Comparative Literature beyond Epistemic colonization (ACLA 2025)

Organizer: Metin Boşnak

Undoubtedly, the concepts of decolonization and postcolonialism emerge from a profound discontent with the dominant paradigms of Western, male, and white literatures that have dictated the generation of knowledge for centuries. The objective has thus been to transcend the reductive constructs of European superiority and ethnocentrism as articulated by various intellectuals. In essence, decolonial theory necessitates an expansion of our analytical frameworks by engaging with the enriched diversity and pluralistic cultural dimensions of human existence. Only through the contemplation of others, and indeed the multifaceted aspects of our own identities, when we engage philosophically from the vantage point of the pluribus, can we supplant dubious assertions of rancid, trivial, or spurious universals with authentic experiences, empirical trials, and democracies that are enacted as universals. It is in this context that certain scholars assert that specific regions may never yield a text that can be deemed genuinely 'comparative,' due to the fact that 'the relational characteristics frequently shared by Homelands tend to be neglected by scholarly literature.' Therefore, the imperative must be to decolonize Comparative Literature; nonetheless, maintaining a focus on Western-centric literary paradigms constitutes a form of epistemic colonization, which blurs our understanding of "other" cultures, and creates a penumbral consciousness, thus blockages to understanding the self as well. We cannot fully understand "the West," without "the East" as the literary, philosophical, and even spiritual influence of Moorish Spain on the West would show.