Comparative Literature: The Characteristics Of Comparative Literature

We cannot provide an exact definition to Comparative Literature, as it may be controversial to define it. It is a subject to change across time and space. However, we can find certain characteristics that constitute comparative literature today. The object of study of this literary discipline is literary texts. The way these texts are approached and treated is what matters in comparative literature. As a discipline it studies the connections, influences, relationships and contacts constituting the natural network of the text. These connections already exist and the comparatist has to explore and unveil those connections.

Comparative Literature deals with all the elements with which the literary text interacts with. It studies the interactions

Thus, their national identity was connected with national culture or there was a close relationship with national identity and cultural inheritance.

The important thing to be noted with the origin of Comparative Literature is that the term predated its subject. People used the term Comparative literature without having a clear idea about what it was. Comparative was set against national, while the study of national literature risked the accusations of partiality; study of Comparative Literature carried with it a sense of transcendence of narrowly nationalistic. The term was used loosely, but was associated with the desire for peace in Europe and harmony between nations. Central to this idealism was that comparison could be done on mutual basis.

World literature is the circulation of national literatures beyond their national borders and it is the field of study that Comparative Literature investigates. This indicates that world literature and comparative literature are more close in nature. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who was a major figure in world literature was the first person to formulate the concept of world literature. He is responsible for developing the term Weltliteratur. He read widely in several languages and more widely in translation, and he was fascinated with the international circulation of literature.

Along with Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, he had a great influence on European culture and philosophy in the twentieth century. He is perhaps best known for the declaration in The Gay Science that “God is dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” He criticised the Christian tradition and explored the socio-cultural and psychological consequences of relativism; he calls it as the transvaluation of all values.

In his first book, The Birth of tragedy from the Spirit of Music, he is building on his classical studies to develop a philosophy of culture through a critique of classical ideals of order and harmony. Basically it is a comparative work which offers an account of ancient Greek tragedy in order to gain an insight into the problems of art and existence in the present. Ancient Greece is placed against modern Europe, Germany in particular. We can also see the great influence of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and the composer Richard Wagner in this