mmflv

The fifth panel discussion (2007/08/20)The Taiwan—Hong Kong Axis byⅠ. Background of Japan    A. Today Japan seems to play the role of an intermediary between the East and the West, its high degree of civilization and technical modernization serving to bring the two cultures closer together.    B. Miner: the cultural character or destiny of Japan has not been to create ideas or philosophies as China and India have created them, but to re-create through transmission and refinement what the older Oriental cultures have had to offer.    C. Japanese ingenuity has modified, improved, and impressed upon the rest of the world.    D. similar situation: Europe→the United States; China→Japan

  4^th run --Lily

主題學研究與中國文學

Thematology East And West: A Survey and Theoretical exploration

Author: Chen Peng-Hsiang

  From Comparative Literature to Translation Studies

Source: Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. 1993.

Lily

  From Comparative Literature to Translation Studies

Source: Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. 1993.

Lily

Study Group  2ed run

 

            Parallelism in Chinese and Western Literature

Author: Ndrew H. Plaks (Princeton U)

 Thesis statement:

It is impossible to avoid to draw attention on obtrusive aesthetic rhythms of parallel construction in classical Chinese Literature

  Comparative literature in the age of multiculturalism-2: The Levin report, 1965 The report on professional standards

 

l          The developing of CL became harder without the support of National defense education act (p.21)l          Q1: is it suitable for CL course to exist in language departments if not many universities can measure up?l          Q2: the presentation of CL within a faculty ought to take the form of a department, a sub-department, or a committee? (p.22)

