FORGOTTEN ROADS IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE - BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT DAY

by prof. Olga Płaszczewska (Jagellonian Univeristy, Cracow)

May 12, 2015, at 6.30 p.m.

Vicolo Doria, 2

Olga PŁASZCZEWSKA, Ph.D., associated professor at the Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Polish Studies, the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland; awarded with the Domestic Grant for Young Scientists (2004, extended for 2005) by the Foundation for Polish Science, with Mellon East–Central European Visiting Scholar award and Travel Grant at the American Academy in Rome (Dec 2006 – Feb 2007, 1-15 february 2009); author of books; Błazen i błazeństwo w dramacie romantycznym. Studium komparatystyczne [The Jester and Jesterhood in Romantic Period Drama. A Comparative study], Universitas, Kraków 2002; Włochy w polskiej i francuskiej literaturze okresu romantyzmu (1800-1850) [The Vision of Italy in Polish and French Literature of the Romantic Period (1800-1850)], Universitas, Kraków 2003; Włoskie przekłady dzieł Juliusza Słowackiego [Poetical works by Juliusz Słowacki (1809 -1849) in Italian Translations], Universitas, Kraków 2004; Przestrzenie komparatystyki - italianizm [Comparative Literature and Its Spaces - Italianism], Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2010; editor of books: Mieczysław Brahmer, Włochy w literaturze francuskiej okresu romantycznego [Italy in French Literature of the Romanticism] (2015) and Czytanie Konopnickiej [Reading Konopnicka] (2011); co-editor of books: Dziedzictwo Odyseusza. Podróż, obcość i tożsamość, identyfikacja, przestrzeń [The Heritage of Odysseus: Travel, Space, Foreignness, Identity and Identification], ed. M. Cieśla–Korytowska, O. Płaszczewska, Universitas, Kraków 2007; Literatura a malarstwo − malarstwo a literatura. Panorama myśli polskiej XX wieku [Literature and Painting - Painting and Literature. The Panorama of the 20th- century Theoretical Reflection in Poland], ed. G. Królikiewicz, O. Płaszczewska, I. Puchalska, M. Siwiec, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2009. 

Sommary

Comparative literature is often identified with World Literature seen as the literature written or, at least, translated into English. However, the practice of research in comparative literature held in the field of Roman and Slavonic studies shows that the possibilities of comparison between literatures are much wider and more various. Recently, in numerous textbooks and manuals of comparative literature, chapters dealing with comparative history of literatures or with traditional themes and myths in literature and art have been replaced with those concerning translation problems, (post)colonial or gender questions. Nonetheless, there are some itineraries in comparative literature, signalled by the forerunners of the discipline, which have never been fully analysed. These itineraries may be explored again with modern instruments of cognition in order to open new horizons for the interpretation of each problem. Therefore, it is worth reflecting on questions that may be re-interpreted and re-written according to modern rules of comparative literature in order to underline their philological, artistic and ideological meaning. Themes as re-workings of limit situations and existential problems in poetry or transformations of experiences of the real or imaginary connect with art testified in various literary works. A reflection on such subjects may lead the researcher to answer the question on what texts and in what context should be compared.

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