This article presents a comprehensive examination of the theoretical foundations, methodology, and research approaches of comparative literature (comparativism). Drawing on both classical and contemporary scholarly sources, the study analyses the historical formation of comparative literary studies from its origins in nineteenth-century European philology through its contemporary global manifestations. The article systematically addresses the objects, tasks, and key stages of comparative analysis; the relationship between the historical -comparative and contrastive methods; the role of typological similarities and interliterary relations in understanding literary development; and the position of translation within comparative literary inquiry. Special attention is devoted to the concept of world literature as articulated by Goethe and reinterpreted by modern scholars including David Damrosch, Franco Moretti, and Pa scale Casanova, as well as to the tension between Eurocentric paradigms and multicultural approaches to literary history. The study concludes that comparative literature, far from being a narrow technical discipline, constitutes an indispensable framework for understanding the global dynamics of artistic thought, cultural exchange, and literary influence across historical periods and civilizational boundaries. Comparative literature, comparativism, historical - comparative method, contrastive method, typology , interliterary relations, world literature, translation studies, poetics, multiculturalism, Eurocentrism, literary influence.