Dr. David Naylor
President
University of Toronto.
Dear David:
In asking that this urgent message be transmitted to you to you as quickly and directly as possible, I attempt to act in the interest of the University rather than my own; please accept it in that spirit.
I submit that the proposed “disestablishment” of the graduate Centre for Comparative Literature, and the combining of its programs and staff complement in an undergraduate school of languages and literatures, would do irreparable harm to the renown of the University by discarding, at the postgraduate level, a discipline present and active in the most excellent Universities of this continent and of Europe.
May I draw to your attention a few facts others might not mention? I would not have accepted, in 1987, the invitation to leave McGill and move to Toronto to become president of Victoria University (1987-94) had it not been for the presence of Comparative Literature on this campus. Upon my arrival the chair of the French Department and the director of Comparative Literature appointed me (status only) Professor of French and Comparative Literature. I have contributed courses, reading courses and thesis directions to the Centre; was asked to be Director of it for one year (1994-95), and could not continue in that capacity, as was explained to me, because of my age; I have taught there intermittently to this day, alternating with Renaissance Studies, as Mary Rowell Coyne Jackman Professor (Victoria University).
As organizer of the VIIth congress of the International Comparative Literature Association one of the two main themes of which was “Independence, dependence, interdependence of the Literatures of the Americas”; (Montreal-Ottawa, 1973, published in 1976); as president of the International Comparative Literature Association (1979-82) and of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (1996-99); and as founder (1969) of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association (cf. the forthcoming issue of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature) I have consistently worked with the Comparative Literature group of this University. Professor Mario Valdés chaired for a number of years the editorial committee of the Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages where I direct and am co-author of a sub-series; the next volume is in press and features, as contributors, two of the Centre's graduate students, all other authors being senior professors in a number of countries! The Comparative History is now financially supported by, among other institutions, the International Union of Academies in which I represent the Royal Society of Canada.
Recherche Littéraire/Literary Research, the official journal of the International Comparative Literature Association, though founded at McGill (1982), was subsequently maintained for a number of years here at the Northrop Frye Centre and at Victoria University before moving to a U.S. institution in recent years.
And while I am treading where angels fear to tread, may I say that the international Comparative Literature community may be astonished to see the Centre lose its Ph.D. program, almost simultaneously with the retirement of such leaders in the discipline as University Professor Linda Hutcheon and University Professor Edward Chamberlin. They, like the present Director and the present team of cross-appointed and otherwise connected faculty, continue, often beyond the call of duty, to enrich the renown of this University. It is my conviction that substantial economies could be effected after further consultation, and perhaps more understanding from Departments not included in the proposed School...
Comparative Literature, throughout its history of transformations—not devoid of storms—has served the Humanities by its constant, often innovative and epistemologically conscious reflection upon the ways in which the cultures of the world project themselves, interact and communicate, in many languages, through the creations of imagination. My personal activities mentioned here are simply meant as a reminder of the sort of cooperation the Centre has attracted over time and is capable of attracting in the future.
With gratitude for your attention, and in hope of being heard,
Eva Kushner, O.C., F.R.S.C.
Vice-President, International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (2006 - ).
