Dionyz Durisin

Dionyz Durisin (1929–1997) was a leading Slovak literary theorist and comparativist. He belonged to the Slovak School of Comparative Literature. He worked in the tradition of the Czech and Slovak Schools of comparative literature. He is renowned for developing the notions of world literature and interliterary processes.

In his work , Theory of Literary Comparatistics (1984), he defines 'literary process' as the " inner laws of development of literature." He elaborates upon the goal of literary studies,and comparative literature in particular by noting " To comprehend the literary phenomenon means not merely to describe its constituents,or to point out their mutual affinity and interdependence within the work of literature, but to reveal the multifarious affinities of the literary phenomenon and the individual procedures with the social, cultural, artistic and literary background in the widest sense of the word". (p. 11). He notes that the ultimate goal of literary research was not " merely reconstruction of the laws of national literature as an organic literary-historical unit, but also the comprehension of the broader laws of the literary process,leading in the final result to the comprehension of the laws governing world literature". (p. 12) In the same book, Durisin claimed that he was developing the native Slovak tradition of criticism and developing ideas of theorists like Alexander Veselovsky and Viktor Zhirmunsky.

Selected bibliography

Books

• Theory of Literary Comparatistics, Veda, House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislavia, 1984, Trans. Jessie Jocmanova

• Problems of Literary Comparatistics . Bratislavia, 1967