As a former Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto (1983 to 1998), I am dismayed at the proposed disestablishment of the Centre. Linda Hutcheon rightly points out that the program of the Centre is unique because it is multidisciplinary and multilingual. It has attracted students and faculty
from everywhere and its alumni are teaching, or pursuing other careers, everywhere. Our PhDs are successful in the academic job market because they often provide an economy of scope, i.e. they can teach in more than one national language and literature department.
Comparative literature, as a discipline, was never primarily concerned with the teaching of literary theory. Its main focus has always been the study of literature as a cultural practice, just as linguistics is the discipline which, as opposed to individual language departments, studies language as an intercultural human phenomenon. A consequence of this so-called disestablishment of the Centre will probably be the loss
of the endowment for the Northrop Frye Visiting Professorship. It is a relatively small endowment but the prestige of its name has enabled us to bring a number of academic superstars to teach full semester courses at the University (Paul Ricoeur, Edward Said, Mieke Bal, Julia Kristeva, Derek Walcott, Natalie Zemon Davis, Charles Taylor, among others, and the line-up for the coming years looked just as good: Carol Mavor from
Manchester in 2010-11; Franco Moretti from Stanford in 2011-12; Judith Butler from Berkeley in 2013.
If the University is truly committed to excellence, it should seriously reconsider this ill-advised recommendation before implementing it.
Peter W. Nesselroth
Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature
University of Toronto
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