Don Juan East/West: On the Problematics of Comparative Literature (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 1980s revision ofthe Purge in The War and in Jacques Derrida's defense ofPaul de Man following revelations concerning the latter's compromising contributions to the anti-Semitic and collaborationist Belgian daily Le Soir. In the final analysis Watts contends that, given its literary and historical repercussions, the Purge, perhaps more so than the Occupation itself, was the true guerrefranco-française, or Franco-French civil war. It is hard to find fault with a book as brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and knowledgeable as Allegories ofthe Purge. It would perhaps have been interesting to see a lengthier discussion ofthe fascist "martyr" ofthe Purge, Robert Brasillach , something which, given Watts's erudition, would have been easily within his range. But the absence ofsuch a chapter in no way detracts from the argument or richness ofthe book, which clearly stands out, alongside Tony Judt's Past Imperfect , as one ofthe best and most accessible books written on postwar French culture and politics on either side ofthe Atlantic in the last ten years. For those interested in the complex relations between politics and literature in France and Europe as a whole in the wake ofWorld War II, Allegories ofthe Purge is indispensable. Richard J. GolsanTexasA&M University TAKAYUKI YOKOTA-MURAKAMI. Don Juan East/West: On the Problematics ofComparative Literature. Albany: SUNY Press, 1998. 226 pp. Takayuki Yokota-Murakami's book, Don Juan East/West: On the Problematics of Comparative Literature, is intended as a critique ofthe foundations ofcomparative literature, particularly the "American school" with its emphasis on aesthetic theory and a methodology based on the "anti-historicist 'metaphysics' " ofa transcivilizational , universal, and essential human nature (11). Such a critique is no surprise in the cultural studies landscape oftoday, nor is the persistent protest against colonialism , Western hegemonic thought which equates Western values with universal givens, or a "comparativism" that privileges identity over difference. The first chapter ("Problematizing Comparative Literature") and the last ("Politics ofComparative Literature") address this issue at great—too great—length and with a high degree ofrepetitiveness, which is more bothersome than the often stridently polemical style. With the focus on anti-Eurocentrism, some interesting points receive only passing and unfocused attention. Ofparticular importance for today's translated culture is Yokota-Murakami's problematization oftranslation, but the briefdiscussion (73f.) is cut short and leads yet again to a polemic against Eurocentrism (78). Similarly shortcut are reflections on genre issues, such as the (Eastern) novel versus the (Western) romance, or the (Western) saga versus the (Eastern) myth or legend (169ff.). Most bothersome, however, is the ahistorical perspective on (Western) comparative scholarship and literary theory in general. Yokota-Murakami's major authority on Don Juan, Gendarme de Bévotte, whose study appeared in 1906, is quoted and attacked as ifhe were our contemporary. Reflections on the seemingly endless "crisis of comparative literature" from René Etiemble (1963) to Claudio Guillen (1993) are presented without regard to the vastly different historical context and the changes within comparative scholarship over the last thirty-some years. YokotaMurakami 's representatives ofcomparative literary theory are Wellek and Warren, referenced in the bibliography in a 1985 edition, yet the first edition appeared in Vol. 24 (2000): 176 ??? COHPAnATIST 1942—more than halfa century ago. A large part ofthis book, then, is devoted to fighting old battles again, deconstructing structuralism in linguistics and literary criticism with the aid of old battle-axes such as Derrida and Foucault. The ahistorical approach is more than a bother, it is an unforgivable sin for a study based on the premise of historicity, or rather the chronotopicality of cultural and literary phenomena. If love, sexuality, and thus Don Juanism are historical constructs, as chapters 2 to 4 argue, then so are hermeneutic practices and literary theories. The discussions oftheory in chapters 1 and 5 yield the pre-established result that if there is a Don Juan West, then there cannot be a Don Juan East. The Don Juan (West) scholar will nevertheless find matters of interest in the details ofthe overall argument, i.e., in the exploration of "Don Juanism" from an outsider's perspective. Food for thought is offered in the deconstruction ofthe "transcendental signified(s)" (23) love and sexuality and in the presentation ofboth...