Ben Hutchinson

Comparative Literature is both the past and the future of literary studies. Its history is intimately linked to the political upheavals of modernity: from colonial empire-building in the nineteenth century to the postcolonial culture wars of the twenty-first century, attempts at “comparison” have defined the international agenda of literature. But what is comparative literature? Ambitious readers looking to stretch themselves are usually intrigued by the concept, but uncertain of its implications. And rightly so, in many ways: even the professionals cannot agree on a single term, calling it comparative in English, compared in French, and comparing in German. The very term itself, when approached comparatively, opens up a Pandora’s box of cultural differences.
Yet this, in a nutshell, is the whole point of comparative literature. To look at literature comparatively is to realize just how much can be learned by looking over the horizon of one’s own culture. In an age that is paradoxically defined by migration and border crossing on the one hand, and by a retreat into monolingualism and monoculturalism on the other, the cross-cultural agenda of comparative literature has become increasingly central to the future of the Humanities. We are all, in fact, comparatists, constantly making connections across languages, cultures, and genres as we read. The question is whether we realize it.

Well, you know if you read my blog regularly that I believe that I cannot make valid judgements about the quality of Australian literature unless I look over the horizon of my own culture. That’s why I feature reviews of books from all over the world, including (thanks to the influence of Stu at Winston’s Dad) books in translation. But until I read this VSI, just published this year in 2018, my beliefs about why this was important were only instinctive. Now I know that there is more to it than that.
This VSI is divided into five sections:
Metaphors of reading;
Practices and principles;
History and heroes;
Disciplines and debates; and
The futures of comparative literature.
(There are references and further reading too.)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/04/15/comparative-literature-a-very-short-introduc...