Description
Book SynopsisWith selections extending from the beginning of comparative study through the years of intensive theoretical inquiry and on to contemporary discussions of the world's literatures, this title helps readers navigate a rapidly evolving discipline in a dramatically changing world.
Trade Review"Combining classic essays with little-known pieces from across the centuries and around the world whose take on comparative literary study is especially pertinent to debates today,
The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature will be an indispensable resource for debates about how to conceive of literary studies today and in the future, and a salutary reminder that for comparatists the questions posed by globalization have always been on the table."
—Jonathan Culler, past president of the American Comparative Literature Association"Rebuilt many times on the high seas, comparative literature is a Noah's ark of texts, methodologies, languages, communities, and aspirations. This collection captures the restless, experimental, self-critical spirit of what has never been a discipline or a field but a project, from its emergence in the breakdown of Enlightenment universalism to current debates about circulation, translation, and value."
—Haun Saussy, Yale University"This is an excellent anthology of the main texts that define the field of comparative literature. These pieces show how the discipline has been organized in the past and where it is going in an age of increased globalization. The excellent introductions are concise, clear, and well written. This is a book that all students of comparative literature will want to read."
—Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania"No other book gathers essays forming the major lines of comparative literature study from the Enlightenment to the present. I have no doubt that it will benefit anyone who teaches introductory courses in comparative and world literature. It is easy to imagine an undergraduate or graduate course structured by this book, with several literary works read alongside each of its sections. And
The Princeton Sourcebook in Comparative Literature is scrupulously well organized and edited, with concise, informative biographical introductions that reveal the kinds of negotiations of language, national identity, and struggle that are at the heart of the discipline."
—Kevin McLaughlin, Brown UniversityTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION ix PART ONE: ORIGINS CHAPTER 1: Results of a Comparison of Different Peoples' Poetry in Ancient and Modern Times (1797) 3 by Johann Gottfried Herder CHAPTER 2: Of the General Spirit of Modern Literature (1800) 10 by Germaine de Stael CHAPTER 3: Conversations on World Literature (1827) 17 by J. W. von Goethe and J. P. Eckermann CHAPTER 4: From The Birth of Tragedy (1872) 26 by Friedrich Nietzsche CHAPTER 5: Present Tasks of Comparative Literature (1877) 41 by Hugo Meltzl CHAPTER 6: The Comparative Method and Literature (1886) 50 by Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett CHAPTER 7: World Literature (1899) 61 by Georg Brandes CHAPTER 8: From What Is Comparative Literature? (1903) 67 by Charles Mills Gayley PART TWO: THE YEARS OF CRISIS CHAPTER 9: The Epic and the Novel (1916) 81 by Georg Lukacs CHAPTER 10: Chaos in the Literary World (1934) 92 by Kobayashi Hideo CHAPTER 11: From Epic and Novel (1941) 104 by Mikhail Bakhtin CHAPTER 12: Preface to European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (1948) 120 by Ernst Robert Curtius CHAPTER 13: Philology and Weltliteratur (1952) 125 by Erich Auerbach CHAPTER 14: From Minima Moralia (1951) 139 by Theodor Adorno CHAPTER 15: Poetry, Society, State (1956) 150 by Octavio Paz CHAPTER 16: Preface to La Litterature comparee (1951) 158 by Jean-Marie Carre CHAPTER 17: The Crisis of Comparative Literature (1959) 161 by Rene Wellek PART THREE: THE THEORY YEARS CHAPTER 18: The Structuralist Activity (1963) 175 by Roland Barthes CHAPTER 19: Women's Time (1977) 183 by Julia Kristeva CHAPTER 20: Semiology and Rhetoric (1973) 208 by Paul de Man CHAPTER 21: Writing (1990) 227 by Barbara Johnson CHAPTER 22: The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem (1978) 240 by Itamar Even-Zohar CHAPTER 23: Cross-Cultural Poetics: National Literatures (1981) 248 by Edouard Glissant CHAPTER 24: The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983) 259 by Edward W. Said CHAPTER 25: The Quest for Relevance (1986) 284 by Ngugi wa Thiong'o PART FOUR: CONTEMPORARY EXPLORATION S CHAPTER 26: Comparative Cosmopolitanism (1992) 309 by Bruce Robbins CHAPTER 27: Literature, Nation, and Politics (1999) 329 by Pascale Casanova CHAPTER 28: Comparative Literature in China (2000) 341 by Zhou Xiaoyi and Q. S. Tong CHAPTER 29: From Translation, Community, Utopia (2000) 358 by Lawrence Venuti CHAPTER 30: Crossing Borders (2003) 380 by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak CHAPTER 31: Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur (2006) 399 by Franco Moretti CHAPTER 32: A New Comparative Literature (2006) 409 by Emily Apter BIBLIOGRAPHIES 421 CREDITS 431 INDEX 435
