Dawne i nowe modele porównawczej historii literatur(y)

This article examines the history of national literatures seen from a broader, supra-national perspective. Drawing on some landmarks of literary theory it focuses on bilateral and more complex literary relationships (Paul Van Tieghem) and midsets (R. E. Curtius), history of ideas and "movement of thought" (M. J. Valdés), reception studies (Hans-Robert Jauss, Yves Chevrel), periodization and genre history (E. Miner), and problems of "circulation du sens" (Jean-Louis Backès). It is hoped that the confrontation of the old and the new models of comparative literary history will gives us a better grasp of the nature and uses of the comparative approach in the history of literature.