Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. During the last few decades, and because of the preeminence of the image in everyday life, the Romantic aesthetics of dialogue and communication amongst the different arts become more necessary than ever. In a globalized world, isolation and compartmentalization hinder people, whereas the Romantic idea of belonging urges people to look beyond and to build bridges. Bearing this Romantic spirit in mind, the book promotes interdisciplinary studies and encourages further dialogue between art and literature. Traditional comparative studies mostly examine texts belonging to either different periods or cultures, but it is highly infrequent that they promote comparison between text and image, embracing not only interdisciplinarity but also transdisciplinarity. The book closes with a focus on transatlantic interdisciplinarity, where different dialogues are established amongst diverse authors, periods and continents.