Comparative History of World Literature Development

Author: Cao Shunqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The development of literature is both vertical and horizontal. Vertical development refers to the inheritable growth within the literature of each nation, while horizontal development involves the mutual influence, conflict, and convergence among the literatures of different nations around the world. These vertical and horizontal threads weave together the diverse and colorful literatures of all nations and world literature. It can be said that the vertical "transformation and evolution" and horizontal development are the two fundamental driving forces of literary development. However, most existing literary histories primarily discuss only the vertical historical development, lacking an examination of horizontal exchanges and influences, resulting in a one-dimensional and monotonous literary history that lacks the horizontal dimension. At the same time, there is a lack of parallel comparisons or contrasts between Chinese and foreign literary developments, creating an isolated literary history that lacks reference and comparison, failing to place Chinese literature within the broader context of world literary development. This prevents readers from deeply understanding the value and characteristics of Chinese literature through comparison and reference, and it fails to combine parallel literary studies with influence studies to explore the laws of literary development in China and abroad.
This book takes the development of world literature as the basic thread, conducts parallel comparisons between Chinese and foreign literatures in its vertical discussions, and emphasizes the horizontal mutual influence and exchange in the development of Chinese and foreign literatures. It explores the literary development characteristics and dynamics formed by this influence, studies the "" (synergy) of these two driving forces—the vertical "transformation and evolution" and horizontal development—in comparison, and summarizes the basic laws of literary development.
The book is divided into two volumes: the first volume covers ancient literature, while the second volume covers modern and contemporary literature. It introduces the comparative history of world literary development, including the ancient literatures of India, China, Japan, and the Americas; the literary trends of modern and contemporary Western literature; and the comparative histories of national literatures such as British and Nordic literatures.