★★★★☆ Now I know that Comp. Lit is similar to Film Studies, what I studied. To study it, you have to study everything. A book that explains something so abstract.
🔽 log 🔽
Comparative Literature
A very short introduction
Oxford University Press
Ben Hutchinson, 2018
160 pages
Read 2025.09
🔽 Book review and notes 🔽
Comparative Literature has always been something very mystical for me.
I’ve never studied Literature, but as I read this, I kind of got the idea, it’s like Film Studies that I did.
It’s so vast, you have to know the history, the languages/techniques, then theories such as colonialism, socialism, feminism, consumerism, West, East, you name it.
As the society invents more “isms” we have more criteria landed on our desk to compare the work using that. Endless.
Also, I see now a reason of not getting the fuss, it is because I’m from non Anglo-Saxon or Eurocentric culture, yet I had education in Anglo-Saxon societies since high school.
Japan has its own culture in Literature and beyond (very typically, noh or kabuki).
If you are interested in Literature as a Japanese, by default you are somewhat into Comparative Literature, you KNOW there’s much more out there, there’s China, the Europe, unlike West Europeans where they only focused on their little corner of the planet.
This book explains something that is so difficult to grasp in a clear and concise way.
It’s human nature to compare.
If you know something, you want to compare with something else, it’s simple as that.
Then, what.
Our question now is, then what do we get from comparing?
And what is the limit?
The age of Internet has entered the new phase, the age of AI.
Would classical studies like Comp Lit survive?
🔽 Where to buy 🔽
●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●
Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction
●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
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