Robinson Crusoe, the Trilogy

The topic chosen:

Versions of self and other vary in Foe as Susan barton says :" . But the stories he told me were so various, and so hard to reconcile one with another, that I was more and more driven to conclude age and isolation had taken their toll on his memory, and he no longer knew for sure what was truth, what fancy. (Coetzee 12)

A text is made up of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation..." Roland Barthes.

The French school and the American school have been wrestling over the veracity of their methodology in the academic field of comparative literature. The French scholars consider their method the ultimate one. Americans, from another angle rebuke the French school’s presumptions and have another opinion on the matter. Both schools’ theories on comparative literature are inadequate in comparing works of literature. The efficient approach in comparing works of literature would be to oscillate between the two theories, rejecting biased ideas such as eurocentrism and the non-reference to extra textual elements.

For some scholars, mainly the French ones, comparative literature must follow three parameters. First, there must be at least two cultures, the European culture being the center. Second, French literary trends must be recognized as the canons that influenced the other works of literature. Third, there is the need for at least two different languages. For instance, if one had to attempt to compare Jean de la Fontaine’s Les fables de la Fontaine and Ibn al Muqaffa’s ودمنة كليلة, the former must be referred to as the center and the source of influence, while the latter has to be the periphery that copied Jean la Fontaine’s style. Drama works in Arab literature is yet another argument with which French scholars support the dominance of the French canons over the others. Indeed, Drama is