Anne Tomiche's 'Borders of Comparative Studies'
Abstract
In response to the report by Anne Tomiche on the frequent overlap between comparative literature and European literature, this paper aims to deal with some of the questions asked by Tomiche without any claim to reach definitive answers, but rather to highlight new questions and new considerations about the role of comparative literature today.
Essential to the achievement of a "new humanism", as a compass needed to guide us in a concert of discordant voices, in a time when new frontiers are being established, comparative literature at this time requires an epistemological shift. In contrast to the universalist ideology, the role of the comparatist must now be reconsidered on an ethical level, aimed at overcoming certain forms of exclusion and marginalization that too often the concept of culture generates.
The comparative literature, should be understood as a non-category literature, a literature of expatriation, landless, that refuses language barriers and / or cultural borders, open to all literatures of the world, in a constant exchange that can lead to the creation of a comprehensive system of interactions, which must not be identified with a theory, but should opt for a space, a desert where the theoretical reflection becomes objective and universalizes in differentiation.
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References
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