The journal published in Cluj/Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, starting in 1877, Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum, is considered the first journal of Comparative Literature. It functioned as a microcosm of late nineteenth-century European comparatism, aspiring to collaborations with comparatists around the world, and theorizing an emerging “discipline of the future.” It is often invoked today as part of various, contested genealogies of comparative literature. We invite papers on any aspect of the journal, its editors and collaborators, other early journals of Comparative Literature, and alternative genealogies of the discipline.   


Papers could focus on the following:

• 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 (Steingrímur Thorsteinsson, Ramon León Maínez, Rasmus B. Anderson, Nishikanta Chattopadhyay, 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 “small 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 one of its editors, Hugo Meltzl, in contemporary Comparative Literature;

• other genealogies of Comparative Literature around the world.