Comparative literature is an
academic field
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
dealing with the study of
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and cultural expression across
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
,
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
al, geographic, and
disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study of
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...
but works with languages and artistic traditions, so as to understand cultures 'from the inside'". While most frequently practised with works of different languages, comparative literature may also be performed on works of the same language if the works originate from different nations or cultures in which that language is spoken.
The characteristically intercultural and transnational field of comparative literature concerns itself with the relation between literature, broadly defined, and other spheres of human activity, including
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
, and
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
. Unlike other forms of literary study, comparative literature places its emphasis on the interdisciplinary analysis of social and cultural production within the "
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
, political dynamics, cultural movements, historical shifts, religious differences, the urban environment, international relations,
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
, and the sciences".
Overview
Students and instructors in the field, usually called "comparatists", have traditionally been proficient in several languages and acquainted with the literary traditions,
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
, and major literary texts of those languages. Many of the newer sub-fields, however, are more influenced by
critical theory
A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
and
literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...
, stressing theoretical acumen and the ability to consider different types of art concurrently over proficiency in multiple languages.
The
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
nature of the field means that comparatists typically exhibit acquaintance with
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
,
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
,
translation studies
Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the vari ...
, critical theory,
cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
, and
religious studies. As a result, comparative literature programs within universities may be designed by scholars drawn from several such departments. This
eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
has led critics (from within and without) to charge that comparative literature is insufficiently well-defined or that comparatists too easily fall into dilettantism because the scope of their work is, of necessity, broad. Some question whether this breadth affects the ability of PhDs to find employment in the highly specialized environment of academia and the career market at large, although such concerns do not seem to be borne out by placement data, which shows comparative literature graduates to be hired at similar or higher rates than English literature graduates.
The terms "comparative literature" and "world literature" are often used to designate a similar course of study and scholarship. Comparative literature is the more widely used term in the United States, with many universities having comparative literature departments or comparative literature programs.
Comparative literature is an interdisciplinary field whose practitioners study literature across national borders, time periods, languages, genres, boundaries between literature and the other arts (music, painting, dance, film, etc.), and across disciplines (literature and psychology, philosophy, science, history, architecture, sociology, politics, etc.). Defined most broadly, comparative literature is the study of "literature without borders". Scholarship in comparative literature includes, for example, studying literacy and social status in the Americas, medieval epic and romance, the links of literature to folklore and mythology, colonial and postcolonial writings in different parts of the world, and asking fundamental questions about the definition of literature itself. What scholars in comparative literature share is a desire to study literature beyond national boundaries and an interest in languages so that they can read foreign texts in their original form. Many comparatists also share the desire to integrate literary experience with other cultural phenomena such as historical change, philosophical concepts, and social movements.
The discipline of comparative literature has scholarly associations such as the
International Comparative Literature Association
The International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) (French: Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée—AILC) is an international organization for international research in comparative literature.
Founded in 1954, ICLA pro ...
(ICLA) and comparative literature associations in many countries. There are many learned journals that publish scholarship in comparative literature: see "Selected Comparative Literature and Comparative Humanities Journals" and for a list of books in comparative literature see "Bibliography of (Text)Books in Comparative Literature".
Early work
Work considered foundational to the discipline of comparative literature include Spanish humanist
Juan Andrés
Juan Andrés y Morell (15 February 1740 in Planes, Alicante12 January 1817 in Rome) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, Christian humanist and literary critic of the Age of Enlightenment. He was the creator of world history and comparative literature (i ...
's work, Transylvanian Hungarian
Hugo Meltzl de Lomnitz's scholarship, also the founding editor of the journal ''Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum'' (1877) and Irish scholar
H.M. Posnett's ''Comparative Literature'' (1886). However, antecedents can be found in the ideas of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
in his vision of "
world literature
World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
" (''Weltliteratur)'' and
Russian Formalists credited
Alexander Veselovsky
Alexander Nikolayevich Veselovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Весело́вский) ( in Moscow – in St. Petersburg) was a leading Russian literary theorist who laid the groundwork for comparative literary studi ...
with laying the groundwork for the discipline.
Viktor Zhirmunsky
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, for instance, referred to Veselovsky as "the most remarkable representative of comparative literary study in Russian and European scholarship of the nineteenth century" (Zhirmunsky qtd. in Rachel Polonsky, ''English Literature and the Russian Aesthetic Renaissance''
ambridge UP, 1998. 17 see also David Damrosch
During the late 19th century, comparatists such as
Fyodor Buslaev
Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev (russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Бусла́ев; April 25, 1818 – August 12, 1898) was a Russian Empire philologist, art historian, and folklorist who represented the Mythological school of comparative literat ...
were chiefly concerned with deducing the purported
Zeitgeist
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. F. ...
or "spirit of the times", which they assumed to be embodied in the literary output of each nation. Although many comparative works from this period would be judged chauvinistic,
Eurocentric
Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism)
is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...
