Unit 1: Comparative Studies and Translation Studies

 Hello readers!

I am Nidhi Jethava and I am a student of MK Bhavnagar University department of English. As a part of our syllabus, we have one paper on 'Comparative Literature Studies and Translation Studies.' So in this paper, I am going to summarize the third unit's article.

WHY COMPARATIVE INDIAN LITERATURE – SISIR KUMAR DAS

1. About Sisir Kumar Das

Sisir Kumar Das (1936–2003) was a poet, playwright, translator, comparatist and a prolific scholar of Indian literature. He is considered by many as the "doyen of Indian literary historiographers".[1] Almost singlehandedly Das built an integrated history of Indian literatures composed in many languages, a task that had seemed to many important scholars of Indian literatures to be “a historian’s despair”.[2] His three volume (among proposed ten volumes) A History of Indian Literature (Western Impact: Indian Response 1800–1910; Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy 1911–1956; From Courtly to Popular 500–1399) is credited for having devised hitherto absent methods necessary for situating diverse Indian literary cultures in history. Apart from this, another monumental work in Das’ scholarly oeuvre is the multi-volume English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by him.

2. COMPARATIVE INDIAN LITERATURE 

At the beginning of the century, some of the scholars tried upon the idea of Indian Literature emphasizing the unity of themes and forms and attitudes between the different kinds of literature produced in different Indian languages during the last three thousand years. It discovers the essential threads of unity in two ways.  

India is a Multilingual and Multiriligious country. “Coming back to the nature of Comparative Literature as taught in India, the epigraph by Sisir Kumar Das states the pressing concern of relationships that exist between Indian literature. It is also the comparatist’s need to move away from narrow geographical confines and move towards how literature across the subcontinent are to be understood in their totality.”(Das:96–97).

“For a country like India which has a history of literary traditions oscillating between script and orature, new methods of teaching and reading were to be envisioned. While dealing with the formal elements that go into the making of any text in India—which shares a similarity with African situations in terms of oral, written and indigenous sources” (Thiongʼo 1993)— identification of these methods as contours which aid in the reading of literature would apply. When speaking of literatures in the plural, the succeeding questions point towards the direction in which these literatures tend to inhabit a geopolitical location, otherwise termed a country, which is demarcated by boundaries, social, religious and linguistic. When reading any text, the value-loaded term ‘national’, ‘international’ and ‘indigenous’ prop up any student pursuing literature.

“Subdivisions, generic differences may occur, but identifying these differences and reading them as contours, instead of straight lines is what Comparative Literature sets out to engage with.While questioning the idea of an ‘Indian literature’ vis-à-vis ‘Indian literatures’, he highlights the notions one attaches to the word ‘Indian’ which could in itself be a pluralistic outlook of life, wherein the concept of Indian literature as inherently comparative may be considered. according to Das, the necessity of evolving a framework when two distinct languages/cultures encountered was inevitable. Das states in this regard:Arabic, Japanese with Chinese and Indians with the literatures of Europe. All these contacts have resulted in certain changes, at times marginal, and at time quite profound and pervasive, in the literary activities of the people involved, and have necessitated an enlargement of critical perspective‖” (S. K. Das 18).

“Das states how Warren Hastings, the first governor‐general of India, in his introduction of Charles Wilkin's translation of Gita (1785), advocated for a comparative study of the Gita and great European literature. I should not fear‘ he wrote, to place, in opposition to the best French version of the most admired passages of Iliad or Odyssey, or the 1st and 6th books of our own Milton, highly as I venerate the latter, the English translation of the Mahabharata” (S. K. Das 22). “Translation brought world-renown to a number of regional writers. In ―The Task of the Translator, Walter Benjamin argues that translation does not conceal the original, but allows it to shine through, for translation effectively ensures the survival of a text.” (Bassnett 180).

