A Triple Configuration: Comparative Literature, World Literature, and Single-Language Literature

In recent years, both Comparative Literature and World Literature have begun to acknowledge their inveterate West-centrism and to re-orient themselves by beginning to include the rest of the world. An interaction through translation between Chinese and Hindi can in this regard open up new possibilities. Another new configuration has emerged through the on-going contestation for disciplinary space between Comparative Literature and World Literature. The eclectic and even coincidental juxtaposition of authors from around the world evidenced in anthologies of World Literature marks a contrast with the carefully premeditated and predetermined comparisons that have been the staple of Comparative Literature. The mutual accommodative goodwill and the partial ideological overlap between Comparative Literature and World Literature may indicate that they are both united in their opposition to Single-Language literatures but it is the latter that still occupy the mainland of literary studies. One possible consequence of this new configuration may be that Comparative Literature may find itself squeezed out between 'narrow' Single-Language Literatures and 'wide' World Literature.