Comaparative literature: Subject matter. Major issues. Research domains

Comparative Studies

General Outline of the Course

Lecture 1-2

Comaparative literature: Subject matter. Major issues. Research domains

1. Introduction into the subject. Definition of comparative literature

2. Aims of comparative literature

3. Defining the terms (comparative literature, national literature, world literature, general literature)

The word 'comparative' originates from the Latin comparare and is defined in Oxford English Dictionary as 'involving comparison between two or more subjects or branches of science'

Comparative literature is a field of literary scholarship focused on comparing aspects of various literary phenomena, such as texts from different cultures and historical periods, texts by different writers, texts from different genres or different texts from the same genre, or two versions of the same text, for instance, in translation, retelling, or adaptation.

COMPARATIVE literature is the study of literature beyond the confines of one particular country, and the study of the relationships between literature on the one hand and other areas of knowledge and belief, such as the arts (e.g., painting, sculpture, architecture, music), philosophy, history, the social sciences (e.g., politics, economics, sociology), the sciences, religion, etc., on the other. In brief, it is the comparison of one literature with another or others, and the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression.

Whatever the disagreements on the theoretical aspects of comparative literature be, there is agreement on its task: to give scholars, teachers, students and last but not least readers a better, more comprehensive understanding of literature as a whole rather than of a departmental fragment or several isolated departmental fragments of literature. It can do so best by not only relating several literatures to each other but by relating literature to other fields of human knowledge and activity, especially artistic and ideological fields; that is, by extending the investigation of literature both geographically and generically.

The purpose of comparison can be a deeper understanding of literary texts in a broader historical, social and literary context; it can also be an examination of influences and intertexts.

In comparing two or several literary works, we pursue the goal of identifying their similarities and dissimilarities as well as providing possible reasons for those.

Some straightforward reasons for similarity can be that the two texts are written by the same author; that they are written within the same genre; or that they are written more or less at the same time and within the same culture. A further reason, frequently employed in comparative studies, is the assumption that a writer has been influenced by another, earlier writer.

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