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| Society for Comparative Literature and Art | |
|---|---|
| Name | Society for Comparative Literature and Art |
| Abbreviation | SCLA |
| Formation | 1956 |
| Type | Learned society |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Region served | International |
| Leader title | President |
| Leader name | Geoffrey Hartman |
Society for Comparative Literature and Art is an international learned society devoted to comparative study across literary and artistic traditions. Founded in the mid-20th century, it brings together scholars from universities, museums, and research institutes to examine relations among world literatures and visual arts. The organization has been associated with major figures and institutions in comparative studies and hosts conferences, publications, and awards that intersect with broader cultural networks.
The society emerged during a postwar expansion of comparative inquiry associated with figures and institutions such as Yale University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, Stanford University, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell University; intellectual currents linked to scholars from Paul de Man to Lionel Trilling shaped early agendas alongside archives at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library & Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art. Early meetings connected to events like the PEN International gatherings and dialogues with centers such as the Institute for Advanced Study, School of Oriental and African Studies, École Normale Supérieure, Università di Bologna, Sorbonne University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Free University of Berlin. The society’s trajectory intersected with movements including Structuralism, Post-structuralism, New Criticism, and debates involving scholars from Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes to Terry Eagleton and Edward Said. Over decades the society engaged with national councils and funding bodies like the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and collaborated with museums and publishers such as Routledge, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, Princeton University Press, and Harvard University Press.
The society’s mission aligns with comparative projects pursued at institutions including British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum, Getty Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Newberry Library, Bodleian Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Vatican Library; its activities reflect dialogues involving scholars who have written on figures like William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Homer, Virgil, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Miguel de Cervantes, Gustave Flaubert, Balzac, Giacomo Leopardi, Molière, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, and Mikhail Bakhtin. It sponsors comparative teaching exchanges and collaborations with cultural centers such as UCLA, Columbia School of the Arts, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Royal College of Art, CalArts, Bard College, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Brown University, and King's College London.
The society supports and is frequently cited in journals and monographs published by presses including Modern Language Quarterly, Comparative Literature Studies, PMLA, Critical Inquiry, New Literary History, Diacritics, Transition (magazine), Yale French Studies, Bucknell Review, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and edited volumes appearing with Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Manchester University Press, Duke University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, MIT Press, and SUNY Press. Contributors to its proceedings have included authors affiliated with Columbia University Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Rutgers University Press, Stanford University Press, and Princeton University Press.
Annual conferences and special colloquia have convened at venues such as Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Getty Center, Pomona College, Columbia Law School, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of British Columbia, Australian National University, National University of Singapore, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Scuola Normale Superiore, University of Rome La Sapienza, Heidelberg University, University of Vienna, and University of Amsterdam. Panels have featured speakers connected to awards and events such as the Nobel Prize in Literature, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Turner Prize, Man Booker International Prize, and biennales including the Venice Biennale and Documenta.
Membership comprises faculty, curators, graduate students, and independent scholars affiliated with institutions such as Smith College, Wellesley College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Swarthmore College, Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Royal Holloway, Trinity College Dublin, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Buenos Aires, Seoul National University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Kyoto University, Osaka University, Keio University, and National Taiwan University. Governance models mirror structures at organizations like Modern Language Association, American Comparative Literature Association, Association of Art Historians, International Congress of Aesthetics, and International Comparative Literature Association and include elected officers, regional sections, and editorial boards.
The society administers prizes and fellowships comparable to honors from Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship, Fulbright Program, NEH Fellowship, Mellon Fellowships for Diversity, ACLS Fellowships, British Academy Fellowship, Pontifical Academies, and awards named after influential figures akin to prizes honoring T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, W. B. Yeats, Jorge Luis Borges, Homi K. Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Edward Said, and Susan Sontag. Recipients have included scholars and artists associated with museums and universities listed above.
The society’s influence is evident in curricular changes at Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, NYU, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, Princeton, and partner cultural institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art and Getty Research Institute. Criticism has aligned with broader debates involving Postcolonialism, Feminist theory, New Historicism, Globalization (economic policy), Orientalism, Decolonization, and controversies surrounding canons defended by institutions like The Folger Shakespeare Library and publications such as The New York Review of Books; critics have invoked polemics connected to figures including Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Spivak, Benedict Anderson, and Stuart Hall. Ongoing debates concern representation, disciplinary boundaries, and institutional resource allocation involving funders like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NEH, and national education ministries in countries including France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, and India.
Category:Learned societies