Unit 14 Introduction to Comparative Literature

Structure
14.0 Objectives
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Beginning of Comparative Literature
14.3 Meaning and Nature of Comparative Literature
14.4 Schools of Comparative Literature
14.5 National Identity and Comparative Literature
14.6 Colonialism and Comparative Literature
14.7 Studying others
14.8 Important dimensions of comparative literature
14.9 Views of Rene Wellek
14.10 Comparative Literature and Translation Studies
14.11 Let Us Sum-Up
14.12 Exercises
14.13 Suggested Readings

14.0 Objectives

After reading this unit you will be able to know about:

What is comparative literature?
When did comparative literature start?
How did this study method develop?
What is the method of comparative study?
What are the schools of Comparative Literature?

14.1 Introduction
There are many ancient and modern methods of studying literature and culture. With these
methods, literature has been explained in its own way through the science of literature,
Linguistics, Aesthetics. The method of study of comparative literature has been in vogue since
the nineteenth century. Along with this, literature has been understood through the methods of
sociology, psychology, structuralism etc. A new form of literature emerges from these methods,
so comparative literature has also given a new understanding of the form of literature. Therefore,
we are trying to understand this discipline in detail.

14.2 Beginning of Comparative Literature

Scholars of comparative literature believe that the term Comparative Literature was firstly
introduced in the collection Course de literature compare published in 1816 in France. The use
of comparative literature in Germany dates back to 1854. For the first time in 1818, Mathew
Arnold put forward the concept of comparative literature in English.

This means that the concept of comparative literature came to the fore in the nineteenth century.
In which the method of studying more than one literature was developed. The second point is
that this is not a literary movement. Departments of comparative literature were established in
universities, lectures were given, discussions and debates were organized. The conclusions that
emerged from them, the nature of comparative literature became clear from those conclusions.

In 1903, Benedetto Croce rejected comparative studies as an independent discipline. He did not
see any difference between pure literary history and comparative literature. In the 1920s, Layne
Cooper called comparative literature a 'Bogus Term', which has neither sense nor syntax.
Sahman Jeune considered the study of influence as the main element in comparative literature
(Reference- Awadhesh Kumar Singh's 'The future of comparative literary studies' compiled in
New Direction in comparative Interature).

In this way cause and effect is studied in comparative literature. The early comparative literature,
which began in France, analyzes this influence. So in this study the key term is influence. This
effect is studied in the comparative literature. What we call the soul of a nation does not always
remain unaffected. Sometimes, she gets influenced by someone or the other. The concept of
culture and nationality comes from this comparative literature. The life of national identity and
cultural tradition becomes important many times.

14.3 Meaning and Nature of Comparative Literature

While considering comparative literature, the first question that comes to our mind is that what is
comparative literature? Is there any literature which is comparative in its nature? Or are there
some writers who write comparative literature? From this point of view, we should know the first
thing that every writer creates literature, does not write comparative literature, that is,
'comparative literature is nothing in itself'. When we use the term comparative literature, we
mean the comparative study of literature. The method of our study is comparative. That is what
we study. By the way, some scholars also believe that every study of literature is comparative.
We can understand something only through comparison. Without comparison, we cannot
understand that what are the common and different features between Kalidas and Shakespear, IA
Richards and Ramchandra Shukla?

Comparative literature is a special type of study. Prof. Indranath Chowdhary tries to explain the
role of comparative literature:

Nowadays special importance is being given to the study of comparative literature in various
universities in India as well as in abroad as an independent school. The English poet Matthew
Arnold first used the term Comparative Literature in one of his letters in 1818 (Letters of
Matthew Arnold, 1995, 18 to G.W.E. Rasssel). But in the beginning itself, there was a dispute
about its literal meaning because if literature is a creative artistic expression of a storyteller, poet
etc., then it cannot be compared in any way.

Nartha Fry saw the centrality of myth in the decline of literature in the late 1910s and 1950s.
Before this T.S. Eliot had already talked about the comparative study of the work from the
perspective of the tradition. While defining comparative literature in 1963, Renewellek opposes
it to consider it as a method that mechanically draws the line between subject matter and method.
But (levin) says in 1969 that there is a need to compare literatures rather than talk about
comparative literature (ref- ibid 'New Directions in Comparative Literature ed. Ram Bahau
Badodae & other macmillan India Ltd., 2007)
According to Susan Basnet, a renowned scholar of comparative literature, comparative literature
studies texts that transcend the boundaries of culture, which are interdisciplinary in nature and
which seek to relate the patterns of literature that transcend time and country.

