PERIODISATION

Comparative Literature is the study of the interrelationship of  two or more literatures or national cultures usually of differing languages and especially of the influences of one upon the other. Comparatists are students or scholars in the field of comparative literature or law. They can also be known as comparativists. They use comparative method in studying literature. Periodisation is a branch of study in Comparative Literature.

Periodisation

Periodisation is the process or study of categorizing the past into separate individual, quantified named blocks of time. It involves the mapping” of literary history into space and geography and translating historical categories from one cultural geographical space to another or from one literary tradition to another or from one language to another .  This is usually done in order to facilitate the study and analysis of history, to understand current, historical processes and causality that might have linked those events. Periodisation is related to the reconstruction of the past and the apprehension of time. Past comes in “traces”. It is often fleeting, incomplete, ambiguous and liable to multiple construals.

 Literary history

Literary history is a narrative that is comprehensible. It has important connections between literary works that are related to their composition. In simple words, literary history is an history of a particular subject in literature.

Importance of literary history

A study of literary history helps to avoid lack of interest in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one's own experience and introduces the healthy amount of doubt and hesitation that allows us to grow as scholars. It is very important for the comparatists as it treats the literary works as phenomena influenced by time, place and circumstances. The work of a literary historian is to give detail historical process of interpretation by arranging the individual works of an art in a large group according to authorship, genre, style etc. This division of literary work into segments is known as Periodisation. For a long time literary history was studied as a part of social history or history of ideas.

How do we study literary history ?

To study literary history, we lump things together into categories but it is impossible to set definite dates because it will restrict the historical context but not literary history. For example: the period from 1800-1850 is known as romanticism. They say that Romanticism is a literary movement. But if we look at the kings who ruled this age again, the timeline is changed. So, its very difficult to fix literary history. They should rely on social history or move the writers inorder to fix the literary history.

How literary works are periodised?

The objectives of the literary historians should be established as  literary periods by literary criteria. Works are periodised according to the following.

(i)                 Different periods of socio-political activities like Renaissance, the Reformation, Restoration, etc.

(ii)         Sequences of art and style.

(ii)               Various schools of thoughts or Movement called Classicism or Romanticism or periods of Philology such as the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English 18^th century literature etc .

 These methods are not very accurate and an alternative mode of Periodisation must be based on literary categories.

Approaches and methods of Periodisation of Literary history

We can differentiate two approaches in Periodisation of literary history. It can also be used together.

(i)                 Extrinsic or Social- cultural approach, which is based on the criteria extrinsic to literature and

(ii)               Intrinsic or formal approach, which is based on the criteria intrinsic to literature.

Periodisation can be put together in different methods and may be based upon various criteria such as chronological like century, decade and year; organic patterns of evolution; great poets and writers; literary emblem and evaluation of every periods; events, concepts and periods of general or political history ; analogy of literary history and history of ideas or history of arts; approaches and styles of language; dominant literary norms.

Views about literature

The personalist view - structure of discontinuous literary work.

In this case, literary history is impossible.

The metaphysical view - work of an art is eternal and immutable.

Hence it is not possible for different generations to interpret a work differently.

The organicists view - literature is growing constantly like an organism

But in case of  biological analogy, an evolutionary process from birth to death , is not applicable to literature.

The genetic view - literary history is based on the study of sources, influences, genres, types, etc.

Thus, The comparatists supports these methods  to study literary history.

Periodising literary works

A comparatist can periodise  literary works based on literary norms, standards and conventions. Ulrich Weisstein shows huge welcome to such move. We should also accept terms like ‘baroque’ or ‘surrealism’,etc.

 Weisstein’s terms in periodisation

Weisstein discussed some terms connected with Periodisation like ‘epoch’ , ‘period’, and ‘movement’ and he also pointed out the differences between them.

Epoch

An epoch is an event or a time that begins a new period or development. It refers to the largest segment in Periodisation which may be larger than the period and may be subdivided  into smaller periods. For example , Middle age, and Modern age. Weisstein prefers to use this term ‘epoch’ instead of  ‘period’.

Period

It is a mode of classification. It overlaps with the term ‘age’, which is associated with great writers like Shakespeare or Goethe. ‘Period’ is a changing dynamic concept in the sense that is constantly  subject  to critical observation or examination by the generation of readers.

Movement

It is a body that consists of  a nucleus of writers who are equal in status. It is strengthened  by the representatives of older generation. Thus ‘Movement’ and ‘Generation’ are associated with each other.

 Dividing periods according to centuries

According to some of the university textbooks that are dealing with literary history, periods are divided according to centuries. If  we  take ‘19th century literature’  or ‘16^th century literature’ , it is again problematic. In 19^th century we think of a period i.e. (1801 to 1899), but take the century to mean “Victorian period”. Elizabethan Age is known to all literary historians but nobody  talks about the age of George  V in literature. The Elizabethan or Victorian periods have made a greater impact on the literary scene than the other periods.

Difficulties in Periodisation

In the case of time, human life defies classification because it is dynamic, mobile, fluid  and also contains inter-wined flux of events, impression, memories, etc that are impossible to disentangle the end of something from the beginning of something else. We should remember that “A Period is always a period of something, never a period of everything”.  Literature is not an isolated phenomena so, it is found baffling in the case of Periodisation.