Genre
I. The genre study in history
A. Cicero, Quintilian, Horace: The first writers stressed the segregation of literary genres→ demands for genre purity, uniform and the established orders (characteristic of classical and neoclassical styles)(p.99)
B. Schiller→ the fusion of genres is necessary evil (characteristic of romantic style) (p.100)
 Too much diversity in the views presented to allow for the necessary synthesis on a universal scale.
C. The comparison of genres had been ignored for the ICLA for a long time (only some journals showed interests). While Eastern Europe did a great contribution [in the journal, Genre, three speakers- Eliseo Vivas (logical and historical aspects), Sheldon Sack (psychological aspect),Germaine Bree (genre terms)] (p.101)
D. Negative views: Benedetto Croce: genre classification is a waste of time.
E. Van Tieghem: restricted his study only to modern literature
F. Guyard: deal with drama, poetry, and fiction (p.102)
G. Pichois and Rousseau: the difference between monogenesis and polygenesis
H. Jeune: put genre study under the heading of GL.
II. The importance of genre study
A. The confrontation of literary history and theory occurs on a broad international basis.
B. Few truly international studies of universal forms have been undertaken (except drama) (p.103)
III. The difficulty of genre study:
A. Lack of direct evidence: the origin of genre→ only reference or quotations in ancient literary criticism. ex. Ancient Greek and Roman genres
B. A genre known and cultivated in antiquity may have actually vanished but the name persists→ the label for a modern genre may or may not be its correlate.(should analyzing the changing conditions)
C. A genre passes from one national literature to another without retaining its original name (translation problems) ex. Ballade and ballad (p.104)
D. Contamination: the confusion of the essential difference between two genres ex. Satire and old comedy→ influenced the medieval theory of literature.
E. The quick changes in literary fashion: the modern writer is no longer as much concern with the conventions of a well-defined genre ex. American poetry: vers libre → Eliot → Auden (a new literary generation every ten years) (p.105)
F. The crucial distinction between genre and technique or mode is blurring. ex. Satire, parody….. (p.106)
IV. Genre study of CL
A. Genre study in ICLA today: still focus on western culture.
B. Middle of the 19th century: European and American writers have been influenced by Oriental models. ex.1.Japanese haiku→ imagists, avant-garde ports. 2. Noh play→ Yeats, Brecht. Their imitations prod the question as to what extent such recreations are compatible with their models and whether the pressure exerted by the western tradition has caused a distortion of the originals.
C. Etiemble: it is impossible to transplants a genre which is so firmly anchored in a specific historical geographical context because of cultural gap (p.107)
D. Pure analogy studies in comparative genology may fulfill a similar function and are likely to benefit oriental scholars even more than their occidental colleagues.
E. The theory of genres has long been a basic concern in Indian esthetics→ no systematic effort to classify literary phenomena was made in most far eastern countries.
V. The classification of genre
A. Alexander Veselovsky: the theory if an inevitable step-by-step progression of the three major literary kinds: epic poetry, lyric poetry, and drama→ correlate of a historical movement. But contemporary scholars believe that it may add more sociological analogue.
B. The Greeks: a tripartite division of major kinds is unfeasible ex. Aristotle: epic, drama. (lyric poetry is amorphous) (p.108)
C. There is no universally valid name for the literary kind which embraces all narrative genres→ novel, novella, short story.
D. A division of imaginative literature into prose and poetry is no longer feasible: intermediate genres ex. Verse novel
E. Quadripartite: epic poetry, lyric poetry, drama, didactic writings→ didactic writings is a mode rather than a genre. ex. Homer and Empedocles.
F. Hybrid genre: keys to our understanding of the mutual illumination of the arts. ex. Screenplay, libretto…(p.109)
G. The music factor: the ancients did not have a collective tern for the kind of nondramatic literature that was not fused with music. ex. lyric, ode, poetry, verse…the term “lyrical poetry” first appears in Dionysius Thrax’s work as a label for the major kind. (p.110). in 18th~19th century ode is used to show individually created art and excluded folksong. → the literary genres are improper groupings and the way to drawing distinctions is to extract certain basic qualities, moods or state of mind. (p.110-112)
H. Goethe: epic, lyric poetry and drama may exist by themselves or in conjunction with each other. The order is random. He created a circular pattern which is used in literary criticism (p.112)
I. Staiger: every genuine literary works partakes of all genres, and the difference is the proportion. (p.113)
J. Wolfgang Kayser: the structure of genres. The order is hierarchic. (p.114)
K. Andre Jolles: preliterary genres could be considered as specific kinds of mental activity constituted by the changing attitude which man, creating form by means of language, adopts towards the objects he encounters.
 The problem of classification: Goethe: the types are sometimes named after their formal appearance and sometimes after their subject matters, but rarely according to their essential form. Some can be grouped together wile others may be subordinated to each other (p.115)
VI. Author’s view
A. It is impossible to arrange all regional, national, and supranational forms in an encompassing scheme. (p.116)
B. The classification which is based on psychological aspect: ex. 1. Schiller’s “naïve(innate and immutable) and sentimental(lost touch with nature)” theory→ the division of literary genres by their intended effect. 2. Aristotle’s tragedy definition: a. effect>aesthetic value. b. performance> private reading. (p.117)
 modern CL view: the same event or object is judged variously, and produces diverse effects, not only in different cultures but also at different times, and in different places, even within the same culture. It is almost impossible to reconcile all tradition. (p.118)
C. Plato’s Republic: The oldest classification of genre: the union of narration and imitation is the types of literature.
D. The most frequently used methods of classification are form and content, while these two elements cannot always be cleanly separated (outer and inner form) (p.119)
E. The classification of genres is according to their subject matter. ex. The bildungsroman, the picaresque novel, the gothic novel→ the epistolary novel may qualify as genres because they have no direct counterparts in the other major kind of literature. (p.120)
F. It is almost impossible to fashion a frame of reference. The best we can do is to disentangle some knottiest problems and errors. (p.123)
G. Genre qualities are separated from those relating primarily to technique (ex. satire), and from those infringing on thematic categories (ex. mode)

 

Comparative literature in the age of multiculturalism      by Charles Bernheimer

 

Introduction: the anxieties of comparison

I.            CL students have no firm ground underfoot. The multifacetedness is viewed as a sign of dilettantism. (p.1)

l            René Wellek “The Crisis of Comparative Literature” (1958): it has not been able to establish a subject matter and a specific methodology. (p.2)

 

II.         The unclear of CL definitions:

A.           Comparison: Comparison is activity, function, practice, or all of these? The unstable shifting, insecure and self-critical

B.           Literature: what is literature?

 

III.       Changes in the discipline’s focus since WWⅡ can be viewed as a series of attempts to cure the anxiety of Comparison. (p.3)

A.           The goal of 50s~60s CL (wartime): 1. Francois Jost: unify, totalization, supranationalism, cross-disciplinarity. 2. Owen Aldridge: literary category across national boundaries. Division promotes unity. Method is less important than matter. 3. Harry Levin: orientation of CL. (p.4)

B.           Post-Vietnam and Nixon: deconstruction. Gave priority to theory over literature, to method over matter. (p.5)

C.           Reagan-Bush years: Hillis Miller: away from the intrinsic rhetorical study toward study of the extrinsic relations of literature.

