CfP: Comparing to what purpose? International Conference of the Goethe Society of India

28.02.-01.03.2013, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Comparativism stands at the centre of contemporary debates on the future of literary studies. Though conceived under the sign of Goethe’s idea of “Weltliteratur”, the discipline remained permeated in its practice by the zeitgeist of nationalism, colonialism and imperialism. The contemporary debates may therefore be seen to be about how to restore Goethe’s idea of “world literature” as the guiding principle of both the theory and practice of comparativism. The tension between “comparative literature” and “world literature” continues to pose a challenge in current postcolonial and global times, riven as they are by the heritage of the past and the crises of the present. How can we resolve this tension in a manner that is consistent with the universalism of Goethe's “Weltliteratur” or Tagore's “Visva Sahitya” without disregarding the contexts that overshadow and imperil literary communication?