Das ascertains how Indian scholars in the ancient period did not endeavour to explore such connections between the two languages. Das has a clear insight into this phenomenon that may be owing to myopic tendencies and the lack of a framework to place literatures from two linguistic roots. Das forgets to mention that were no appropriate frameworks to study identity politics that went beyond the frontiers of language in a country strongly informed by caste hierarchies, the subjugation of women and the suppression of the LGBT.  And even when literature shifted from nation bases to identity bases it happened outside the discipline of comparative literature.

3. COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN INDIA BY AMIYA DEV

In his article, "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev bases his discussion on the fact that India has many languages and literatures thus representing an a priori situation and conditions of diversity. He therefore argues that to speak of an Indian literature in the singular is problematic. Nonetheless, Dev also observes that to speak of Indian literature in the plural is equally problematic.

In his article, "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev bases his discussion on the fact that India has many languages and literatures thus representing an a priori situation and conditions of diversity. He therefore argues that to speak of an Indian literature in the singular is problematic. Nonetheless, Dev also observes that to speak of Indian literature in the plural is equally problematic. Dev also examines the search for common denominators and a possible pattern of togetherness and Dev underlines location and located inter-Indian reception as an aspect of interliterariness. It is t/here Dev perceives Indian literature, that is, not as a fixed or determinate entity but as an ongoing and interliterary process: Indian language and literature ever in the re/making.

Work Cited:

Sharma, Riti. (2016). Comparative Literature. Das, Sisir Kumar. 1988. ‘Muses in Isolation’, in Comparative Literature Theory and Practice, eds.

 Amiya Dev and Sisir Kumar Das. Shimla: MAS and Allied Publishers.

Thiongʼo, Ngũgĩ wa. 1972. ‘On the Abolition of the English Department’ in Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics. London: Heinemann.

Rukhaya, Mk. (2022). ‘Sisir Kumar Das’s “Comparative Literature in India:” Transcending Boundaries. 

"Comparative Literature in India"

By Amiya Dev 

1. Abstract :

In his article, "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev bases his discussion on the  fact that India has many languages and literatures thus representing an a priori situation and  conditions of diversity. He therefore argues that to speak of an Indian literature in the singular is  problematic. Nonetheless, Dev also observes that to speak of Indian literature in the plural is  equally problematic. Such a characterization, he urges, either overlooks or obscures manifest  interrelations and affinities. His article compares the unity and the diversity thesis, and identifies  the relationship between Indian commonality and differences as the prime site of comparative  literature in India. He surveys the current scholarly and intellectual positions on unity and diversity  and looks into the post-structuralist doubt of homogenization of differences in the name of unity.  Dev also examines the search for common denominators and a possible pattern of togetherness  and Dev underlines location and located inter-Indian reception as an aspect of interliterariness. It  is t/here Dev perceives Indian literature, that is, not as a fixed or determinate entity but as an  ongoing and interliterary process: Indian language and literature ever in the re/making.

2. Comparative Literature in India

In his article, "Comparative Literature in India," Amiya Dev bases his discussion on the fact that India has many languages and literature thus representing an a priori situation and conditions of diversity. Richard Pierre mentioned that In studying comparative literature, you will consider literature from different genres, locations, and time periods simultaneously. Beyond that, comparative literature thinks across different disciplines, like literature and music on literature and anthropology. Finally, comparative literature is also the de facto home of literary theory; some consider the field to be concerned with the general makeup of literature itself, or literariness.

Is Indian literature, in the singular, a valid category, or are we rather to speak of Indian literatures in the plural Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western  Indologists were not interested in this question, for Indian literature to them was mainly Sanskrit, extended at most to Pâli and Prakrit. For example, with all his admiration for Sakuntala, William Jones was oblivious of literatures in modern Indian languages. Non-Indian Indianists today, too,  are more often than not uninterested in the question. Although they do not consider Sanskrit-Pâli- Prakrit as "the" only literature of India, these scholars are still single literature specialists. Similarly, literary histories written in India by Indian scholars also focused and still focus on a single literature.