Generally we believe that literature is the mirror of the society. Even if we do not accept this
concept of mirror completely, we still believe that literature has a deep relation with the society
and environment in which it is created. The environment is related to the country, geography and
social structure of the country. Then no country is permanent, it keeps on changing. The effect of
this change is targeted in literature. While evaluating a literary work, we keep these things in
mind while not tasting. That is, while studying literature, we first place it in country and time.
Let's decide its location. For example, when we study Kabir, we also keep in front of him the fact
that he was a weaver. Kabir was born in that era, was born in that time where the feelings of high
and low were strong and accepted in the name of social dignity. Kabir rebelled against such a
society. This rebellion was related to this country and time. Similarly Meera was the daughter of
the royal family of Mewar. She was the daughter-in-law of a king, then she talks about
sacrificing the dignity of the family, then it is sacrifice.

Similarly, when we study a poet, we place him in a linguistic tradition. Language has its own
nature, its own beauty and its own limitations. Similarly, each work is in a special genre. Godan
is a novel, Atit Ke Chalachitra is a memoir, Apni Khabar is an autobiography and Kamayani is
an epic. These genres determine the range of their literary works.

Similarly, the boundaries related to music, painting and sculpture are transgressed. Comparative
Literature also has to be free from its limitations of different disciplines like philosophy,
sociology, political science etc. Therefore, it can be said that comparative literature studies the
literature without boundaries. Some limitation makes the literature special, but then it does not
come within the comparative literature. The study of the pattern that is formed in the literature
after crossing these limits comes under the purview of comparative literature.

14.4 Schools of Comparative Literature

In comparative literature, adoption of effect, analogical subjectivity, organicity, historiography
and translation etc. have been considered from different angles. Different schools (sects) can be
classified on the basis of these concerns. By the end of the 19th century the main focus of the
German school was to pay Special attention to the search for ethnic and ethnographic roots, ie
the comparison between literary works. The main concern of this school is to make comparative
studies based on the search for influence or reception by keeping positivism at the center. The
specialty of the 'English School' was the placement of works. In this sequence, both the works
used to publish and administer each other. The American school, in contrast to the French idea of
comparative literature based on receptions against the dominance of the school, based on an
inter-disciplinary approach, Henry Remak and Renewellek said that comparative literature
cannot be bound by the boundaries of any one country. The American school distinguished itself
from the French school in the sense that while the French school focused on the result or product,
the American school emphasized the process of the product. In fact, the beginning of the
American school was started by Charles Mills Ley in the 1590s by establishing comparative
literature in the work, which was given a systematic form by Renewellek and others.
Mathew Arnold believes that we see relation between events, things and literature. No one is
different. This relationship is at the core of comparative study. When we read Shakespeare, we
know his Latin, French and Italian relations. Romanticism spread and grew simultaneously all
over Europe. English novels were influenced by Russian novels.

14.5 National Identity and Comparative Literature

We know that the time when comparative literature started in Europe. At the same time
nationalism was on the rise all over Europe. Politically, this nationalism pushed all European
countries to war against each other. Scholars believe that comparative literature originated
against the national literature. National resources are supporter of partisanship while
'comparative' has an underlying sense of transcendence from these national boundaries which
includes an underlying desire to develop unity and harmony among nations. At the time when
war and violence were spoken in the politics of Europe, people were claiming the superiority and
difference of their respective nations. People could easily move within the borders of each other's
nation.

14.6 Colonialism and Comparative Literature

European scholars of comparative literature expressed the opinion that comparison is possible
only in literature of the same level. Therefore European literature cannot be compared with the
literature of the colonies. Only European literature can have universal acceptance. The literature
of the colonies would never reach that level. This racist, imperialistic declaration of Macaulay
included the recognition of scholars of comparative literature. Fitzgerald, the European scholar
who translated Omar Khayyam's Ruwais also had the same belief. At the core of which is the
belief that the European mind is superior, European literature is superior, while the people of
Asia and Africa are still 'primitive'. They have yet to learn civilization from Europe. At this time
in comparative literature, the argument developed that comparative study can be of text. There
cannot be a comparative study of oral literature or oral culture. The reason for this is that written
text is better than oral literature. That is why oral epics cannot be considered as epics. In
backward societies, most of the literature is oral. That doesn't even figure in the count. Therefore
the poetry of Homer, Greek literature, the plays of Shakespeare, and literature of Milton are
important because they are included in the text.

Even though Europeans came declaring that there are the best, but a new type of nationalism was
also born in the colonies. And this nationalism gave a new perspective to comparative literature.
In this process two new arguments came-

(1) As is the literature of the European people, Indian knowledge is also the same and in many
respects it is superior to the European literature. For this argument, new text of the best classic
literature like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Veda, Purana, Kalidasa's works etc. came to the fore.
At the core of this study emerged the new nationalism of the colonies.

