Comparing Better. Kaisa Kaakinen on the Value of the Comparative Method at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Abstract
It is hardly surprising that a dissertation in Comparative Literature compares different authors and their works. The fact that the comparison is decidedly a reflection on comparative methodology is not quite so self-evident. The claim to be able to say something new about each of the analysed texts with help of their deliberate constellation comes with the expectation of a better understanding of the practice of comparing itself. Kaisa Kaakinen's Comparative Literature and the Historical Imaginary. Reading Conrad, Weiss, Sebald tries its hand at precisely this double reflection - "The form of this book reflects the activity it studies" (p. 25) - and thus explicitly sets the framework for a complex, multi-layered work right at the beginning.
Copyright (c) 2019 Fabian Goppelsröder
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