This presentation by Dr. Bhautik Limbani is on history and various schools of comparative literature studies.

1. Various Schools of
Comparative Literature
(Comparative Literary Studies)
Dr Bhautik Limbani
Assistant Professor
Department of English
School of Languages
Marwadi University, Rajkot

2. The Idea Proposed
• World literature is a term coined by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1827
when talking to Eckermann. Goethe introduced this concept of Weltliteratur to
describe the growing availability of texts from other nations, including
translations from Sanskrit, Islamic and Serbian epic poetry.

3. Genesis
• In 1877, Hugo von Meltzl de Lomnitz (1846–1908), a Transylvanian Hungarian,
published “Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum,” which was a multiple-
language journal introducing the literatures in major European countries or the other
literatures outside Europe.
• In 1887, Marx Koch (1855–1931), a German scholar, founded the world’s first
journal of truly Comparative Literature named “Zeitschrift für vergleichende
Literaturgeschichte”
• 1901, he also founded the “Studien zur vergleichenden Literaturgeschichte.”
• (Periodicals)

4. Theoretical Work
• 1886, Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett, an Irish scholar Comparative Literature

5. Courses at College
• In 1870, Alexander N. Veselovsky (Aлександр Hиколаевич Beceловский, 1838–1906), a
Russian scholar, gave lectures on the general literature at St. Petersburg University
• In 1871, Francesco Sanctis (1817–1883), an Italian scholar, chaired Litteratura Comparata in
Naples
• during 1887–1889, Charles Mills Gayley began a “comparative literary criticism” seminar at
Michigan University
• during 1890–1891, Arthur Marsh opened the first American Comparative Literature Seminar
at Harvard University
• in 1892, French scholar Joseph Texte, a student of Pierre Brunel, founded in Université de
Lyon a seminar named “Littérature allemande depuis la Renaissance jusqu’à la littérature
française.”

6. Dissertations, monographs, and bibliographies
• In 1900, Betz compiled La Littérature Comparée: Essai Bibliographique ,
which had a collection of more than 2,000 entries of Comparative Literature
terms.
• Danish literary critic Georg Brandes (1842–1927) also completed his
monumental work in Comparative Literature, Main Currents in Nineteenth
Century Literature (1872– 1890).
• In addition, in 1894, Gustave Lanson published Histoire de la Litterature
Française , which established his status in the French literary studies.
• In 1904, Frédéric Loliée published A Short History of Comparative
Literature: From the Earliest Times to the Present .

7. German School
• Johann Gottfried von Herder compiled On the Influence of Poetry on the Customs of
People (1778), which collected the folk songs from other ethnic groups including the
German, the British, the French, the Spanish, the Italian, the Greek, the Danish, the
Icelandic, the Swedish, and the Polish, and was the first anthology of “World
Literature.”
• More importantly, in 1827, Goethe proposed accordingly the concept of
“Weltliteratur,” which pointed out that literature would have the dual nature of global
and national identity; when the national literature became part of the world literature,
the national literature would be the spiritual wealth enjoyed by all mankind.
• Thematology

8. French School
• In the programmatic article introducing the first number of “Revue de Littérature
Comparée” (1921), Baldensperger critically summarized the academic opinions and
promoted that scholars should systematically apply empiricism to the research of the
relations between foreign literatures and French literature.
• Paul Van Tieghem’s classical work La littérature comparée further elaborated the
ideas of the French school including the definition of the term. He held the view that
the word “comparative” should avoid its aesthetic value to get a scientifi c one.
• Jean-Marie Carré (1887–1958), the chief editor of “Revue de Littérature Comparée,”
claimed that Comparative Literature was not the comparison of literatures but the
study of the factual relationship of literatures in his masterpiece La littérature
comparée .
• The concepts of Guyard’s La littérature comparée are similar to those of Paul Van
Tieghem who held that the essence of Comparative Literature was the study of the
history of the relationship of international literatures.
• Influence Study or Reception Study
• Questioned by Crisis of Comparative Study Rene Wellec (1958-59)

9. American School of Comparative Literature
• “Comparative Literature is the study of literature beyond the
confines of one particular country, and the study of the
relationships between literature on the one hand, and other
areas of knowledge and belief such as the arts (e.g. painting,
sculpture, architecture, music)”, philosophy, history, the social
sciences (e.g. politics, economics, sociology), the sciences,
religion, etc., on the other. - Henry Remak

10. Cont…
• According to Remak, the French school was too narrow, and relied
too heavily on factual evidence. In influence studies in the French
tradition, he argued, were unimaginative, deriving from a
positivistic approach.
• In a good many influence studies, the location of sources has been
given too much attention rather than such questions as: what was
retained and what was rejected, and why and how was the material
absorbed and integrated, and with what success?

11. Cont…
• The French tried to confine the boundaries of comparative literature, limiting
what could be and could not be included in the proper study of the subject,
whereas in Remak and the American school of comparative literature
anything can be compared with anything else, even if it is not literature.
• Remak’s approach focuses on the concept of “process”, while the French
school focuses on the concept of “product”.

12. Cont…
•The American school focuses on a model that involved
interdisciplinary work. It focuses on the network of
related subjects, when it comes to the study of
comparative literature.
•Influence study
•Reception Study

13. British School
• Mattew Arnold (1848)
• Touchstone Method
• Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett
• S.S. Prawer - Placing

14. India in Comparative Literature
• Tagore Vishwa Sahitya (VS) in his Address in 1907
• Vishwamanava
• David Damrosch has brought about demands revisiting the concept of WL
after seeing Tagore’s.
• a mandir (temple)
• ustad (master)
• mahakal (the Great Time) and Nataraj
• (What about Idol of the temple?)

15. • Shri Aurobindo ‘assembly of poets of world’
• Hariprasad Dwivedi ‘the end of the literature is the man’ ‘laghumanav’, ‘Vishvamanav’
• Umashankar Joshi, world-wide human consciousness
• Shamasher Bahadur Singh, Aman Raga Peace is the precondition of human development.

16. Comparative Inferences
• The words वसुधैव क
ु टुम्बकम् (vasudhaiva kuTumbakam) come from the mantra VI-
72 in Maha Upanishad which belongs to Samaveda tradition. The mantra reads:
अयं बन्धुरयंनेति गणना लघुचेिसाम्
उदारचररिानां िु वसुधैव क
ु टुम्बकम् ॥
Meaning: The distinction “This person is mine, and this one is not” is made only by
the narrow-minded (i.e. the ignorant who are in duality). For those of noble conduct
(i.e. who know the Supreme Truth) the whole world is one family (one Unit).
• Know Thyself: These were the words inscribed almost as a warning in the pronaos
of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. It was Plato who actually transmitted this phrase
via his dialogues.

17. References
• (DOC) Critical Practice- Journal of Literary and Critical Practice. Ed. Avadhesh Kumar Singh |
Avadhesh Kumar Singh - Academia.Edu. https://www.academia.edu/4687591/Critical_Practice-
_Journal_of_Literary_and_Critical_Practice._ed._avadhesh_kumar_singh. Accessed 18 Mar. 2020.
• “Comparative Literature: An Introduction.” Www.youtube.com,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC8xiRRVpnM. Accessed 11 Dec. 2021.
• “Comparative Literature: Ben Hutchinson.” Www.youtube.com,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V34vu01jpS4&t=219s. Accessed 11 Dec. 2021.
• Shunqing Cao. Variation Theory of Comparative Literature. Springer, 2016.

18. ThankYou