(2) It is assumed that Europe is superior and we try to make ourselves like them. European
literature is the standard and sometimes we too can touch that standard. For example,
Shakespeare is the greatest writer of all time. There is no dispute in this. But our Kalidas is also a
painter for us. Europeans also believed that Kalidas was the Shakespeare of the East.
14.7 Studying others
In this way, the departure point of comparative literature is the literature of one's own language.
In practice, comparative literature is not the same study of the literature of two similar languages.
In this one language is dominant, the other language is secondary. In this way a hierarchy of
seniority is formed in it. Scholars even say that what is called world literature is also not a 'world
literature'. Every language has its own world literature. The point of view of that language
becomes dominant.

Actually what happens is that every person wants to understand other language, literature and
culture from the point of view of his own language, literature and culture, thus a standard is
created in comparative literature in which first-class authors are compared with mediocre
authors, great works are compared with mediocre works, strong culture is compared with weak
culture and majority language is compared with minority language to create an order of global
seniority and finally The superiority of that language can be proved which the scholar wants to
prove.

Susan Basenet is of the opinion that cartographers, translators and writers are not innocent
people who create the text. Through the text they create such things as they want to give a
special direction to the circumstances and our perspective, so that we can see that culture from
the same point of view. They create a common context in their description-analysis so that we
can 'see the other' in the same way. This task of theirs is not objective. However, we expect these
to present a neutral and objective picture. This reflects the mindset and formulas of comparative
literature. This also gives a sense of the expansion of comparative literature.

14.8 Important dimensions of comparative literature

Thus we can find out few general points relating to comparative literature as under:

(1) Comparative literature is such a critical study of literature which studies the literature of two
or more linguistic, cultural and national groups. Generally, the study of works of two writers
speaking one language does not come under the category of comparative literature. We cannot
put the comparative criticism written on Hindi Poets Dev and Bihari in the category of
comparative literature. There is only one exception to this. If a language is read and written in
more than one country, then the study of literature composed in the same language in both those
countries can come within comparative literature. There can be a comparative study of English
literature of Canada and Australia.

(2) Every country in Europe has only one language, but India has many languages, therefore
literature of different languages of the same country (India) can also be studied comparatively.
There can be a comparative study of Hindi and Bengali and there can also be a comparative
study of Bengali literature and Hindi literature of India. Also, no study of folk literature can
come under the category of comparative literature.

(3) This study is intersectional. Therefore, scholars of comparative literature study translation
studies, sociology, Knowledge of other branches of knowledge like Cultural Studies, Sociology,
Cultural Studies, History etc. happens to be. This Achyavan is not a pure literary, classical,
poetic study.

(4) A student of comparative literature transcends narrow national boundaries while studying
literature. Transcends all subjects like psychology, philosophy, archeology history etc.

(5) There is an analysis of influence in comparative literature dealing the issues of influence of
writer and culture on the other writer under reference.

(6) According to Henry H. H. Remak, 'comparative literature' is the comparative study of the
literature of one nation with the literature of other nations beyond its confines. That study is also
the study of mutual relations between different fields of knowledge like art, history, social
science, science, theology etc.

14.9 Views of Rene Wellek

Rane Wellek has criticized several points of the concept of comparative literature, especially the
attitude of influencing literature. He has drawn some conclusions by comparing the general
literature to the comparative literature on autocracy. Linguistics is also an area of comparative
study, especially the basis of historical linguistics

Bloomfield believes that there is no comparative literature. He says that

The comparative method is the only method of reconstructing pre-historic languages that works
accurately across completely uniform speech communities and at sites of abrupt description.
Since these assumptions are never met, the comparative method can never claim that it cannot be
assumed that it is depicting a pre-historic process.

This is the first time that Van Tieghem, his forerunner and follower, think in the tone of
positivism of nineteenth-century which focuses on study of causes and effects. They believe in
cursory interpretation, which is used to judge the basic objects, characters, situations, things etc.
according to the chronological order of the earlier work. They have collected parallels and
sometimes juxtapositions, but they have never shown what these relationships show, except for
the fact that one author knows and has read the other. Cursory interpretation goes nowhere and
does not succeed in establishing a causal relationship in the literature. One has fallen short and is
also necessary. I do not know of any literary history that has given evidence of such a
relationship or could have done so. Such separation does not result in works of art that are
complete, whose conception rests in free imagination, whose integrity and meaningfulness suffer
if they are broken down into sources and effects. Rene Wellek points out that we should consider
what is important for us.

