Comparative Literature & Translation Studies : Unit 2
Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr Dilip Barad concerning the second unit of the topic Comparative Literature & Translation Studies.
In this blog, I will be referring to two 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 4 : 'What is Comprative Literature Today?' by Susan Bassnett :
The fourth presentation on the topic 'What is Comparative Literature Today?' was presented on 12th December, 2022 wherein Jhanvi Nakum and Nidhi Dave cooperatively presented the article.
Here in the article, Bassnett provides the nuance between practically comparing the literary texts and to observe the prepared comparison itself which is known as research on comparative literature.
Another idea of analysing the cultural dynamics with respect of consuming areas was the parameter of observing which of the entire literary texts has got more films on it. This idea established the relation between literature and cinema. Although the presented standard of popularity has its deficiency in supply and demand concept as the fact is that marketization of literature through cinema has peaked up in past few decades which results many new arrival of sub-genres of literature such as self-help genre; especially it becomes critical to see in the Post-Truth Age where facts are given importance on emotional appeals completely lacking logical appeal into them. In such period, people will be promoted to consume only what gives pleasure to them and taking the necessary awareness of nature, surrounding, and politics for granted which is perilous to the population at the end of the day.
The importance and significance of 'World-Literature' is highlighted as it can be easily recontextualized into various languages, cultures, and forms which gives it a special access of being across time and space.
The idea stating that Translation Studies is a sub-branch of Comparative Literature Studies is put in the crisis here as the very basis of comparative literature is laid upon the availability of translated writings of various cultures and languages. This relational problem has till the day been the crux of discussion for many critics. Thus, translation remains as the peremptory need for the comparative literature to thrive further encompassing the world of varieties.
The further discussion went on to describing the prevalent scenario of the place of Comparative Literature in today-world. It was argued that in West, Comparative Literature is dying whereas in East, it is growing.
Relation between Literature and Science in prevalent time was also highlighted.
Science 》Innovations 》More Demand 》More Transaction 》Materially Useful 》High Importance.
Literature 》Innovations 》Less Demand 》Limited Area of Transaction 》Ethically Useful 》Low Imporatance.
The study of culture and its treatment to literature serves as a measurement for the zeitgeist of the target culture examined for study. The broadeness of ideas and universality of thoughts are the main features of any literary writings as it deals with the entire world and its problems as well as achievements. These types of features have always been looked down upon as and when the consciousness of people has become narrow. For instance, when the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization) policy was introduced in India under the aegis of Chandra Sekhar Singh in 1991 on the basis of previously done several reforms in 1980, people of the country feared that United States of America being major capitalist juggernaut would again take charge of India and make it its slave, thus people became insular and nurtured the false assumption of 'Swadeshi' notion.
Another important point of seeing the changing of the medium in conveying the idea of proliferating 'World-Literature' from ancient to modern time is also thrown light upon.
Before 》Translation 》Book 》'World-Literature.'
Now 》Movie 》Screen 》'World-Literature.'
Article 5 : 'Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities : On Possible Futures for a Discipline' by Todd Presner :
The fifth presentation on the topic 'Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities : On Possible Futures for a Discipline' was presented on 13th December, 2022 wherein Vachchhalata Joshi and Hirva Pandya cooperatively presented the article.
In this article, the identification of Machine Translation and Human Translation is found. In Human Translation, there may be the chance of mistake or error, but unlike to that, Machine Translation runs on programmed source and algorithms which make it less likely to make a mistake or an error. In yesteryears, the machines were thought not to be made for intellectual tasks as humans were only considered the most intellectual beings on the planet, this notion is also true as humans are the species who have created machines, but with this, machines can also have their own intelligence and that is why humans made it play chess and today the story is different, because we have seen machine player in chess defeating human players, especially when humans are beginners in the play.
Further in the class discussion, there was the reference of the chatboat which answers the questions asked by humans. The website is named as ChatGPT. When the question was asked as "Who are more insincere from girls and boys?" then the boat replied such a neutral and logical answer and broke down the gender bias of male-female positions and point of view in society, the machine answered that sincerity is individual trait, so it cannot be generalised for particular community, both boys and girls can be sincere and insincere, but not the whole of only one community. The boat answered the same but in a different variation when the same question was asked again. This seems that the boat is working as a twenty first-century-mind. The answering the same question in different ways is also the part of English Language Training.
