Joëlle Légeret
+41 21 692 48 37
Overview
The Comparative Literature Collection is designed to meet the needs of the academic community. As far as possible, it also meets the expectations of anyone interested, with a selection of literary texts from all over the world, mainly in French translation. This selection is complemented by the literary collections on the Riponne site aimed at the general public.
The comparative literature collection is heavily dependent on the research interests of researchers in modern literature at UNIL’s Faculty of Arts, particularly members of the Centre interdisciplinaire d’étude des littératures (CIEL) and the Centre de traduction littéraire (CTL). The comparative literature collection covers the following themes:
- theory of comparative literature and literary theory
- epistemological and methodological approaches to comparatism
- ecopoetics and ecocriticism
- gender studies
- history of literary theories
- history and comparison of literary and non literary genres
- digital humanities
- intermediality
- world literature
- children’s literature
- comparative narratology
- sociology and psychology of literature
- diachronic and comparative stylistics
- literary themes
- translation studies
This collection also includes reference works (general literary histories and encyclopedic dictionaries of literature), anthologies of literary texts and literary texts in French translation, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.
Current collection development guidelines are set out in the table of development intentions for the comparative literature collection.
We mainly acquire documents, in paper or electronic format, in French and English.
The most up-to-date collection is stored in the open access area, with the remainder in the closed shops (copies obtained on request via Renouvaud).
The printed collection of comparative literature is designed as a reference and research library. The most current and sought-after scientific publications, classics, critical editions, reference works and serial publications are promoted. However, the collection also aims to illustrate literary histories and disciplines, within the limits of available space and without claiming to be exhaustive.
A large number of printed works are stored in our closed warehouses. We encourage permeability between these two spaces and their complementarity: copies can be reclassified as needed, and books deposited in the shops are not necessarily of less interest than those in the open-access area.
The comparative literature collection is part of the 70,000-volume collection of Modern Literature in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. It is also linked to the Linguistics and Modern Languages, Slavic Studies, Oriental Languages, Classical Literature and History of the Book collections.
Most remote resources (databases, journals, e-books) are licensed. This means that they can only be accessed on UNIL computers, on computers located in the public areas of the BCUL or via authenticated access, reserved for members of the Lausanne university community.
All electronic literature journals can be accessed via Renouvaud. The most important of these are under licence (access restricted to the university community). French-language journals are best accessed via one of the following three portals:
The database portal gives you access to all bibliographic databases specialising in general and comparative literature (La Bibliothèque des lettres, Kindlers Literatur Lexikon, MLA International Bibliography, ProQuest One Literature, Translation Studies Bibliography), to numerous dictionaries and encyclopaedias (The Literary Encyclopedia), as well as to e-book and scientific journal platforms (JSTOR, Oxford Academic).
