The papers in this volume have been written between 1970 and 1990. They represent various aspects of Even-Zohar’s work on various facets of literary and cultural polysystems. The articles fall into different categories, whose interdependence and deep coherence may not be immediately apparent. Yet no work in this volume, even if it deals with seemingly minute phenomena (such as void pragmatic connectives may seem at first glance), could have been conceived, conducted, and brought to some conclusion, however temporary, without the underlying conceptual framework, that is, the theory where it became possible for such questions to have emerged in the first place.