FBS - Karangmalang The approach of comparative literature is an approach which many English Literature students are unfamiliar with. To address the issue, on Friday, September 28th the English Literature Program has welcomed Dr. Manneke Budiman, Ph.D of Universitas Indonesia to deliver a one day seminar on Comparative Literature in front of the lecturers and students of English Literature Program under the coordination of the Head of English Literature Program, Mrs. Susana Widyastuti, Ph.D.

Dr. Manneke started his presentation with the general concepts of Comparative Literature. “Comparative Literature is only a method to achieve the goals which are bigger than merely comparing a text with another text, or a form of art with another form of art, or the field of literature study with another field of study”, he said. He continued with the traditions of Comparative Literature in America and Europe. The two traditions are very different. The European tradition uses Comparative Literature to establish the superiority of European literature while the American tradition uses it as a mean to expose the inter-relation between literature and other fields of art and study. Dr. Manneke closed his presentation by saying that this approach is very useful for the students’ future final thesis and that the approach has almost no boundaries. [uuz]