Comparative Literature & Translation Studies : Unit 1

Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr Dilip Barad concerning the first unit of the topic Comparative Literature & Translation Studies.

In this blog, I will be referring to three articles in context of the topic and will give the key highlights from the articles following the structure arranged as abstract, key points, and concluding remarks.

Article 1 : 'Why Comparative Indian Literature?' by Sisir Kumar Das & Amiya Dev :

The very first presentation on the topic 'Why Comparative Indian Literature?' was presented on 5th December, 2022 wherein Aamena Rangwala and Divya Sheta cooperatively presented the article.

From the article we find the deliberate use of the word 'Indian Comparative Literature' as it was necessary to highlight the insularity of European Comparative Literature. The idea of 'Weltliteratur' (World-literature) propounded by German poet and critic Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1827, was also referred to there as the very prefix 'European' in Comparative Literature limits the versatility of the very nature of Comparative Literature which belongs to all the people, languages, cultures, and nations of the world.

In the article, Das and Dev have persistently tried to mark out the danger of being limited to particular nation and its culture and keeping it in the centre for comparison of the world literature. They have picked up the ongoing argument and found out the gap in comprehending the insular nature of Eurocentricism.

The further readings revealed the nuance between what what should be called 'English Literature' and what 'Literature in English.' So, English Literature is what belongs to United Kingdom and Commonwealth Literature whereas Literatures in English suggests the literature of nations and their cultures other than England and written in English language or translated from the original foreign language into English.

The resistance of Europe to the foreign literary canons and assimilation of India to the world literary dThe resistance of Europe to the foreign literary canons and assimilation of India to the world literary dynamics are two dichotomous traits and the essence of discussion put forth in the article.

Rabindranath Tagore's concept of 'Temple of Natraj' is broken down here in the article, first let us see the conceptualization of Tagore's thought :

Temple -> The World or Universe
Natraj -> Kaala or Time

So, here we find that literature fails in taste of time as the time is representation of the zeitgeist and the people living in the period; so whatever people keep on talking of will survive the time and become "popular culture" so that what is really best will fail to exist in the world due to less attention laid onto it.

Further in the article we found three major terms which helped describing the insularity of European Comparative Literature :

Parochialism : 'a limited or narrow outlook, especially focused on a local area; narrow-mindedness.' (Oxford English Deictionary)

Dilettantism : 'The act of behaving like a dilettante, of being an amateur or "dabbler", sometimes in the arts. Also the act of enjoying the arts, being a connoisseur.' (Wiktionary)

Chauvinism : 'Excessive or prejudiced support for one's own cause or group.' And it also means 'exaggerated or aggressive patriotism.' (Oxford English Dictionary)

Article 2 : 'Comparative Literature in India' by Amiya Dev :

The second presentation on the topic 'Comparative Literature in India' was presented on 6th December, 2022 wherein Divya Parmar and Mayuri Pandya cooperatively presented the article.ynamics are two dichotomous traits and the essence of discussion put forth in the article.

In this article, Dev has marked out some of the major concerns of Comparative Literature in India.

Dev talked about Interliterarines of Indian Literature as it does not focus only on praising good over evil but also highlights the sentiments of evil and its formation.

Further the Post-Structuralist term 'Apriori Situation' was introduced which meant the given condition that cannot be changed but to be lived with doing necessary adjustments. For example, we have the word 'Duster' which refers to the chalk-dust wiper, but with the advent of digital boards, the very function of duster was enhanced to rub the digitally written texts and diagrams which do not involve chalk-dust and use digital pen instead of traditional chalk as well as digital duster instead of traditional duster. This type of usages is known as 'proverbs' and 'idioms' which may or may not be pertinent to the prevalent standards in modern world.

Further argument went on analysing the idea of Indian literature which supports the idea of 'one soul, different manifestation' and if applied to literature, it becomes 'one essence or meaning, different genres or stories' which is indirectly refuted by Dev as he supports the idea of many souls or meanings and different forms of expression.

