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The comparison of literary texts from different cultural spheres and in different languages was at the origin of comparative literature. Even after comparativist paradigms have changed and developed, and after comparative criticism has expanded considerably, the crossing of borders between languages is still essential to the discipline. For the first time, the theme of a congress organized by the International Comparative Literature Association will be "language" – language in all its meanings and embedded in various contexts: as a "national" idiom, the basis of literary texts: as source-language and target-language in literary translation: as the set of languages forming "world literature" in its literary manifestation (and as the canon of languages that "world literature" is actually concentrating on). And language – both written and spoken – is not just the self-evident medium of all the objects of comparative literature, but also the indispensable meta-language of scientific discourse and literary terminology. The multilingualism of comparative literature is both a challenge and an opportunity: from its beginnings, the polymorphous diversity of world literature has constituted the attraction and wider reach of comparativist reading; on the other hand, even the most accomplished polyglot comparativist can master only a relatively small range of languages. This fact conditions the discourse more than might be apparent in a scholarly culture increasingly influenced by the English language. The congress will also focus on language in its broadest sense: the usage of language by social and ethnic groups as vectors of literature, the language of themes and discourses, language as a literary subject, language as the expression of central problems and ideas negotiated in the various literatures of the world, and even in its metaphorical sense, as "languages" of styles and forms. As an infinite code with constant need for decryption, the international sign system of literature perpetually reproduces the myth of the confusion of tongues and sets new tasks to multilingual humanity in coming to terms with literature and its criticism.