René Wellek. ‘The concept of comparative literature’

Abstract

The publication contains the first Russian translation of René Wellek’s famous critical essay penned in response to J.-M. Carré’s preface to M.-F. Guyard’s Comparative Literature [La Littérature Comparée]. Wellek challenges Carré’s method, which he finds both limiting and overly inclusive. The former argues that, on the one hand, French comparatists uphold the positivist approach and are governed by neutral scientism, and on the other, ambitiously proclaim the creation of comparative cultural psychology. Wellek argues against such convergence of literary scholarship with cultural history, sociology, and psychology. As a remedy, he proposes a holistic method of studying literature that does not distinguish between general and comparative history of literature. It is also free from an obsolete stipulation that comparison can only be drawn between works of different national origins and whose historical relations are easy to verify.