Indian Literature 》Singularity : One Soul -> Different Forms 》'Why' is laid stress upon more along with 'How'

Amiya Dev : Plurality : Many Souls -> Different Forms 》'How' is equally laid stress upon as 'Why'

After this, the "hegemonic" importance towards literature was discussed wherein the rivalry of literature on linguistic, cultural, and national basis was discussed that how one language gets its prominence from the people who speak that language and write and read their cultural literature only in their spoken language. To solve this, Dev proposes English as a linking language which can be accessed by majority in the world due to its flexible nature in context of linguistic inflections, that is why English has survived and become the global language and also positioned as the second language of many non-English nations present in the world today since long time and keeps thriving to the day whereas other ancient languages are now extinct.

French who knows French and English but not Hindi 《 English 》Indian who knows Hindi and English but not French

So, in upper case, the English will serve as a linking language or 'lingua franca' between two different speakers who do not know opposite each others's native language.

Here I am attaching the board-work done by sir during lecturing the article, in the board work, many scholars from the article were referred to, in order to visit the file, please click here.

Article 3 : 'Comparative Literature in India : An Overview of Its History' by Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta :

The third presentation on the topic 'Comparative Literature in India : An Overview of Its History' was presented on 7th December, 2022 wherein Jheel Barad and Dhruvita Dhameliya cooperatively presented the article.

The author Subha Chakraborty Das, the professor at the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. The university is the place from where the Comparative Literature Studies in India have been commenced.

Subha states Tagore that his lecture titled as 'Visvasahitya' (World Literature) given at the National Council of Education in 1907 laid the foundation of the establishment of the Department of Comparative Literature in 1956 at Jadvapur University, Kolkata which in the same year started functioning.

Next sequence which Dasgupta hit upon was the relation of aesthetic system of society and its recognition in contemporary literatures. It is the fact that particular age in history followed specified standard and criteria of aesthetic values, the way people considered what can or cannot be called aesthetic object was the way literature was written in order to serve the purpose of the time.

The epistemology of comparison was discussed by Dasgupta with the description of its framework. The colonial framework and its emphasis on pedagogical aspect of education system along with Sanskrit gave the way to compare Indian Literature to that of the English one.

The idea envisioned by Naresh Guha, the former chairperson of the department, was the role of the department of Comparative Literature to create and foster intensely creative environment. Dasgupta states that it was the seventies when Comparative Literature and Indian Literature substantially entered "but not from the point of view of asserting national identity." This is very much important aspect to see that as and when we talk Comparative Literature, it is not about comparing two nations and their cultures with measures of high and low, important and useless, good and bad, but it is to see the similarity of messages given by the taken texts of different nations and cultures for comparison.

The crucial aspect of Comparative Literature is found in 21st century when it engaged with two major milestones in the study of Humanities, namely, Translation Studies and Cultural Studies.

Engaged with Translation Studies :

In Dasgupta's words : "Comparative Literature’s relationship with Translation Studies was not a new phenomenon for one or two departments or centres, such as the one in Hyderabad University, which was involved in doing translation studies for a considerable period. Today the university has a full-fledged Centre for Comparative Literature offering courses, and research in Translation Studies is an important area....Translation Studies cover different areas of interliterary studies. Histories of translation may be used to map literary relations while analysis of acts of translation leads to the understanding of important characteristics of both the source and the target literary and cultural systems."

Engaged with Cultural Studies :

While talking Cultural Studies : "As for Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature had always engaged with different aspects of Cultural Studies, the most prominent being literature and its relation with the different arts. Today studies in intermediality in Comparative Literature are common....Again in a course on performance taught at Jadavpur University the purpose, it is stated, is to look at performance not as an art form, but as a means to study social behavior patterns to understand social processes. It proposes to look into conceptual categories inherent in ritual and theatre and extend them to the reading of behavioural patterns. Ritual and theatre and everyday performativity are then viewed in terms of both separation and integration."

Further with reference to the diversity of Comparative Literature, the sense of wide-ranging approach of Cultural Studies and Translation Studies have been interlinked with vision of betterment in the field of literary criticism and theory.

Conclusion : The above presented articles and its related synopsis are to be taken as the subject of learning and getting basics of Comparative Literature and its goals as well as functioning.

Thank you!