Overview
The word comparative literature first appeared in the Course of Comparative Literature (1816) edited by French scholars Noel and Laplace, but its method and theory were not involved in this book. It was veerman (179 ~ 187), a French literary critic and professor at the University of Paris, who made this term popular. In 1827, he used the terms "comparative literature" and "comparative analysis" several times when teaching French literature in the Middle Ages and the 18th century. Two years later, he published a lecture entitled "A Survey of French Literature in the 18th Century". After 1865, "comparative literature" was generally accepted as a technical term.
development
after the 197s, comparative literature developed greatly in Europe and America, with its center in France. In 1931, the book "On Comparative Literature" by Paul Van Diegen of France comprehensively summarized the theory and history of the development of comparative literature in the past hundred years for the first time, and advocated that literary research should be divided into three categories: national literature, comparative literature and overall literature. After World War II, the United States became the center of comparative literature research. In 1952, The Yearbook of Comparative Literature and General Literature was first published in the United States, summarizing the achievements and problems of the development of comparative literature year by year.
Focus on
Comparative literature research. Scholars in different countries have different emphasis: French scholars such as Digen and Gale emphasize the influence research of different national literature, American scholars such as Wellek emphasize the parallel research of different national literature, and Russian scholars such as Alekseyev and Zhirmunski think that influence research and parallel research are inseparable and should be paid equal attention to at the same time.
In China, Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, etc. have extensively studied the development of literature in various countries, such as Lu Xun's Theory of Moro Poetry and Mao Dun's Miscellaneous Talks on Modern Russian Literature. In 193s, China began to introduce the history and theory of foreign comparative literature. Chen Quan's Study of Sino-German Culture, Qian Zhongshu's Record of Talking about Art, and Zhu Guangqian's On Poetry have contributed to the development of comparative literature in China in some way. Since 197s, comparative literature has made unprecedented new development in China, with remarkable achievements.
Comparative literature, which originated in the 19th century, refers to the comparative study of literature that transcends national and linguistic boundaries, that is, it is a new frontier discipline that studies the relationship between literature and literature between nations, countries or between literature and other art forms and ideologies by means of comparison. From the perspective of world literature, it is the task of comparative literature to fully reveal the process of the occurrence and development of literature held by various countries, regions and nationalities, and to explore the inherent laws of literary development and even the basic laws of human cultural development.
Goethe is a pioneer of comparative literature. At present, there are mainly French and American factions in the world. The former focuses on the study of the influence of one country's culture on another country's literature; The latter pays attention to the comparison of different national cultures under the same historical conditions, finds out the similarities and differences and reasons, and finds out the law of * * *.
the history of China literature
what is comparative literature? Let's start with a "legal case" that happened in the history of China literature and lasted for thousands of years, and then approach and know comparative literature step by step.
As far back as the Tang Dynasty, some people have studied the origin of the story of "Xu Yan Goose Cage" written by Wu Jun in "Harmony in the Continuation of Qi" in the Southern Dynasties. The story of "Xu Yan Goose Cage" tells that a man named Xu Yan in Yangxian (now Yixing, Jiangsu) met a scholar who was seventeen or eight years old on the way. The scholar who fell on the side of the road claimed that his feet hurt and asked to sit in Xu Yan's goose cage. Xu Yan thought it was a joke, but the scholar really entered the cage and sat with the double geese, but Xu Yan didn't feel heavy when he mentioned the goose cage. When he went to rest under the tree, the scholar came out of the goose cage and said that he would hold a banquet to thank Xu Yan. Then he spit out wine and food from his mouth to treat Xu Yan. After a while, a beautiful woman of sixteen was spit out from her mouth to accompany the banquet. After a while, after the scholar fell asleep drunk, the woman actually spit out a 23-year-old man from her mouth to keep her company. While Xu Yanzheng was exchanging pleasantries with this man, the scholar seemed to wake up. The beauty was busy spitting out a silk screen to cover it, and slept with the scholar. But the man also spit out a woman of about twenty years old from his mouth to drink and play together. After a long time, when he heard the rustling sound of the scholar, the man was busy swallowing the twenty-year-old woman into his mouth; After waking up, the beautiful woman who was sixteen was busy swallowing the man and sitting alone with Xu Yan. After the scholar got up, he swallowed beautiful women and all kinds of tableware for the first time, and then left a big copper plate for Xu Yan as a souvenir and left.
