Susan Bassnett provides a critical introduction to comparative literature. She argues that there is no single agreed upon definition or method of studying comparative literature. Different scholars have defined it in various ways. Generally, comparative literature involves studying literature across different cultures and languages expressed throughout literary history. Bassnett asserts that comparative literature cannot be confined within set boundaries and is a dynamic field influenced by cultural shifts over time.

1. Introduction :
What is Comparative
Literature Today ?
-Susan Bassnett
Comparative Literature
A Critical Introduction(1993)

2. Prepared by…
★ Jignesh Panchasara
★ Riddhi Bhatt
Task assigned by…
MAHARAJA KRISHNAKUMARSINHJI BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Dr. Dilip Barad
Head of English Department,MKBU

3. Susan Bassnett
★ Susan Edna Bassnett, FRSL (Fellow
of the Royal Society of Literature) is
a translation theorist and scholar of
comparative literature.
★ She served as pro-vice-chancellor at
the University of Warwick for ten
years and taught in its Centre for
Translation and Comparative
Cultural Studies, which closed in
2009.

4. Abstract
➔ Susan Bassnett gives a critical understanding of Comparative
literature.
➔ She says that there is no particular object for studying
comparative literature. Another thing is, we cannot give a definite
term for comparative literature.
➔ Different authors of literature give various perspectives about
comparative literature.
➔ The popular understanding of comparative literature means
different cultures across the world, expressed in the history of
literature.

5. Key Arguments
➔ Susan Bassnett argues that there are different terms used by
different scholars for comparative literature studies. Therefore,
we cannot put in a single compartment for comparative
literature.
➔ The second thing she argues is that the west students of 1960
claimed that comparative literature could be put in single
boundaries for comparative literature study, but she says that
there is no particular method used for claiming.

6. Analysis
➔ The comparative literature has been developed through the
progress of the world and through various cultures of different
continents.
➔ A different cultures of the continents have played a vital role in
comparative literature studies, be it European, African,
American and Eastern so on.

7. The key points in Analysis
The methodology
of comparative
literature
Dynamic shifts in
comparative
literature
Crisis of
comparative
literature in the
postmodern
literature field
03
01 02

8. Conclusion
★ The comparative literature could not be brought under one
umbrella unless it becomes a particular branch of the discipline
of literature. There are a lot of efforts are being taken to study
comparative literature through a common language that is done
in translation, which is understood by all people.

9. Thank you