1) What CUET expects under “Concepts”
In CUET PG English, “Comparative Literature and Translation Studies: Concepts” usually tests foundational ideas such as:
- what it means to compare literatures,
- how translation mediates texts,
- how “world literature” circulates,
- what counts as equivalence, fidelity, and loss,
- and key conceptual pairs (source/target, domestication/foreignisation, untranslatability).
This module focuses on conceptual clarity rather than naming many theorists (the next syllabus bullet “Theories” will handle theory-specific framing).
2) Comparative Literature: core concepts
A) Comparison as method
Comparative literature studies:
- texts across languages, cultures, nations, or media,
- patterns of influence, circulation, adaptation, and reception,
- shared forms (epic, tragedy) and differing contexts.
Comparison can be:
- thematic (e.g., exile narratives across cultures),
- formal (sonnet traditions across languages),
- historical (modernism across regions),
- ideological (colonial discourse vs counter-discourse).
B) Beyond “influence” only
Older comparatism sometimes focused on:
- influence tracing (who borrowed from whom). Modern comparatism expands to:
- networks, translation, world-systems, and power relations.
C) Canon and world literature
Key concept:
- what enters “world literature” depends on translation, publishing, institutions, prizes, pedagogy. So world literature is also a system of selection and power.
Interlink: “Current trends/awards,” postcolonialism.