepts, practices, and theories, including those associated with the terms literature, discipline, and comparison. As a settler colonial (Pākehā) scholar in Aotearoa New Zealand, I attend particularly to Māori literary scholars from Apirana Ngata, Te Kapunga Matemoana (Koro) Dewes, and Hirini Melbourne to Alice Te Punga Somerville, Tina Makereti, and Arini Loader. Their work highlights the limitedness of global literary studies in its current disciplinary guise. Disciplines remain important when they bring recognition to something previously marginalized, as in the battle to have Māori literature recognized within Pākehā institutions. What institutionalized modes of global literary studies need, however, is not discipline but indiscipline: a recognition of the limits of dominant disciplinary objects, frameworks, and practices, and an openness to other ways of seeing the world.

scholarly journals Decentred Geographies: Poetics and Politics of the Avant-garde

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Zrinka Božić Blanuša
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Primary Interest ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Franco Moretti ◽  
David Damrosch ◽  
Definition Of

Thanks to the work of Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, David Damrosch and many others, over the past two decades, the concept of world literature has once again become the subject of thorough examination within the field of literary studies, especially in relation to cosmopolitanism and globalization. When it comes to the study of individual national literatures and specific regional contexts, as well as to the definition of comparative literature as a discipline, debates regarding its background, its reach and limitations could not be ignored. World literature thus appears as a heterogenous entity – always manifesting in different contexts in different forms – consistently in dialogical exchange with specificities of a particular literature and culture. Instead of discussing the problematic relation between centre and periphery or criticizing the idea of global literary and cultural canon, the avant-garde as an international and global phenomenon that appears even more radically on the so-called periphery is what is of primary interest to me. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that avant-garde (in its various forms and radical expressions) simultaneously challenges art as an institution and introduces the idea of a decentred geography of world literature.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Emily Sun
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Republican China ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Disciplinary History ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of

The Introduction situates the book’s approach to comparative literature in relation to recent debates in the field over the status of “world literature.” It historicizes the notion of world literature in terms of the global disciplinary history of literary studies, contextualizing redefinitions of literature and efforts to write literary modernity in terms of connected yet heterogeneous epistemic shifts in eighteenth-century Europe and early twentieth-century China. It introduces the design of the book and offers chapter summaries. And it explains how efforts to write literary modernity in the asynchronous periods of Romantic England and Republican China constitute experiments also with new socio-political forms of life in different cultural contexts.

Jewish American Literature Against the World

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Schreier
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
American Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Literary Study ◽  
Jewish American ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Jewish American Literature ◽  
The World

Abstract By way of a brief genealogy of the Jewish American literary field and through the lens of recent attempts to imagine how comparative literature-based thinking about a concept of “world literature” can be critically productive for Jewish literary study, this article analyzes Jewish American literary studies’ prestige problem. Because it has persistently failed to theorize the intellectual and methodological assumptions underlying its practice, Jewish American literary study remains burdened by the essentialist implications of an ethnological historicism. This article ultimately argues that Jewish American literary study needs to take more seriously the possibilities offered by a materialist epistemology rather than the Jewish studies-based historicist ontology it has mostly taken for granted. “My hope is that a Jewish American epistemology can operate outside the penumbra of a tired and played-out concept of ethnicity—a term that unavoidably, if spectrally, posits a biologistic object at the heart of its historicist project—even as it might still claim the mantle of Jewish-y-ness.”

Modern reinterpretation of Weltliteratur. World Literature in Quest of World(-)System Theories

Tekstualia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (31) ◽  
pp. 111-128
Author(s):  
Adam Kola
Keyword(s):  
System Theory ◽  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
World Literature ◽  
World System ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
World System Theory

While I. Wallerstein’s world-system theory (W-ST) is frequently referred to in literary studies (see: Moretti; Casanova; and Liu, Robbins & Tanoukhi) and cultural studies (King), A.G. Frank’s notion of world system (without hyphen) is not used in comparative literature. However, the two approaches are not competitive, but rather complementary. The article explores the applications of W(-)ST to comparative literature and studies.

