The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 Purdue University Press ©Purdue University Volume 9 (2007) Issue 2 Article 1 The R Reebir birth th of C Comp ompaarative Lit Liteeratur turee in A Annglo gloccali alizzation Anand PPaatil University of Pune Follow this and additional works at: https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Critical and Cultural Studies Commons Dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information, Purdue University Press selects, develops, and distributes quality resources in several key subject areas for which its parent university is famous, including business, technology, health, veterinary medicine, and other selected disciplines in the humanities and sciences. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <> Recommended Citation Patil, Anand. "The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization." 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This journal is covered under the CC BY-NC-ND license. UNIVERSITY PRESS <http://www.thepress.purdue.edu> CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture ISSN 1481-4374 <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb> Purdue University Press ©Purdue University CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, the peer-reviewed, full-text, and open-access learned journal in the humanities and social sciences, publishes new scholarship following tenets of the discipline of comparative literature and the field of cultural studies designated as "comparative cultural studies." In addition to the publication of articles, the journal publishes review articles of scholarly books and publishes research material in its Library Series. Publications in the journal are indexed in the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey), the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters ISI), the Humanities Index (Wilson), Humanities International Complete (EBSCO), the International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association of America, and Scopus (Elsevier). The journal is affiliated with the Purdue University Press monograph series of Books in Comparative Cultural Studies. Contact: <> Volume 9 Issue 3 (September 2007) Article 1 Anand Patil, "The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization" <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol9/iss2/1> Contents of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.2 (2007) <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol9/iss2/> Abstract: Anand Patil examines in his paper, "The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization," the debates on effects of "globalization" on literary studies and "cultures" in India. The focus of his comparative scrutiny follows the debate about the "death" of comparative literature. Patil re-imagines the rebirth of interdisciplinarity, a basic tenet of the discipline of comparative literature and a characteristic of globalization. He has coined the term "Anglocalization" to analyze the complexity of the effects of globalization in the multilingual and multicultural situation of the subcontinent. The term is used to describe a tripartite process: Anglicization by global English, economic liberation, and privatization and localization. These characteristics exhibit the next phase of increased acculturation on the post-colonial subcontinent. Society, as well as humanities scholarship, are divided in two zones: the special economic zones of the privileged few and the rest of India with increasing population of the poor. As a result, generic hybridism exhibits crucial transformations in a formerly static society unevenly modernized on the colonial background. The fear of the death of languages and cultures reigns supreme. This has created an opportunity to revive comparative literature with a firm faith in Indian philosophy of reincarnation and more tolerant interdisciplinarity. Anand Patil, "The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization" page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.2 (2007): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol9/iss2/1> Anand PATIL The Rebirth of Comparative Literature in Anglocalization So far the positive as well as negative effects of "globalization" are being discussed in all walks of life in India. It has become a watchword in the themes of literary conferences and debates. Lois Parkinson Zamora commented critically on the effects of globalization on not only literature and culture but also on teaching profession in Latin America. To some extent, similar effects are visible in Indian literature and culture. The term "globalization" is used by Lois Parkinson Zamora to refer to the "changes in cultural conditions worldwide" during the past ten to twenty years and she has sorted out following three characteristics of this "complex of transcultural operations": The presence of new information and communication technologies, the emergence of new global markets; the unprecedented mobility of peoples and levels of (im)migration, with their accompanying cultural displacement(s); and the reconfiguration of space, both conceptually and experientially (<http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol4/iss3/1>). This discussion leads us directly to comparative cultural questions. Titles of works such as comparative politics, comparative mathematics, comparative physiology, etc., show -- historically -- how anthropologists, economists, ecologists, and several others become cultural comparatists who weigh cultural differences. All such terms signify current "spatial realignments." Some of them do not have equivalents in our regional languages. I have coined the term "Anglocalization" to trace the effects of global English, globalization and localization in the Indian context. The reference t (...truncated)