East and West and the Concept of Literature

Scientific Essay from the year 2001 in the subject German Studies - Comparative Literature grade: none Kyoto Sangyo University (X. International German Congress Wien) language: English abstract: By carefully comparing observations made by specialists in Chinese Indian Japanese and Western literature concerning problems of literary values canon-formation and the concept of literature itself the author tries to answer some of the most pertinent questions in comparative aesthetics and ethnopoetics specifically: Are literatures of radically different cultures comparable regarding literary values?- Do universal literary values exist?- Do literary values remain the same within the development of one culture?- Does the fact that certain works of literature have been valued over centuries indicate that eternal values exist?- Is the concept of literature the same in radically different cultures?- Does it remain the same within the development of one culture?- Are the basic genres (the lyric epic and dramatic) comparable?- Are certain analogous phenomena in Indian and Western literature indicative of basic similarities between these literatures?- Is at least the theory deduced from these literatures similar?- Is a unified theory of literature desirable?- Are literary canons established mainly according to perceived aesthetic values in the selected works?- If the answer to all of the questions above is NO wherein lie the basic differences between Eastern and Western literatures?-(In: Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Sambalpur University Orissa/India XXIV 1-2 2001 89-125)