Comparative Literature Association of Ireland launch hosted by SALIS, DCU

(L-R) Dr Pat O'Byrne, Dr Tony Coulson, Dr Lucia Boldrini of Goldsmith, University of London, invited speaker, Mr Jean-Philippe Imbert, Dr Brigitte Le Juez and Dr Bruce Swansey.

The newly formed Comparative Literature Association of Ireland (CLAI) was launched on Friday November 28 at the Royal Irish Academy. The launch celebrated the emergence and the rapid growth of Comparative Literary Studies in Ireland in a spirit of genuine cooperation between the universities offering CL programmes.

The launch was followed on Saturday November 29 by the 1st International Postgraduate Symposium in Comparative Literature, hosted by the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, DCU.

The symposium provided a forum for twenty-four new researchers in the field (see http://www.dcu.ie/salis/clai/index.shtml) to present their work. The event was attended by over eighty participants, an extremely encouraging figure given that the discipline was not developed in Ireland until 2003, when the MA in Comparative Literature was created in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, DCU.

The objective of the symposium was to explore the latest theoretical and methodological practices in comparative studies, provide a supportive environment for those new to presenting conference papers, and offer a lively and stimulating platform to all involved. Those objectives were fully achieved, thanks to the enthusiasm of academics from most Irish universities – North and South – who encouraged their postgraduate students to attend, and who themselves supported the symposium through their attendance. There is no doubt, however, that the symposium’s success was due to the postgraduate students, thanks to the wide and imaginative range of subjects they presented and the impressively high quality of the papers they delivered.

The CLAI provides a forum for all those in Irish universities interested in Comparative Literature to work together to pursue shared interests and objectives. Comparative Literature provides a critical and methodological framework for the comparative study of artistic works, be they in literature, music, film, painting, or other visual arts. At the core of Comparative Literature lies an investigation that is engaged in and committed to cross-cultural study and that recognises the constructive role of the historical, sociological and ideological in the production of literature.

The Symposium organizing committee – Brigitte Le Juez, Jean-Philippe Imbert and Bevin Doyle – intend to publish the proceedings, online, on the CLAI website (www.complit.org).