On the relationship of comparative literature to 'Strata Poetics' and 'Fundamental Poetics'

Essay from the year 2000 in the subject Philosophy - Practical (Ethics, Aesthetics, Culture, Nature, Right, ...), grade: keine, , language: English, abstract: Ever since their 'declaration of independence' from the national literary sciences, about a century ago, comparatists have been desperately groping for a comprehensive theory, broad enough to accommodate not only their investigations into the development and functioning of literary genres, but also their pet subject of the 'mutual elucidation of the arts'. These reflections are to be understood as an attempt to examine some ideas and models produced mainly in Germany after the last world war. These will be examined for their usefulness in providing such a comprehensive theory, or at least a base for the construction of such a theory. Two of these models seem to be opposed to each other ('Fundamentalpoetik' and the sociological approach). However, I hope to show that in reality they complement each other. The third model ('Strata Poetics') is still widely unknown, but could, in my view, combine the two others into a unified theory. (In: Acta Humanistica, Humanities S. No. 27, March 2000, 221-242)

Wolfgang Victor Ruttkowski, Jahrgang 1935, war nach einem Studium der Germanistik, Geschichte, Theaterwissenschaft, Psychologie und Sprechkunde viele Jahre als Professor in Canada, den USA und Japan tätig. Seit 2003 lebt er emeritiert in Kyoto. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in der Ästhetik, Literaturtheorie und -didaktik, Gattungspoetik, Psychologie und Kunstpsychologie. In diesen Gebieten veröffentlichte Ruttkowski zahlreiche Bücher und Essays.