The Promise and Premise of Creativity: Why Comparative Literature Matters by Eug

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Argues for the usefulness of reading and studying literature by considering comparative literature in the larger context of globalization and the "clash of cultures."

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The Promise and Premise of Creativity considers literature in the larger context of globalization and "the clash of cultures." Refuting the view that the study of literature is "useless," Eoyang argues that it expands three distinct intellectual skills: creative imagination, vicarious sympathy, and capacious intuition.With the advent of the personal computer and the blurring of cultural and economic boundaries, it is the ability to imagine, to intuit, and to invent that will mark the educated student, and allow her to survive the rapid pace of change. As never before, the ability to empathize with other peoples, to understand cultures very different from one's own, is vital to success in a globalized world. In this, the very "uselessness" of literature may inure the mind to think creatively.Engaging with both the theory and practice of literature, its past and its potential future, Eoyang claims that our sense of the world at large, of the salient similarities and differences between cultures, would be critically diminished without comparative literature.

Notes

Argues for the usefulness of reading and studying literature by considering comparative literature in the larger context of globalization and the "clash of cultures."

Author Biography

Eugene Eoyang is Professor Emeritus of English, Humanities, Translation, and General Education at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China, and Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, USA. He is the author of five books, including The Transparent Eye: Translation, Chinese Literature, and Comparative Poetics (University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 'Borrowed Plumage': Polemical Essays on Translation (Rodopi Publishers, 2003), and Two-Way Mirrors: Cross-Cultural Studies in Glocalization (Lexington Books, 2007) as well as the editor of three volumes, including Ai Qing: Selected Poems, Edited with an Introduction and Notes (The Foreign Languages Press/Indiana University Press, 1982; the first book co-published by a U. S. publisher and a press in the People's Republic of China) and, with Lin Yao-fu, Translating Chinese Literature (Indiana University Press, 1995). He is past President of the American Comparative Literature Association and Head of the Intercultural Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association (1997-2004).

Table of Contents

ForewordPreliminaries1. Why Study Literature?2. What's the Story-The Relevance of Literature to Life3. The Uses of the Useless: Comparative Literature and the Multinational CorporationApproaches4. Macintosh Apples and Mandarin Oranges: Comparing East and West.5. Cuentos Chinos ("Chinese Tales"): The Exotic Imaginary6. Francophone Cathay: Gallicizing China7. The Persistence of Cathay: China in World Literature8. The Emergence of the Southern Hemisphere in Literature: Neglected Domains9. Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Modern and the Postmodern: Ethnocentricities10. Cultural Logics: Contradiction vs. Maodun11. Dialectical Maodun in the Works of Octavio Paz: The Mestizo Mind12. Meaningful and Meaningless Comparison: The Heuristic and the InvidiousProspects13. The Globalization of Knowledge: Comparative Literature as Interdisciplinary and Multilingual Discourse14. The Glocalization of Knowledge: The Ends of the World or the Edge of Heaven15. The Undisciplined Discipline: Comparative Literature and Creative Wandering16. Synergies and Synaesthesia: An Intraworldly Comparative LiteratureBibliographyIndex

Review

"This thoroughly engaging volume by an eminent comparatist examines the relevance of literature in modern life, with particular attention paid to the value of Comparative Literature as a field of study.  In a series of essays, Eoyang challenges recent attempts to supplant Comparative Literature or announce its demise.  He celebrates its viability as a discipline, its response to the Western biases of World Literature, its role as an alternative to multiculturalism's marketing of the Other, and its relationship to translation.  Eoyang presents Comparative Literature as a multilingual "undisciplined discipline" that seeks to bridge cultural incommensurability." -- Dorothy Figueira, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, USA, Honorary President, International Comparative Literature Association, Editor of Recherche littéraire/Literary Research

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Argues for the usefulness of reading and studying literature by considering comparative literature in the larger context of globalization and the "clash of cultures."

Review Quote

"This thoroughly engaging volume by an eminent comparatist examines the relevance of literature in modern life, with particular attention paid to the value of Comparative Literature as a field of study.

Promotional "Headline"

Argues for the usefulness of reading and studying literature by considering comparative literature in the larger context of globalization and the "clash of cultures."

Feature

Argues for, and shows through examples, the distinct value of comparative literature.

Details ISBN1441108645 Year 2012 ISBN-10 1441108645 ISBN-13 9781441108647 Format Hardcover Subtitle Why Comparative Literature Matters Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States DEWEY 809.9113 Short Title PROMISE & PREMISE OF CREATIVIT Language English Media Book Illustrations Yes DOI CBID167700 Author Professor Eugene Eoyang Publication Date 2012-10-04 Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Imprint Bloomsbury Continuum Pages 250 UK Release Date 2012-10-04 Translated from English NZ Release Date 2012-10-04 US Release Date 2012-10-04 Audience Undergraduate AU Release Date 2012-10-03 We've got this

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