Editing Comparative literature (section)

==Overview==
Students and instructors in the field, usually called "comparatists", have traditionally been proficient in several languages and acquainted with the literary traditions, [[literary criticism]], and major literary texts of those languages. Many of the newer sub-fields, however, are more influenced by [[critical theory]] and [[literary theory]], stressing theoretical acumen and the ability to consider different types of art concurrently over proficiency in multiple languages.

The [[interdisciplinary]] nature of the field means that comparatists typically exhibit acquaintance with [[sociology]], [[history]], [[anthropology]], [[translation studies]], critical theory, [[cultural studies]], and [[religious studies]]. As a result, comparative literature programs within universities may be designed by scholars drawn from several such departments. This [[eclecticism]] has led critics (from within and without) to charge that comparative literature is insufficiently well-defined or that comparatists too easily fall into dilettantism because the scope of their work is, of necessity, broad. Some question whether this breadth affects the ability of PhDs to find employment in the highly specialized environment of academia and the career market at large, although such concerns do not seem to be borne out by placement data, which shows comparative literature graduates to be hired at similar or higher rates than English literature graduates.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.mla.org/jil_phd_survey_t2 |title=Placement of 1996-97 PhDs in Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics
|access-date=Dec 18, 2011 }}</ref>

The terms "comparative literature" and "world literature" are often used to designate a similar course of study and scholarship. Comparative literature is the more widely used term in the United States, with many universities having comparative literature departments or comparative literature programs.

Comparative literature is an interdisciplinary field whose practitioners study literature across national borders, time periods, languages, genres, boundaries between literature and the other arts (music, painting, dance, film, etc.), and across disciplines (literature and psychology, philosophy, science, history, architecture, sociology, politics, etc.). Defined most broadly, comparative literature is the study of "literature without borders". Scholarship in comparative literature includes, for example, studying literacy and social status in the Americas, medieval epic and romance, the links of literature to folklore and mythology, colonial and postcolonial writings in different parts of the world, and asking fundamental questions about the definition of literature itself.<ref>{{citation |last=Lernout |first=Geert |author-link=Geert Lernout |year=2006 |title=Comparative Literature in the Low Countries |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/comparative_critical_studies/v003/3.1lernout.html |journal=Comparative Critical Studies |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=37–46 |publisher=British Comparative Literature |doi=10.3366/ccs.2006.3.1-2.37 |access-date=Dec 18, 2011 | quote = When I tell members of the general public, in airplanes or hotel bars, what I do for a living, the most common reply has always been: 'What do you guys compare literature to?' Nowadays I tend to answer: 'With everything else.' If I look at the courses I have given over the years, this is not even an exaggeration – I have taught courses on literature 'And Very Nearly Everything Else': literature and music, literature and the arts, literature and science, psychology, religion, sociology, history, philosophy. The trouble with literature, however defined, is that you cannot even begin to grasp its complexity if you do not fully understand its relationship to, well, everything else. In my personal life this has meant that I have found the perfect academic excuse for an unquenchable thirst for all kinds of information, some more, some less arcane (less charitably it could be argued that this has saved me from having to make up my Kierkegaardian mind about what I really want to do with my life). }}</ref> What scholars in comparative literature share is a desire to study literature beyond national boundaries and an interest in languages so that they can read foreign texts in their original form. Many comparatists also share the desire to integrate literary experience with other cultural phenomena such as historical change, philosophical concepts, and social movements.

The discipline of comparative literature has scholarly associations such as the [[International Comparative Literature Association]] (ICLA) and comparative literature associations in many countries.<ref>For a list of such see [https://web.archive.org/web/20070206071440/http://www.bcla.org/index.htm BCLA: British Comparative Literature Association]; for the US, see [http://www.acla.org/ ACLA: American Comparative Literature Association].</ref> There are many learned journals that publish scholarship in comparative literature: see "Selected Comparative Literature and Comparative Humanities Journals"<ref>{{citation |url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweblibrary/comparativehumanitiesjournals/|title=Selected Comparative Literature and Comparative Humanities Journals |journal=Clcweb Library |date=January 1999 |access-date=Dec 18, 2011 |last1=Tötösy De Zepetnek |first1=Steven }}</ref> and for a list of books in comparative literature see "Bibliography of (Text)Books in Comparative Literature".<ref>{{citation |url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweblibrary/comparativeliteraturebooks/ |title=Bibliography of (Text)Books in Comparative Literature |journal=Clcweb Library |date=March 1999 |access-date=Dec 18, 2011 |last1=Tötösy De Zepetnek |first1=Steven }}</ref>