NATIONAL, COMPARATIVE AND WORLD LITERATURE

 “Literature in English” is a common one that encompasses all literature written in English, regardless of the citizenship of the author

Classification is essential to distinguish Comparative Literature from National Literature, General Literature, and World Literature

 

National Literature

Two contradictory explanations….

1. National literature  is produced by the people of a state, in the language of that people. For example, the Tamil literature, written in Tamil and by a Tamilian is accepted as National Literature. This is a narrow sense which excludes Tamil literature produced in countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia and other countries

National literature is the literature produced by citizens of a particular nation. It's one way of grouping literature (e.g., American literature, British literature, French literature, and Indian English literature)

2. Many comparitists accept all writings produced by those people who share the same culture and language though they hail from different nations

Difference between National and Comparative Literature

Bharath and Bharathidasan – National Literature

Bharathi  and Walt Whitman - Comparative Literature

There are authors writing in the same language but belong to different nations

T S Eliot - an American-born British poet

Thomas Mann – a German novelist moved to the United States

Johann Wolfgang Goethe used the concept of Weltliteratur in several of his essays in the early decades of the nineteenth century to describe the international circulation and reception of literary works in Europe, including works of non-Western origin

Goethe’s disciple Johann Peter Eckermann published a collection of conversations with Goethe in 1835.  Goethe spoke with Eckermann about the excitement of reading Chinese novels and Persian and Serbian poetry as well as of his fascination with seeing how his own works were translated and discussed abroad, especially in France

Goethe made a famous statement in January 1827, predicting that world literature would replace the national literature as the major mode of literary creativity in the future

 

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe:

‘National literature does not mean much at present, it is time for the era of world literature and everybody must endeavor to accelerate this epoch’ P225

 

World Literature is about the commonalities between all national literatures. It is concerned with that which is universal and common to all literatures. World Literature, in its aspiration for universality, is composed of national literatures

World literature is sometimes used to refer to the sum total of the world’s national literatures, but usually it refers to the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin

Often used in the past primarily for masterpieces of Western European literature, world literature today is increasingly seen in global context

Readers today have access to an unprecedented range of works from around the world in excellent translations, and since the mid-1990s a lively debate has grown up concerning both the aesthetic and the political values and limitations of an emphasis on global processes over national traditions

 

So, I live in Ireland, where the lingua franca is English. American, English, Irish, Australian, Canadian, etc. books are considered “literature” cause their written in English. It doesn’t matter where the author lives. It could be Rushdie, Roth, Updike, Gaiman, Tolkien, whoever, as long as they’re writing in English. Works written in any other language (even translated) are “World Literature”.

 

Comparative Literature and World Literature – Elements of Space

Comparative Literature – relationship only two countries, or two authors of different nationality - Elements of Space

World Literature implies recognition throughout the world

World Literature – Elements of Time

World Literature deals with literature consecrated  as great by the test of time - Elements of Time

World Literature deals with time and world-honoured literary production of enduring quality

Ø  William Buck’s translation the Ramayana (India)

Ø  Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)

Ø  Confucius’ Analects (China)

Ø  Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami (Japan)

Ø  The Master and Margarita, Mikhal Burgakov (Russia)

Ø  The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht (Germany)

 

Difference between Comparative and World Literature

While Comparative Literature is about the differences, World Literature is about the commonalities between all national literatures. It is concerned with that which is universal and common to all literatures

 

General Literature

Paul Van Tieghem distinguishes between Comparative Literature and General Literature: Comparative Literature- concerned with “binary relations” General Literature- “research into facts common to several literatures”

Paul Van Tieghem: The object of comparative literature is essentially the study of diverse literatures in their relations with one another./ Comparative literature is a discipline which bears on facts common to several literatures, considered as such, be it in their mutual interdependence or by analogy./ Comparative literature is about the binary relations between two elements

General literature is the study of international currents such as Petrarchism - the term Petrarchism refers to the imitation and Rousseauism - Jacques Rousseau the development of modern political, economic and educational thought the problems of literary history and concepts like humanism, symbolism, etc

 

Levels of National Literature, Comparative Literature and General Literature

Ø  According to French Comparitist, Paul Van Tieghem, National Literature, Comparative Literature and General Literature represent three consecutive levels

Ø  National Literature treats questions confined one National Literature:

Ø  Comparative Literature normally deals with problems involving two different literatures:

Ø  General Literature is devoted to developments in a larger number of countries