Towards A Comparative Literature Of “Planetarism”

Spivak's Death of a Discipline marked the death of comparative literature.But at the same time,she redesigned the blueprint of this discipline with the points of colonialism,deconstructivism and feminism,etc.Spivak's “death problem” captures the main question at present.Her deconstruction on old comparative literature and the idea of new comparative literature have rich theoretical connotations and significance.Spivak's diagnosis of comparative literature was inseparable from the context of The Times.Comparative literature has long been shrouded in the shadow of “crisis”,it has experienced the criticism of Benedetto Croce,Rene wellek,Hills Miller,Haun Saussy.When it came to Spivak,writing about “death of a discipline” was perfectly justifiable for the history of this discipline.Spivak reviewed several reports of ACLA,pointed out the problems of “Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns”,and deconstructed “time-power” discourse.Therefore,Spivak proposed a new comparative literature “without age”,which reversed the time vortex of this discipline and saved it from the crisis discourse.On methodology,Spivak argued for a combination of comparative literature and area studies.With the collapse of the Soviet Union,the reduction of research funding and the impact of post-colonial theory,area studies in the United States has been facing the same serious crisis and challenges as comparative literature.Spivak suggested that the new plan of reviving area studies must combine with the new idea of comparative literature,so that we can meet with success in methodological innovations.Firstly,cultural studies should get out of area studies and comparative literature.Secondly,the focus of the new discipline should be shifted to the countries and regions of southern hemisphere,and the focus on language learning should be taken to break the global image of colonialism.Thirdly,the new comparative literature should correct and supplement the human rights theory by performative language.Fourth,disciplinary cooperation should transcend institutional barriers and overcome academic fear as well as indolence.In addition,of methodology,Spivak took Waiting for the Barbarians written by Coetzee as a comparative literary allegory.Under our further interpretation,the novel suggests a methodology of how to go into the other.Inserting with violence or being responsible by abuse are likely to be troubled,but language research has the potential to truly go into the other.On the problem of collectivities,Spivak pointed out that the collectivities are undecidable,thus she put an end to take literature as simple collective cultural metaphors,and thus verified the heterogeneity,fracture and undecidability in texts.From Politics of Friendship written by Derrida,Spivak interpreted the concepts of “originary curvature” and “teleopoiesis”,suggested the collapse of collectivities,and thus invented a reasonable way to understand the heterogeneity of the other.From A Room of One's Own written by Woolf,Spivak has interpreted the relationship between gender and collectivities,expected the new collective forms,which signified restoring democracy within social structure by “poetic universalism” and “ghost dancing”.The conflict and fracture in the context of modernity and post-colonialism were emphasized by Spivak from Season of Migration to the North.In our further interpretation,the novel also reflects the paradox of collective affiliation and imagination approaches in its tragic nature.In the blueprint of the new comparative literature,Spivak proposed the concept of “planet”.Spivak proposed using “planet”,“planetarity” to take place “global”,“globalization”,thus put us into a planetary fate which means inter-heterogeneous relationship,therefore rebuilt our way of living view and imagination of otherness.Spivak anticipated readers' fear and resistance to the concept of “planet”,so she interpreted these concept in psychoanalysis and feminism,transformed “uncanny” to “home of human being”.The “planet” can be regarded as a major innovation of post-colonial theory,it has get rid of its dilemma of nationalism and reshaped post-colonial feathures of comparative literature.Spivak's planetary ideal can be used to read Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.In planetary imagination,the image structure can be transformed under the planetary frame,and “dark” can be eventually transformed into “light”.This transformation also provides an ethical solution to reconstruct heterogeneous relationship.Spivak's thought of new comparative literature can be located in post-metaphysics.The “planetarism” is a great integration of deconstructivism,marxism,post-colonialism and feminism,etc.As an ideal discipline to practice “planet”,the new comparative literature revolutionized the humanities' research paradigm,which marked the theory “after theory” has driven to a discernible coastline.