Conclusion :

According to Amiya Dev “Finally, let me assure you that, obviously, the problematics of unity and diversity are not  unique to India. However, in keeping with my proposal that the situs of both theorist and theory is  an important issue, I demonstrate here the application of the proposal. If I had discussed, for  instance, Canadian diversity, it would have been from the outside, that is, from an Indian situs. I  am not suggesting extreme relativism, but Comparative Literature has taught us not to take  comparison literally and it also taught us that theory formation in literary history is not universally  tenable. I am suggesting that we should first look at ourselves and try to understand our own  situations as thoroughly as possible. Let us first give full shape to our own comparative literatures  and then we will formulate a comparative literature of diversity in general. “ 

Work Cited: 

Ahmad, Aijaz. "'Indian Literature': Notes towards the Definition of a Category." In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. Aijaz Ahmad. London: Verso, 1992.

Dev, Amiya. "Comparative Literature In India". Clcweb: Comparative Literature And Culture, vol 2, no. 4, 2000. Purdue University (Bepress), doi:10.7771/1481-4374.1093. Accessed 4 Mar 2022.

George, K.M., ed. Comparative Indian Literature. Madras and Trichur: Macmillan and Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 1984-85. 2 vols.

Pierre, R. "Comparative Literature: Definition & Examples." 29 January,2022. 

Singh, Gurbhagat. “Differential Multilogue: Comparative Literature and National Literatures.” Differential Multilogue: Comparative Literature and National Literatures. Ed. Gurbhagat Singh. Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1991. 11-19.

Comparative Literature in India: 

An Overview of its History.

Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta, Jadavpur University 

Abstract: 

The essay gives an overview of the trajectory of Comparative Literature in India, focusing primarily on the department at Jadavpur University, where it began, and to some extent the department of  Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies in the University of Delhi, where it later had a new be ginning in its engagement with Indian literatures. The department at Jadavpur began with the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore’s speech on World Literature and with a modern poet-translator as its founder.  While British legacies in the study of literature were evident in the early years, there were also subtle  efforts towards a decolonizing process and an overall attempt to enhance and nurture creativity.  Gradually Indian literature began to receive prominence along with literatures from the Southern part  of the globe. Paradigms of approaches in comparative literary studies also shifted from influence and  analogy studies to cross-cultural literary relations, to the focus on reception and transformation. In  the last few years Comparative Literature has taken on new perspectives, engaging with different ar eas of culture and knowledge, particularly those related to marginalized spaces, along with the focus  on recovering new areas of non-hierarchical literary relations. 

Keywords: decolonizing process, creativity, cross-cultural literary relations, interdisciplinarity.

The Beginnings:

It was Rabindranath Tagore who give this term ‘VishvaSahitya’ and started the world generally termed comparative literature. Buddhadev Bose, one of the prime factors of modern Bengali poetry and he did not fully subscribe to the ideal of Tagore. Buddhadev Translated Baudelaire.  Sudhindranath Dutta, also well-known for his translation of  Mallarmé and his erudition both in the Indian and the Western context, to teach in the department of  Comparative Literature. Of the first five students in the department, three became well-known poets and the fourth a fine critic of Bengali poetry. The person who took charge from Buddhadeva Bose was again  a poet, Naresh Guha, who remained as Chairperson of the department for two decades. In an interview  given to us in his last years he emphasized the role of the department in fostering an intensely creative  environment. This part of article is about the beginning od comparative literature in India. 

Indian Literature as Comparative Literature

• Comparatists dealing with Indian literature also necessarily had to look at the interplay between the mainstream and the popular, the elite and the marginalized and also to some extent foreground intermedial perspectives as different forms existed together in a composite manner, particularly in earlier periods in which textual and performative traditions existed simultaneously. 

