/RAGCL/

Asociaţia de Literatură Generală şi Comparată din România

Romanian Association of General and Comparative Literature

Association Roumaine de Littérature Générale et Comparée

The Romanian Association of General and Comparative Literature was founded in October 1997 at the initiative of several professors in the School of Letters of the University of Bucharest. Consequently, a meeting was held to establish the Association (then called the Romanian Association for Comparative Literature), with the participation of twenty-two specialists in the field. The members elected the first president of the Association, Professor Paul Cornea, former dean of the School of Letters of the University of Bucharest, former deputy minister for higher education in the Ministry of Education in 1990.

In the statute voted in the general assembly, the Association set forth its intention to gather together all the specialists in the field of comparative literature and literary theory, with a view to facilitating their professional interaction by publishing an annual bibliography and setting up a website, organizing annual colloquiums,editing periodicals or event-based publications, granting awards for volumes of literary theory and comparative studies, cooperating with educational institutions and other establishments in order to identify and make use of other means of stimulating research and widening students’ and intellectuals’ interest in this type of research.

In 1999, the Association elected well-known comparatist Adrian Marino as its Honorary President.

In June 2009, during its general meeting held on the occasion of the Alba-Iulia colloquium on the topic „Is Literary History Still Possible?”, Professor Paul Cornea announced he would step down from office and proposed Mircea Anghelescu, vice-president of the Association and professor at the University of Bucharest, for taking over the position. The proposal was unanimously accepted; at the same time, Prof. Paul Cornea was elected Honorary President.