From a leading figure in comparative literature, a major new survey of
the field that points the way forward for a discipline undergoing rapid
changes
Literary studies are being transformed today by the expansive and
disruptive forces of globalization. More works than ever circulate
worldwide in English and in translation, and even national traditions
are increasingly seen in transnational terms. To encompass this
expanding literary universe, scholars and teachers need to increase
their linguistic and cultural resources, rethink their methods and
training, and reconceive the place of literature and criticism in the
world. In Comparing the Literatures, David Damrosch integrates
comparative, postcolonial, and world-literary perspectives to offer a
comprehensive overview of comparative studies and its prospects in a
time of great upheaval and great opportunity.
Comparing the Literatures looks both at institutional forces and at
key episodes in the life and work of comparatists who have struggled to
define and redefine the terms of literary analysis over the past two
centuries, from Johann Gottfried Herder and Germaine de Staël to Edward
Said, Gayatri Spivak, Franco Moretti, and Emily Apter. With literary
examples ranging from Ovid and Kalidasa to James Joyce, Yoko Tawada, and
the internet artists Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Damrosch shows
how the main strands of comparison--philology, literary theory, colonial
and postcolonial studies, and the study of world literature--have long
been intertwined. A deeper understanding of comparative literature's
achievements, persistent contradictions, and even failures can help
comparatists in literature and other fields develop creative responses
to today's most important questions and debates.
Amid a multitude of challenges and new possibilities for comparative
literature, Comparing the Literatures provides an important road map
for the discipline's revitalization.
