Literature Department of ILFA was established in 2013 with the merging of the earlier separate Departments of Literary Theory and Literary History. Literary scholarship has been represented in ILFA since its beginnings. The main research focus has traditionally been the investigation of the development of Latvian literature with an ambition to create multivolume literary histories. Current research at the Literature Department substantially enlarges the scope of earlier investigations with a focus on regional and comparative perspective and theoretical density.
In the 21st century, research is being expanded and developed with focus on literary theory and comparative literature, and it often entails inter-disciplinary approaches. In addition to the historically more predominant focus on the genetic, biographical and textual methods researchers widely adopt contemporary methodology such as gender studies, postcolonial criticism, narratology, psychoanalysis, and other approaches. The processes, personalities, trends and genres of Latvian literature are being studied using comparative perspective and in the context of both regional and European literature. Another research strand examines the issues of cultural translation and transfer in minority literatures with a specific focus on the literature of the Baltic Germans and Latvians in exile.
