Literary studies: end(s) and principle(s)

Abstract

The tradition of the literary studies has lasted from ancient Greece up to the present time, in a long duration in which some emphasis that can be historically delimited followed one another. Thus, the emphasis has already been on the teaching of humanities, on nationality and on literariness. Nowadays, the literary studies are oriented to a new emphasis, alterity, and simultaneously one of their branches announces their imminent extinction. Nevertheless, in an age in which relativism paradoxically presents itself as the only absolute value, the literary studies may be more needed than ever, due to their engagement with criticism and with the discerning of aesthetical differences.