Chinese Christian Studies and Anglophone Literary Studies

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelica Duran
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Journal Issue

The author responds to the most salient matters in Chin Kenpa’s paper in this journal issue on the Chinese biography Wuchanzhe Yesu 無產者耶穌 (Jesus, the Proletarian) by W.T. Chu (朱維之, Zhu Weizhi), with special emphasis on the interrelated matters of linguistic context, uneven academic cultural resources, and agency within publishing networks, in turn outlining inroads for deepening Anglophone–Chinese literary critical conversations through a convergence of biblical studies, comparative literature, and World Literature.

scholarly journals Embodied Social Cognition and Comparative Literature

Poetics Today ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186
Author(s):  
Lisa Zunshine
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Cognitive Approaches ◽  
Cognitive Literary Studies ◽  
Social Mind

There is a growing sense among scholars working in cognitive literary studies that their assumptions and methodologies increasingly align them with another paradigmatically interdisciplinary field: comparative literature. This introduction to the special issue on cognitive approaches to comparative literature explores points of alignment between the two fields, outlining possible cognitivist interventions into debates that have been animating comparative literature, such as those concerning “universals,” politics of translatability (especially in the context of world literature), and practices of thinking across the boundaries of media. It discusses both fields’ indebtedness to cultural studies, as well as cognitive literary theorists’ commitment to historicizing and their sustained focus on the embodied social mind.

scholarly journals Võrdleva kirjandusteaduse ja maailmakirjanduse sümbiootilise koosolu väljavaatest / Towards a Symbiotic Coexistence of Comparative Literature and World Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (17/18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jüri Talvet
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
World View ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
Literary Traditions ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Broad Field ◽  
The World

Teesid: Artiklis on sedastatud, et võrdleval kirjandusteadusel ei ole kunagi tegelikult olnud avaral kirjandusväljal otsustavat ega keskset staatust, ent samal ajal pole ka kirjandustraditsioonide põhjalik eraldi uurimine suutnud täita arvukaid tühikuid kirjandusloome kui laiema kultuurinähtuse mõistmisel, ehkki see mõjutab (sageli nähtamatult) tervete ühiskondade maailmavaadet ja väärtushinnanguid. Arendades edasi mõtteid, mis on esitatud raamatus „Sümbiootiline kultuur“ ning artiklis „Edaphos and Episteme of Comparative Literature“, aga ka Juri Lotmani ideid, on soovitatud kasutada sümbiootilist lähenemist kirjandusele, mis püüaks lepitada äärmuslikke vastandeid ning algatada dialoogi, tugevdades seega võrdleva kirjandusteaduse positsiooni ning ühtlasi maailma kirjanduste uurimise valdkonda. In his article Jüri Talvet postulates that comparative literature has never really enjoyed a pivotal or central status in the broad field of literary studies, yet at the same time specialized studies of separate literary traditions have not been able to fill numerous gaps in the understanding of literary creation as a broader cultural phenomenon influencing (although often invisibly) the world view and axiological attitudes of entire societies and vast communities of people. Developing some ideas presented in his book A Call for Cultural Symbiosis (2005) and in his article “Edaphos and Episteme in Comparative Literature”, (Intelitteraria 2005), as well as the ideas of Juri M. Lotman, Talvet proposes a symbiotic approach aimed at reconciling extreme oppositions and establishing a dialogue that would strengthen the position of the discipline of comparative literature, as well as the field of world literatures.  

scholarly journals Maailmakirjanduse mõõtmisest meil ja mujal / Conceptualizations of World Literature in Estonia and Elsewhere

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (17/18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liina Lukas
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
German Language ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Foreign Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University