•   The department continues to develop teaching material on various aspects of Indian literature from a comparative perspective, beginning from language origins, manuscript cultures, performative traditions along with painting, sculpture and architecture, the history of print culture and questions related to modernity. That Comparative Literature studies necessarily had to be interdisciplinary was highlighted by the pedagogy practiced in the department. 

•  T.S. Satyanath developed the theory of a scripto-centric, body-centric and phonocentric study of texts in the medieval period leading a number of researchers in the department to look for continuities and interventions in the tradition that would again lead to pluralist epistemologies in the study of Indian literature and culture. 

Centers of Comparative Literature Studies 

● In 1986 a new full-fledged department of Comparative Literature was established at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat, where the focus was on Indian literatures in Western India. 

● Also in 1999 a department of Dravidian Comparative Literature and Philosophy was established in Dravidian University, Kuppam. It must also be mentioned that comparative poetics, a core area of comparative literature studies and dissertations, particularly in the South, was taken up as a central area of research by the Visvanatha Kaviraja Institute of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics in Orissa. 

● During this period two national associations of Comparative Literature came into being, one at Jadavpur called Indian Comparative Literature Association and the other in Delhi named Comparative Indian Literature Association. 

● The two merged in 1992 and the Comparative Literature Association of India was formed, which today has more than a thousand members. In the early years of the Association, a large number of creative writers participated in its conferences along with academics and researchers, each enriching the horizon of vision of the other.

Reconfiguration of areas of comparison

● Along with Indian literatures, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude became a part of the syllabus with a few other texts from Latin American Literatures and then Literatures from African countries were included. 

● As for the other Area Studies components, the department today hosts Centres for African, Latin American and Canadian studies where some research work and annual seminars are organized. A few, like the present author, are of the opinion that given the relatively small number of faculty in the department, the Area Studies programmes led to a division of the scarce resources and also diverted attention from some of the key challenges in comparative literature studies in India, namely, the systematic amalgamation of data related to the Indian context and its analysis from comparative perspectives, and also perhaps the mapping of intercultural relations with and among India’s neighbouring countries. 

● Burns and Wordsworth were very popular and it was felt that their romanticism was marked by an inner strength and serenity. The much talked about ‘angst’ of the romantic poet was viewed negatively. The love for serenity and ‘health’ went back to the classical period and seemed an important value in the tradition. 

● Again while Shelley and Byron were often critiqued, the former for having introduced softness and sentimentality to Bengali poetry, they were also often praised for upholding human rights and liberty in contrast to the imperialist poetry of Kipling. Contemporary political needs then were linked with literary values and this explained the contradictory tensions often found in the reception of romanticism in Bengal. It must be mentioned that Shelley, the poet of revolt, began to have a very positive reception when the independence movement gathered momentum. 

● In another context, a particular question that gained prominence was whether Shakespeare was imposed on Indian literature, and comparatists showed, as did Sisir Kumar Das, that there were different Shakespeares. Shakespeare’s texts might have been imposed in the classroom, but the playwright had a rich and varied reception in the world of theatre. 

● From reception studies the focus gradually turned to cross-cultural reception where reciprocity and exchange among cultures were studied. For example, one tried to study the Romantic Movement from a larger perspective, to unravel its many layers as it travelled between countries, particularly between Europe and India. The translation of several texts from Sanskrit into German played a role in the emergence of the Romantic movement and then in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Romanticism came back to India, though in different shades.

● Reception studies both along vertical and horizontal lines formed the next major area of focus - one studied for instance, elements of ancient and medieval literature in modern texts and also inter and intraliterary relations foregrounding impact and responses. 

● While one studied Vedic, Upanishadic, Buddhist and Jaina elements in modern texts, one also looked at clusters of sermons by Buddha, Mahavira and Nanak, at qissas and katha ballads across the country, the early novels in different Indian literatures, and then the impact of Eastern literature and thought on Western literature and vice versa. 

