a discipline to go global
The theoretical thought on the nature of literariness, cultivated for centuries in the West, has taken its point of departure from a narrowly defined classical canon, beginning with Aristotle’s Poetics and extending through a predominantly Eurocentric lineage of aesthetic and rhetorical thought. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the classicist normative poetics gave rise to the discipline of literary theory, analyzing genres, modalities of narration, intertextuality, and all the remaining aspects of texts identified as literary in the light of those Eurocentric criterias issued from Aristotelian tradition. While pretending a great universality of its concepts and instruments of anaysis, this Eurocentric theory, living on throughout the postcolonial age, imposed hierarchical and exclusionary frameworks that marginalized, ignored or pushed into the domain of ethnography the vast richness of whatever literature might be beyond the European/Western horizons.
This is why, in light of today’s globally connected scholarly landscape, there is an urgent need to transform literary theory into a truly global discipline—one that engages with diverse literary traditions from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Islamic world on their own terms. A global literary theory must move beyond comparison for comparison’s sake and seek to understand how different cultures conceptualize narrative, form, authorship, memory, and meaning. Such a shift not only expands the scope of literary inquiry but also challenges the epistemological dominance of Western models, opening space for more inclusive, plural, and critically responsive forms of interpretation.
Those new aims prevent also the death of the discipline. Arguably, literary theory is one of those disciplines who have their golden years behind; aparently, few novel approaches appeared after the structuralists, Genette, and Linda Hutcheon's works on irony. Literary theory, in that Eurocentric form it assumed, died in the 1990s. The broadening of the scope, including the thought on the nature of literariness is other cultural circles and civilizations offer a chance to be reborn from the ashes.
This is why there is a new lease of life, and a promise of a bright future, in front of literary theory. The great variety of non-European literatures fascinates with mindboggling richness of genres, modalities, unusual rules of conducting the literary games. I do believe that a great deal of the literary dialogues of humanity still remain outside the existing conceptual framework. This is why there is still plenty of work to do: a great work of integration and deconstructing the pretentions of universality that remain hidden in every nook and cranny of our theoretical brains.
This is why, in light of today’s globally connected scholarly landscape, there is an urgent need to transform literary theory into a truly global discipline—one that engages with diverse literary traditions from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Islamic world on their own terms. A global literary theory must move beyond comparison for comparison’s sake and seek to understand how different cultures conceptualize narrative, form, authorship, memory, and meaning. Such a shift not only expands the scope of literary inquiry but also challenges the epistemological dominance of Western models, opening space for more inclusive, plural, and critically responsive forms of interpretation.
Those new aims prevent also the death of the discipline. Arguably, literary theory is one of those disciplines who have their golden years behind; aparently, few novel approaches appeared after the structuralists, Genette, and Linda Hutcheon's works on irony. Literary theory, in that Eurocentric form it assumed, died in the 1990s. The broadening of the scope, including the thought on the nature of literariness is other cultural circles and civilizations offer a chance to be reborn from the ashes.
This is why there is a new lease of life, and a promise of a bright future, in front of literary theory. The great variety of non-European literatures fascinates with mindboggling richness of genres, modalities, unusual rules of conducting the literary games. I do believe that a great deal of the literary dialogues of humanity still remain outside the existing conceptual framework. This is why there is still plenty of work to do: a great work of integration and deconstructing the pretentions of universality that remain hidden in every nook and cranny of our theoretical brains.
my papers in global literary theory
Comparative Literature and the quest for global literary theory:
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international journals for literary theory
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Literature Compass articles are distinguished from those of traditional journals by combining original research and analysis with a broader expertise and understanding of how that fits—as both contribution and intervention—in the authors’ fields or sub-fields. Because the journal publishes peer-reviewed, state-of-the-field articles on a continual, monthly basis, it is unencumbered by rigid publishing timelines, ensuring that topical and significant research reaches the public effectively and efficiently.
https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17414113 |
