Confronting Globalization: Cultural Studies Versus Comparative Literature Studies?

Abstract

In the current era, why is everybody talking about globalization? Will globalization bring us a happier life, or will it bring us better opportunities to develop our production and academic research? The answer is both yes and no. For as far as scholars of the humanities, or more specifically, comparatists are concerned, globalization is not necessarily a good thing. It has raised severe challenges against our intellectual life and literary scholarship. Of course, some of us do welcome the advent of globalization viewing it as a rare opportunity to develop East-West comparative literature and cultural studies. This is perhaps one of the reasons why talking a lot about globalization has become an academic fashion within and without our discipline, especially in China in recent years. But why are there so many people talking about globalization, especially those of the humanities and social sciences? Because there is indeed a lot to say about this hot topic: economic globalization, financial globalization, political globalization, cultural globalization and even mass media globalization, all of which are influencing our mode of thinking and penetrating our academic life in varying degrees.