Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, by Ulrich Weisstein.

(Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1973) Preface: Chapter 1 & 2 for the students of comparative literature, Chapter 2-7 for those of literature, difficulty: terminological confusion I. Definition 1. review Carre: comparative lit. as a branch of lit. history ( emphasis on rapports de fait) Baldensperger: excluding folklore from comparative literature Van Tieghem: comparative literature studies the actions and influences exerted by individuals (excluding the anonymous tradition of ancient and medieval literature) Weisstein: those who concentrate on belle-lettres proper would include ancient and medieval literature into comparative literature 2. Comparative literature in the direction of sociology should call for the study on imagination 3. national literature: units which form the basis of our discipline, defined by linguistic or political-historical criteria 4. general literature: bears on the facts common to several literatures 5. world literature (Goethe): various nations should notice and understand each other;the uniqueness of national literatures would be preserved in the process of mutual exchange and recognition.[B]y means of these worldwide contacts, a harmonization was to ensue within the individual literatures 6. comparative literature (Remak): Com. Lit. is the study of literature beyond the confined 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 art,philosophy, history, and the social sciences, the sciences, religion, etc. on the other. II. Influence and Imitation 1. emitterintermediaries (transmitters)receiver 2. direct influence/indirect influence imitation/creative transmutation conscious influence/unconscious influence 3. plagiarism: imitation on the sly or quotation without reference to the source 4. imitation: a. character b. stylistic: burlesque, parody, satire, caricature (negative influence, counter-design) 5. adaptation: creative treason (trahison creatrice), reworkings of a model to make a work palatable to foreign audience, Ezra Pound to Chinese poetry 6. influence/effect( study of the appreciation or the fortune of a work by a foreign writer) 7.influence/reception (quote, allusion, analogy, parallel/affinities, sourcefalse influence)

8. non-artistic influences: Darwin, Marx, Freud, etc. 9.literary convention/tradition: public property, collective influence 10. definition: influence should no longer be understood as causality and similarity operating in time., that is, as rapports de fait and parallels, but as a network of multiple correlations and multiple similarities functioning in a historical sequence, functioning within that framework of assumptions which each individual case will dictate. III. Reception and Survival 1. borderline between influence & reception: influence should be used to denote the relations existing between finished literary products, while reception serves to designate a wider range of subjects, namely, the relations between these works and their ambience, including authors, readers, reviewers, publishers and the surrounding milieu. 2. phenomena associated with reception a. fortune (success) of a work b. erudition: repertory, personal library c. spiritual affinity (psychological reception): the kinship of the two writers as a psychological and emotional one d. personal myth or legend: a poet is read or esteemed only for a single work and biographical facts are twisted or simplified to the point of distortion, Goethe/Whether e. involuntary creative treason: originated from misunderstanding f. recipient/intermediary g. the image of foreign authors h. literary survival: canon, resurrection of certain works i. translation: re-translation in every new age when the work requires to be read anew, authenticity/misunderstanding, trivialization, betrayal j. image & national psychology IV. Epoch, period, generation, movement 3. the idea of periods is equivalent to the concepts of philosophy and to the class in natural study 2. epoch: the larger segment of the history of mankind, with religious overtone, epochs are determined by an event or time of an event marking the beginning of a relatively new development. 3. period: the shorter segment, a time section dominated by a system of norms, whose introduction, spread and diversification, integration and disappearance can be traced. 4. The closer we come to our own time, the shorter are the time span we have to cover. After 1870, the periods are replaced by movements. The reduction in size, and the frequency of change, are due to the fact that after Romanticism art has become self-conscious and artists are forced to seek out something new. 5. annalistic approach: can identify simultaneous events rather than to order or periodize them (decades, centuries) 6. generation: thirty years, the lowest temporal limit of a period

