ABSTRACT
Theoretical interventions that have defined the discipline of comparative literature over the years have often employed the language of “crisis” as a way of justifying their exigency. Certainly, many of the early foundational figures who shaped the discipline of comparative literature in the United States were exiles fleeing the crisis of Nazism that had engulfed Europe. In the context of the classroom, comparatists assume the locative position of cultural mediators who relate and negotiate texts and materials stemming from different national contexts, the cultural location of the classroom, and the diverse communities of readers to which students belong. Rejecting the binary between pedagogy and research, this book reimagines ways of practicing scholarship by examining how comparative methods employed to respond to moments of crisis emerging in the classroom, including national periods of crisis and their effects on classroom politics, can be used to provide insights about the discipline.