, or even racist by present-day standards, the intention of most scholars during this period was to increase the understanding of other cultures, not to assert superiority over them (although politicians and others from outside the field sometimes used their works for this purpose).
French School
From the early part of the 20th century until
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the field was characterised by a notably empiricist and positivist approach, termed the "French School", in which scholars like Paul Van Tiegham examined works forensically, looking for evidence of "origins" and "influences" between works from different nations often termed "rapport des faits". Thus a scholar might attempt to trace how a particular literary idea or motif traveled between nations over time. In the French School of Comparative Literature, the study of influences and mentalities dominates. Today, the French School practices the nation-state approach of the discipline although it also promotes the approach of a "European Comparative Literature". The publications from this school include, ''La Littérature Comparée'' (1967) by C. Pichois and A.M. Rousseau, ''La Critique Littéraire'' (1969) by J.-C. Carloni and Jean Filloux and ''La Littérature Comparée'' (1989) by Yves Cheverel, translated into English as ''Comparative Literature Today: Methods & Perspectives'' (1995).
German School
Like the French School, German Comparative Literature has its origins in the late 19th century. After World War II, the discipline developed to a large extent owing to one scholar in particular,
Peter Szondi
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
(1929–1971), a Hungarian who taught at the
Free University Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
. Szondi's work in Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft (German for "General and Comparative Literary Studies") included the genre of drama, lyric (in particular hermetic) poetry, and
hermeneutics
Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. Hermeneutics is more than interpretative principles or methods used when immediate ...
: "Szondi's vision of Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft became evident in both his policy of inviting international guest speakers to Berlin and his introductions to their talks. Szondi welcomed, among others,
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
(before he attained worldwide recognition),
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influence i ...
and
Lucien Goldman
Lucien Goldmann (; 20 July 1913 – 8 October 1970) was a French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. A professor at the EHESS in Paris, he was a Marxist theorist. His wife was sociologist Annie Goldmann.
Biography
Goldmann wa ...
from France,
Paul de Man from Zürich,
Gershom Sholem
Gershom Scholem () (5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982), was a German-born Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kaballah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish Mysticis ...
from Jerusalem,
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer.
He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of criti ...
from Frankfurt,
Hans Robert Jauss
Hans Robert Jauss (german: Jauß; 12 December 1921 – 1 March 1997) was a German academic, notable for his work in reception theory (especially his concept of horizon of expectation) and medieval and modern French literature. His approach was d ...
from the then young
University of Konstanz
The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...
, and from the US
René Wellek
René Wellek (August 22, 1903 – November 10, 1995) was a Czech- American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and ...
,
Geoffrey Hartman and
Peter Demetz (all at Yale), along with the liberal publicist
Lionel Trilling. The names of these visiting scholars, who form a programmatic network and a methodological canon, epitomize Szondi's conception of comparative literature. However, German comparatists working in East Germany were not invited, nor were recognized colleagues from France or the Netherlands. Yet while he was oriented towards the West and the new allies of West Germany and paid little attention to comparatists in Eastern Europe, his conception of a transnational (and transatlantic) comparative literature was very much influenced by East European literary theorists of the Russian and Prague schools of structuralism, from whose works René Wellek, too, derived many of his concepts. These concepts continue to have profound implications for comparative literary theory today" ... A manual published by the department of comparative literature at the LMU Munich lists 31 German departments which offer a diploma in comparative literature in Germany, albeit some only as a 'minor'. These are: Augsburg, Bayreuth, Free University Berlin, Technical University Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Chemnitz-Zwickau, Erfurt, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt an der Oder, Gießen,
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Konstanz, Leipzig, Mainz, München, Münster, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Potsdam, Rostock, Saarbrücken, Siegen, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Wuppertal. (Der kleine Komparatist
003 003, O03, 0O3, OO3 may refer to:
*003, fictional British 00 Agent
*003, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian ambulance service (until 1986)
*1990 OO3, the asteroid 6131 Towen
* OO3 gauge model railway
*''O03 (O2)'' and other related ...
. This situation is undergoing rapid change, however, since many universities are adapting to the new requirements of the recently introduced Bachelor and Master of Arts. German comparative literature is being squeezed by the traditional philologies on the one hand and more vocational programmes of study on the other which seek to offer students the practical knowledge they need for the working world (e.g., 'Applied Literature'). With German universities no longer educating their students primarily for an academic market, the necessity of a more vocational approach is becoming ever more evident".
American (US) School
Reacting to the French School, postwar scholars, collectively termed the "American School", sought to return the field to matters more directly concerned with
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
, de-emphasising the detective work and detailed historical research that the French School had demanded. The American School was more closely aligned with the original internationalist visions of Goethe and Posnett (arguably reflecting the postwar desire for international cooperation), looking for examples of universal human truths based on the literary archetypes that appeared throughout literatures from all times and places.
