Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum (initially Összehasonlító Irodalomtörténelmi Lapok) functioned as a microcosm of late nineteenth-century comparatism, theorizing and modelling an emerging “discipline of the future.” Published in Kolozsvár/ Cluj/ Klausenburg, starting in 1877, it is considered the first journal of Comparative Literature. It is often invoked today as part of various, contested genealogies of comparative literature. The group of researchers centered around the project A Global History of Romanian Comparatism: A Case Study in Inter-Imperial Comparative Literature (1877-1944) (https://glorc.org/) invites submissions for a special issue of Revista Transilvania, edited by Anca Parvulescu and Levente Szabó, dedicated to Acta Comparationis.
Essays could include the following topics or lines of inquiry:
• the principles of comparatism (translation and multilingualism) as defined by the journal;
• comparatist figures published in the journal (Hugo Meltzl, Sámuel Brassai, Dora d’Istria, Heinrich von Wlislocki, Grigore Silasi, etc);
• collaborators of the journal around the world (Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Steingrímur Thorsteinsson, Matthías Jochumsson, Giuseppe Cassone, Ramon León Maínez, Rasmus B. Anderson, Nishikanta Chattopadhyay, Victor Emanuel Öman, Paul Mayet, Taco Hajo de Beer, Enrique de Olavarría y Ferrari, etc.);
• the theory of World Literature modelled by the journal;
• the interdisciplinarity at work in the journal;
• literary developmentalism and the concept of decaglottism;
• the treatment of literary traditions attached to languages like Yiddish, Romani, Armenian, Ukrainian;
• varieties of geopolitical positions, including Orientalism and Occidentalism, at work in the journal;
• the relation between oral literary traditions and World Literature;
• the journal’s relation to Cluj/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, Transylvania, Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire;
• the return to Acta Comparationis and especially its editors, Hugo Meltzl and Sámuel Brassai, in contemporary Comparative Literature;
• Acta Comparationis and various genealogies of Comparative Literature. We welcome submissions (7,000-8,000 words) in Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, French, Italian—and other languages relevant to the study of the journal. Issues of the journal are available at https://documente.bcucluj.ro/web/bibdigit/periodice/osszehasonlitoirodalomtortenelmi/1877.html. Abstracts by October 1, 2024, to ancaparvulescu@wustl.edu and tszabo.levente@ubbcluj.ro; final submissions by January 31, 2025.
A Global History of Romanian Comparatism 