Worlded Comparatist: The Intellectual in Exile as Foundation for a New Comparative Literature
The changing landscape of our discipline can be understood through the work of Emily Apter and Amir Mufti on Auerbach, Spitzer, Said and the figure of the intellectual in exile. The cases of these intellectuals lead one to reconsider what it means to be a Comparatist in our cosmopolitan age.
Is the Comparatist the “perfect man” spoken of by Hugo of St. Victor, the figure who erases borders and detaches himself from any notion of home? Is the concept of exile a necessary condition of the Comparatist, permitting the assessment of one’s own culture and those of others? Could the Comparatist or the exiled intellectual become “worlded” through an engagement with various attachments and detachments? Might adopting an “exilic consciousness” contribute to the study of Comparative Literature?