Duan Chengshi, a poet who was as famous as Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun in the late Tang Dynasty, said in his book Youyang Miscellany written in the middle of the ninth century that, after comparing it with the "Fan Zhi spits a pot" in the Indian Buddhist scripture "Simile Classic", "Shi Shi's" Simile Classic "says: Yesterday, Fan Zhi made art and spit out a pot, in which there were women and. The Brahma aspires to rest less, and the woman repeats the surgery, spitting out a pot, and there are men in it, lying down with * * *. Fanzhi felt that he swallowed each other for the second time and went away on crutches. I took Wu Jun to taste this matter, and I was surprised that he thought it was strange. " Later, many people mentioned this matter until Lu Xun made a thorough judgment on this "case-solving". Lu Xun said in "A Brief History of Chinese Novels": "However, this kind of thought is not attributed to China, and Duan Chengshi has said that it originated from Tianzhu (that is, ancient India) ... when it comes to the origin of Brahma. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the story of Tianzhu has been gradually translated and interpreted, and it has also spread around the world. Scholars like it, and they use it intentionally or unintentionally, so they are reduced to state-owned. For example, Xunshi, a Jin man, wrote The Tale of Ghosts and Ghosts, and also remembered that Taoist priests entered the cage. Shang Yun came from a foreign country and Wu Junji was a scholar of China. " Lu Xun is absolutely right. This story originated in India. After it was introduced to China with Buddhist scriptures, it was initially said that it was a foreign Taoist priest. For example, in the "Ghost Records" written by Xun in the Jin Dynasty, it was said: "In the twelfth year of Taiyuan, a Taoist priest came from abroad." In the hands of Wu Jun in the Southern Dynasties, it was absorbed and digested into people, events and places purely for China. Of course, this process of "degenerating into state ownership" has been extended to modern times. In 1981, Taiwan Province writer Zhang Xiaofeng's novel "People's Ring" published in Taipei further developed the story of Xu Yan's goose cage into a contemporary novel with psychological activities, environmental background and delicate description. However, the theme, the basic story and the relationship between the main characters remain the same.
Like Lu Xun and Duan Chengshi, this kind of research on the literary works of different nationalities and countries in China and India, comparing their similarities, tracing their origins, and exploring their connections and reasons, is actually a kind of comparative literature research. Because there are a lot of contacts between the literature of various nationalities in history, the following literary phenomena have appeared: in the Japanese classical novel Tale of Genji, many poems by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty in China, were used; In China's classical novel The Journey to the West, the Monkey King can change seventy-two, which absorbs the elements of the Indian Buddhist scriptures that the monkey Ha Numan will change thirty-six, and the Monkey King makes a scene in the Indian Buddhist scriptures "The Sage and Fool Sutra", which develops the story that the top-born king makes a scene in the palace of the Emperor of Heaven. According to legend, Li Bai first created Bodhisattva Man, but according to textual research, Bodhisattva Man is a musical tune of ancient Myanmar, which was introduced to the Central Plains through Yunnan. The earlier "Songs of the South, Lisao" begins with "The Miao nationality of Emperor Levin is Xi, and the emperor is called Bo Yong. Photographed in Meng Wei, Wei Geng and I will drop. " Some experts think that these incomprehensible words, such as "Sheti" and "Meng Wei", are translated names of constellations imported from abroad, most likely in Greek or Samaritan. This kind of research is called "influence research" in comparative literature because it mainly traces the contact between different national literatures and studies the influence facts of their origin, media, circulation, translation and acceptance. This kind of research rose and prevailed in France and Germany a hundred years ago, and once dominated all the fields of comparative literature, so the achievements of "impact research" can be described as fruitful, and the theories and methods of "impact research" are relatively mature and complete. Any research that focuses on this aspect is called "the school of influence research" for scholars who hold this view and their methods, because they advocate the study of the influential facts between literary phenomena of various nationalities. It is also known as the "French School" because most of the disputing parties in the international comparative literature circle in 195s were French scholars. This school's recognition of comparative literature can be represented by the definitions of comparative literature given by Van Gogh and Kea. In his book "On Comparative Literature" in 1931, Van Gogh said: "The real characteristic of' comparative literature', like the characteristics of all historical sciences, is to adopt as many facts from different sources as possible in order to fully explain each fact; It is the basis for expanding understanding in order to find as many reasons as possible for various results. " In the Comparative Literature published 2 years later, Kiya said more clearly: "Comparative literature is the relationship history of international literature. Comparative literature workers stand on the edge of language or nation and watch the mutual penetration of two or more kinds of literature in themes, ideas, books or feelings. "
the influence of works
however, there are still many similar situations that do not affect the factual relationship between Chinese and foreign literature or between literature of other countries, whether it is poetry, novels, plays, essays, literary theory and literary criticism, or between literary trends, schools and movements. For example, Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote the beauty of silence in Pipa: "The ice spring is cold and astringent, and the condensate will never stop." . Don't be bitter, told even more in silence than they had told in sound. " Coincidentally, the English poet Keats also wrote in his Ode to an Ancient Greek Urn: "The audible sound is beautiful, but the inaudible sound is doubly beautiful." In order to express the admiration for the right person, there is a song in Yuefu Wudiao in the Ming Dynasty: "Change an embroidered shoe and put it on your golden lotus; Change into a sweatshirt and meet you with meat; Become a bamboo lady and hold it in your arms; Become a main waist and bind you; Change a tube of jade, and raise it in your finger; Change another piece of fragrant tea, and it will be as small as your cherry. " This kind of description is often found in European poems and novels. The ancient Greek poet wrote: "I would like to be the flute of my sweetheart's mouth." Spanish playwright Rojas in the 17th century also wrote in his folk plays: "I wish to be the belt around my lover's waist." Even in German literature, it was written: "I would like to be fleas and lice around my sweetheart." There are also some works, which not only have similar characters, but also reflect almost the same details. Albagon in Moliere's masterpiece The Miser, a French classical dramatist, and Yan Jiansheng in China's classical novel The Scholars both love money to win, and are stingy and heartless. For example, Albagon will be satisfied only if he has to pinch out one of the two candles. Yan Jiansheng will not die until he extinguishes one of the remaining oil wicks.
