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Comparative Literature as a Cultural Practice

Author(s): Mary Louise Pratt


Source: Profession, (1986), pp. 33-35
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25595388
Accessed: 18/06/2010 07:43

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Profession.

http://www.jstor.org
COMPARATIVE LITERATUREAS A CULTURAL PRACTICE

THE word practice appears in the titleof these remarks


as a reminder that comparative literature is something

people do ratherthan something that simply is,and that


consequently it iswhat people make it.The word cultural Mary Louise Pratt
appears in order to bring into focus comparative litera
ture's identity as one of the mechanisms for producing institution. Thus comparative literature's center has been,
culture and cultural consciousness in this society. and continues to be, the European canons at the Con

Comparative literatureis typicallyidentifiedincontrast tinental level, often with a particular emphasis on the
with the studyof individualnational literatures. Often it Middle Ages and theRenaissance, periods antedating the
is seen as a discipline that liberates the scholar from the emergence of the modern nation-states. Even the litera
confines of pettynationalisms. The invitationtomajor tureof theUnited States has very littlepresence in com
in comparative literature at Berkeley, for instance, parative literature circles, and transcontinental comparing
promises to enable undergraduates "to escape a certain has traditionallyinvolvedthe"classical" (a Continentalist
geographic, linguistic,and chronological isolationwhich word) Asian literatures in Chinese, Japanese, Sanskrit,
is the lotof thosewhose literaryexperience is limitedto or Hebrew. Needless to say, these literatures are points on
their own nation, and time." One can readily the comparative not because
language, compass they are part of
see how national literary studies are tied inwith other in what we now call theThirdWorld but because theyrep
stitutions and apparatuses for creating national culture, resent what are as Europe's fellow high
recognized
nationalism, and national consciousness. In comparative and classical, in
civilizations?refined, ancient, though
literature, one might expect to find an apparatus for creat modern times equals no longer. Indeed, orientalism, as
ing internationalism, international culture, and interna Said has described it tous {Orientalism,New York: Ran
tional consciousness. I would argue, however, that this is dom, 1978), can be thoughtof as European projection
not the case. Rather, comparative literature as it now ex that reflectsEuropean Continentalism back onto itself.
ists is primarily oriented toward creating a European Con Continentalism explains why comparative literature,
tinentalism, Continental culture, and Continentalist while rejecting literarynationalisms, tends to adopt the
consciousness. usual exclusionarystrategieswith respectto the literatures
In crudely ideological terms,the existenceof cultural of today's colonial and postcolonial societies.A selective
apparatuses shaped by nationalism is easily understood. multinationalism has emerged in recent years, admitting
The nation-state is a modern reality, and competition a few specific Latin American, or Caribbean
African,
among nation-states shapes and runs the industrial world. writers onto the agenda (one thinks of Garcia Marquez,
Nation-states develop all manner of discursive formations Achebe, theNaipaul brothers),but nothing in theway of
to make themselves real to their populaces and to secure a consciously has emerged. It is in
global perspective
the allegiance, or at least the identification, of their teresting to note that these few canonized non-European
populaces. They develop elaborate dialogues around figures are read in theWest not as representatives of na
questions of national self-understanding, self-criticism, tional literatures but rather as individual or as
geniuses
and self-transformation. There is little doubt that such of other continents.
representatives
factorsshape literarystudy,with its institutionalbase in Comparative literature, I have been devel
suggesting,
the national literatures. oped as theContinentalist arm of literarystudy inwhat
Though not often as pressing, Continentalism is as is called theWest. This suggestion can help account for
much a reality as nationalism. In the socioeconomic some of the internalpeculiarities of thediscipline, three
sphere, the emergence of modern society in the nineteenth of which come immediatelytomind. The firstpeculiar
century is a transnational and in fact Continental process ity is that comparative literature everywhere survives but
in Europe, since Europe's hegemony was asserted over the does not really thrive. In academies tied very closely to
rest of the globe. In the cultural and academic the needs of nation-states,
spheres, the national patrimony takes
one finds national knowledges and discourses over the comparatist
coexisting precedence endeavor, and indeed it
with Continentalist constructs likeWestern culture, nat takes primacy: literature
comparative programs in this
ural history, normal science, the baroque, Christianity are often dependencies of English
country departments.
(here my concerns clearly connect with Jonathan Cul
ler's), skepticism, or even world's fairism.

