Lubomir Dolezel, emeritus, University of Toronto

Lago di Garda, Italy, August 2, 2010.

Dear President Naylor:

I have learned quite late about a proposal advanced by the Strategic Planning Committee (?) of the University of Toronto to merge the Centre for Comparative Literature with the proposed School of Languages and Literatures (?). As a former faculty member of the Centre, cross-apointed in 1982 from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, I am greatly alarmed by this proposal. Since its inception by Northrop Frye, the Centre has survived many and deep changes in the conception and philosophy of the study of literature. It has thrived on these changes, both by promoting them and critically assessing them. What I found exciting about teaching at the Centre was the energy, devotion, curiosity and creativity of both its faculty and its students. Students of the Centre have been very positively influenced by this atmosphere and are, as alumni still devoted to the institution of their maturation. A merger with the proposed School would most likely destroy this atmosphere and repudiate possible students-candidates.

What should also be considered is the national and international importance of the Centre. It has been seen as a true centre of Canadian humanities and its transformation would be felt as another severe loss for the Canadian humanistic studies. Internationally, the Centre has been known for its scholarly achievements, and its international reputation can, I believe, match any department or institute of the University of Toronto. The contacts with the international research of literature has been mutual: papers and books of the faculty and advanced doctoral students have been read all over the globe and often translated into several foreign languages; on the other hand, internationally renowned scholars were attracted to the Centre as visiting scholars or Northrop Frye visiting professors. It is in these mutual contacts that the study of literature as an artistic cultural activity has flourished at the Centre.

For these (and not only these) reasons, I cannot but join the former director of the Centre, professor Peter Nesselroth in pleading with you: “If the university is truly commited to excellence, it should seriously reconsider this ill-advised recommendation”.

Sincerely yours,

Lubomir Dolezel

Professor Emeritus of Slavic and Comparative Literature