Questions of Comparison

The convergence, especially in the last two decades, of translation studies and comparative literature is a phenomenon that brings together two disciplines with troubled histories. Although both are in fact much older disciplines, a fuller recognition of their importance (at least in the context of the American academia) is a matter of the last couple of decades. The last two decades also saw a heated discussion over the state of comparative literature as a discipline: with a great sense of ethical urgency, scholars of comparative literature in the American academia, influenced to a large part by postcolonial studies, have sparked a debate which renewed interest in world literature and gave rise to attempts at re-envisioning the study of literature.