European Continentalism, I would argue, also moti The author isAssociate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
vates comparative literature as a cultural practice and an and Comparative Literature at Stanford University.

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A second peculiarity is theambiguous statusof transla instance, the expanding area of international studies
tion. On the one hand, comparative literature has proved looks very promising to comparatists interestedin de
an ideal place to study or translate. At the university veloping a global perspective on literature and culture.
where I teach, one-fifth of the comparative literature dis Such a divided scenario is surely not necessary, however.
sertations have been on this topic. On the other hand, One can readily imagine comparative literature programs

working or teachingwith translations is often frowned working in cooperation with international studies pro
on by comparatists. Thus, where I teach, the compara grams to develop cultural studies or dividing themselves
tive literature program has traditionally not listed into differenttracks,one of which would be the tradi
literature-in-translation courses. Evidently, there exists a tional Continentalist project.
sense that despite the possibilities of comparison, the In the concept of culture itselfthere lies a project of
authenticityof each literatureis inseparablybound up immediate significance to comparatists of all stripes. For
with itsnational language. (This idea, incidentally,is sim the idea of culture itselfurgentlyneeds to be revindicated,
ply inoperative for the literaturesof many neocolonial against accelerating tendencies in contemporary Ameri
countrieswheremultilingualism is thenorm and themain can public lifeto trivializeor naturalize cultureand todis
literary language is that of a conqueror and is nobody's credit critical knowledge of culture.Anthropology, for
native tongue.)A thirdpeculiarity is thatcomparative lit instance, has seen a rapidly expanding biologism that ex
erature often becomes a domain for theory, while the na plains (away) culture in termsof genetics or ecological
tional ("home") literaturenot only does not but, indeed, adaptation. Cultural manifestations that do not make
often remainshostile to theory.This isperhaps one of the sense in thisway can simply be labeledmaladaptive?
clearest indexes we have of the critical and relativizing with the unavoidable suggestion that the society would

powers of theory. The tendency, work betterwithout them. Philosophy and linguistics
it seems, is for the home
literatureto be held as local knowledge, preferablynot have increasingly been findingtheiraffinities(not tomen
open to the denaturing interrogations of theory. Com tion theirfinances)with artificial intelligence,
where cul
parative literature is not buttressed in quite thisway. tural and sociohistorical dimensions are bracketed out.
While more traditional comparatists complain of the The growthand increasingauthorityof such knowledges
vacuousness of theory, others find its generalizing powers at the expense of interpretive knowledge may be
just what they need. connected with, among other things, shifts toward

Whatever its peculiarities, comparative literature's sit legitimatingprofit-orientedresearch inuniversities and


uation does not seem to be especially comfortable right simultaneous government demands for policy-oriented
now. As a field it is growing very slowly, perhaps even work. They should certainlybe connected with the vir
stagnating,even though interdisciplinary
work in literary tual disappearance from the public sphere of any dis
studies is thriving and growing at an extraordinary pace. course about quality of life, of any sense that a society

Many people have spoken of the recent flourishing of in is responsible forthequality of lifefor itsmembers. I am
terdisciplinary scholarship, of the decentering of canons, talking here not about a tendency to obliterate culture per
of the way the institutional spaces of literary study are se but, rather, about a tendency to obliterate cultural self

providing a home for interpretiveformsof philosophi consciousness, to obliterate critical, self-reflective cultural

cal, historical, and practices that are comparative in the sense of the most val
anthropological, linguistic scholarship
being drivenout of traditionaldepartmentsby objectivist uable work in comparative literature: they compare what

and statisticalknowledges thatno longerfeel theneed to iswithwhat has been, could be, or (and this is important)
coexist with anything else. Should comparative literature is elsewhere.

attempt to embrace these developments as fully as pos Technological societies and, more important, milita
sible, at the riskof relinquishing the specificityand co rized societies will certainly appear to their makers to

herence it has had as a discipline? Should it rather "work" better with a citizenry that lacks such compara
reaffirm and perhaps even sharpen its focus on the Eu tive capacities and critical self-awareness. Comparative
ropean and thepurely literary,at the riskof winding up literature,like the restof thehumanities and humanistic
an anachronism? In some places, comparative literature social sciences, can contribute toward instilling this self
will become, or will remain, the institutionalhome for awareness. As so many commentators have observed,
what might be called the cultural conservative arm of in comparative literature has, for instance, significant poten

terdisciplinaryresearch,maintaining thecentralityof the tial for loosening up thebreathtaking ethnocentrismof


canon, the concept of Western culture as a historical en contemporary American society. So far, this is a poten

tity,and the principle of high art. In such places itwill tial few comparative literature programs have seriously
exist in tension and, one hopes, in dialogue with other undertaken to realize. Most seem to remain focused on

trends, as well as with national literature projects. The the Eurocentric and classical modes Imentioned earlier.
"other trends"?interdisciplinary work linked with the Little progress has been made towarddeveloping global
humanistic social sciences, mass and popular culture, the perspectives, despite the pressing need for them.

