Questions of travel & writing
Every academic probably has his or her own inner Pierre Bourdieu. Mine also talks like Céline. Often I think, "Getting a Ph.D. in comparative literature isn't such a bad deal," and then the ghost of Pierre-Louis-Ferdinand rears up and says, "It's all shit!... a crock, a real carrion-flambé!... mon dieu!" This usually happens when someone talks about comparative literature in the age of World/Global/Planetary Consciousness, as in this recent book:
Not that I recommend reading it per se, but it's one of several on this theme. I think it's fair to say that its authors support making comparative literature more inclusive (or less exclusive), more wide-ranging, more in step with an internationalized, globalized world. So here is the story:
If you apply to a comparative literature program in the U.S., you need to demonstrate proficiency in at least one, and usually two, languages other than English. The status of English is uncertain: this is the U.S. and any grad student here has to know English to study, but you don't technically have to study English literature along with your other literatures. If you are going to study English literature, this is a perfectly good place to do it. If you are going to study literature in another language, the U.S. can be a good place for it, but you'll probably also need to go abroad. There is no formal arrangement or expectation for this; there is usually some money, but you'll likely also need to get money from another source to support yourself. Essentially, then, the field in the U.S. (and, I think, in other countries) isn't formally international: the major professional credential is tied to a particular university in a particular country, and all arrangements to travel must be made by individual students with individually chosen institutions, funding sources, NGOs, whatever. I have been told that, as a native English-only speaker, you can't get a job in a non-English literature without going abroad, ideally often. So who should study comparative literature in the U.S.?
- People fluent in several languages
- People with ties to more than one country
- People looking for jobs in English
- People looking for jobs in languages for which there's a scarcity of teachers
- People willing and able to travel like maniacs
Now, what does space have to do with books? Books, after all, are portable and translatable. Literature courses take place in seminar rooms in universities; the texts can be purchased at the local bookstore. Films can be ordered and screened in university buildings. Art is mechanically reproducible. How much of these travels make it into a course? Probably very little. How much into scholarly work? The fruits of conversations with scholars abroad; archival research; acquaintance with the physical layout of cities and towns; better knowledge of language; acquisition of telling anecdotes; intellectual deracination.... class markers... names for dropping... mon dieu!!
You love to travel. You love to read books. You subscribe to the New Yorker. You live in New York. You are a student of comparative literature. You sleep on your notebook on the train. You are beverage-conscious. This is still the game; we just don't write nearly as well as Erich Auerbach anymore.
What I'm getting at is not an attack on real people (all I've provided here are caricatures) but an expression of my own inner conflict: on the one hand are my intellectual interests; and on the other a quiet, creative life of social and communal commitment which comes quite naturally to me, but isn't really compatible with all that moving around. Everything I've learned, literally, I have learned in seven weeks outside the U.S. and nearly 28 years within a pretty small area inside it. That's not The Official Best Life, but it is who I am. I love travel, but I can't fake extensive experience with it, and I am starting to fear that I'll never translate very well out of my rarefied— if still perforce "global"— milieu. And the habitual stasis has probably made me too exacting: I want to see the world, and read its books, but I want the real world, the true! Good luck, right?
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