„Es zerfiel mir alles in Teile, die Teile wieder in Teile, und nichts mehr ließ sich mit einem Begriff umspannen.“ This is how Hugo von Hofmannsthal summarizes the crisis of mod-ernity in his Chandos letter. The failure to bind together facts by language is arguably the inability to compare them. Notwithstanding Hofmannsthal's grim verdict, the contributions to this volume clearly reveal the relevance of comparison for literary studies today. The topic of comparison is only one of the many strands running through this collection of essays – the reader will find more links between the individual contributions. Contributors: Michael Eggers, Hans-Dieter Gelfert, Volker Honemann, Eberhard Lämmert, Martin Liebscher, Eda Sagarra, Robert Vilain, Martin Vöhler, Godela Weiss-Sussex.