The ICL is main organiser of the congress on world literary Bohemistics, held every five years. The first congress was held in 1995 with the purpose of renewing and strengthening cooperation in the field after the fall of the Iron Curtain, as well as mapping the situation of Czech literary studies throughout the world. Subsequent congresses followed in 2000, 2005, 2010, and most recently, 2015 (The 5th World Congress of Literary Bohemistics, which took place in June and July 2015, in Prague).
The website for the upcoming 6th World Congress of Literary Bohemistics (originally scheduled for June 29 – July 3, 2020, in Prague; postponed to 2021) can be found here.
The congress is the most representative exhibition and social forum for Czech literary studies in the world, and is regularly attended by more than 150 university teachers, researchers and translators working in Czech literature from at least 20 countries in Europe, North America, and Asia.
Lectures and documentation of the congress, including biographical data of the participants, are published in the form of proceedings, compiled in 15 volumes to date (proceedings from the 1st–4th congresses are digitally accessible here).
The congress is organised under the auspices of Czech institutions and organisations, the highest representatives of the capital city of Prague, and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
As preeminent institution and professional centre for research on Czech literature and literary culture, the ICL plays a leading role in organizing the congress, but it also brings together a number of other scholarly institutes from the Czech Republic, including the Institute of Czech Studies (Faculty of Arts, Charles University), The Institute of the Czech Language and Library Science (Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University), Institute of Czech Literature and Comparative Studies (Faculty of Arts, Charles University), Memorial of National Literature, and Institute of Slovak Literature (Slovak Academy of Sciences).
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