On the relationship of comparative literature to 'Strata Poetics' and 'Fundamental Poetics‪'‬

Ever since their "declaration of independence" from the national literary sciences, about a century ago, comparatists have been desperately groping for a comprehensive theory, broad enough to accommodate not only their investigations into the development and functioning of literary genres, but also their pet subject of the "mutual elucidation of the arts".
These reflections are to be understood as an attempt to examine some ideas and models produced mainly in Germany after the last world war. These will be examined for their usefulness in providing such a comprehensive theory, or at least a base for the construction of such a theory. Two of these models seem to be opposed to each other ("Fundamentalpoetik" and the sociological approach). However, I hope to show that in reality they complement each other. The third model ("Strata Poetics") is still widely unknown, but could, in my view, combine the two others into a unified theory. (In: Acta Humanistica, Humanities S. No. 27, March 2000, 221-242)