Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201002
B. Hutchinson
In this essay, I suggest that the study of comparative literature is subject to the same distorting pressures as the study of the Orient. “Comparativism,” as I call it, is like orientalism: both a description and a distortion. Constructing its critique in the process of comparing, it inherits deep foundations of historical, cultural, and geographical prejudgment. As with Said’s orientalism, the cornerstone of this construction is West-Eastern (and North-Southern) paternalism, but it is far from the only building block: other obstacles include predetermined views of genre, medium, and even language. There is little, in fact, that is not grist to the will of Western-educated critics. Eastern comparative methodologies, however, are no more innocent of power struggles than their Western counterparts; for one thing, the structural role of empire is shared by both West and East. Simply replacing one hemisphere with another will hardly recalibrate our critical compasses; wherever we are looking from, partiality of perspective is inevitable. The question, then, is whether comparativism constructs itself diversely in diverse circumstances, or whether its prejudices remain essentially the same despite the changing details of time and place. It is a matter, in other words, of the old comparative contest between similarity and difference. What do we talk about when we talk about comparing?
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Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201003
J. Jobim
In this essay I will use the expression New Worldism to refer to a particular representation of the New World, developed in Europe. I will take some theories related to this expression (theories of lack and acclimatization) to provide a short introduction to them, taking into special consideration their connection to comparatism as it was developed in 19th-century Brazil.
{"title":"North-South Comparatism: New Worldism, Theories of Lack and Acclimatization","authors":"J. Jobim","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201003","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay I will use the expression New Worldism to refer to a particular representation of the New World, developed in Europe. I will take some theories related to this expression (theories of lack and acclimatization) to provide a short introduction to them, taking into special consideration their connection to comparatism as it was developed in 19th-century Brazil.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41898475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201007
T. D’haen
From different perspectives, Shu-mei Shih, Rey Chow, and Revathi Krishnaswamy have accused Comparative Literature of being inherently Eurocentric in that the comparative study of non-European/Western literatures continues being steered by European/Western paradigms. In what follows I briefly outline their respective positions, and argue that over the past few decades at least some attempts have been made to move beyond Eurocentrism.
{"title":"Comparing “West” and “Rest”: Beyond Eurocentrism?","authors":"T. D’haen","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201007","url":null,"abstract":"From different perspectives, Shu-mei Shih, Rey Chow, and Revathi Krishnaswamy have accused Comparative Literature of being inherently Eurocentric in that the comparative study of non-European/Western literatures continues being steered by European/Western paradigms. In what follows I briefly outline their respective positions, and argue that over the past few decades at least some attempts have been made to move beyond Eurocentrism.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41598300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201004
A. Behdad, Dominic Thomas
This essay explores recent incursions into comparative modalities and highlights how global comparative literature better reflects the ways in which borders and mobility have become defining elements of the 21st century. However, the humanities remain under attack. Recent openings towards decolonizing the curriculum and strengthening synergies between various social justice approaches may prove fruitful in coordinating defenses. Today, economic and historical circumstances are such that it has become increasingly hard to think of literary traditions in monolithic terms since globalization has dramatically transformed the circulation of literary works. In our understanding, a comparativist is not necessarily invested either in demonstrating the intrinsic connections between cultural or literary objects as traditional practitioners of comparative literature have been, or committed to disclosing incommensurable differences, as postcolonial comparativists have been. Instead, the comparative frame of mind is defined by the fundamental insight that any cultural product or production is inherently heterogeneous and hence requires no external object of comparison. Put otherwise, a comparative frame of mind does not require the co-presence of two or more cultural or literary archives in practicing comparative literature, for any single object can be read in relation to, or even against, its own context. Likewise, languages are not, and should not be considered monolithic entities. Rather, they are historical containers, mobile vessels that transport perpetually evolving references and symbols across borders, the portals and vectors that allow for multi-dimensional cultural and linguistic expression. We therefore argue that the persistent privileging of multi-lingual fluency as the raison d’être of comparative literature needs to be relinquished, and that instead one needs to embrace the idea that one can be a comparatist within a single language. In other words, we argue that comparison is as relevant within diverse national traditions as it is between them.
