About

The Estonian Association of Comparative Literature (EACL) was created in November 1994. EACL aims to further Estonian research on comparative literature and assemble Estonian comparativists. The main activities of EACL are 1) international conferences on different subjects of co mparative literature every other year; 2) editing Interlitteraria, the annual international journal of comparative literature, published by EACL and the Chair of Comparative Literature of Tartu University.

The physical centre of the association is the Chair of Comparative Literature of Tartu University. The chairman and vice-chairman of EACL are elected from among the chairs of literature of Tartu University. Currently, the chairman of EACL is Liina Lukas and the vice-chairman is Jüri Talvet. The other board members are Kersti Unt and Luule Epner. At present, the EACL has about 50 members, both from Tartu and Tallinn. Starting from 2021, the long-serving members of the board are awarded with the title of Honorary Member of the EACL. So far, Kersti Unt (former chairman) has been made an Honorary Member of the EACL.

EACL is a collective member of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) and takes part in its activities as well as forwards their information and publications to the EACL members. Read more about ICLA here. Thus, EACL makes it possible for its members to have contacts and research opportunities both on the local and the global scale.

The idea of founding a national association of comparative literature came from the late professor John Neubauer, a former leading member of the ICLA. After his 1993 Tartu-visit, the EACL was founded by professor Jüri Talvet and his colleagues from the universities in Tartu and Tallinn.