Introduction

Pathways through realism, the second of the two volumes within the Landscapes of realism project, is the most recent addition to the series A comparative history of literatures in European languages. The Introduction to Volume I, Mapping realism, also serves as a general introduction to the project as a whole; written by the volume’s three editors, Dirk Göttsche, Rosa Mucignat and Robert Weninger, but discussed and approved by all six editors of the two volumes, it delineates the project’s theoretical and conceptual premises, presents some background on its structure, and outlines its approach to literary studies as part of a collaborative project in comparative literary history – while also detailing the limits imposed on the project and its scope by the nature of its subject. The present volume is built on that same foundation. For a description of the overall parameters and modi operandi of the project as well as for additional bibliographical references, we hence refer the reader also to the bibliography included in the project’s general Introduction in Volume I. However, we find it important nonetheless to share here with readers new to the project some of its background and guiding principles. We begin with a condensed recapitulation of the argument presented in that general introduction, followed by an overview of the aims, structure and contents of Pathways through realism.