{"title":"Comparative Mobilities","authors":"A. Behdad, Dominic Thomas","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201004","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores recent incursions into comparative modalities and highlights how global comparative literature better reflects the ways in which borders and mobility have become defining elements of the 21st century. However, the humanities remain under attack. Recent openings towards decolonizing the curriculum and strengthening synergies between various social justice approaches may prove fruitful in coordinating defenses. Today, economic and historical circumstances are such that it has become increasingly hard to think of literary traditions in monolithic terms since globalization has dramatically transformed the circulation of literary works. In our understanding, a comparativist is not necessarily invested either in demonstrating the intrinsic connections between cultural or literary objects as traditional practitioners of comparative literature have been, or committed to disclosing incommensurable differences, as postcolonial comparativists have been. Instead, the comparative frame of mind is defined by the fundamental insight that any cultural product or production is inherently heterogeneous and hence requires no external object of comparison. Put otherwise, a comparative frame of mind does not require the co-presence of two or more cultural or literary archives in practicing comparative literature, for any single object can be read in relation to, or even against, its own context. Likewise, languages are not, and should not be considered monolithic entities. Rather, they are historical containers, mobile vessels that transport perpetually evolving references and symbols across borders, the portals and vectors that allow for multi-dimensional cultural and linguistic expression. We therefore argue that the persistent privileging of multi-lingual fluency as the raison d’être of comparative literature needs to be relinquished, and that instead one needs to embrace the idea that one can be a comparatist within a single language. In other words, we argue that comparison is as relevant within diverse national traditions as it is between them.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48930672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201011
M. Powers
Within the vast body of scholarship on the Enlightenment, only a small portion addresses the role of China in the debates of that period. Among those, scarcely any concerns the relationship between China and Rousseau’s thought. Yet the connections are many, and deep. This essay surveys a body of Chinese political theory available to Rousseau, then compares Rousseau’s understanding of sovereignty, the “people,” popular will, public opinion, and the authority of office, with comparable terms present in the Chinese theory available to him. The aim of this exercise is not so much to establish influence, though that can be difficult to deny. Primarily, the essay attempts to show that Rousseau’s system generates contradictions in part because he attempts to combine parliamentary procedure with the conception of sovereignty and the popular will found in his Chinese sources.
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Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201001
Longxi Zhang, Omid Azadibougar
This introductory essay discusses the Eurocentrism of Comparative Literature and argues that as an effect of the structures of the modern humanities, the study of non-European literatures has been mostly consigned to area studies and not literary studies departments at universities. Therefore, despite the efforts to overcome this condition of the field, including the rise of World Literature since the turn of the 21st century, scholarship has reproduced the status quo to the extent that World Literature also remains a largely Eurocentric project. We argue that revisionist efforts have so far operated within the European theoretical space and referred to a limited number of languages. The essays collected in the present issue address this problem and propose diverse solutions for overcoming the Eurocentrism of the discipline.
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Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201009
T. Beebee
While the study of world literature is often seen as escaping the boundaries of eurocentrism—albeit with the need for constant revision and self-critique—a truer overcoming would involve another sort of anthologization, namely, of world theory and criticism. World literature should go beyond being a reified collection of translated texts, to become an exploration and comparison of the different ways of thinking about literature and aesthetics in different parts of the world. Barbara Cassin’s Vocabulaire Européen des philosophies: Dictionnaire des intraduisibles provides a possible model in this regard. The untranslatability of critical terms from different traditions is generative of new meanings due to the repeated efforts to translate and to compare non-synonymous terms with each other. This essay examines the untranslatability and comparability of several different terms from Asian aesthetic traditions.
