About – ALGCR

Our mission

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.

We believe that there exists no incongruity between the philological models of erudition and interpretation and the exploratory, experimental and multi-perspectivist ones of our times. A global, theoretical and comparative ethos entails not only the communicative link between cultures, but the synchronisation, based on our understanding and empathy, with the value systems which have taken root in our cultural sphere of reference as well. This is the sphere which we aim to expand as much as possible on a global scale.

At the same time, we will try to valorise the local cultural heritage from a contemporary and a post-contemporary point of view: the firmly-established legacy of Romanian literary criticism as well as important individual contributions made by forerunners such as Mihail Dragomirescu, Tudor Vianu, Basil Munteano, Adrian Marino, Paul Cornea etc. The ability to critically integrate your own cultural history, on the one hand, with the cultural diversity of the world, on the other, constitutes the aim and method of our activity, a mode of meaning-making as far as the intellectual, personal and collective way of life is concerned.

“It is quite astounding how much today’s challenges concerning globalisation and the European integration reflect the question of identity which Romanians were bound to ask over the last centuries. These are issues generated both by the internal diversity of a cultural space defining itself at the crossroad of Ottoman, Habsburg and Imperial Russian areas of influence and the sustained effort to replace the traditional universalism of the “Byzantine commonwealth” with the modern Western cosmopolitanism. That is why the Romanian literary studies and comparatism benefit not only from their contact with the most daring mental experiments of the Western world, but also from the local pool of creative solutions to building bridges over temporal and geo-cultural faults.”

Caius Dobrescu

vice president

History of the Association

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.Mircea Anghelescu, Adriana Babeți, Irina Bădesu, Carmen Blaga, Ștefan Borbely, Corin Braga, Pia Brânzeu, Alexandru Călinescu, Dumitru Chioaru, Romanița Constantinescu, Andrei Corbea, Paul Cornea, Gheorghe Crăciun, Doina Bogdan Dascălu, Andreea Deciu, Gabriela Duda, Valentina Fălan, Marius Ghica, Ilie Gyurcsik, Horvath Andor, Adrian Marino, Mircea Martin, Irina Mavrodin, Dan Horia Mazilu, Mircea Mihăieș, Marina Mureșanu Ionescu, Alexandru Mușina, Mircea Muthu, Liviu Papadima, Virgil Podoabă, Vasile Popovici, Daniela Radu, Vasile Tara, Cornel Ungureanu, Mircea Vasilescu, Daniel Vighi, Vasile Voia, Ioan Vultur, Smaranda Vultur.

Board

Mircea Martin

President

Theoretician and literary historian. Professor Emeritus at The Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest, associate member of the Romanian Academy since 2014. In the ‘80s and ‘90s he led the “Universitas” literary circle. He founded and was president of the Association of Romanian Publishers between 1991 and 2000. He was also head of several publishing houses: Univers (1990-2001), Paralela 45 (2000-2004), ART (2006-2010).

Corin Braga

Vice president

Comparatist and literary historian, Professor of Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Letters (and Dean, since 2008), “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj; since 2002, founder and director of The Center for Imagination Studies associated with the Cluj Faculty of Letters.

Caius Dobrescu

Vice president

Associate Professor of The Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Brașov and then Professor at the University of Bucharest; one of the members of the “Brașov Group”; writer, literary critic and essayist; author of Modernitatea ultimă (1998), Semizei și rentieri (2001), Inamicul impersonal (2001) – essays; Balamuc sau pionierii spațiului (1994), Teză de doctorat (2007), Minoic (2011) – novels.

Adrian Lăcătuș

Vice president

Professor of Comparative Literature and, since 2012, Dean of the Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Brașov. Author of Modernitatea conservatoare: aspecte ale culturii Europei Centrale (2009).

Oana Soare

Secretary

Researcher at the “G. Călinescu” Institute of Literary History and Theory within the Romanian Academy and author of: Petru Dumitriu&Petru Dumitriu (2008) and Ceilalți moderni, antimodernii. Cazul românesc (2017).

Vasile Spiridon

Chairman of the Audit Committee

Professor at the University of Bacău, author of, among others, the following: Nichita Stănescu. Monografie (2003), Perna cu ace, I (Din vremea obsedantului deceniu) (2004), Gellu Naum. Monografie (2005), La mijloc de Rău și Bun. Identitate spirituală românească, în diacronie (2009).

Angelo Mitchievici

Auditor

Professor at “Ovidius” University of Constanța, author of: Mateiu I. Caragiale. Fizionomii decadente (2007), Decadență și decadentism în contextul modernității românești și europene (2011), Caragiale după Caragiale. Arcanele interpretării: exagerări, deformări, excese (2014).

Our mission

Caius Dobrescu

vice president

History of the Association

Board

Partners