本文提出一個我稱之為「關係的比較」的新比較理論芻議，主張從事關係的比較學，或視比較文學為關係研究。為了建立關係比較學的理論框架，我將先探討珍納．阿布－勒赫（Janet L. Abu-Lughod）、約翰．霍布森（John M. Hobson）和安德烈．岡德．弗蘭克（André Gunder Frank）等學者所闡述的一體化世界史理論，再結合馬提尼克思想家愛德瓦．葛里桑（Édouard Glissant）所提出的關係理論（theory of Relation），連結地理文化史、社會經濟史、文學與詩學。論文以「墾殖園弧線」為聚焦點，沿著加勒比海地區延伸至美國南部以及東南亞，再折返加勒比海，分別分析福克納的南方小說、張貴興《猴杯》的婆羅洲熱帶雨林故事、及翠西亞．鮑威爾（Patricia Powell）筆下黑人，進口苦力的白種商人、華人苦力與小店主聚居的牙買加。本文要旨有二：首先，我要說明以敏銳的世界史觀進行關係研究，如何要求世界文學需盡可能更嚴肅看待其「在世性」；其次，我要證明關係的比較學如何為比較文學打造新舞臺，甚至開啟新的生命。

This essay is a modest proposal for relational comparison. It argues for comparison as relation, or doing comparative literature as relational studies. To set up the relational framework, I first draw insights from the integrative world history detailed by such scholars as Janet L. Abu-Lughod, John M. Hobson, and André Gunder Frank. I synthesize these findings with the theory of Relation developed by Édouard Glissant as a way to link geocultural and socioeconomic history not only to literature but also to poetics. The specific pivot traces what I call the ＂plantation arc,＂ stretching from the Caribbean to the American South and to Southeast Asia. I examine the interconnectedness of the literary works along the post-slavery plantation arc such as the plantation novels of William Faulkner set in the American South, Chang Kuei-hsing's Monkey Cup set in the Borneo rainforest and the Caribbean of Patricia Powell, the Jamaica of post-abolition blacks, white coolie traders, Chinese coolies, and shopkeepers. The purpose here is two fold: first, to illustrate how doing relational studies with a keen world historical sense demands that world literature take its worldliness more seriously than thought possible; and second, to show how relational comparison opens up a new arena, perhaps even a new life, for comparative literature.