后理论时代的中西比较文学研究

What is the ground for comparison? That is the fundamental question for any effort at comparative literature. In the 19th century, comparative literature was based on “rapports de fait” and aimed at establishing relationships or influences between authors and their works through a positivistic approach. As it tended to be made use of by narrow-minded nationalists, such a methodology of positivism became passé and was largely discarded by the scholarly community in the postwar world. The rise of literary theory provided the foundation for comparison of literary works without factual relations and thus made it possible to engage in Chinese-Western comparative literature. The overdevelopment of literary theory, however, moved increasingly away from literature and produced discontent among many literary scholars, and we are now in an age of post-theory. Under such circumstances, how to re-establish the grounds for comparison for Chinese-Western comparative literature with the support of textual evidence, and how to further develop East-West comparative literature and cross-cultural studies — these are important questions for us to consider at the present.