Hegel and Herder as founding fathersof modern comparative literary studies: A conceptual outline

The article provides a brief introduction to the thought of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel andJohann Gottfried Herder and presents both philosophers as one of the founding fathers of the contemporaryreferences to the notion of comparatism, i.e. comparative studies and correspondenceof the arts – poetry, philosophy, criticism. Additionally, the vision of state and nation in the philosophyof Hegel and Herder was presented. Herder’s thought had a particular infl uenceon the development of national and independence ideas in the Slavic countries, contributing to theestablishment of the notion of the „ awakening” of Slavic nations based on language, referencesto folklore, poetry and the works of individual nations understood as communities that do not needthe state as a political institution in order to exist.