Comparative Formations: Reading Relations

It was a thought-provoking invitation on the fifty-year anniversary (1963–2013) of Comparative Literature Studies–" To invite comparatists whose doctoral study took place within the relevant decade to contribute a brief personal essay, comparing their own formation in comparative studies with what was being published in Comparative Literature Studies during that decade." An invitation I was honored to receive and which I set about to do with interest and, in fact, curiosity. My "own formation in comparative studies" in relation to leading essays in a distinguished academic journal?