Swift's Anti-Eurocentrism in Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift fought all his life for Irish people to protest against the cruel colonial rule of British Government.He insinuated his thought to the readers of his time in his masterpiece,Gulliver's Travels.Swift reveals the essence of colonialism and expresses his strongly criticism towards Eurocentrism through Gulliver's anti-colonial narrative and Gulliver's identity of the"self"against the"other".

Comparing“West”and“Rest”:Beyond Eurocentrism?

From different perspectives,Shu-meiShih,Rey Chow,and Revathi Krishnaswamy have accused Comparative Literature of being inherently Eurocentric in that the comparative studyofnon-European/Western literatures continues being steered by European/Western paradigms.In what follows I briefly outline their respective positions,and argue that over the past few decades at least some attempts have been made to move beyond Eurocentrism.

Criticism of Colonialism and the Colonial Memory Work in Germany

Colonialism is an ideological system that was not only contrary to traditional African law(family law,popular law,etc.),but was also incompatible with the dignity of man.Colonial tyranny in Africa began with the political implementation of the decisions adopted at the Berlin Conference of 1884/85,its essential principles of international law being the inviolability and the purity of colonial borders.Thus the European colonial powers managed to avoid wars of aggression and prevent uprisings by African people.Since the dominant theories of colonialism were Eurocentric,they could scarcely contribute to adequately investigating the nature of colonialism,let alone adequately describing its dimension in Africa.Instead of examining the shades of the colonial system from different cultural perspectives to inform people objectively,Eurocentric theories prevented any attempt at truth about colonial injustice.Unfortunately,some Europeans still tend to endorse the colonial injustice system in Africa with cheap and cynical Downplaying terms.The fact that colonial policy has a long history,however,in no way indicates that it should necessarily be accepted or legitimized.On the contrary,since its inception colonialism met with violent and intellectual opposition until African countries attained national sovereignty and territorial integrity.This article demonstrates the significance colonialism has in Africans’intellectual discourse and shows how the colonial question is discussed in Germany.

The Outsider Perspective: Classical Chinese Philosophy in the Narrative Framework of the European Enlightenment

The purpose of this article is to enhance the understanding of how Classical Chinese Philosophy has been interpreted and transferred by Enlightenment thinkers into the narrative framework of European philosophy as a far-reaching source of ideas and inspiration with a driving force for promoting modern European social change. We examine outsider perspectives within the context of Enlightenment thinking that contributed to advances in the cross-cultural understanding of how Chinese stories could be disseminated in the framework of East-West dialogue.

Worlds of World Literature and Worlds of Literary Scholarship

In this interview,David Damrosch ties the ends of his prolific and relevant contribution to literary studies.From the modern development of the concept of world literature to the organization of ambitious projects of World Literature anthologies;from the embracing of many worlds of world literary scholarship to the consideration of the emergence of A.I.and its possible consequences for the literary experience.

[World] Literature: Beneath and Beyond

In this interview,Zhang Longxi explores topics and approaches that have made him one of the leading scholars on cross-cultural studies in the world.Longxi's innovative understanding of both the relationship between East and West and literary hermeneutics is clarified in his latest contribution,World Literature as Discovery:Expanding the World Literary Canon,which aims at suggesting that world literature may favor a productive way to return to the reading of literature.

Contrapuntal Comparison

The Eurocentrism of Comparative Literature has meant that non-European literary texts have been studied through either vague universalism or imperialist exoticism.What can correct,or complement,such orientalist knowledge is contrapuntal reading with local knowledge,to tackle cultural difference notasan anomaly butafacttobe analytically accommodated.Engaging previous theoretical work in literary studies and anthropology that have struggled with the Eurocentric foundations of scholarly disciplines,this paper presents a sample of contrapuntal reading by examining the 1976 English translation of Kalidasa's Meghaduta rendered by Leonard Nathan,in the light of the 9th-century scholar Anandavardhana's Dhvanyaloka and the extended commentary written by his follower Abhinavagupta.This comparativesample clarifies how contrapuntal reading with local knowledge can balance Eurocentric and orientalist readings of non-Western literary traditions.