2021 COLLOQUIUM

Founded in 1997, under conditions of freedom and democracy, the Romanian Association of Comparative Literature set itself to a collective and organised endeavour of (re)integration within the Euro-Atlantic cultural sphere, after decades of totalitarian seclusion. Research in the field of Comparative literature was conducted under the communist dictatorship as well – not before the sixties, nevertheless – but hindered by ideological censorship and the lack of free movement of both people and ideas. In 2001, ALCR (in Romanian) became ALGCR (The Romanian Association of General and Comparative Literature), with the majority of its members deciding that encompassing Literary theory was the next natural and necessary step, given the reciprocal intertwining of the two disciplines in the current practice of literary studies.

ALGCR seeks to undertake a constant re-evaluation of the particular condition, the functions, the interactions, interferences and… the indeterminate aspects which all constitute what we might today call “literature”. ALGCR promotes inter- and multidisciplinary study, a continuous connection with the Human, Social, Natural and Cognitive Sciences and their agenda – without losing sight of the identity of literary studies, deeply rooted in the theory and practice of Hermeneutics and the classical education model.