1991] Skinside Inside: The National Literature Major versus Comparative Literature

Abstract

marginally?through the occasional telling anecdote, the question answered during or after class, a contrastive pointer or two?is part of another problem that has often seemed so deep-rooted that we are inclined to view it as inevitable: the schism between native speakers and non native speakers that has dogged almost every department, every graduate program at one time or another. Now, however, a new kind of problem has emerged, and we would be wise to deal with it before it gets out of hand. This is the rift indicated in my title: the national foreign literature versus comparative literature. We have all encountered this division on the faculty level: teachers with interests in comparative literature are often seen as distracting from the national literature cause, while those who identify more closely with the national literature are regarded as too stodgy and unsophisticated by their com paratist colleagues. Anyone who wants to deal successfully with intraand interdepartmen tal politics must be ready to turn the fur side inside or the fur side