The aim of our conference is to bring new insights and knowledge of a comparative literature in Central Europe which remains largely unexplored and therefore underrepresented in academic debates in the discipline. We acknowledge that Central Europe was historically shaped into a region of its own by various economic, political, and ideological structures. While we intentionally left the geographic and cultural concept of the area undefined, it is unquestionable that its regional identity was shaped both from within and from the outside. From within, the Central European region always negotiated between its ethnically, linguistically, and culturally heterogeneous communities. This has produced various internal centers and relegated other areas to the position of the periphery. From the outside, Central Europe had to define its position in relation to other global players and transnational associations. These political and cultural circumstances played a crucial role in all areas of intellectual production, including academic research. Comparative literature was no exception and the discipline was often tasked with expanding or subverting established discourses. For instance, Central European comparatists had to acknowledge the rich history of multicultural and multilinguistic literary traditions in the area while at the same time establishing themselves in relation to other academic centers such as the French and the American schools of comparative literature.
Despite its relevance for understanding Central European comparative literature, disciplinary self-perceptions and their relation to the internal and external exchange of knowledge have thus far remained unexplored. Over the next three days we thus explore the rich and complex history of comparative literature in Central Europe, focusing on the key scholars, schools, topics, and methods that have shaped the field. We consider which influential figures and approaches have been historically overlooked, and why Central European comparative literature has remained under-represented in broader academic debates on the history of the discipline. Our exploration also extends to the academic connections between Central European comparative literature and literary scholarship in other regions such as Southeast Europe, France, Russia, and America. We also delve into the relationships between central and (semi-)peripheral regions within Central European comparative literature, analyzing the factors that have led to the emergence of asymmetries within Central European academia and the inequalities in intellectual exchanges between different regions. We also explore how Central Europe’s multilinguistic literary traditions have been reflected in the field of comparative literature.
Finally, three sections are devoted to an important forerunner of comparative literature, a Slavic philologist Matija Murko who offers a paradigmatic case study for addressing many of the questions raised above. Murko has built a long and successful academic career and has had an immense influence on the development of literary studies in Central Europe and elsewhere. After finishing his studies in Slavic philology at the University of Vienna, he travelled to Russia, became a professor in Graz and Leipzig, and later moved to Prague where he co-founded and headed the Slavonic Studies Institute at a time when the influential “Prague Linguistic Circle” was flourishing there. Both in his academic life and in his research, he has been moving between the academic centres and semi-peripheries of Central Europe, breaking academic barriers (for instance, with his comparative Slavic literary studies) and influencing younger scholars (such as Frank Wollman, Milman Parry or Roman Jakobson). His work was appreciated both inside and far beyond Central Europe, so much so that his research on South Slavic oral literature is still considered referential today. Murko’s scholarship thus offers an excellent opportunity to explore topics, questions, methods, international collaborations, and the politics of knowledge prevalent in the history of Central European comparative literature.
Blaž Zabel, colloquium lead
Programme:
Thursday, 5 September
Cankarjev dom, Alma Karlin Hall
9.00: Registration
9.30: Opening speeches
10.00: First panel: Tone Smolej (chair)
Antoni Martí Monterde: Budapest, capitale de la littérature comparée. Les autres géographies du comparatisme européen: Janos Hankiss
Norbert Bachleitner: Prolegomena for the (short) History of Comparative Literature in Austria
Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek: The Discipline of Comparative Literature in Hungarian Scholarship
11.30 Coffee break
12.00: Second panel: Blaž Gselman (chair)
Kaitlyn Sorenson: ‘The Tragedy of Central Europe,’ Forty Years On
Vladimir Biti: Un/worlding Literature: Dubravka Ugrešić as a Post-Multinational Writer
Suman Gupta: Small Philologies and Literary Machine Translation
13.30: Lunch
15.00: Third panel: Blaž Zabel (chair)
Róbert Gáfrik: History and Perspectives of Comparative Literary Studies in Slovakia
Paweł Marcinkiewicz: Comparative Literary Studies in Poland: A Historical and Methodological Overview
Zoltán Varga, Péter Hajdu: Reconnected into the World: the Early Years of the Hungarian Comparative Literature Association in the AILC/ICLA
16.30 Coffee break
17.00: Fourth panel: Kaitlyn Sorenson (chair)
Daniel Pietrek: Comparative Literary Studies at Work: Horst Bienek and his American Identity
Blaž Zabel: The Birth of Literary Localization: Johann Gottfried Herder as a Comparatist
20.00: Conference dinner
Friday, 6 September
Cankarjev dom, Alma Karlin Hall/Center Rog, University Room
Cankarjev dom, Alma Karlin Hall
10.00: Murko panel I: Alen Albin Širca (chair)
Miloš Zelenka: Matija Murko in strukturalna estetika
Alenka Jensterle Doležal: Premislek o pozitivističnih literarnih zgodovinarjih: Matija Murko in Jan Máchal
Tone Smolej: Matija Murko in nefrancoski začetki slovenske primerjalne književnosti v 19. stoletju
11.30 Coffee break
12.00: Murko panel II: Tone Smolej (chair)
Varja Balžalorsky Antić: Od primerjalnega jezikoslovja do primerjalne književnosti: Matija Murko in Antoine Meillet v luči raziskav ustnega pesništva
Irena Samide: Matija Murko kot germanist
Alen Albin Širca: Matija Murko in hrvaška renesančna literatura
Center Rog, University Room
13.30: Lunch
15.00: Murko panel III: Blaž Zabel (chair)
Sylva Fischerová: Matija Murko’s Research on the South Slavic Epic Tradition and Czechoslovakian Slavistics
Jasmina Talam: Voices from the Past: Musical Tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina through the Research of Matija Murko
Blaž Gselman: The Correspondents of Matija Murko: Outlining a Central European Topos
16.30: Coffee break
17.00: Fifth panel: Alexandre Burin (chair)
Jernej Habjan: History of World Literature in Central Europe
Max Behmer: German Contributions to 1930s Comparative Literature in the Context of the Journal ‘Helicon’
Saturday, 7 September
Center Rog, University Room
10.00: Sixth panel: Blaž Zabel (chair)
Andrei Terian: Comparatism Beyond Comparative Literature: Lessons from Southeastern Europe
Ştefan Baghiu: The Tragedy of Non-Central Europe: Interimperiality and World Literature in the European Southeast
Snejana Ung: Comparative Literature in Romania: Talking about a Periphery at the Periphery
11.30: Coffee break
12.00: Seventh panel: Blaž Gselman (chair)
Alexandre Burin: Beyond Structure: Barthes via Kristeva
Milena Mileva Blažić: Comparative Children’s Literature
13.00: Concluding remarks