Abstract: In her article “Comparative Literature and Interart Studies” Anke Finger discusses the field of the study of literature and the other arts by 1) tracing the international trajectory of concepts and philosophies on how the arts interconnect and compare internationally; 2) analyzing forms of dialogue and communication between the arts that inform and shape artistic products or aesthetic approaches practiced by different groups or movements; and 3) exploring selected examples of dialogue between the arts by embarking on interart “translations” (ekphrasis), including visualizations and the scoring of literature.

Introduction

The discipline of comparative literature is undergoing challenges: not only is literature across the world to be studied, that is, cultural traditions and productions in comparison with each other instead of a nation-based approach, but the added task presents itself in the search for a comparative history of the arts, within which literature is one. In 1949 René Wellek proposed the following: “It might sound distressingly vague and abstract, if I should suggest that the approximation among the arts which would lead to concrete possibilities of comparison might be sought in an attempt to reduce all the arts to branches of semiology, or to so many systems of signs. These systems of signs might be conceived as enforcing certain systems of norms which imply groups of values. In such terms as signs, norms, and values I would look for a description of the common basis of the arts” (65).