Gender and Genre in Comparative Literature and (Comparative) Cultural Studies

Summary

Abstract: In her article “Gender and Genre in Comparative Literature and (Comparative) Cultural Studies” Ana Lozano de la Pola argues that although the discipline of comparative literature and the fields of cultural studies and comparative cultural studies remain heterogeneous fields of literary study, they are also likely places for crossovers between different theories and methodologies. Lozano de Pola discusses how diverse feminist positions and theories have affected comparative literature and cultural studies over the last few decades, what kind of reception they have had, and what proposals for change have come out of them. Following a brief overview of debates, she discusses one of the aspects she considers productive and socially relevant within feminist comparative literature and culture, namely theories of gender and genre put forward by Judith Butler and Jean-Marie Schaeffer. The two authors' attempts to understand both categories in a complex way and avoiding misleading essentialisms enables us to reach a methodological point of departure from which to begin thinking about building self-defining and literary codes as a complex and inter-related issue.

Introduction

In the discipline of comparative literature and in the fields of cultural studies and comparative cultural studies, the view that feminist criticism—while not yet integrated in pedagogy or in institutional presence (see, e.g., Stabile)—is an integral part of scholarship there is ample evidence of the support of the notion and this is also evident in research and publications.