The living prism : itineraries in comparative literature / Eva Kushner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kushner, Eva.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comparative literature.

Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

Literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (350 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : Published for Carleton University by McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

She discusses the current state of comparative literary studies and the renewed role of comparative literature in a world that is at once more plural and more globalized, as well as some of the debates now taking place within literary criticism as a whole, including the interchange between comparative literature and cultural studies, the re-envisaging of the Renaissance, the work of Northrop Frye, myth and literature at the end of the twentieth century, modern drama, and post-colonialism. To play an important role in the human sciences, comparative literature had first to free itself of a number of restrictive habits, such as an insufficiently critical literary history. In order to do this, it had to think theoretically, but without yielding to the temptation of letting theory become an end in itself. Kushner demonstrates that, while under strong pressures to be a more rigourous science, comparative literature has realized that in the human sciences the validation of knowledge has to seek its own tests and criteria, becoming increasingly more open to individuality, difference, and life situations and controlling its tendency to universalize. With its emphasis on whether literary history is possible and the problems it raises for literary theory and for comparative literature in particular, The Living Prism adds an important dimension to the ongoing debate about criticism and comparative literary studies.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Foreword Knowledge, Empathy, and Global Village: The Comparative Discourse of Eva Kushner

Introduction

Legacies and Renewals

Literature in the Global Village

Is Comparative Literature Ready for the Twenty-first Century?

Towards a Typology of Comparative Literature Studies

Literary Studies, Cultural Studies: The Case for a Cease-Fire

Comparative Literature in Canada: Whence and Whither?

Theory, Theories, Theorizing, and Cultural Relativism

Changing Perspectives in Literary History

Diachrony and Structure: Thoughts on Renewals in the Theory of Literary History

From “Time Lost” to “Time Regained” in Literary History

On Renaissance Literary Historiography

Comparative Literary History among the Human Sciences

Comparative Literary History as Dialogue among Nations

History and the Power of Metaphor

Comparative Literary History in the Era of Difference

History and Early Modern Subjectivity

Distant Voices: The Call of Early Modern Studies

History and the Absent Self

The Emergence of the Paradoxical Self

The Renewed Meaning of the Renaissance Dialogue

Erasmus and the Paradox of Subjectivity

In Search of the Obverse Side of Petrarchism

Imagining the Renaissance Child

In Memory of Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye and the Possibility of Intercultural Dialogue

Northrop Frye and the Historicity of Literature

The Social Thought of Northrop Frye

Comparative Imaginings

Liberating Children’s Imagination

Myth and Literature: The Example of Modern Drama

Greek Myths in Modern Drama: Paths of Transformation

Victor Segalen and China: A Dialectic of Reality and Imagination

Index of Names

Subject Index

Notes:

Collection of essays, either previously published, or presented as lectures.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1-282-85908-0

9786612859083

0-7735-6896-4

OCLC:

76898704