Humanism and Comparative Literature
Abstract
The essay focuses on the notion of ‘contemporary humanism’, with particular attention to the cultural and methodological role of Comparative Literature in defining and studying the concept.
Humanism is a central notion in the development of the European and the Western idea of literature, for textual reception and exegesis. Nowadays, however, the concept has taken on many different meanings, and many of them stem from the crisis of the traditional humanism and from anti-humanistic philosophical positions. With Edward Said, therefore, we may speak of an ‘anti-humanistic humanism’, i.e a self-critical humanism. Starting from the analysis of the theoretical debate, the essay will take into consideration the languages and the forms (such as intertextuality) in which contemporary literature expresses self-critical positions. At the same time, the importance of considering new perspectives between the present and the past, and between those that have been considered central or peripheral cultures, contributes to rethinking the notion of “classics”.
As I will try to demonstrate, from this point of view Comparative Literature plays a fundamental role among the Humanities (a role we hope will be of cooperation and cross-disciplinarity), and in the field of teaching and research, publishing, cultural assets and artistic heritage, by contributing to build a critical, autonomous and long-lasting culture, and to enhance the critical faculty, civic duty and freedom of thought in contemporary democracies.
Downloads
References
Abraham, Matthew, “Edward Said and After. Toward a New Humanism”, Cultural Critique, 67 (2007): 1-12.
Agamben, Giorgio, L’aperto. L’uomo e l’animale, Torino, Einaudi, 2002.
Barta, Peter I., The Fall of Iron Curtain and the Culture of Europe, New York, Routledge, 2013.
Bachtin, Michail, “Risposta a una domanda del «Novyi mir»”, L’autore e l’eroe (1979), Torino, Einaudi, 1988: 341-348;
Barthes, Roland, Le plaisir du texte (1973), trad. it. Il piacere del testo Torino, Einaudi, 1999.
Id., La chambre claire (1980), trad. it. La camera chiara, Torino, Einaudi, 2003.
Bettini, Maurizio, Vertere. Un'antropologia della traduzione nella cultura antica, Torino, Einaudi, 2012.
Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture, London, Routledge, 1994.
Birrer, Doryjane, “A New Species of Humanities: The Marvelous Progeny of Humanism and Postmodern Theory”, Journal of Narrative Theory, 37.2 (2007): 217–245.
Boitani, Piero, Prima lezione sulla letteratura, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2007.
Bremond, Claude, En deçà et au-delà d'un conte: le devenir des thèmes (1991), trad. it. Il divenire dei temi. Al di qua e al di là di un racconto Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1997.
Calvino, Italo, Perché leggere i classici, Milano, Mondadori, 1995.
Camus, Albert, L’avenir de la civilisation européenne (1956), trad. it. Il futuro della civiltà europea, Roma, Castelvecchio, 2012.
Canali, Luca, Fermare Attila. La tradizione classica come antidoto all’avanzata della barbarie, Milano, Bompiani, 2009.
Carrier, James G. (ed.), Occidentalism: Images of the West, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995.
Ceserani, Remo, L’occhio della medusa. Fotografia e letteratura, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2011.
Ceserani, Remo – Benvenuti, Giuliana, La letteratura nell’età globale, Bologna, Il mulino, 2012.
Ceserani, Remo – Mainardi, Danilo, L'uomo, i libri e altri animali. Dialogo tra un etologo e un letterato, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013.
Chandler, James – Davidson, Arnold I. (eds.), “The Fate of Disciplines”, Critical Inquiry, 35. 4 (2009).
Coetzee, John M., The Lives of Animals, Princeton, Princeton University Press (1999), trad. it. La vita degli animali, Milano, Adelphi, 2000.
Coetzee, John M., “What is a classic?”, Stranger Shores. Essays 1986-1999, London, Vintage, 2001: 1-19, trad. it. Spiagge straniere. Saggi 1993-1999, Einaudi, Torino, 2006.
Compagnon, Antoine, Le démon de la théorie (1998), trad. it. Il demone della teoria. Letteratura e senso comune Torino, Einaudi, 2000.
Culler, Jonathan, “In Need of a Name? A Response to Geoffrey Harpham”, New Literary History, 36.1 (2005): 37-42.
Davies, Tony, Humanism, London and New York, Routledge, 1997.
De Saussure, Ferdinand, Cours de linguistique générale (1967), trad. it. Corso di linguistica generale, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009.
Eckermann, Johann Peter, Conversazioni con Goethe, Torino, Einaudi 2008.
Fusaro, Diego, Minima mercatalia. Filosofia e capitalismo, Milano, Bompiani, 2012.
Fusillo, Massimo, Estetica della letteratura, Bologna, il Mulino, 2009.
Harpam, Geoffrey Galt, “Root, Races, and the Return to Philology”, Representations, 106.1 (2009): 34-62.
Heidegger, Martin, Lettera sull’”Umanismo” (1947), Milano, Adelphi, 1995.
Janicaud, Dominique, L’homme va-t-il depasser l’humain, Paris, Bayard, 2002.
Jannoud, Claude, L’Envers de l’humanism, Paris, Seuil, 1997.
Joy, A. Eileen, – Neufeld, M. Christine, “A Confession of Faith: Notes Toward a New Humanism”, Journal of Narrative Theory, 37.2 (2007): 161–190.
