Historia e përgjithshme e letërsisë
The universal history of literature

Translated in Albanian

Summary/Abstract: Characterizing literary works of a single source (e.g. Petrarchism) and of foreign elemtns to literature makes up for the term "universal literature" in France. One needs to be cautious when using this phrase in order to not confuse it with the expression "general literature", preferred in the United States, which means "literary studies" (in German: Literaturwissenschaft). The phrase "universal literature" must not be used interchangeably with the phrase "world literature", which is a synthesis of national literatures, comparative literature and of universal literature. Universal literature and world literature may be grouped under the category "general history of literature" (or one may use Paul van Tieghem's term 'international history of literature'). However, the explanation of analogous phenomena that occured simultaneously in different places under the influence of social and economic structure common to those places is possible. Yet, such an explanation would be partially deficient due to the fact that the interrelationship between such structures would result not only in analogous phenomena but also in identical ones. Such complete unity can be found only at the level of ideologies (political and social sciences, scientific fields) turned into concepts, thus becoming subject to change. Analogy represents the variation of infrastructure - a variation caused by the temper of a certain people, by language, by the awareness of a particular nation's historical past, etc.

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