Considering the reasons for the origin of comparative literature, he said that the origin of
comparative literature was as a reaction against narrow nationalism, but later on, nationalist
verses started appearing in it as well. The thinkers of each country started proving through
comparative study that they have given more to the world. It is a debtor country to the world,
while other countries are creditors or that their country has absorbed the best talent in the world.
Comparative literature emerged as a reaction to the narrow nationalism of the literature of the
nineteenth century; it was a revolt against the isolationism of many historians of French,
German, and English etc. It was often nurtured by those who stood at the crossroads of nations,
or at least at the borders of a nation. Louis Betz was born in New York to German parents and
sent to Zurich to study and teach. Baldensperger's origin is Lothringian, he spent a year of
importance in Zurich Erst Robert Curtius was an Alsatian who believed that German and France
needed to understand each other better.

The principle of basic patriotism is found in several comparative literature studies that have been
done in Germany and Italy. This goes further to the method of cultural and desire to increase
one's country's interest, which is accomplished by proving that one's country has as much
influence as possible on other countries, or more importantly, wants to prove that one's country
India has assimilated and understood foreign writers more than any other country. M. Guyard has
shown almost naively in his Yoga little book, it contains unwritten research essays on Ronsard of
Spain, Corneille of Italy, Pascal etc. which have been kept in clean empty buses. This type of
cultural expansionism can also be found in America, which itself has largely been characterized
by the fact that it had nothing to boast about and, secondly, its lack of interest in cultural politics.
Yet, for example, in The Great Co-operative Literary History of America (Jar Sinner, W. Year,
1918) it is claimed that the friendship was even comparable. Farinelli comments on the
inconsistency of all the accounts of the creditor and the debtor in the case of the poem and the
calculation of this cultural wealth.

In this way Renvelek concludes that the scholars of comparative literature are not interested in
literature. National interest is in overall cultural history, so they spread comparative literature so
much that the entire history of Maka is included in it. Therefore Rane Wellek is of the opinion
that literature should not be involved in the war of national cultural honor, nor should it be
presented as a commodity of foreign trade. It is not a symbol of national psychology and not a
plea. Rather, literature is a creative work and it should be understood in the same way, while it is
not the case in comparative literature.

14.10 Comparative Literature and Translation Studies

Translation has always had a relationship with comparative literature. It is not necessary for
every person to know all the languages. Therefore, role of translation is necessary for
comparison between two literatures. It has been recognized from the beginning that comparative
Literature is the major discipline and translation was treated subsidiary discipline.

There is no originality in translation and there should not be. Therefore, if the early translation of
comparative literature is understood in this way, then it is not just an 'ally' of comparative
literature. Its study has its own significance, which is greater than the study of comparative
literature in many ways. But leter on perception about Translation Studies has changed even the
expert of comparative literature changed their opinion and Translation Studies occupied the
significant position.

14.11 Let Us Sum-Up

The interrelationship of comparative literature and Translation Studies is very close. Although its
relations have been changing time to time and their status as a discipline has been changing.
Gayatri Chakravati Spivak in her book Death of a Discipline (2003) and Susan Basnet in 1995
declared the death of comparative literature as discipline of studies. Spivak talks about the end of
the need and relevance of comparative studies after the end of the Cold War. These answers
emphasize questioning and redefining Southern cultures. The traditional framework of
comparative literature has become completely unacceptable, so her opinion proposes, in the spirit
of Derrida's call for Politics of Friendship, that comparative literature exemplifies how the
humanities and social sciences can complement each other. Similarly, she also proposes that
comparative literature should advocate satellite culture beyond global culture. She proposes to
imagine ourselves as planetary subjects rather than global agents and the importance of
comparative literature as a methodology remains relevant. Comparative literature is not literature
in itself. Comparative literature cannot be imagined without literature. Literature available in two
languages can be used for comparative study only through translation. In this unit the concept
and role of comparative literature in the context of nationalities and identities have been
discussed along with the meaning, origin and development and introduction of different schools
of comparative Literature.

14.12 Exercises
1) Explain the meaning of comparative literature and give a brief introduction to its beginning
and development.
2) Give a brief introduction to the different schools of comparative literature.
3) Discuss the comparative literature in the context of nationalism, globalism and translation.
4) Write an essay on Colonialism and Comparative Literature.

14.13 Suggested Readings

 Bassnect, Susan, 1993, Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction, UK, Exfort Black
Well Publishers.
 Chowdhary, Indranath, 1985, Tulnatmak Sahitya ki Bhumika, Madras, Dakshin Bharat Hindi
Prachar Sabha.
 Badode, Rambhau & Afzalkhan (eds) 2007, New Directions in Comparative Literature,
Macmilhan India Ltd.