Since its beginning in Europe around two hundred years ago,comparative literature has branched out in different approaches,some with a national or regional anchoring,others with a more theoretical foundation.This has ...Since its beginning in Europe around two hundred years ago,comparative literature has branched out in different approaches,some with a national or regional anchoring,others with a more theoretical foundation.This has been going on until today,also when comparative literature later expanded to other continents,blending with their local traditions and literatures or redefining itself.With the more recent re-emerging interest in world literature,this development has been reinforced,but has also left the question open how to deal with comparative literature,its history as a discipline and the different cultural underpinnings it has received,not least through research institutions and higher education in different cultures.Before one can evaluate particular and often competing theoretical contributions to this development,it will be important to look at the overall requirements a comparative theory and practice should satisfy to be relevant today,taking into account the role of literature in the multicultural and multidimensional contact zones of globalization.On this background the article will try to evaluate various theories and variation theory and their position,necessity and potential in comparative literature today.展开更多
This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the wri...This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the writers＇ reaction to the dynamics of gazing and the ethics of touch yields surprising results. Many women travellers have no problem to acknowledge the reciprocity of the gaze, accepting, as a matter of course, that the objects of their ethnological interest will gaze at them in return. In comparison, male travellers often exhibit unease at becoming an object of appraisal and observation. Even more interestingly, male travellers often shy away from haptic contact with members of the indigenous population, whereas many （though not all） women are more tolerant of touch and proximity. Regarded as ＂unwomanly＂ by their contemporaries, they carved out for themselves roles which allowed for a more intimate interaction with foreign ethnicities; also, they wrote in different genres--private memoirs instead of official reports. But even in their （semi） fictional writings male authors seem to imagine inter-cultural encounters in different terms from women and tend not let their protagonists enter into close bodily contact with the indigenous population.展开更多
文摘Since its beginning in Europe around two hundred years ago,comparative literature has branched out in different approaches,some with a national or regional anchoring,others with a more theoretical foundation.This has been going on until today,also when comparative literature later expanded to other continents,blending with their local traditions and literatures or redefining itself.With the more recent re-emerging interest in world literature,this development has been reinforced,but has also left the question open how to deal with comparative literature,its history as a discipline and the different cultural underpinnings it has received,not least through research institutions and higher education in different cultures.Before one can evaluate particular and often competing theoretical contributions to this development,it will be important to look at the overall requirements a comparative theory and practice should satisfy to be relevant today,taking into account the role of literature in the multicultural and multidimensional contact zones of globalization.On this background the article will try to evaluate various theories and variation theory and their position,necessity and potential in comparative literature today.
文摘This paper compares 18th and 19th century travelogues written by women and men travelling the cultural contact zones of the empire, as well as fictional recreations of such first encounters. A juxtaposition of the writers＇ reaction to the dynamics of gazing and the ethics of touch yields surprising results. Many women travellers have no problem to acknowledge the reciprocity of the gaze, accepting, as a matter of course, that the objects of their ethnological interest will gaze at them in return. In comparison, male travellers often exhibit unease at becoming an object of appraisal and observation. Even more interestingly, male travellers often shy away from haptic contact with members of the indigenous population, whereas many （though not all） women are more tolerant of touch and proximity. Regarded as ＂unwomanly＂ by their contemporaries, they carved out for themselves roles which allowed for a more intimate interaction with foreign ethnicities; also, they wrote in different genres--private memoirs instead of official reports. But even in their （semi） fictional writings male authors seem to imagine inter-cultural encounters in different terms from women and tend not let their protagonists enter into close bodily contact with the indigenous population.
