Content profile

You’d like to gain an overview of a topic, are looking for a particular essay, or need literature about a specific period?

Using the Finding Literature module’s powerful Discovery System, you can conduct a search in catalogues of specialised research literature in the field, open access publications, tables of contents of the most important scholary journals, as well as in the Index of Researchers and the communication platform Networking  on avldigital.de. Highly specific filter options make it possible for you to narrow down your hits.

Our information service is directed to scholars in Comparative Literature, as well as in Literature or Cultural Studes Studies and related disciplines, who have a comparative perspective on their field of work. The contents are developed in close collaboration with the scholary community.

Finding literature aims to meet the requirements to a scholary research and information platform for a Comparatist target group. Its contents follow a "broad" as well as a"narrow" profile:

Even if trends in research are often evident, the areas of interest and methodical approaches of the target group of avldigital.de are widely scattered. Objects of research objects can come from all national philologies and related disciplines such as cultural studies or arts, beyond distinctly comparative questions. Conversely, research contributions from Comparative Literature are also relevant for related disciplines.

This view is taken into account when integrating content relevant to the target group into our search index. Our selection of data sources is based on this.

In keeping with this broad profile, we also disseminate announcements via the Networking module. All researchers in literary studies with a comparatist focus or approach who consider themselves to belong to this broad spectrum are free to use our service: You can submit announcements and join our Index of Researchers.

The narrow profile is highly specialized and focuses on comparison and theory.

This definition is primarily used for the acquisition and provision of resources specifically relevant to the target group. For example, we acquire research literature according to a profile drawn up with the help of our Advisory Board of Scholars - click on Acquisition Strategy for further information.

In addition, we provide members of research institutions with a focus on Comparative Literature with publications from transcript Verlag and the series Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature (RIPL) as exclusive e-book packages. For further information, please go to FID Licences.