Teesid: Artikkel käsitleb maailmakirjanduse mõiste mahu ja sisu muutumist alates selle esilekerkimisest 19. sajandi algupoolel kuni tänapäeva käsitlusviisideni ja dilemmadeni, mille ees seisab võrdlev kirjandusteadus – distsipliin, mis peab maailmakirjandust oma uurimisobjektiks. Juttu tuleb ka väikese kirjanduse spetsiifilisest suhestumisest maailmakirjandusega ning maailmakirjanduse uurimisest ja õpetamisest Tartu ülikoolis alates selle rajamisest 1632 kuni eriala institutsionaliseerumiseni taasiseseisvunud Eestis – maailmakirjanduse õppetoolina. In the current era of globalization when the borders of national literature have become exceedingly vulnerable, cultural identities more and more hybrid and the term world literature is applied to global translations into English, a comparative literary scholar might ask a question: would it be possible to perceive of a literary world analogously to the world of music? Would it be possible that as Bach does not need to be interpreted within the context of German music or Pärt within the context of Estonian music, works of literature relate to each other within the global field of literature and are no longer related to their linguistic and cultural contexts? In order to come to a „bigger picture“, to achieve a more extensive level of generalization, might it be possible to give up the linguistic, historical and cultural contextualization of works of literature? What would a small literature win or lose in such situation? In the present article the concept of world literature and its’ historical conditions – as an object of comparative literary studies – will be explained using the example of Estonian literature. In order to do so, an overview of the history of comparative literary studies at the University of Tartu will be provided. At the University of Tartu, the study of comparative literature was initiated much earlier than systematic study of Estonian literature or its’ appearance on the horizon of world literature. Thereby the ’home’ (or ’homelessness’) of the history of comparative literature history and its re-positionings in different time periods will be analyzed. Having roots in the studies of rhetoric and poetics in the Academia Gustaviana founded in 1632, comparative literary history in the German-language Kayserliche Universität zu Dorpat (re-established in 1802) was initially a topic for professors of classical philology, while shortly after moving under the lectureship of German language and then, during the period of Russification, to the department of Russian language and literature. Beginning in 1904, comparative literature was affiliated with the chairs of Latvian and Estonian, where it developed as a modern disciple in the Estonian-language University of Tartu at the time of Professor Gustav Suits in the 1920s. The Soviet period formally maintained the position of world literature in relation to the Estonian literary canon under the label of ’foreign literature’, but the notion of foreign literature narrowed, being limited to those works of the established literary canon of the West that were considered ’progressive’ by the Marxist ideology. ’Foreign literature’, in particular its relationship with Estonian literature was under ideological pressure to the extent that it was more rational to deal with it as a closed phenomenon boiling in its own juices. At the same time Russian literature was pushed to the fore. Its influence and role in the development of Estonian literature had to be emphasized. However, it was precisely Russian philology where Tartu literary studies was given an impulse that gave an impetus to several disciples in Tartu as well as elsewhere, while also creating a completely new field – semiotics. The theory of periphery as an area, where semiotic processes accelerate and the creative and dialogical function of borders developed in Tartu by Juri Lotman, explains a great deal about the history of Comparative Literature in Tartu: the peripheral location of Tartu, its changing identity turns out to be the crossroad and meeting point of diverse cultures. This has facilitated comparative approach to cultures and view comparison as the only possible methodology of literary studies. At the periphery the perception of borders sharpens, and this exactly is the field of Comparative Literature.

SCIENTIFIC FIELD - SCIENTIFIC PROCESS (ACADEMICIAN AKMAL SAIDOV'S “COMPARATIVE INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK "INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz Kosimov
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Literature ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Scientific Field ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Scientific Process ◽  
Introduction To Literature

Comparative literature brings together the literature of nations onall continents of the planet through the study, analysis, research of the masterpiecesof world literature. The article provides a brief analysis of the book "Introduction toComparative Literature" by Academician Akmal Saidov. The article analyzes notonly important aspects of comparative studies, but also the relevance of this directionto other areas and processes of literature, aesthetics, psychology.

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