Lecture: “From European Origins to Globalization: Comparison and its Discontents”

To mark its twentieth anniversary, the Lithuanian Comparative Literature Association will host a guest lecture by Professor Ben Hutchinson (University of London Institute in Paris) on contemporary debates in comparative literature at 17:00 on Thursday, November 27.

Titled ‘Comparison and its Discontents’, the lecture will invite a discussion about how comparative literature continues to redefine its boundaries in an age of globalisation.

The discipline of comparative literature has re-examined its own assumptions and limitations many times – from the famous “death of the discipline” to its later revivals. Scholars have long questioned the discipline’s European foundations, while recent decades have seen a turn towards post-European and global perspectives.

In his work, Prof. Hutchinson highlights the central paradox of the field: it seeks to move beyond its European origins while remaining shaped by them. His lecture will raise several key questions: is comparative literature today more theorized than practised? Can it become a true space for dialogue within and beyond Europe? And is it possible for there to be too much comparison?

Professor Ben Hutchinson is Director of the University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) and Professor of European Literature. Until 2025, he was Professor of European Literature and Director of the Graduate and Researcher College at the University of Kent, where he also led the Paris School of Arts and Culture.

His research interests include German literature, Comparative literature, and essayistic non-fiction. He is the author, among other books, of Comparative Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Midlife Mind (Reaktion/Chicago, 2020),  On Purpose: Ten Lessons on the Meaning of Life (2023),  and Lateness and Modern European Literature (Oxford, 2016).

Prof. Hutchinson has held fellowships from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2005–2007) and received the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2011) and Forum for Modern Languages Prize (2021). He has been a Visiting Professor at numerous universities across Europe, including Montpellier (2012-13), Aarhus (2018), the Université libre de Bruxelles (2023), and the Sorbonne Nouvelle (2024). He is a Fellow of the Academia Europaea and a contributing editor at the Times Literary Supplement.

Moderator: Professor Mindaugas Kvietkauskas

The lecture will be held in English.

Watch online:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88278997394?pwd=opyfhDI6pMqVNoNXfxORfHFhXqTDuA.1

Meeting ID: 882 7899 7394

Passcode: 013753

Organizers:

Lithuanian Comparative Literature Association

Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University

Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No. S-ACO-25-12.

Photo by Matt Wilson