ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s the study of literature has undergone a paradigm shift for which the journal New Literary History in particular has served as a platform of theoretical debate. Modern literary science has abandoned the old paths of historical-positivistic philology and now concerns itself both theoretically and practically with the understanding and interpretation of literature. Historically this involves the application of its past experience to the shaping of the present while currently it involves the forms of communication which contact with works of art makes possible in the life of society. Ralph Cohen, the founder of NLH has ventured with his latest project once more into an area that offers new challenges to his colleagues. The theoretical debate will now cross the limits hitherto taken for granted, i.e., research into literature of the historical past and the present, and press on toward a préfiguration of its future! I am certainly not the only one whom this bold intention confronts with a double dilemma: Since the literary historian as historian is only a prophet looking backwards, how can he write about the future of literary theory (and thus become a prophet looking forward) without ceasing to be a scholar? And how can he transform his subjective experiences into objective expectations and prognoses without violating a basic rule of the scientific community, once formulated as follows: " A scientist should never attempt to judge his own contributions, whether significant or not, but especially when not"?
