The Art of Comparison: Exploring Comparative Literature

Abstract

We humans are fond of comparing. Making comparison is both an everyday act (e.g. good/bad, day/night) and a form of art (e.g. literary criticism). Often, however, is it infested with paradoxes and problems: comparison tends to rely on some ‘standard’ and make value judgment. It becomes crucial when we compare cultures and literatures of two or more communities or countries. The question that the present lecture addresses is: how Comparative Literature broaches the dangers of comparison. The Talk analyzes the art of making comparison with a view to exploring how comparison, when informed and accommodative, enables us to discover relations and differences. Such understanding not only helps us gain new ideas but also facilitates inter-animation (e.g. influence, reception) and reciprocal illumination (e.g. counter-hegemony). Comparative Literature tells us that there are worlds outside the world we live in and that there are the ‘others’ that complement each ‘self’. Our understanding that there is a world outside us makes Comparative Literature a necessary venture.