Rethinking Comparativism

In an era of globalization, Comparative Literature must think of all languages as equivalent, not in terms of translatability, but because any language(s) can be (a) first language(s) and thus activate the infant's metapsychological circuits, that reach out to meet lingual memory and provide the ingredients for ethical semiosis. Comparative Literature must try to reproduce this reflexivity through deep language learning accessing lingual memory. This is the demand of disciplinary rigor today. In actual practice, since we may not be able to achieve this under current circumstances, an alternative method is also suggested: we look for signs of "comparativism"—a reaching out to other spaces and times—in our object of investigation.