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World Literature in Theory

“With this collection of essays, David Damrosch takes us on a breathtaking ride through the history and geography of the term “world literature” – and demonstrates that it is quite simply the most productive concept in literary theory today.”
—Martin Puchner, Harvard University

“Vigorous and capacious, featuring unexpected contributors such as Nicolas Sarkozy, and covering material ranging from the globe-trotting work of Apuleius to the digital modernism of Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, this impressive volume recovers genealogies of world literature from India, China, Brazil, Ireland. Putting the problematics of translation front and center, it creates a rich dialogue across languages and regions, even as it brings new energies to world literature in the age of globalization.” 
—Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University

David Damrosch (Edited by), D Damrosch (Author)

9781118407684, Wiley

Hardback, published 31 January 2014

544 pages
25.2 x 17.8 x 3 cm, 0.993 kg

World Literature in Theory provides a definitive exploration of the pressing questions facing those studying world literature today.

  • Coverage is split into four parts which examine the origins and seminal formulations of world literature, world literature in the age of globalization, contemporary debates on world literature, and localized versions of world literature
  • Contains more than 30 important theoretical essays by the most influential scholars, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hugo Meltzl, Edward Said, Franco Moretti, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gayatri Spivak
  • Includes substantive introductions to each essay, as well as an annotated bibliography for further reading
  • Allows students to understand, articulate, and debate the most important issues in this rapidly changing field of study

Introduction: World Literature in Theory and Practice 1

Part One: Origins 13

1 Conversations with Eckermann on Weltliteratur (1827) 15
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2 The Emergence of Weltliteratur: Goethe and the Romantic School (2006) 22
John Pizer

3 Present Tasks of Comparative Literature (1877) 35
Hugo Meltzl

4 What is World Literature? (1886) 42
Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett

5 World Literature (1907) 47
Rabindranath Tagore

6 A View on the Unification of Literature (1922) 58
Zheng Zhenduo

Part Two: World Literature in the Age of Globalization 69

7 Reflections on Yiddish World Literature (1938–1939) 71
Melekh Ravitsh and Borekh Rivkin

8 Should We Rethink the Notion of World Literature? (1974) 85
René Etiemble

9 Constructing Comparables (2000) 99
Marcel Detienne

10 Traveling Theory (1982) 114
Edward W. Said

11 Toward World Literary Knowledges: Theory in the Age of Globalization (2010) 134
Revathi Krishnaswamy

12 Conjectures on World Literature (2000) and More Conjectures (2003) 159
Franco Moretti

13 World Literature without a Hyphen: Towards a Typology of Literary Systems (2008) 180
Alexander Beecroft

14 Literature as a World (2005) 192
Pascale Casanova

15 Globalization and Cultural Diversity in the Book Market: The Case of Literary Translations in the US and in France (2010) 209
Gisèle Sapiro

16 From Cultural Turn to Translational Turn: A Transnational Journey (2011) 234
Susan Bassnett

Part Three: Debating World Literature 247

17 Stepping Forward and Back: Issues and Possibilities for “World” Poetry (2004) 249
Stephen Owen

18 To World, to Globalize: World Literature’s Crossroads (2004) 264
Djelal Kadir

19 For a World-Literature in French (2007) 271
Michel Le Bris et al.

20 For a Living and Popular Francophonie (2007) 276
Nicolas Sarkozy

21 Francophonie and Universality: The Ideological Challenges of Littérature-monde (2009) 279
Jacqueline Dutton

22 Universalisms and Francophonies (2009) 293
Françoise Lionnet

23 Orientalism and the Institution of World Literatures (2010) 313
Aamir R. Mufti

24 Against World Literature (2013) 345
Emily Apter

25 Comparative Literature/World Literature: A Discussion (2011) 363
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and David Damrosch

Part Four: World Literature in the World 389

26 The Argentine Writer and Tradition (1943) 391
Jorge Luis Borges

27 Cultures and Contexts (2001) 398
Tania Franco Carvalhal

28 An Idea of Literature: South Africa, India, the West (2001) 405
Michael Chapman

29 The Deterritorialization of American Literature (2007) 416
Paul Giles

30 Islamic Literary Networks in South and Southeast Asia (2010) 437
Ronit Ricci

31 Rethinking the World in World Literature: East Asia and Literary Contact Nebulae (2009) 460
Karen Laura Thornber

32 Global Cinema, World Cinema (2010) 480
Denilson Lopes

33 The Strategy of Digital Modernism: Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries’ Dakota (2008) 493      
Jessica Pressman

Epilogue: The Changing Concept of World Literature 513
Zhang Longxi

Index 524

Subject Areas: Literature: history & criticism [DS]
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