Early this week PhD candidates in the Comparative Lit Dept at UToronto were shocked to receive notice advising them that their department would soon no longer exist. A committee of departmental representatives (of which Comp Lit was not, obviously, represented) has decided to amalgamate a substantial number of departments into a new school, to be christened the department of “Languages and Literature.”
I have heard it again and again: “Comp Lit is a dying institution.” Not long ago, UBC stopped accepting new candidates into its Comp Lit programme, leaving only two active Comp Lit departments in the country. Comp Lit has no purpose, the sentiment goes, now that English departments have so aggressively adopted literary theory. There was a time not to long ago when Comp Lit was the place for working with European theory, but now that every English undergrad is required to take a theory survey course, now that we all read Derrida and feel compelled to include theory in our papers, what place is there now for Comparativists? What does Comp Lit offer to the institution other than another superfluous administrative apparatus? Why not downsize and cut costs? Let the English and French departments pick up the slack, because, well, the English department at least pays for itself with its huge undergraduate enrollment. Why not kill Comp Lit?
Because Comp Lit fosters the kind of academic work that is needed in a globalized world. Comp Lit is one of the most responsive and elastic forms of academic enquiry—more so I would argue than the often historicist (especially at UToronto) English Lit Dept—Comp Lit functions in an interdisciplinary academic arena. Comparativists work in multiple languages at a high level; they work with original texts from overlooked and underrepresented literary traditions; they do research that would not and cannot fit under the supervision of any other department, be it History, Philosophy or any of the languages.
Comp Lit is not defunct! In 2010, Yulia Pushkarevskaya-Naughton at the University College Dublin writes, "[O]ne of the great attractions of Comp. Lit. ... is the way in which it repairs the damaging effects of political conflict and opens people out to multiple narratives."
Comp Lit is not defunct! In 2010, Yulia Pushkarevskaya-Naughton at the University College Dublin writes, "[O]ne of the great attractions of Comp. Lit. ... is the way in which it repairs the damaging effects of political conflict and opens people out to multiple narratives."
And if you really need some sort of economic indicator of their importance, since 1979, the department has held the Northrop Frye Professorship in Literary Theory, a massive private endowment. Added to that, comparativists at UToronto hold a multitude of prestigious awards, including SSHRCs, a prestigious Vanier Scholarship, a Jackman Fellowship, and in 2010 a Governor Generals award for best dissertation. The government of Canada continues to support Comp Lit research even as universities continue to deny their graduate students a place in which to do such work. Never thought I'd write that.
The larger issue here, is that way in which Canadian universities are orienting themselves towards business and vocational degrees. The underlying message in a new amalgamated department of "Languages and Literature" seems to be first, that UToronto does not understand that interdisciplinarity requires autonomous disciplines in order to "interdiscipline" with one another and second, that UToronto treats these areas of study as useful only insofar as they add content to a practical degree. Learning another language, learning about another country's literature is "helpful". Well, be that as it may, true scholarship is meant to go beyond the surface and ask questions of our world that destabilize and trouble the status quo.
What can we do?
1. Mobilize the media. Write on your blogs, people! Write editorials! Let's get coverage.
2. Look to other examples: see the University of Iowa.
3. Join this FB group.
4. Even if you are far from Toronto, comment and actively participate in the debate!
5. Hyperlinks: here's one to Jonathan Allan's Northrop Frye blog.
6. More Ideas! Post them as comments!
The larger issue here, is that way in which Canadian universities are orienting themselves towards business and vocational degrees. The underlying message in a new amalgamated department of "Languages and Literature" seems to be first, that UToronto does not understand that interdisciplinarity requires autonomous disciplines in order to "interdiscipline" with one another and second, that UToronto treats these areas of study as useful only insofar as they add content to a practical degree. Learning another language, learning about another country's literature is "helpful". Well, be that as it may, true scholarship is meant to go beyond the surface and ask questions of our world that destabilize and trouble the status quo.
What can we do?
1. Mobilize the media. Write on your blogs, people! Write editorials! Let's get coverage.
2. Look to other examples: see the University of Iowa.
3. Join this FB group.
4. Even if you are far from Toronto, comment and actively participate in the debate!
5. Hyperlinks: here's one to Jonathan Allan's Northrop Frye blog.
6. More Ideas! Post them as comments!