In Gujarati language, there is a proverb related to the education system : 'કુવામાં હોય તો અવેડામાં આવે." (Translation : If the water is there in the well, only then it can come in the trough.)
Here the metaphor of the well is given to teacher, and the metaphor of trough is to student.
The Well = The Teacher
The Trough = The Student
But, the proverb has been marked as an outdated saying as it has no prevalent relation to the modern digital education system. Here, we can say that the well or the teacher is no more needed as the sole source of education as the trough or the student has been given many other water or knowledge connection through medium of internet and cimpatible devices. Further it can be now given the metaphor of the trough that directly receives water from the clouds of digital servers through wi-fi and internet connections.
With reference to the marketization of knowledge and the need of Humanities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) was also discussed. The humanities are ethical poll in important decisions made by producing units of multinational companies.
Another good point of comparing Wikipedia to the traditional Encyclopaedia is of good example, as it highlights how easy and handy it has become to access knowledge. In traditional mode of Encyclopaedia, researchers or anyone has to have the bulky and lengthy encyclopaedias in order to find what they are seeking, whereas when in Wikipedia being a digital software, it is not having any burdensome existence as far as the person having it is concerned, another thing is that Wikipedia can easily be accessed through internet and supportive apparatus which has made knowledge handy and interestingly presentable.
Finally, the time comparison with regard of the accessibility of knowledge. The old times had little or no informative sources as compared to the toady ones. But with this the danger of misinformation lies, for baseless claims and inauthentic information is in plethora on the open platforms and crowd-sources.
The difference, pros, and cons of Distant Reading and Close Reading was the good example to see the Comparative Literature with the help of these approaches. The Distant Reading allows reader to see the peripheral commentaries or writings written in response to the text taken by the reader or researcher, whereas in Close Reading, reader can understand the selected text in a detailed manner focusing only on the selected text and leaving its related writings and articles aside.
Article 4 : 'What is Comprative Literature Today?' by Susan Bassnett :
The fourth presentation on the topic 'What is Comparative Literature Today?' was presented on 12th December, 2022 wherein Jhanvi Nakum and Nidhi Dave cooperatively presented the article.
Another idea of analysing the cultural dynamics with respect of consuming areas was the parameter of observing which of the entire literary texts has got more films on it. This idea established the relation between literature and cinema. Although the presented standard of popularity has its deficiency in supply and demand concept as the fact is that marketization of literature through cinema has peaked up in past few decades which results many new arrival of sub-genres of literature such as self-help genre; especially it becomes critical to see in the Post-Truth Age where facts are given importance on emotional appeals completely lacking logical appeal into them. In such period, people will be promoted to consume only what gives pleasure to them and taking the necessary awareness of nature, surrounding, and politics for granted which is perilous to the population at the end of the day.
The importance and significance of 'World-Literature' is highlighted as it can be easily recontextualized into various languages, cultures, and forms which gives it a special access of being across time and space.
The idea stating that Translation Studies is a sub-branch of Comparative Literature Studies is put in the crisis here as the very basis of comparative literature is laid upon the availability of translated writings of various cultures and languages. This relational problem has till the day been the crux of discussion for many critics. Thus, translation remains as the peremptory need for the comparative literature to thrive further encompassing the world of varieties.
The further discussion went on to describing the prevalent scenario of the place of Comparative Literature in today-world. It was argued that in West, Comparative Literature is dying whereas in East, it is growing.
Relation between Literature and Science in prevalent time was also highlighted.
Science 》Innovations 》More Demand 》More Transaction 》Materially Useful 》High Importance.
Literature 》Innovations 》Less Demand 》Limited Area of Transaction 》Ethically Useful 》Low Imporatance.
The study of culture and its treatment to literature serves as a measurement for the zeitgeist of the target culture examined for study. The broadeness of ideas and universality of thoughts are the main features of any literary writings as it deals with the entire world and its problems as well as achievements. These types of features have always been looked down upon as and when the consciousness of people has become narrow. For instance, when the LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization) policy was introduced in India under the aegis of Chandra Sekhar Singh in 1991 on the basis of previously done several reforms in 1980, people of the country feared that United States of America being major capitalist juggernaut would again take charge of India and make it its slave, thus people became insular and nurtured the false assumption of 'Swadeshi' notion.
