Paper Title
Notes on Identity and Literature. Towards a Helvetologic Theory of Literature

Abstract
A new scientific domain: Helvetology is now being set up at the University of Warsaw. One of the attempts is to capture the literature of Switzerland in its multifaceted, four-culture perspective. Cultural identities are self-interpretations of social identities. If so, their cultural impact, production mechanisms, and presentation strategies are a measure of self-expression and thus instruments for possible foreign perceptions. The main goal of the Helvetology is the transdisciplinary integration of hitherto homogeneously and mono-culturely treated literary studies of the Francophonic, German-speaking and Italian-speaking countries. A first step has been made towards a transcultural reading of literature. Central to the new concept of Swiss literature is the paradigm of identity. Keywords - Helvetology, multiculturalism, foreign perception, transdisciplinary integration