7. movement: represents a fresh group of youths, seldom lasts for an entire generation, Surrealism, Dadaism 8. movement/school: a movement differs from a school in the sense that it is constituted by coevals, so that no teacher-pupil relationship exists. 9. international literary movement: an example of Romanticism, starting at different years in different nations, little unity among nations 10.conclusion: the history concepts are essential tools to strengthen Comparative Literature as a scholarly disciple. However, it would be foolish to employ terms like era, age, movement or period statically and mechanically instead of dynamically and flexibly. V. Genre 1. Generic purity is characteristic of the classical or neoclassical frame of mind. A clear-cut delimitation of genres is unattainable. 2. Van Tieghem: classical tragedy, romantic drama, the sonnet, rustic novel, pastoral poetry, sentimental novel, restrict the survey to modern literature 3. Difficulties in tracking Greek & Roman genres: the existence of models is hypothetical; a genre cultivated in antiquity vanished, but its name persists and serves for a modern genre (contamination), ex. Satire/satyr play 4. the modern writer is not as much concerned with adhering to the conventions of a welldefined genre. The notion of genre fades in light of the notion of technique 5. literature influenced by Oriental models such as Japanese haiku, Noh play. It is impossible to transplant a genre which is firmly anchored in a specific historio-geographical context. 6.pure analogy studies in comparative genology are likely to benefit the Oriental and Occidental literature 7.epic poetry, lyrical poetry, drama, didactic writingsdidactic is a mode, not a kind or genre 8.how to define marginal formsthe essay, biography, autobiography 9.classification ( by means of imitation in Aristotles sense) a. epic (language)/verse (combines meters) b. novel/novella/the short story: number of words (length) c. nave/sentimental: psychological criteria d. tragedy/poetry: intended effect (tragedy is to arouse pity and fear) e. mythology/poetry: narrative of events; point of view f. stream of consciousness/other fictional mode: technical or stylistic devices g. elegy/satirical poetry: meter h. bildungsroman/pastoral/political/courtly/utopian fiction: subject matter 10. conclusion: we should endeavor to draw lines of demarcation where conditions are suitable and make sure that our terminology is consistent and humanly possible and compatible with historical context. VI. Thematology (please refer to the outline of the report made on 10/29) VII.The Mutual Illumination of the Arts 1. Remaks definition: the study of the relationships between literature on the one hand and

other areas of knowledge and belief, such as the artson the other. (as long as literature is the focal point) 2. Brown: all the fine arts are similar activities, despite their differing media and techniques, and there are not only parallel between them induced by general spirit of differing eras, but that there are frequently direct influences. 3. the study of arts in their mutual interpenetration: opera, emblematics, film 4. previous studies: Modern Language Association of America (MLA), in France, in Germany 5.Analogy between lit.& art a. Wylie Syphers Four Stages of Renaissance StylePopes mock-heroic epic The Rape of the Lock and Watteaus painting b.When we use linguistic or national boundaries as criteria in the study of the interrelation between the arts, we are exercising our prerogative without accounting for the qualitative differences which prevail between the various media and techniques. c.comparative aesthetics: analogies, terms: statics, dynamics, open & closed form, unity, multiplicity, rhythm d. to study literature and art in relation to the period or movement, one can and must consider the artistic intentions as voiced in the theoretical manifestos. *Surrealism e. the literary historian has to take art history and musicology into account because so much is to be learned in stylish matters. Period terms are derived from the other arts 6.fusion of the arts a. conglomerates: opera, film, ballet, cartoon, Greek tragedy, Shakespearean plays b. double talent: Black, Thackeray, Rossetti, Michelangelopictorial & poetic, stylistic laws c. verbal expression in the direction of music or as the vehicle of images and symbols d. the more complex the work is, the more difficult is the comparison music & lit.: Eliots Four Quartets, Hermann Hasses Der Steppenwolf, Keats Ode to a Grecian Urn, Pounds haiku-like poem In the Station of the Metro hybrid phenomenon plastic arts & lit.: Katherine Mansfields Her First Ball, Virginia Woolfs To the LighthouseImpressionism 7. artistic inspiration: melodic-rhythmic incitation & literary influences 8. image and mirage studies: national myths and legends are expressly dealt with, leitmotif Appendix I History Appendix II Bibliography Question: 1. More rapports de fait, or more aesthetic? The innate dilemma of Comparative Literature.