about Comparative Literature

[edisonnee]

I had a cursory glance at the new threads and found the term "Comparative Literature" is hardly refered to.Does anyone of you take comparative literature as your major?Do you think CL is necessary in the study of literature?what's your opinions to the relation between comparative literature and general literature as had been discussed by Van Tighem? :santasmil

[alshadai]

I don't really know the answers to your question but I will tell you what my Lit professor very briefly explained to me, in his words:

"PhD programs in comparative literature tend to catch a lot of flack because they seem to touch on the faces of many periods of literature instead of delving deep into any of them."

I still want to get my PhD in comp lit though because I just don't know another program that will let me do what I want to do: studying post-WWII literature and primarily focusing on the change in American and Japanese literature. My ideal education plan is to get my Masters in Japanese literature and then a PhD in comp lit.

[Hyacinth Girl]

I think it depends upon your definition of "necessary" and "comp lit". I think everyone gets a survey of lit in their early studies, then most find a niche in a certain country, time, genre, etc. so a "comp lit" degree in that sense is not "necessary" (although I personally recommend it) For me, my MA emphasis was a Comp Lit emphasis, specializing in Renaissance texts. Spanish was my other major language, although I have a slight reading knowledge of Italian as well. I think the major advantage to Comp Lit is the requisite held by most programs that one must study original texts in several languages. It is interesting to read things such as Quixote in Spanish after spending years reading a translation and it allows you to truly trace influence of texts and trends in writing without having to filter out influences brought in by the translator.

[edisonnee]

thanks,i really appreciate your answers.i am a post-graduate student in comp lit and right now i was doing my term paper which should concentrating on comp lit theory.i really want my paper to be meaningful,to solve some problems even if few,so i took the task of elucidating the tough problem of the crisis of comp lit which was first propounded by Rene Wellek.i want to analyse it both from our(Chinese) point of view and your(western) point of view.so what is your responding to this problem. :nod:

[Hyacinth Girl]

Actually, it has been a few years for me, and I am not familiar with Rene Wellek. I will try to do some research this weekend and find out.

[Gibran]

I think CL is needless,literature should always be taken as unprofessional.