Founded in 2019, the Institute of Literary Studies is an academic and didactic unit, which consists of departments and research centers that carry out research concerning literature. Despite such a short history of the Institute itself, many branches of literary studies have been present at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin since its foundation in 1918. The research at the Institute effectively makes use of the best methodological traditions and successfully combines its legacy with modern strategies of literary analysis. It concerns all major linguistic areas and historical periods ranging from Ancient Greek and Latin, through Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian to German, French, English, American, Dutch and recently even Chinese literature. Apart from the topics connected with the historyof literature in different languages, the faculty also deal with important aspects of the theory of literature, methodology of literary research and comparative studies. They are also engaged in many translation and editorial projects, including new translations of Plato’s works, the publication series “Old Polish drama and religious dialog” (Staropolski dramat i dialog religijny), the digital edition of Philomaths’ Archive (Cyfrowe Archiwum Filomatów) as well as critical editions of Cyprian Norwid’s and Bolesław Prus’s works.

 

The faculty of the Institute consist of more than a hundred researchers, affiliated with 18 departments and 3 research centers. In cooperation with the Institute of Linguistics the Institute offers 12 study programs: Polish, English, German, French, Slavic, Classical, and Dutch Philology, as well as Chinese, Spanish and Italian Studies, Applied Linguistics, Editing Studies and Digital Humanities. The faculty are involved in the whole range of cultural projects (two student theatres: ITP and Enigmatic) and activities promoting literature: Literary Encounters at KUL (KULowskie spotkania literackie), The backpack book project (Książka z plecaka) and the Polish national poetry contest Autumn’s Poetical Debuts (Ogólnopolski przegląd poezji Jesienne debiuty poetyckie).

 

The Institute cooperates with a wide range of other academic centers from Poland and abroad, such as Jagiellonian University in Cracow, University of Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, University of Notre Dame (USA), McGill University (Canada), Warwick University (United Kingdom), University of Nottingham (United Kingdom), Paris IV Sorbonne (France), Gomel State University (Belarus), Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod University (Russia).