The history of literature can hardly be separated from that of the libraries in which literary works are read or which have handed them down to us. The singular, particular work barely exists on its own : it always stands out against a more or less perceptible background of other works, other texts, among which it makes sense and which guide our understanding. All reading is based on at least an implicit comparison. How have such libraries, whether tangible or intangible, been built up since classical antiquity ? How do they function ? Can we conceive of other libraries, other shelves, other lists or canons, containing other texts that we don't know about, lost, forgotten or neglected ? Who knows if these other libraries might not also make it possible to give a different meaning to the texts we know - or think we know -, and to sufficiently renew the readings, the readings and the pleasures they give us ?
The aim of this year's seminars was to understand how the circulation of texts contributes to the construction and deconstruction of the library of world literature. Based on seven case studies - the circulation of monumental Fausts between 1850 and 1870 ; the "new order of books " that took hold in France from 1630 ; Paul Valéry's personal library; the worldwide circulation of the tale of A Thousand and One Nights ; andré Malraux's " musée imaginaire " ; and the " bibliothèque de la Pléiade " - the various presentations explored several aspects of this library, from the most material to the most symbolic or imaginary. The link between material and mental libraries therefore lies at the heart of both the seminar and the lecture. It reopens theoretical and methodological questions central to comparative literature.