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Editor's Column: Transitions

Editor's Column: Transitions e ditor’s c olu Mn Transitions Comparative literature, it has oe ft n been noted, is perpetually in crisis or in ques - tion, if not pronounced dead. Following Voltaire’s remark on the Holy Roman Em- pire, one could observe that the e fi ld is oe ft n cong fi ured as neither comparative nor about literature. And yet, as the American Comparative Literature Associa- tion’s most recent ten-year report shows,1 the discipline survives, even triumphs, not by consensus but by diversity. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that com- parative literature is in a perpetual state of transition. Transitions begun in recent years continue: from close reading of literature in original languages to theory to cultural studies; from Eurocentric to multicultural to global; from a comparative to a “world” perspective and, perhaps, back; from a focus on cultural production to one on literature, if in a newly den fi ed space. e Th essays published in this volume discuss in various ways notions of transition, while also ree fl cting the discipline’s transitional nature. One of the more prominent controversies in the e fi ld in recent years—prominent because it ae ff cts not so much http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Comparatist University of North Carolina Press

Editor's Column: Transitions

Witt, Mary Ann Frese.
The Comparatist , Volume 31 – May 29, 2007
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 the Southern Comparative Literature Association.
ISSN
1559-0887

Abstract

e ditor’s c olu Mn Transitions Comparative literature, it has oe ft n been noted, is perpetually in crisis or in ques - tion, if not pronounced dead. Following Voltaire’s remark on the Holy Roman Em- pire, one could observe that the e fi ld is oe ft n cong fi ured as neither comparative nor about literature. And yet, as the American Comparative Literature Associa- tion’s most recent ten-year report shows,1 the discipline survives, even triumphs, not by consensus but by diversity. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that com- parative literature is in a perpetual state of transition. Transitions begun in recent years continue: from close reading of literature in original languages to theory to cultural studies; from Eurocentric to multicultural to global; from a comparative to a “world” perspective and, perhaps, back; from a focus on cultural production to one on literature, if in a newly den fi ed space. e Th essays published in this volume discuss in various ways notions of transition, while also ree fl cting the discipline’s transitional nature. One of the more prominent controversies in the e fi ld in recent years—prominent because it ae ff cts not so much

Journal

The Comparatist – University of North Carolina Press

Published: May 29, 2007

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