Another important point of seeing the changing of the medium in conveying the idea of proliferating 'World-Literature' from ancient to modern time is also thrown light upon.
Before 》Translation 》Book 》'World-Literature.'
Now 》Movie 》Screen 》'World-Literature.'
Article 5 : 'Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities : On Possible Futures for a Discipline' by Todd Presner :
The fifth presentation on the topic 'Comparative Literature in the Age of Digital Humanities : On Possible Futures for a Discipline' was presented on 13th December, 2022 wherein Vachchhalata Joshi and Hirva Pandya cooperatively presented the article.
In this article, the identification of Machine Translation and Human Translation is found. In Human Translation, there may be the chance of mistake or error, but unlike to that, Machine Translation runs on programmed source and algorithms which make it less likely to make a mistake or an error. In yesteryears, the machines were thought not to be made for intellectual tasks as humans were only considered the most intellectual beings on the planet, this notion is also true as humans are the species who have created machines, but with this, machines can also have their own intelligence and that is why humans made it play chess and today the story is different, because we have seen machine player in chess defeating human players, especially when humans are beginners in the play.
In Gujarati language, there is a proverb related to the education system : 'કુવામાં હોય તો અવેડામાં આવે." (Translation : If the water is there in the well, only then it can come in the trough.)
Here the metaphor of the well is given to teacher, and the metaphor of trough is to student.
The Well = The Teacher
The Trough = The Student
But, the proverb has been marked as an outdated saying as it has no prevalent relation to the modern digital education system. Here, we can say that the well or the teacher is no more needed as the sole source of education as the trough or the student has been given many other water or knowledge connection through medium of internet and cimpatible devices. Further it can be now given the metaphor of the trough that directly receives water from the clouds of digital servers through wi-fi and internet connections.
There are other online tools such as Ngram Viewer that can be taken for the study of culture and the test of time in consuming the variety of products and their supply and demand.
Then the relationship between politics and knowledge or in sir Michel Foucault's hypothesis of the relation between 'power and knowledge' is also considered. Any nation is called great on the basis of its economy, military, and governance policies which all influence the production of literature and cinema of the nation. That is where the questions raised by sir Noam Chomsky are also valid that the production of literature is done by whom and why and who controls it and who disseminates what is produced by the power.
Then the relationship between politics and knowledge or in sir Michel Foucault's hypothesis of the relation between 'power and knowledge' is also considered. Any nation is called great on the basis of its economy, military, and governance policies which all influence the production of literature and cinema of the nation. That is where the questions raised by sir Noam Chomsky are also valid that the production of literature is done by whom and why and who controls it and who disseminates what is produced by the power.
This raises the concern of democratic values and the threats to it from digital means. Ultimately, the technology is operated by human beings and the owners are corporate giants, so there lies the corporate interest as well in publishing and marketizing the technology, this puts the values of democracy into question and the time of Post-Truth has also been arrived by the rash use of digital means and media.
With reference to the marketization of knowledge and the need of Humanities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) was also discussed. The humanities are ethical poll in important decisions made by producing units of multinational companies.
Another aspect of Digital Humanities is that it solves and breaks down the problem of keeping human assistance in educational premises. Before the arrival of Google Classroom, many teachers needed assistance of human in keeping records of students's data, but Google Classroom has made it easy and more authentic than the human assistance as the humans are prone to err, but machines are not.
The difference, pros, and cons of Distant Reading and Close Reading was the good example to see the Comparative Literature with the help of these approaches. The Distant Reading allows reader to see the peripheral commentaries or writings written in response to the text taken by the reader or researcher, whereas in Close Reading, reader can understand the selected text in a detailed manner focusing only on the selected text and leaving its related writings and articles aside.
Conclusion : In all the supplementary discussions, the importance of Digital Humanities in Comparative Literature and the possible dangers in using digital medium for research and study are at the central part. The future of Digital Humanities, its possible academic position, and the threats to building new road towards the future of Humanities studies are some highlights of the article.
Thank you!
Thank you!
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