The similarities and differences between Bai Juyi and Keats, Yuefu Wudiao in Ming Dynasty and ancient European drama, Albagon in Miserable Man and Yan Jiansheng in The Scholars are not "influenced" with each other, but the results of the writers' observation, experience and processing in the real life of their respective nationalities. To say "influenced", it can be traced back to their respective sources in the respective cultural systems and literary traditions of the East and the West. For example, Jia Sheng in the Yuan drama "Watching Money Slaves" before Yan Jiansheng is very similar to Yan Jiansheng's miserliness before he died. The difference is that Jia Sheng wants his son to lick his greasy fingers before he dies. It can be traced back to the "frugal old man" in Laughing Forest in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and even "Dong Guo Chang" in Shang Jun Shu in the Warring States Period, all of which influenced future generations by loving things more than the meanness and greed of lovers. Similarly, the Albagon created by Moliere can be traced back to the miser in the comedy A Pot of Gold by the ancient Roman playwright Platus, and the paper "The Theory of Character" by the earlier ancient Greek writer Theovraspes, because the character types of stingy people are outlined in the paper. Moliere, a neoclassical writer who advocates classicism and is keen to draw creative themes from ancient Greek and Roman literature, is influenced by his European literary tradition, and even he himself is outspoken. Therefore, in the study of these two similar issues, we should set aside the influence study and explore the law of "the connection between literature and mind" from the aspects of economy, politics and social history. By comparing the Chinese and foreign literary images of Albagon and Yan Jiansheng, we can more clearly find that greed and meanness existed since ancient times, but when the capital came down, money gradually became the "most sacred" to replace the rank and privilege of feudal society, so among the first group of merchant bourgeois who appeared among the citizens, meanness was a means for them to accumulate wealth and money, and they also existed with their greed for desperately hunting for surplus value. Thus, it constitutes a major feature of their personality habits and psychological state: they are so stingy that they regard every money and thing as a typical character of the omnipotent god, and then they become immortal artistic images in the history of Chinese and foreign literature.
parallel research
This kind of comparative research on national literature is called "parallel research" because its research object is national literature that has no direct influence on communication with each other, just like parallel lines that do not intersect with each other. Because it was first advocated and implemented by American scholars after the Second World War, it is also called the "American School". In the 196s, Professor remarque of Indiana University in the United States gave the definition of comparative literature the most praised by academic circles: "Comparative literature is the comparison between one country's literature and another country's literature or multi-national literature, and it is the comparison between literature and other fields of human expression."
this definition, besides emphasizing that parallel research on literature of various nationalities that have no mutual influence or connection is also comparative literature, also puts forward that comparative literature should include the research on the relationship between literature and other disciplines or beliefs, which is called "interdisciplinary" research by academic circles and also belongs to comparative literature.
If we study rhetorical devices in literary creation from the perspective of "synaesthesia" in psychology and physiology, it can be regarded as an interdisciplinary study of comparative literature. How to describe the variety of things? How to describe the silent scenery? There are enough stars in the night sky and they are shiny enough. What excellent descriptions have poets made? And what do ordinary critics say? Song Qi, a poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote "The Jade House is Spring", in which "the greenery is lighter than the smoke in Han Xiao, and the branches of red apricots are noisy in spring", and the word "noisy" is used to describe the lush of silent apricots. However, Li Yu in the Ming Dynasty criticized: "This statement is extremely difficult to understand. The fight is noisy, the peaches and plums are fighting for spring, and the apricots are fighting for spring. I have no opinion. If noisy words are available, you can use them for speculation, fighting and typing! " Su Shi, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, went one step further. He wrote silent stars in Stargazing at Night, and also said that "little stars are noisy". Similarly, Ji Xiaolan, a college student in the Qing Dynasty and the general editor of Sikuquanshu, also said that this sentence was not good, and commented it as "like a meteor".
Coincidentally, this kind of beautiful sentence of writing silent things into sounds is also found in western literature: Pascoli, Giovanni (1855-1912), an Italian poet in the 19th century, wrote a famous sentence about stars: "A bunch of stars in a blue sky are chirping and walking like chickens." Saint Martin in the 18th century