{"title":"Comparative Criticism beyond Eurocentrism: In Search of the Untranslatables of Literary Theory","authors":"T. Beebee","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201009","url":null,"abstract":"While the study of world literature is often seen as escaping the boundaries of eurocentrism—albeit with the need for constant revision and self-critique—a truer overcoming would involve another sort of anthologization, namely, of world theory and criticism. World literature should go beyond being a reified collection of translated texts, to become an exploration and comparison of the different ways of thinking about literature and aesthetics in different parts of the world. Barbara Cassin’s Vocabulaire Européen des philosophies: Dictionnaire des intraduisibles provides a possible model in this regard. The untranslatability of critical terms from different traditions is generative of new meanings due to the repeated efforts to translate and to compare non-synonymous terms with each other. This essay examines the untranslatability and comparability of several different terms from Asian aesthetic traditions.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42800762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201012
Longxi Zhang
The writing of history has encountered many challenges in twenty-century theoretical discussions, and postmodernism and deconstruction in particular have made literary history all but impossible in the West. Because world literature today remains the canonical works of Western literature, while much of the non-Western literatures and even “minor” European literatures remain unknown and untranslated, a world history of literature is absolutely necessary to introduce the yet-unknown world literature to a global readership beyond the original linguistic and cultural milieux of those unknown literary works. Translating those yet-unknown works into English for a wider circulation is the first step to make world literature go beyond Eurocentrism, and writing a world history of literature will help us know the basic situation of the world’s literary traditions from a truly global perspective.
{"title":"The Challenge of Writing a World Literary History","authors":"Longxi Zhang","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201012","url":null,"abstract":"The writing of history has encountered many challenges in twenty-century theoretical discussions, and postmodernism and deconstruction in particular have made literary history all but impossible in the West. Because world literature today remains the canonical works of Western literature, while much of the non-Western literatures and even “minor” European literatures remain unknown and untranslated, a world history of literature is absolutely necessary to introduce the yet-unknown world literature to a global readership beyond the original linguistic and cultural milieux of those unknown literary works. Translating those yet-unknown works into English for a wider circulation is the first step to make world literature go beyond Eurocentrism, and writing a world history of literature will help us know the basic situation of the world’s literary traditions from a truly global perspective.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47085757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201005
David Damrosch
The Eurocentrism of Comparative Literature has meant that non-European literary texts have been studied through either vague universalism or imperialist exoticism. What can correct, or complement, such orientalist knowledge is contrapuntal reading with local knowledge, to tackle cultural difference not as an anomaly but a fact to be analytically accommodated. Engaging previous theoretical work in literary studies and anthropology that have struggled with the Eurocentric foundations of scholarly disciplines, this paper presents a sample of contrapuntal reading by examining the 1976 English translation of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, rendered by Leonard Nathan, in the light of the 9th-century scholar Anandavardhana’s Dhvanyaloka and the extended commentary written by his follower Abhinavagupta. This comparative sample clarifies how contrapuntal reading with local knowledge can balance Eurocentric and orientalist readings of non-Western literary traditions.
{"title":"Contrapuntal Comparison","authors":"David Damrosch","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202201005","url":null,"abstract":"The Eurocentrism of Comparative Literature has meant that non-European literary texts have been studied through either vague universalism or imperialist exoticism. What can correct, or complement, such orientalist knowledge is contrapuntal reading with local knowledge, to tackle cultural difference not as an anomaly but a fact to be analytically accommodated. Engaging previous theoretical work in literary studies and anthropology that have struggled with the Eurocentric foundations of scholarly disciplines, this paper presents a sample of contrapuntal reading by examining the 1976 English translation of Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, rendered by Leonard Nathan, in the light of the 9th-century scholar Anandavardhana’s Dhvanyaloka and the extended commentary written by his follower Abhinavagupta. This comparative sample clarifies how contrapuntal reading with local knowledge can balance Eurocentric and orientalist readings of non-Western literary traditions.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49650070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-28DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202102014
Hongxin Jiang
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis all over the world, while it also marks the coming of a new era of opportunities and challenges, especially for higher education. Universities should be more inclusive and innovative in communication and cooperation, promoting opportunities for collaborations in all aspects and reshaping international education.
{"title":"Opportunities and Challenges: Internationalized Higher Education in the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Age","authors":"Hongxin Jiang","doi":"10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202102014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202102014","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented crisis all over the world, while it also marks the coming of a new era of opportunities and challenges, especially for higher education. Universities should be more inclusive and innovative in communication and cooperation, promoting opportunities for collaborations in all aspects and reshaping international education.","PeriodicalId":65200,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Languages and Cultures","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46141321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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