Thinking Activity: Comparative Literature and Translation Studies - Unit 2
Hello,
Here I'm going to write a blog on "Susan Bassnett, “What is Comparative Literature Today?” Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. 1993." and "Todd Presner, ‘Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities: On Possible Futures for a Discipline’ in Ali Behdad and Thomas eds. A Companion to Comparative Literature’ 2011, 193- 207" . So let's begin…
"Thinking Activity: Comparative Literature and Translation Studies Unit 2" :
Abstract:
There have been various definitions of comparative literature, which greatly varies from one scholar to another, but they all agree that it is one of the most modern literary sciences. Throughout the past two decades, new critical theories, such as gender-based criticism, translation studies, deconstruction and Orientalism, have changed approaches to literature and accordingly have had a profound impact on the work of the comparatists. "Everywhere there is connection, everywhere there is illustration," as Matthew Arnold puts it. According to Susan Bassnett, everybody who is interested in books is on the path to comparative literature. We come upon Boccaccio while reading Chaucer. Shakespeare's primary materials may be traced back to Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. We can see how Baudelaire's affinity for Edgar Allan Poe influenced his own writing. Consider how many English authors learnt from the great Russian writers of the nineteenth century. We may compare James Joyce's borrowing and lending to Italo Svevo. Clarice Lispector reminds us of Jean Rhys, who in turn reminds us of Djuna Barnes and Anais Nin.
Key Arguments:
Comparative Literature revolves around the study of literature outside the borders of one particular culture, the study of relations between literature on the one hand and other areas of human expression such as philosophy on the other hand. Critics have also related it to history as it examines the convergence (junction) of different literatures and its historical aspects of influence, considering that Comparative Literature is the essence of the history of literature, beyond the scope of one culture or language.
Another arguments is there west students of 1960 claimed that comparative literature could be put in single boundaries for comparative literature study, but she says that there is no particular method used for claiming.
What is the object of the study in comparative literature?
How can comparison be the objective of anything?
If individual literatures have canon, what might a comparative canon be?
How can be comparatist select what to compare ?
Is comparative literature a discipline? Or is it simply a field of study ?
Analysis:
Comparative Literature is an inevitable stage in reading. To conduct a comparative analysis you should have already read for different prominent writers, for instance: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Poe, Joyce, etc. Reading extensively means that you will be able to move across any frontiers as noted by Goethe through which you will be able to perceive culture differences. “Comparative Literature …will make high demands on the linguistic proficiencies of our scholars.It asks for a widening of perspectives, a suppression of local and provincial sentiments,not easy to achieve.”(Wellek and Warren,1949). The focus is no longer comparing texts and tracking patterns of influence, besides, new theories emerged like: Structuralism, deconstructionism, semiology, psychoanalysis, etc. Comparative Literature, cross-cultural criticism, has lost ground in the West and it is no longer a binary study as many comparatists are approaching many challenges and it is being compared to translation studies, which are significantly important at times of great cultural changes. The long unresolved debate is on whether CL is or is not a discipline in its own right. There is no notion here that national literature and comparative literature are irreconcilable. The argument is significant because it helps to remind us of the roots of the word Comparative Literature in Europe, a phrase that originally originated during a period of national conflict, when new limits were being established. The issue of national culture and identity was then debated throughout Europe and the United States.
Conclusion:
Translation Studies has progressed to the point that many people regard it as a distinct field in its own right. Work in linguistics, literary studies, history, anthropology, psychology, and sociology all contribute to Translation Studies. It makes the daring claim that translation is not a peripheral activity, but rather a key shaping agent for change in cultural history. Translation has historically been claimed as a sub-category in comparative literature, although this assumption is currently being challenged.
Todd Presner, ‘Comparative Literature
in the Age of Digital Humanities:
On Possible Futures for a Discipline’
in Ali Behdad and Thomas eds.
A Companion to Comparative Literature’ 2011, 193- 207
Abstract:
After five hundred years of print and the massive transformations in society and culture that it unleashed, we are in the midst of another watershed moment in human history that is on par with the invention of the printing press or perhaps the discovery of the New World. This article focuses on the questions like it is essential that humanists assert and insert themselves into the twenty - first century cultural wars, which are largely being defined, fought, and won by corporate interests.
Key Arguments:
Comparative Literature since they raise questions that have formed the methodological, disciplinary, and institutional foundation of a wide - range of academic fi elds in the Humanities, including history and art history, literary and cultural studies, and the humanistic social sciences, such as anthropology, archaeology, and information studies. Comparative Media Studies thus enables us to return to some of the most fundamental questions of our fi eld with new urgency: Who is an author? What is a work? What constitutes a text, particularly in an environment in which any text is readerly and writerly by potentially anyone? Comparative Data Studies allows us to use the computational tools of cultural analytics to enhance literary scholarship precisely by creating models, visualizations, maps, and semantic webs of data that are simply too large to read or comprehend using unaided human faculties. My point here is not to pitch “ close ” hermeneutical readings against “ distant ” data mappings, but rather to appreciate the synergistic possibilities between a hyper - localized, deep analysis and a macrocosmic view.
Analysis:
Body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper [ … ] Such a system could grow indefinitely, gradually including more and more of the world ’ s written knowledge. (Nelson, 2004: pp. 134 – 145). James Boyle points out, there are many corporate entities eager to regulate the public domain and control the “ commons of the mind. ” 10 For Boyle, the real danger is not unauthorized file sharing but “ failed sharing ” due to enclosures and strictures placed upon the world of the creative commons (Boyle, 2008 : p. 182). Scholars such as McKenzie Wark and Kathleen Fitzpatrick have even “ published ” early versions of their entire books on Commentpress.Lev Manovich and Noah Wardrip - Fruin, the field of “ cultural analytics ” has emerged over the past five years to bring the tools of high - end computational analysis and data visualization to dissect large - scale cultural datasets. Jerome McGann argues with regard to the first in his elegant analysis of “ radiant textuality, ” the differences between the codex and the electronic versions of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Conclusion:
After discussing various arguments, we come to know that to date, it has more than three million content pages, more than three hundred million edits, over ten million registered users, and articles in forty - seven languages (Wikipedia Statistics). This is a massive achievement for eight years of work. Wikipedia represents a dynamic, flexible, and open - ended network for knowledge creation and distribution that underscores process, collaboration, access, interactivity, and creativity, with an editing model and versioning system that documents every contingent decision made by every contributing author. At this moment in its short life, Wikipedia is already the most comprehensive, representative, and pervasive participatory platform for knowledge production ever created by humankind.
Thank you…
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