L’essence éthique du dialogue culturel

The ethical essence of cultural dialogue. The definition of comparative literary studies in Slovakia. Historical poetics in the works of D. Ďurišin, focused on the typological essence of literary phenomena on the basis of interrelating theoretical and developmental aspects of national literature. The differences of Slovak methodology from Western positivist models of the study of interliterariness. Parallel existence of the principles of literary history and criticism in the reception analyses of Russian, German and French literatures by older Slovak scholars. The onset of realism in Slovak literature at the end of the 19th century (S. Hurban Vajanský). The important contribution of J. Felix’s critical reflection of universalist tendencies in European and esp. modern French writing. The complexity of organically incorporating these impulses into the context of Slovak literature as a result of the provincial character of a “small” nation. The wealth of translations from contemporary world literatures and its positive impact on the work of many Slovak writers in spite of the discontinuity of research in this area after 1989. Urgent need to return to similar forms of literary-cultural reflection and self-reflection through reviving an intensive philological, linguistic, theoretical-critical and historical study at our universities.