Digital Humanities Approach to Comparative Literature: Opportunities and Challenges

Over the past decade, digital humanities scholarship has developed dramatically in Anglosphere universities. However, elsewhere such as China Mainland, little interest is yet visible in this scholarship. Still controversial over its methodology and epistemology, and too early to predict its future, digital humanities scholars have made respectful and encouraging commitments and accomplishments. The self-protection of humanities from further marginalization, through intersection with and integration of techno-humanities, is in line with the well-established value of innovation and the ubiquitous needs of social improvement. From both a macro and micro perspective, the author of this article contends that digital humanities scholarship can contribute to the humanities as a whole, by expanding comparative literature studies with data-based empiricism. However, as a new approach to comparative literature, digital humanities is still in its fledgling stage and faces a slew of challenges: inadequate involvement from humanities scholars, undefined boundaries within humanities disciplines, lack of global recognition, and immature theoretical models to propel future research.