Anna Balakian (14 July 1915 – 12 August 1997) was the former chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at New York University.
In 1953, she began her long career at New York University culminating in her eight-year chairmanship of the Department of Comparative Literature.
Balakian's next book, Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute (1959), is an exposition of, and apologia for, surrealist literature and art.
Her André Breton: Magus of Surrealism (1971) was the first full-scale biography of the founder of the surrealist movement.
In 2004, the International Comparative Literature Association established the Anna Balakian Prize in honor of her and to promote scholarly research by younger comparatists.