Kristeva, Julia, Séméiôtiké. Recherches pour une sémanalyse (1969), trad. it.Séméiôtiké. Ricercheper una semanalisi, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1978.
Id., Desire in Language, New York, Columbia University Press, 1984.
Id., “Word, Dialogue, and Novel”, The Kristeva Reader, Ed. Toril Moi, New York, Columbia University Press, 1980: 34-61
Lévinas, Emmanuel, Humanisme de l’autre homme, Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 1972.
Lombardi, Chiara,“Coetzee e i classici, l’umanesimo, il mito”, J.M. Coetzee. Percorsi di lettura tra storia e narrazione, Eds. C. Concilio ‒ G. Ferreccio, Siena, Gorée, 2009: 63-108.
Lombardi, Chiara,“Per un umanesimo contemporaneo. Michail Bachtin e gli sviluppi della teoria del personaggio in Michel Houellebecq, John M. Coetzee, Javier Marías e Philip Roth”, Enthymema, 7 (2012): 116-130.
Lollini, Massimo (ed.), “Humanisms, Posthumanisms, Neohumanisms”, Annali di Italianistica, 26 (2008).
Luperini, Romano, “L’identità, l’universale e il nucleo vivo dell’umanesimo”, Allegoria 49 (2005, Letteratura e Scuola): 77-85.
Id., “Gli intellettuali e la critica, l’identità e l’umanesimo nell’età della globalizzazione”, Narrativa 28 (2007): 25-38.
Magnard, Pierre, Questions à l’humanism, Paris, Cerf, 2011.
Martindale, Charles ‒ Thomas, Richard F. (eds.), Classics and the Uses of Reception, Oxford, Blackwell, 2006.
Marenco, Franco,“Introduzione. I percorsi teorici”, Storia della civiltà letteraria inglese, Torino, Utet, 1996, III: xxvii-lvi.
Id., “Dallo spettro al meccano: la teoria letteraria in Inghilterra oggi”, Moderna, 1.2 (2005): 61-73.
Mattei, Jean François, Le regard vide. Essai sur l’épuisement de la culture européenne, Paris, Flammarion, 2007.
Mitchell, W. J. T., “Secular Divination: Edward Said’s Humanism”, Critical Inquiry, 31. 2 (2005, Winter): 462-471.
Moravia, Alberto, Prefazione a L’uomo come fine (1963), Milano, Bompiani, 1972: 1-12.
Morin, Edgard, La nostra Europa, Milano, Cortina, 2013.
Mulhall, Stephen, The Wounded Animal: J.M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008.
Nussbaum, Martha, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education, Cambridge MA, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Nussbaum, Martha, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2010, trad. it. Non per profitto. Perché le democrazie hanno bisogno della cultura umanistica, Bologna, il Mulino, 2011 e 2013.
Olivieri, Ugo, – Bongiovanni, Bruno, Un canone per il terzo millennio. Testi e problemi per lo studio del Novecento tra teoria della letteratura, antropologia e storia, Milano, Mondadori, 2001.
Olmo, Carlo, Architettura e storia. Paradigmi della discontinuità, Roma, Donzelli, 2013.
Paduano, Guido, La lunga storia di Edipo Re, Torino, Einaudi, 1994.
Pavese, Cesare, “Ritorno all’uomo”, Saggi letterari, Torino, Einaudi, 1951: 197-199.
Riffaterre, Michel, “Intertextual Representation: on Mimesis as Interpretive Discourse”, Critical Inquiry, 11.1 (1984): 142-162.
Sartre, Jean Paul, L’existentialisme est un humanisme (1946), Paris, Gallimard, 1996.
Said, Edward, Humanism and Democratic Criticism, New York, Columbia University Press, 2004, trad. it. Umanesimo e Critica democratica, Milano, Il Saggiatore, 2007.
Sheehan, Paul, Modernism, Narrative, and Humanism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Schmitz-Emans, Monika – Schmitt, Claudia – Winterhalter, Christian Hrgs, Komparatistik als Humanwissenschaft, Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2008.
Simonigh, Chiara (ed.), Pensare la complessità. Per un umanesimo planetario, Milano-Udine, Mimesis2012.
Sloterdijk, Peter, Regeln für den Menschenpark. Ein Antwortschreiben zu Heideggers Brief über den Humanismus, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1999, trad. it. Non siamo ancora stati salvati, Milano, Bompiani, 2004.
Soper, Katia, Humanism and Anti-Humanism, London, Hutchinson, 1986.
Spivak, Gayatri, “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing History”, In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, London, Routledge, 1988: 197-221.
Tabucchi, Antonio, Di tutto resta un poco. Letteratura cinema, Feltrinelli, 2013.
Vargas Llosa, Mario, “È pensabile il mondo moderno senza il romanzo?”, Il Romanzo, Ed. Franco Moretti, Torino, Einaudi, 2001: 3-15, I.
Vattimo, Gianni, “La verità e l’evento: dal dialogo al conflitto”, La Stampa, 15 ottobre 2008.
Ziolkowski, Jan M., “Incomparable: The Destiny of Comparative Literature, Globalization or Not”, The Global South, 1.2 (2007): 16-44.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
