Comparative Literature Tutorial

Author: Cao Shunqing, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: This book is primarily intended for undergraduate students in Chinese departments of universities and serves as a college-level textbook for Comparative Literature courses. On one hand, it inherits the existing theoretical achievements of Comparative Literature from abroad; on the other hand, it draws on the latest research findings of domestic scholars, making it a textbook that combines inheritance and innovation. The book breaks away from the traditional framework of Comparative Literature studies, which constructs disciplinary theory based on school divisions, and proposes a new disciplinary theoretical paradigm. It clearly defines a fundamental characteristic and four major research fields of Comparative Literature. The fundamental characteristic is "transcendence," which includes transnational, interdisciplinary, and cross-civilizational dimensions. The four major research fields are "Empirical Influence Studies," "Variation Studies," "Parallel Studies," and "Holistic Literature Studies." The book is divided into five parts:
- Introduction: This section primarily explores the definition, fundamental characteristics, and research fields of Comparative Literature, discussing the comparability issue in Comparative Literature.
- Chapter 1: Empirical Influence Studies: Respecting the history of the discipline, this chapter examines the paradigm of Comparative Literature research with empirical influence relationships from an empirical perspective.
- Chapter 2: Variation Studies: This chapter explores variation studies in Comparative Literature from perspectives such as "literary variation and cultural filtering," "translation studies," "image studies," "reception studies," and "literary alienation studies." This is the most innovative chapter in the textbook. The proposal of "Variation Studies" expands and updates the theoretical system of Comparative Literature, resolving many puzzling issues in the field.
- Chapter 3: Parallel Studies: This chapter explores parallel comparative studies of literature from perspectives such as "typology," "thematology," "stylistics," and "interdisciplinary studies."
- Chapter 4: Holistic Literature Studies: This chapter reintegrates "Holistic Literature" into the Comparative Literature disciplinary system and explores the possibility of establishing Holistic Literature from cross-civilizational and holistic literary perspectives.
The book comes with a learning card. Students can use the account and password on the card to log in to the 4A teaching platform of Higher Education Press and access the online course for learning.