About Department of Comparative Literature

While breathing in an age of globalization, we have to keep pace with the growing and changing world by widening our horizons on the one hand and striving hard to retain our identity on the other. This being a complex process, it needs some soothing factors which could lead to harmony and synthesis. The study of literature- Gujarati literature, Indian literature and world literature- is one among them.
With this philosophical foreground, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat was allotted the Department of Comparative Literature by UGC, Delhi, in 1986-87. The Department of Comparative Literature was established in 1991. The said full-fledged Department is the first of its kind in the western zone and second at one in the entire nation. The Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, was established in 1956. It was the first pioneering stone laid down in the land of Tagore, and ours is the second one in the land of Mahatma Gandhi. Since the inception of our Department, the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpura University has constantly remained our source of inspiration and guidance.
Only in 30 years, this Department has made remarkable progress in teaching, research, culture and publication. It was a new department that Dr. Ashvin Desai initially headed from 1992 to 2006. It was during his able headship that the Department started many noble traditions which are maintained even today. Dr. Savita Gaur directed the Department one year-from 2006 to 2007. After her retirement, Dr. Damyanti Parmar has been successfully heading the Department since 2007. Dr. Jashu Patel took the Headship of the Department as an I/C Head from 2016 to 2020 after Dr. Damyanti Parmar’s retirement, followed by Dr. Bharat Thakor as an I/C Head for four months, from June 2020 to September 2020, Dr. Mukesh Vasava took charge as the I/C Co-ordinator of the Department since October 2020 to January 2022. Dr. Bharat Thakor has taken charge of the department as the Co-ordinator from January 2022 onwards.

• Vision

  To lead to a harmonised world of brotherhood through the creative literature of enlightened human minds in their wisdom, sweetness and light.
  To keep the focus on the mother-tongue and to have the vision of literature in its completeness, through methods like comparison, analysis, synthesis, etc.
  To search and study the inherent unity among various literatures.

• Mission

  To study literatures comparatively by transcending the barriers of a specific language, literature, culture or nation.
  To study the interrelationship between literature and philosophy, history, social sciences and other areas of human knowledge.
  To get acquainted with national and world literatures and to come out of the narrow parochialism of one language or one nation.