This book is about culture and comparison. Starting with the
history of the discipline of comparative literature and its
forgotten relation to the positivist comparative method, it
inquires into the idea of comparison in a postcolonial world.
Comparison was Eurocentric by exclusion when it applied only to
European literature, and Eurocentric by discrimination when it
adapted evolutionary models to place European literature at the
forefront of human development. This book argues that inclusiveness
is not a sufficient response to postcolonial and multiculturalist
challenges because it leaves the basis of equivalence unquestioned.
The point is not simply to bring more objects under comparison, but
rather to examine the process of comparison. The book offers a new
approach to the either/or of relativism and universalism, in which
comparison is either impossible or assimilatory, by focusing
instead on various forms of “incommensurability”—comparisons
in which there is a ground for comparison but no basis for
equivalence. Each chapter develops a particular form of such
cultural comparison from readings of important novelists (Joseph
Conrad, Simone Schwartz-Bart), poets (Aimé Césaire, Derek
Walcott), and theorists (Edouard Glissant, Jean-Luc Nancy).
General
Imprint: |
Stanford University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Cultural Memory in the Present |
Release date: |
December 2006 |
Firstpublished: |
2007 |
Authors: |
Natalie Melas
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 23mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth
|
Pages: |
304 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8047-3197-3 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8047-3197-7 |
Barcode: |
9780804731973 |
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