Comparative Literature: A Modest Reading List

There has been a change in plans. I was going to write about NeMLA today, but it seems that entry into my library will be shelved for another week as, there is something too incongruous about writing about an academic gathering as I sit in my library, self-quarantined. Many of us find ourselves at home, something I am quite used to as a humanist. Much of my Ph.D. was spent on a research fellowship and I have learned how to productively fill the hours when the only driving force behind my work is myself, but perhaps, unlike me, you are an active person who feels limited and confined by four walls, someone who enjoys long walks whether through the city or in nature. So, today I thought I would pick up a different entry, one requested by Instagrammer @Professorjacques, who recently inquired about a comparative literature reading list, a request I find myself quite thrilled with the prospect of. Comparative Literature scholars have produced plenty of weighty tomes in their time, and perhaps there is no better time to pick one of these daunting monstrosities up than when under a self-quarantine. Perhaps, I too, will revisit some of these texts during these long, silent, lonely days. Auerbach, writing in exile from Turkey, especially, appeals to me at this moment as, following a productive conference I feel exiled from the public library and unable to obtain access to those research texts I most wanted to revisit, some primary sources that it would be impossible to procure personal copies of. So, join me on a tour of some seminal literary studies texts that we can all retreat into.

Wondering what comparative literature even is? Don’t fret, most people haven’t heard of this slightly obscure field. Go check out What is Comparative Literature? And come back to this post when you are ready for the reading list.

My first recommended text isn’t, properly speaking, a comparative literature text, though it is certainly a product of comparative literature and contains many texts that have been important to the modern development of the discipline. Regardless of what form of literary studies you are interested in, and certainly if you want to take up some serious reading in the vein of comparative literature, then it is important to have an anthology of literary theory and criticism and I think the Bible of lit theory and crit is The Norton Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. This volume was first recommended to me (and my classmates) as an undergraduate as a text that would be indispensable for the serious study of literature, which is when I ordered my copy, and, it was the text we used in the History of Literary Theory and Criticism course I took during my Ph.D. It provides a comprehensive set of excerpts of the defining texts of Western literary study in higher education beginning with Ancient Greek philosophy and continuing to present day scholarship. It is an excellent survey, and whether you are still trying to find your footing and identify what discourses you want to delve into more deeply, or like me, have even taught a course on literary theory and criticism, this is an invaluable addition on my bookshelf and I offer it to yours. As far as how to read it. I would recommend to begin by perusing the table of contents and identify the readings that most interest you. Read those first. There is a definite value to reading the text linearly, but only if your interest in the subject is strong enough to endure it. There will be plenty of time in your lifetime to read this book forward, backward, and upside down. If you’re wondering what edition to get, while I wouldn’t rush out to buy the third edition if you already own the second edition and have a limited budget, if you’re buying this text for the first time go for the third edition. Its cover (according to many) is less attractive, but they’ve added a lot of contemporary scholarship and these additions definitely set a new standard for the field that we should all be aware of whether we accept them or not.

This isn’t going to be a numbered recommendation, but before I launch into a list of historically relevant comparative literature texts I recommend for readers unfamiliar with the field of comparative literature to take a beat and read Haun Saussy’s “Comparative Literature: The Next Ten Years.” Even if you’re already familiar with comparative literature, this brief essay is an important reflection on the field and something that comparative literature scholars are familiar with. It will give you a sense of the contemporary field in a brief format. I don’t want to say it’s necessary to read a book on the contemporary field first, because this in and of itself is tricky since so much scholarship builds upon a solid understanding of the history of any given discipline. Reading this article strikes the balance between knowing enough to have a sense of where we’re going without dwelling too long in the present without any historical knowledge of the field. That being said, if you do proceed to the other texts on this list, return to Saussy’s essay at the end and see what you can glean from a second reading. No scholar reads important works just once.