history of discourses, and cultures outside Europe?will Along with other forms of literary study, comparative
findor develop other institutionalformations.Now, for has thepotential forengagingcriticallywith the
literature

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lived,public cultureof thepresent, theartistic formswe terpretiveuniverse (thepresidentquotingClint Eastwood
and our fellow citizens liveamong daily. This potential, rather than, say,Winston Churchill); to the increasing
too, is far frombeing realized.When itcomes towhat is presence of media personalities on ballots (Clint East
derisively called mass or popular culture, literary schol wood as the new mayor of Carmel, California). Readers
ars tend to be guilty of the same tendencies to naturalize will perhaps rememberlastyear's visitbyPrince Charles
or trivialize I earlier attributed to some social scientists. and Princess Diana as one of the most carefully orches
Much of what makes up contemporary culture is trivial trateddisplays of this new official culture (which had
ized as entertainment or fashion or naturalized as the failedmiserably theyear beforewith thequeen). Itwas
mere manipulation of appetites, as something transpar all summedup perhaps in thenationally publicized guest
ent and depressingly unproblematic. Such attitudes ob listof thehundred people invitedto thegala dinner-ball
viously reflect assumptions about "the masses" highlighting thevisit. Scholars, writers,academics, and
themselves. Academics tend to assume that traditional intellectualsof any kindwere replaced by chefs, interior
literary training will enable us to grasp contemporary decorators, fashion designers, popular musicians, and
mass-art forms, empowering us to treat or dismiss mass movie stars. Initially the list strikes one as a symptom of

culture as a self-evident known. Many academics inter official indifferenceto intellectuals, the academy, and
pret Rambo, for instance, as a movie that "the masses" criticalculture.But itmay well indicatetheopposite. The
will receive as a straightforward praise song for militari list, or rather its conspicuous national publication, is also
zation and violence. Such reductiveness misses many a gesturedirectedat consolidating an official culture that
formsof significationat work in the film,many of them exists outside the purview of the academy and of critical

parodic, many of them also deeply disturbing and very cultural consciousness.
much inneed of criticalreception.Such reception should My point here isnot thatpeople should stopdoing their
have a place in theacademy. Likewise, there isvery little researchand startwriting lettersor sending listsof good
academic study of how mass-culture forms produce a books to theWhite House. I do suggest,however,thatwe
running interpretive commentary on national life. To literary scholars would do well to encourage, rather than

Magnum P.I. is coming to gripswith thehis


know that devalue, cultural work engaged with the present, with on

tory of Vietnam, that Harlequin romances are interpret going shifts in culture and with challenges to the
ing shifts in the gender system,or thatMiami Vice is legitimacyof critical cultural knowledge. Comparatists,
working out discourses on race1 is not to know how I would argue, would do well to encourage rather than de
these issues are beingworked out, what kind of national value cultural work that relinquishes Continentalism and

self-understanding they are projecting. Surely these things engages with the current global organization of the world
are worth knowing. And surely the literary academy's un and of culture in the world. the Continen
Decentering
willingness to engage them helps make the accusation of talist project can broaden enormously our capacity to

triviality and manipulativeness a self-fulfilling one. compare what isherewith what has been and with what
The hands-off attitude of intellectuals toward contem is elsewhere. I see this as one of the openings now for com
porary public culture may well be one of the reasons why parative literature where "escaping" the constraints of na
the entertainment industry is now elevated to the status tional literatures could mean something of great and
of full-fledgedofficial culture,along with various forms immediate value.
of elite, nonintellectual consumption. I refer, most con

spicuously, to the currentpresidential style; to the flow NOTE


of stars and starlets through theWhite House; to the cor

responding absence of intellectuals, scholars, or writers 11 owe these examples to Kathleen Newman and the Tabloid
of any kind; to the aggressive use of the movies as an in collective.

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