Antiépica e Modernidade

Abstract

This essay attempts at defining Comparative Literature since it first gained this denomination, in 1 881. It presents a survey of some of its most important names and some of its technical terms, such as the difference between comparative, national and general literature. It further discusses a possible trend for Comparative Literature through its combination with Comparative Poetics, as proposed by Adrian Marino, Earl Miner and Anna Balakian. Finally, it discusses the possibility of a combined study of Comparative Literature and Semiology, through the use of intertextuality, a notion that substitutes the idea of influence, which has become too limited for the manifold postmodern literature.