Conferința Internațională IITL 70: provocări metodologice ale periodizării relațiilor literaturii române cu literaturile lumii impuse de trăsăturile specifice diverselor etape istorice de-a lungul unui secol (1859-1964)

Today when our Institute of Literary History and Theory – just like a tree – has reached the venerable age of 70, we ought to contemplate not only the impressive branches that outline the crown of the present achievements, but also to return reverently to the roots initiated by our forerunners, without which the vigorous tree of this institution would not have withstood the changing weather and would not have become so imposing today. In the landscape of inherent major or minor changes during the seven decades of existence, the vast project ‘of time and proportions’ initiated by Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga back in 1975, The Bibliography of the Relations between Romanian Literature and the Foreign Literatures as mirrored in the Romanian Periodical Publications, has always been an important factor of continuity, imposing itself as a pioneering project in the field of national research regarding comparativism, but also as a specific innovative profile, unique in Europe even today not only 45 years ago. Our paper will review, with edifying examples, a small part of the methodological challenges that have arisen while periodizing the relationships between literatures, theoretical and practical difficulties faced by the researchers involved in this project for over four decades.