Między komparatystyką literacką a kulturową

The article constitutes an attempt to present in a synthetic way the main assumptions behind the fundamental trends in the comparative studies of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as their evolution. Following the predominance of the influential model which had developed since the middle of the 19th century and focused chiefly on the genetic research of literary affiliations, and which had assumed the existence of a national literature as an organic entity, since the sixties of the 20th century, there arises a new perspective in comparative studies, where the fundamental role is played by thematic and structural categories (motif, concept, topic, genre, current etc.). The nineties of the 20th century bring yet another attempt to reformulate the methods of comparative studies and to abandon focusing on literary studies, in favor of cultural research in comparative studies, where the fundamental role is played, among others, by issues such as the concept of power, gender, race and also review and multi-, inter- and transculturalism.