D.           Now: multiplicity of diverse theoretical perspectives: contextualization.(p.8)

 

IV.      Multiculturalism: 2 levels(p.8)

A.           The canon should be representative throughout the world

B.           The works should be representative of the culture where they were created.

l            Both levels assume a reflectionist view of literature’s relation to the cultural site of its production.

l            Identity politics are aniogenic for comparatist.→imposing a universalist model or suggest the impossibility of any meaningful relation between cultures.(p.9)

l            Globalization: Mary Louise Pratt: an especially hospitable space for deep intercultural understanding and global consciousness.

V.         CL: unity or diversity?

A.           Jonathan Culler: CL study and teach literature as such,      without worrying about the historical contingencyof this category.(similar to Peter Brook) (p.10)

l            They see the 1993 ACLA report as an abandonment of the true forms of literary study. (p.11)

B.           The messiness of globalization might result from the democratization of the idea of literature as an intersubjective practice. The critic’s voice echoes with those of his or her cultural inheritance

C.           Author’s view: multiculturalist comparatism begins at home with a comparison of oneself to oneself. This process precludes the cultural essentialism of identity politics, while it sensitizes the comparatist to the extremely difficult issues involved in evaluating cultural differences.

 

VI.      Multicultural: a global broadening of perspective (p.12)

A.           Dislocation, unhomely: the challenge facing us now is to increase the scope of our haunting, to broaden the space of those sites we are between.

B.           Suggest a fundamentally relational and dynamic approach to cultural forms, including literary texts.

 

VII.    CL subject: team-teaching offers good way to promote a responsibility to global perspectives in pedagogical practice. (p.13)

VIII. An area studies model may be more proper if that have sustained such models in the past are reviewed and revised. (p.14)

IX.      Literary study should be ethically motivated both in its pedagogical practice and in its institutional formation. (p.15)

X.         The space of comparison: literature shift the boundaries if what is construed as peculiarly literary in our culture→context.

XI.      In the age of multiculturalism, the comparatist’s anxiety has finally found a field adequate to the questions that generated it → the space of one’s own death, literature’s construction and function in different cultures. (p.16)

 

 

 

 

7/26 Vickey
The Concepts of Classicism and Romanticism By Chi, Ch’iu-lang
I.     Definitions of romance and romanticism in the west.
A.    The ideas of romance and romanticism in the west should basically involve “free, emotional, creative, individual and imaginative” essences.
1.    Hobbes( 235): “The word romantic is air; it meaneth what quality we will.

7/26 Vickey
Period Style and Periodization by Tak-wai Wong
I.    The writing of a history of literature without periodization is unworkable.(46)
A.    In 60s’ problem: terminology, various conceptions about synchrony and diachrony of periodzation. (46)
B.    Different ideas about periodization

7/26 Vickey
Full-length Hsiao-shuo and the Western Novel: A Generic Reappraisal by Andrew H. Plak
I.    Novel
A.    Content: Plot by plot; Mostly full-length
B.    Three forms: epic, romance and novel; see it as a single integral narrative tradition.(164)

我的美女同學們：
今天颳大風、下大雨。
所以我睡的很舒服：D
（噢對不起，我文不對題。）
thesis statement如下：
我有點擔心這一週我們又會講不完。
這該如何是好呢？
而且我星期四晚上，三重分校又要開會阿。（嘆）
（我其實是要波一篇關於我的感人的文章，但不知道怎麼搞得就文不對題了Orz）
好吧，那大家要做好防颱措施喔。
辜拜。（揮）