Comp Lit’s Other Half: In Defense of Literature, with Lao She

How might we now make sense of Comp Lit’s ‘literature’ half amid a contemporary mediascape in which literature no longer possesses the cultural centrality it once enjoyed? To probe this question, I turn to scholarly efforts from a century ago to make a case for reading literature within the university classroom by formulating ‘criticism’ as a field of study. I focus on the eminent Chinese writer Lao She 老舍 (1899–1966), who taught in both Chinese and British classrooms, and who unexpectedly sparked the introduction of ‘criticism’ in the Chinese academy through his translation of a little-known textbook for criticism by the American professor Elizabeth Nitchie (1889–1960). Drawing upon Lao She’s conviction in the critical capacity of literature, I argue that returning to ‘criticism’ – as Lao She articulates it in his pedagogical lectures and his profound yet overlooked short story ‘Filling a Prescription’ ( Zhuayao 抓药, 1934) – can help build a justification for the continued importance of teaching literature’s reading. Amid institutional pressures to ‘rebrand’ Comparative Literature, this article ultimately suggests that there may be reason yet for the discipline not to abandon its focus on literature too hastily.