The International Comparative Literature Association (AILC/ICLA): Association Internationale de Litterature Comparee. (Appendix: FILLM--history and objectives).

Comparative literary studies gathered momentum throughout the 19th century in Europe and North America and began to thrive with the advent of Modernism. But the successful launch of an international collaborative organization specifically dedicated to comparative literary studies dates concretely from discussions held in the framework of the sixth congress of FILLM at Oxford in 1954. The daughter organization born there, the Association Internationale de Litterature Comparee/International Comparative Literature Association, is proud to figure today as the second largest affiliate of FILLM and to enjoy active relations with its parent. AILC/ICLA has in turn attracted close to three dozen national and regional associations of comparative literature (the discipline will henceforth be abbreviated CL) as collaborating organizations. Since the 1970s, our semi-annual ICLA Bulletin has regularly carried the names and contact data of such affiliated organizations and other vital news and information on CL internationally. It currently reaches some 5000 individual colleagues in about 70 countries as a membership benefit. AILC/ICLA's somewhat younger semi-annual journal Literary Research/Recherche Litteraire, likewise worldwide in its scope, has been carrying reviews and review articles on CL publications for a couple of decades to the same readership and many libraries. Today AILC/ICLA's website contains a valuable trove of information and links, including the Bulletin and Literary Research. AILC/ICLA intends to make its electronic informational nexus increasingly interactive.

AILC/ICLA appeared on the scene opportunely as a channel for the enthusiasm for CL that followed upon World War II. The now almost legendary 'restart' of the discipline was initially a transatlantic affair. The …