Publisher's Synopsis
This collection of essays comprises the discourses of a symposium held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in the spring of 2001, which aimed at a revaluation of the traditional approaches and innovative positions of literary studies, with a view to redefining a discipline whose status has been questioned and dismissively criticised from various sides.The eleven articles by internationally renowned experts consider controversial issues such as the frequently discussed broadening of the field of literary studies towards a comprehensive cultural science or its transfer to the system of social sciences. Will the study of literature prevail as a single discipline or is its integration in the programme of media studies inevitable? To what extent will its orientation be still determined by linguistic paradigms? Can the investigation of literary history remain one of its concerns? In addition, the volume examines new approaches like the analysis of intertextual or intermedial links, gender research and, not least, the potential of computer-based hypertext capable of assimilating a variety of models and methods.
