Analysing our literary past and present, anticipating its future

Utrecht University has a strong tradition in literary research, based on the presence of a substantial group of scholars with expertise in the literature of Western European languages across all periodes. The research of the Comparative Literature group is grounded in productive collaboration with colleagues working in related fields of cultural research. The group encompasses Medieval Literature, Early Modern Literature, and Modern and Contemporary Literature. Together, they cover a broad range of themes relating to our literary past, present and future. 

The groups are united by their common concern with the role of literature in generating new ideas and stories, and in disseminating these across generations, social groups, and cultural borders. They also share a common concern with understanding how literature has adapted in the long term to changing media technologies, from the invention of print and the paperback, to the emergence of cinema and internet.

Areas of expertise: narratives | poetry | intermediality | digitisation | translation | book history | cultural memory | world literature | middle ages | early modern period | modern literature | contemporary literature