Comparative Literature through International Conferences

One of the ways to become familiar with the recent developments and trends of any discipline is to attend its international conferences. In the international conferences, authorities on the subjects are usually invited to give keynote speeches, and then, researchers from around the world present their papers in different specialized sessions. In this article, I have reviewed the themes of a few recent conferences on comparative literature, which I hope would shed light on today’s new trends in the field. In late 2008, the Comparative Literature Associations of Azerbaijan and Romania held their conferences in respectively Baku and Bucharest universities. In 2009, the Comparative Literature Association of India held a conference in Hyderabad University, of Turkey in Gazi University, of Sweden in Uppsala University, and of Lithuania in Vilnius University. However, the most important event would be the Nineteenth ICLA Congress in Seoul, South Korea in August 2010. The 2010 ICLA Congress theme is "Expanding the Frontiers of Comparative Literature," organized in six specialized sessions including: 1)Making Comparative Literature Global: New Theories and Practices; 2)Locating Literaturein the Hypertextual Age; 3) Nature, Technology, and Humanity in Different Traditions; 4) Writing the Conflicts and Otherness; 5) Translating Differences, Connecting the World; 6) Asia in the Changing Comparative Paradigm. Undoubtedly, the establishment of new departments, programs, and national associations of comparative literature around the world, the ever-expanding areas of research in comparative literature, research and the scholarly publications will open new horizons for world literary studies.