Prior to the advent of the American School, the scope of comparative literature in the West was typically limited to the literatures of Western Europe and Anglo-America, predominantly literature in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
and
French literature
French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than F ...
, with occasional forays into
Italian literature
Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, including ...
(primarily for
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
) and
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature ( Spanish poetry, prose, and drama) written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the Kingdom of Spain. Its development coincides and frequently intersects wit ...
(primarily for
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
). One monument to the approach of this period is
Erich Auerbach
Erich Auerbach (November 9, 1892 – October 13, 1957) was a German philologist and comparative scholar and critic of literature. His best-known work is '' Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature'', a history of repres ...
's book ''
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature'', a survey of techniques of
realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
in texts whose origins span several continents and three thousand years.
The approach of the American School would be familiar to current practitioners of cultural studies and is even claimed by some to be the forerunner of the Cultural Studies boom in universities during the 1970s and 1980s. The field today is highly diverse: for example, comparatists routinely study
Chinese literature,
Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
and the literatures of most other major world languages and regions as well as English and continental European literatures.
Current developments
There is a movement among comparativists in the United States and elsewhere to re-focus the discipline away from the nation-based approach with which it has previously been associated towards a cross-cultural approach that pays no heed to national borders. Works of this nature include
Alamgir Hashmi's ''The Commonwealth, Comparative Literature and the World'',
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...
's ''Death of a Discipline'', David Damrosch's ''What is World Literature?'', Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek's concept of "comparative cultural studies", and Pascale Casanova's ''The World Republic of Letters''. It remains to be seen whether this approach will prove successful given that comparative literature had its roots in nation-based thinking and much of the literature under study still concerns issues of the nation-state. Given developments in the studies of globalization and interculturalism, comparative literature, already representing a wider study than the single-language nation-state approach, may be well suited to move away from the paradigm of the nation-state. While in the West comparative literature is experiencing institutional constriction, there are signs that in many parts of the world the discipline is thriving, especially in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. Current trends in Transnational studies also reflect the growing importance of post-colonial literary figures such as
J. M. Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...
,
Maryse Condé
Maryse Condé (née Boucolon; February 11, 1937) is a French novelist, critic, and playwright from the French Overseas department and region of Guadeloupe. Condé is best known for her novel ''Ségou'' (1984–85).Condé, Maryse, and Richard ...
,
Earl Lovelace
Earl Wilbert Lovelace (born 13 July 1935) is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns a ...
,
V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (; 17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienati ...
,
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...
,
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...
,
Derek Walcott
Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem ''Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcot ...
, and
Lasana M. Sekou
Lasana M. Sekou (born 12 January 1959) is a poet, short story writer, essayist, journalist, and publisher from the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.
Biography
Lasana M. Sekou has authored over 20 books and is considered one of the prolific Carib ...
. For recent post-colonial studies in North America see George Elliott Clarke. ''Directions Home: Approaches to African-Canadian Literature''. (University of Toronto Press, 2011), Joseph Pivato. ''Echo: Essays in Other Literatures''. (Guernica Editions, 2003), and "The Sherbrooke School of Comparative Canadian Literature". (''Inquire'', 2011).
In the area of comparative studies of literature and the other arts see Linda Hutcheon's work on Opera and her ''A Theory of Adaptation''. 2nd. ed. (Routledge, 2012).
Canadian scholar Joseph Pivato is carrying on a campaign to revitalize comparative study with his book, ''Comparative Literature for the New Century'' eds. Giulia De Gasperi & Joseph Pivato (2018). In response to Pivato Canadian comparatists Susan Ingram and Irene Sywenky co-edited ''Comparative Literature in Canada: Contemporary Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Publishing in Review'' (2019), an initiative of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association.
Interliterary study
See also
*
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.
Genetic relatedness ...
*
Literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
*
Literary translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
*
Translation criticism
References
Citations
General sources
* Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven
"Multilingual Bibliography of (Text)Books in Comparative Literature, World Literature(s), and Comparative Cultural Studies" ''CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture'' (''Library'') (1999–).
''CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture''
* ''Companion to Comparative Literature, World Literatures, and Comparative Cultural Studies''. Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Tutun Mukherjee. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India, 2013.
* "New Work in Comparative Literature in Europe". Marina Grishakova, Lucia Boldrini, and Matthew Arnolds (eds.). Special Issue CLCWeb
Comparative Literature and Culture15.7 (2013).
* ''Comparative Literature for the New Century''. Giulia De Gasperi & Joseph Pivato (eds.). Montreal: McGill-Queen's U.P., 2018.
External links
A list of comparative literature departments and programs in the US, Canada, and UKAILC/ICLA: Association internationale de littérature comparée / International Comparative Literature AssociationREELC/ENCLS: Réseau européen d'études littéraires comparées/European Network for Comparative Literary Studies
{{Authority control
Critical theory