A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
The history of Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto begins with Northrop Frye, who established the Centre in 1969 (the year which also marked the establishment of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association). Even in its early years, the Centre moved quickly to the forefront of the discipline. Mario J. Valdés explains that “from 1970 to 1976 Toronto has been one of the most exciting centres of Comparative Literature in North America. A succession of major voices have given their support to that endeavour: Hans Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Hillis Miller, Robert Wiemann, Wolfgang Iser, Hans Robert Jauss, Hayden White, Fredric Jameson, and Tzvetan Todorov” (Interpretation of Narrative). This tradition has been maintained through the annual appointment of the Northrop Frye Professor of Literary Theory – a post which has been held by several of the above-mentioned scholars, as well as Mieke Bal, Edward Said, Sander L. Gilman, Michael Holquist, Julia Kristeva, Charles Taylor, Derek Walcott, Emily Apter, Jonathan Hart, David Damrosch, and Françoise Lionnet. In 2010-2011, the professorship will be held by Carol Mavor from the University of Manchester.
Indeed, for the past forty years, the Centre for Comparative Literature has become, quite literally, the Centre for Comparative Literature in Canada. In “Academe’s Stepchild,” a recent article in University Affairs/Affaires universitaires, David Hayes writes: “The University of Toronto’s Centre for Comparative Literature, founded by Northrop Frye in 1969, thrived under director Roland Le Huenen, with such eminent scholars as J. Edward Chamberlin and Linda Hutcheon on faculty.” Moreover, the Centre for Comparative Literature has been home to all three Canadians elected to the Presidency of the Modern Language Association: Northrop Frye (1976), Mario J. Valdés (1991), and Linda Hutcheon (2000). Neil ten Kortenaar was named director of the Centre in 2009, joining the Centre from the University of Toronto, Scarborough.
In 1989, the students of the Centre for Comparative Literature established the annual graduate colloquium, which has since evolved into a multi-day international academic conference that continually transcends and challenges disciplinary rigidity in favour of interdisciplinarity. The conference proceedings of the recent 19th Conference: “From Ignorance to Knowledge: Recognition from Antiquity to the Postmodern & Beyond” will be published in the Canadian Review for Comparative Literature, as will the proceeding from the 20th conference, “The Poetics and Politics of Reading: Studies in Honour of University Professors Linda Hutcheon and J. Edward Chamberlin.” Following the death of Northrop Frye on January 23, 1991, the Centre for Comparative Literature held an international conference in honour of his life and work.
In 2004, the students once again returned to making ideas public and began to publish the peer-reviewed journal Transverse which, as Roland Le Huenen, former director of the Centre for Comparative Literature, explains “provide[s] a forum for the exploration and discussion of significant problems in literary theory and important issues of literary history not confined to a single literature.” Initially, Annarita Primier acted as editor-in-chief (2004-2006), and was succeeded by, Andrés Pérez-Simón (2006-2008), and currently Myra Bloom.
In 2008, students who were collectively worried about the state of Comparative Literature formed a reading group (A View from Charles Street) “dedicated to the oft-un-tackled task of describing in specific, positive terms, the work of comparative literature.” As Ryan Culpepper explains, “the group’s name refers to Lubomir Doležel’s well-known essay ‘A View from Charles Bridge’ and to the Centre’s location on Charles Street in Toronto; in a much more incriminating way it also speaks to the members’ desire to converse at a roundtable and refer to themselves as ‘the View’.” The Centre for Comparative Literature can pride itself on an impressive history of success and triumph persistently led by some of the finest comparatists working in the country, beginning with Northrop Frye, followed by Cyrus Hamlin, Mario J. Valdés, Peter Nesselroth, Eva Kushner, Roland Le Huenen, and Neil ten Kortenaar. Though the Centre does not have as long a history as other programs in the humanities at the University of Toronto, it makes up for its youth with considerable breadth; its faculty come from programs as diverse as Classical Studies through to Drama, East Asian Studies, English, French, German, History, History of Art, Italian Studies, Medieval Studies, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Slavic Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. The faculty at the Centre for Comparative Literature have consistently been among the best in the field of comparative literary studies; members have been named to the Royal Society of Canada, the American Academy of Arts and Science, Order of Palmes Académiques, la Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, as well as being awarded various honorary doctorates from around the world.
