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    The document discusses the history and approaches of comparative literature as academic disciplines in France and America. It outlines that comparative literature was first established in France in the 19th century and later spread to America in the 20th century. It compares the narrow French approach focused on influences between works and the broader American approach examining any connections between literary and non-literary works.

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    Schools

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    The document discusses the history and approaches of comparative literature as academic disciplines in France and America. It outlines that comparative literature was first established in France in the 19th century and later spread to America in the 20th century. It compares the narrow French approach focused on influences between works and the broader American approach examining any connections between literary and non-literary works.

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    The document discusses the history and approaches of comparative literature as academic disciplines in France and America. It outlines that comparative literature was first established in France in the 19th century and later spread to America in the 20th century. It compares the narrow French approach focused on influences between works and the broader American approach examining any connections between literary and non-literary works.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    16 views3 pages

    Schools

    Uploaded by

    qama
    The document discusses the history and approaches of comparative literature as academic disciplines in France and America. It outlines that comparative literature was first established in France in the 19th century and later spread to America in the 20th century. It compares the narrow French approach focused on influences between works and the broader American approach examining any connections between literary and non-literary works.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    Introduction :

     Comparative Literature was established in France during the 19th century


    as an academic discipline : France 1816

     It reached America only during the 20th century through the German
    scholars who migrated to America from Hitler’s Germany

    The French School :

     In the French sense of Comparative Literature, it is the moral


    responsibility of every French Comparatist to trace and relate the world
    literary experience to the French literary response because , according to
    him, the French literature is the backbone of the universal literary
    system

     Therefore, they were interested in analysing the external sources and


    influence of works. In the French School, Comparative Literature
    becomes an ancillary discipline in the field of French literary history

     The French school was too narrow and relied too heavily on factual evidence

     It argued that Comparative literature ought to involve the study of two elements
    ( two different languages)

     Comparatists of the French School also distinguish between direct / indirect


    influence, literary / non-literary influence, positive / negative influence

     Jean Marie Carre, Rene Etiemble, Paul Van Tieghem, Balden-Sperger are some
    of the famous French comparatists

    The American School :

    The other important school is that of the American comparatists from the land
    of free and mixed culture

    America is called a nation of immigrants in the words of Francois Jost. It is of


    many races but the Americans feel attached to their homeland along with their
    current American culture. In America, Comparative Literature was encouraged
    as an academic discipline in universities and institutions of higher learning

    The academic freedom given to the teachers promoted the multiplicity of


    literary responses and theories. A healthy tolerance in the field of literary
    appreciation was developed; and the scope of Comparative Literature was
    widened

    The eminent practitioners of the American school are H.H.Remak, Harry


    Levin, Verner Freidrich, Francois Jost, Arthur Kumar and many others

    The American School:

    The American school came as a reaction against the French school.

    It is has mainly two fields of study:

     Parallelism:

    The parallels between writers and works. It gives no importance to influence

     Intertextuality:

    Old texts turn into some sort of raw materials used for the creation of new ones.

    The American school, however, was completely different. It was a lot more
    liberal. Henry Remak

    According to it, anything could be compared with anything else, regardless


    even of whether that was literature or not. Interdisciplinary and universal

    Unlike the French one, the American school will even allow you to compare a
    poem with a song

    Differences between French and American Schools :

     The French and the American Schools differ in many aspects

     The French prefer a narrow positivist attitude and the Americans form a
    very broad approach to Comparative Literature
     The French scholars created Comparative Literature as a branch of
    literary history and a study of International relations as seem in the study
    of Byron and Pushkin or Goethe and Carlyle

     The French comparatists are primarily concerned with the study of


    Influence of or Reception to an author or authors abroad, i.e. with the
    study contactual relation between authors. E.g. Shelley and Bharathi

     To the Americans, it is an aesthetic discipline concerned with the study


    of Analogies or Parallels in literature beyond the confines of a particular
    country

     It is also a study of the relationship between literature and other arts or


    other areas of knowledge

     Through the American approach is broad-based and uninhabited, there is


    a possibility that it may encourage a kind of spurious scholarship unless
    one is very well- versed in two different areas of knowledge

     Scholars like Ulrich Weisstein favour a more constructive approach

    The French analogy studies are favoured by the American comparatists

    Comparatists like Van Tieghem are not against such studies provided they
    point to common trends. Another distinguished scholar, Rene Etiemble has
    given his support to analogy studies and has also demonstrated how well they
    can be done

    He has also called for a comparative study of such aspects like metrics,
    stylistics, etc. He is for a cautious approach to Parallel studies, enthusiastically
    recommended by the American comparatists, Remak and Rene Wellek

    He is for a parallel study of two writers belonging to the same civilization,


    though of different literatures

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