To begin our historical survey of comparative literature, I have chosen the work of René Wellek, and I’m going to recommend two texts. First, the ever seminal “The Crisis of Comparative Literature,” a text whose provocative name has prompted many follow ups over the years. Wellek’s essay appears again and again in comparative literature scholarship that tackles the ever present challenge of defining the field, and it is a key text to be familiar with. That being said, Wellek’s collaboration with Austin Warren on The Theory of Literature provides an important overview of subjects like what is literary studies, literary theory, criticism, and history, and a differentiation between general, comparative, and national literature. This book is a great consideration of the study of literature as a category that helps to parse out some of the reasons that the study of literature is divided into so many different departments, and what the additional field of comparative literature offers in this constellation of national literatures. What you won’t find in Wellek is any consideration of postcoloniality. This is a work that comes out of a period when comparative literature was Eurocentric. A note on shopping for this book, I provided a link to an edition, but I think it’s fine to buy the cheapest edition you find.

My next recommendation is from around the same period as Wellek’s work. Erich Auerbach’s seminal Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Thought (the Princeton Classics version of this, which is what I have, includes a lovely introduction by Edward Said). One of my enduring memories was of an older professor speaking of a time when comparative literature scholars read Auerbach from start to finish (something I confess I have yet to accomplish). It is a weighty text. If Wellek’s work is a consideration of the field, Auerbach’s book is a master course in comparative study, though a work Said rightly acknowledges could only have been produced during Auerbach’s time. Now no scholar would be allowed to cover so much territory or to make such sweeping claims, but a German Jew exiled in Turkey during World War II and without a research library Auerbach had to rely on his memory and the primary works of literature that were available to him. He could not immerse in an archive and lucky for us he was writing in the New Critical style so he focused more on close analysis of the text, a practice known as “explication de texte.” I think there’s a certain melancholy to this text that feels particularly appealing right now, as we’re trapped in our homes. Typical chapters people read in this work (if you have to make choices) include “Odysseus’s Scar,” “In the Hôtel de la Mole” and “The Brown Stocking.” Even if you don’t have time to read the entire book, do look through the table of contents because it provides an overview of many of the works that continue to constitute the closest thing comparative literature has to a canon (for better or for worse as it is, again, very Eurocentric).

Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism (1993) edited by Charles Bernheimer marks a turning point in the history of comparative literature that is fairly self-explanatory from the name. Unlike Wellek and Auerbach I don’t think this text takes a lot of explanation. It is more recognizable as a study of the field because it is more recent and the norms of study haven’t changed much. Definitely read “The Bernheimer Report, 1993” which is representative of a pivotal moment in defining comparative literature, again. I’m not linking to this one because I find it unaffordable. Procure it by whatever reasonable means you find, for example…through a library and if you can’t find it I would swap it out with Gayatri Spivak’s The Death of the Discipline.

Finally, for a broad overview of the field I recommend finishing on Rita Felski and Susan Stanford Friedman’s Comparison: Theories, Approaches, Uses, which brings us up to the present day and comparative literature. This text introduces an alternative model to the idea of “comparison” in the form of “relationality.” Should you choose to read this text (and if you want to understand the field you really should) you’ll learn about the baggage that has been packed into the concept of “comparison” (implicit here is the idea of contrasting as well) centuries including the problem of there needing to be some kind of clear connection between texts being compared versus the more fluid promise of “relationality” that promises to be more flexible as we seek to put a global body of literary works into conversation even where obvious connections may not exist, as well as as we seek a more flexible understanding of what constitutes an object of study.

A deeper dive might lead you to these additional authors, but I wouldn't begin here:

Susan Bassnett’s Comparative Literature is a foundational text, though it is possible you can find pdfs of chapters. Bassnett is most well-known for her stance on translation, if my memory serves me correctly, and the argument that translation studies is the proper direction for comparative literature.

Gayatri Spivak’s Death of the Discipline (2003). Spivak is an important figure in the history of contemporary comparative literature beginning with her translation of Derrida as a contribution to theory, her contributions to feminism, and her contributions to postcolonial studies, but always as a comparatist.

Emily Apter’s Against World Literature. There’s traditionally been a divide between world literature scholars (this tends to be an anglophone approach to literature) and comparative literature (which is multilingual) as two fields in a conflict over the right to define what a global approach to literature ought to be. Against World Literature represents the logical extreme of this conflict, essentially an argument against translation. There’s also a valuable transcribed conversation between Gayatri Spivak (Comp Lit) and David Damrosch (World Literature that is a more measured meeting of the minds.

So, there you have it, some heavy reading on the subject of comparative literature.