Comparative literature
Comparative literature is a science that compares the literatures of multiple cultures and clarifies their relations. To date, studies of comparative literature in Japan have primarily focused on Western influences on Japanese modern literature. In the contemporary context, however, it is important to take new approaches, and to explore relations between Japanese literature and literary works written in the non-Western world, particularly Asia. For instance, students can cross-culturally analyze literary works of various countries under a single theme (the image of paradise, for instance), or select such themes as mutual influences between literature and art or music, or relations between literature and such practical subjects as sex, multi-ethnic states and information media. Moreover, theories on languages and texts should also be studied, to analyze literary works. In a basic approach to studying comparative literature, students are expected to determine their own viewpoints for effectively pondering literature, through thorough studies of various texts.
Professor
- SHIMUZU, Yasutsugu (Ph.D.)
- Modern Japanese Literature; Bibliography of Modern Japanese Literture
Associate Professor
- HASHIMOTO, Yorimitsu (Ph.D.)
- Comparative Literature and Culture; British Studies