broad-scale arguments.

大讨论
So, it's not really enough, if you want to argue about a whole

但是如果你想谈论文学史的某个大时期
period of literary history, to only skim off the very most

从浩如烟海的文学作品中选读几本
literary works.

是远远不够的
Your argument doesn't have a lot of historical purchase if you do that.

这样的讨论没有什么可看性
If your ambition is to talk about more narrowly the evolution

如果你想专门研究某种艺术形式的演变
of an art form, that's a very legitimate move to

只选其中的典例去研究
make, to skim off just those literary examples,

就毫无问题了
but if your ambition is to say something through your discussion of

但如果你想从文化政治
literature about culture, about politics,

哲学历史及其他不同角度
about any other set of issues, philosophical, historical

来研究文学最后得出一个结论
questions, you want to be able to demonstrate

你希望可以有力地证明出