● With the introduction of the semester system the division was abandoned and certain other courses of a more general nature such as Cross-cultural Literary Transactions, where Rudyard Kipling’s Kim and Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora, were taken up, or sometimes in courses entitled Literary Transactions one looked more precisely at the tradition of Reason and Rationalism in European and Indian literatures of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. 

● The department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Saurashtra University, Rajkot, took up the theme of Indian Renaissance and translated several Indian authors into English, studied early travelogues from Western India to England and in general published collections of theoretical discourse from the nineteenth century. 

● The Department of Assamese in Dibrugarh University received the grant and published a number of books related to translations, collections of rare texts and documentation of folk forms. 

● The department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University also received assistance to pursue research in four major areas, East-West Literary Relations, Indian Literature, Translation Studies and Third World Literature. Incidentally, the department had in Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, an avid translator who translated texts from many so-called “third-world countries”. 

● From a very different perspective it was felt that stories poems, songs and performances from oral traditions that were found in most parts of the country had their own knowledge systems that could provide valuable and sustainable alternatives to contemporary urban modes of life and living and in several cases also reveal certain cultural dynamics and value systems that were constantly replenishing mainstream expressive traditions. 

● The second area in the Centre for Advanced Studies was the interface between literatures of India and its neighbouring countries. 

● The first preliminary research in this area led to links that suggested continuity and a constant series of interactions between and among Asian cultures and communities since ancient times and the urgent need for work in this area in order to enter into meaningful dialogue with one another in the Asian context and to uncover different pathways of creative communications. Efforts towards this end led to an International Conference on South-South dialogues with a large number of participants from Asian and European countries. An anthology of critical essays on tracing socio-cultural and literary transactions between India and Southeast Asia was published. 

● Among the projects planned under the inter-Asian series was one on travelogues from Bengal to Asian countries and here an annotated bibliography that could provide an initial foundation for the study of inter-literary relations was published. A second project involved working on the image of Burma in Bengali and Oriya literature in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Travel narratives and diaries, newspaper articles from old periodicals, excerpts from literature and pictorial images of Burmese people in the Indian press were compiled.

CONCLUSIONS

 It must be mentioned at this point that Comparative Literature in the country in the 21st century engaged with two other related fields of study, one was Translation Studies and the other Cultural Studies. Translation Studies cover different areas of interliterary studies. Histories of translation may be used to map literary relations while analysis of acts of translation leads to the understanding of important characteristics of both the source and the target literary and cultural systems. As for Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature had always engaged with different aspects of Cultural Studies, the most prominent being literature and its relation with the different arts. Cultural Studies may also be a key component in different kinds of interdisciplinary courses within the discipline. For instance, a course in Delhi University takes up the theme of city and village in Indian literature and goes into representations of human habitat systems and ecology in literature, looks for concepts and terms for such settlements, goes into archaeological evidences and the accounts of travellers from Greece, China, Persia and Portugal to demonstrate the differences that exist at levels of perception and ideological positions.

It is evident that Comparative Literature in the country today has multifaceted goals and visions in accordance with historical needs, both local and planetary. As in the case of humanities and literary studies, the discipline too is engaged with issues that would lead to the enhancement of civilizational gestures, against forces that are divisive and that constantly reduce the potentials of human beings. In doing so it is engaged in discovering new links and lines of non-hierarchical connectivity, of what Kumkum Sangari in a recent article called “co-construction”, a process anchored in “subtle and complex histories of translation, circulation and extraction”And comparatists work with the knowledge that a lot remains to be done and that the task of the construction of literary histories, in terms of literary relations among neighbouring regions, and of larger wholes, one of the primary tasks of Comparative Literature today has perhaps yet to begin. In all its endeavours, however, the primary aim of some of the early architects of the discipline to nurture and foster creativity continues as a subterranean force.

Work Cited 

Dasgupta, Subha Chakraborty. "Comparative Literature in India: An Overview of its History." Comparative Literature & World Literature Spring 2016.