The Literary Turn: Comparative Literature as Deconstructive Pedagogy

Deconstruction as a mode of thinking has long informed Comparative Literature studies, especially through the influence of the Yale School in the 1970s. Having always been exposed to criticism for performing unworldly readings, blurring real and political problems, and using theoretical jargon with no practical consequences, deconstruction is now considered an obsolete style of approaching literary texts. More than two decades after the death of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), the most prominent philosopher of deconstruction, this article questions the assumed tension between theory and praxis in the studies of Comparative Literature. It argues that problematizing the structure of representation, as Comparative Literature scholar Christopher Fynsk (b. 1952) suggested, has practical consequences in the long run. Departing from Fynsk’s ideas and engaging in the relevant thoughts of Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003) and Jean-Luc Nancy (1940-2001), who inspired Fynsk considerably, the article aims to show that carrying the studies of different literatures beyond thematic analyses may constitute an important phase in the dislocation of common sense. The possibility of such a dislocation might enable Comparative Literature to dwell in the world with a renewed attention to the different meanings of the shared existence of the human. Therefore, the article suggests, deconstructive pedagogy, calling for a literary turn, with the emphasis on the conceptual thinking that undermines presuppositions, might still be an important component of Comparative Literature education.