“L’esprit humain, qui semble voyager d’un pays a l’autre”: some considerations on the historical relations between Translation and Comparative Literature

Abstract

An observation by Stanley Corngold on the essential difference between comparative literature and translation is the starting point for observing how the linguistic ideal is constructed, whether we look at the close link between mother language and identity, or at the formal eloquence of the hegemonic language.  These concepts are related to the Romantic assertion of identity between people, nation, language and literature (and thus to the historical moment which created the conditions for the development of the discipline of comparative literature), to the early modern expansion of the national languages (which for Pascale Casanova marks the beginning of the international literary space), and to the affirmation of vernacular languages in the medieval period. The article suggests that considering this history within the structure of the classical topos of translatio studii et imperii helps us better understand the relationships between translation and comparative literature, the issues related to these competing conceptions of language, and these moments of transformation.