This article looks at how cosmopolitanism--the notion of universality within a diversity of multi-cultures---has been shaping the discipline of world literature. The article encompasses chiefly three parts. The first ...This article looks at how cosmopolitanism--the notion of universality within a diversity of multi-cultures---has been shaping the discipline of world literature. The article encompasses chiefly three parts. The first part offers an overview of the debates on the discipline widely discussed by literary scholars such as Franco Moretti, David Damrosch and Emily Apter. I take issue with the harmonic co-existence of both local and global elements---and what I define as "glocality"---in literatures to exhibit the inevitable trend of the trans-cultural, supranational and cross-historical interactions among multiple centres and/or various cities especially in the twenty-first century. I thereby argue in the second part using Leung Ping Kwan (1949-2013)'s "Images of Hong Kong" (1992) and Louise Ho's two poetry pieces written in 1994 to prove how Kantian Cosmopolitan elements have deeply embedded in the poem written in a city where the West frequently interacts with the East. I conclude by stepping in further to argue that only through tolerating and mediating between the region and the globe can world literature as a discipline find its way out without fear for marginalising any of the literary pieces.展开更多
Due to the vagueness of the teaching characteristics in the world literature and in some other English courses, thefeatures of the literary courses itself that can be used effectively are also easier to be ignored. As...Due to the vagueness of the teaching characteristics in the world literature and in some other English courses, thefeatures of the literary courses itself that can be used effectively are also easier to be ignored. As a result, theteaching model is solidified and rigid. This paper, based on the standpoint of the POA theory, demonstrates theeffective ways in teaching the world literature courses. While using some literature works, the awareness ofidiology should be emphasied. It is essential to design and implement appropriate tasks for the students at differentstages, and put forward practical curriculum plans for the new international situation.展开更多
Press & Publishing Journal (PPJ),March 6,1991:Upon PPJ edit-orial office's request,Institute of Scientific and Technological lnfor-mation of China (ISTTC) made a survey on the situation that how manytheses fro...Press & Publishing Journal (PPJ),March 6,1991:Upon PPJ edit-orial office's request,Institute of Scientific and Technological lnfor-mation of China (ISTTC) made a survey on the situation that how manytheses from China scientific and technological journals have been sele-cted by the 6 most important search systems (Science Literature Index,展开更多
The present essay examines two moments from the evolution of the modern Malayalam novel,in relation to the reception of two classics in world literature,namely Victor Hugo's Les Miserables translated into Malayala...The present essay examines two moments from the evolution of the modern Malayalam novel,in relation to the reception of two classics in world literature,namely Victor Hugo's Les Miserables translated into Malayalam between 1925 and 1927 and Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude translated in 1984.The translation of Hugo's novel energized the scene of Malayalam fiction by infusing new modes of representation and widening the intellectual horizons of writers in general,and novelists in particular.The echoes of Les Miserables could be heard in Malayalam fiction well into the 1950s.The struggles against colonial and feudal authorities in Kerala,provided a fertile context for the imaginative interpretation of Hugo's humanist vision.The paper illustrates this point through close readings of critical essays,autobiographical narratives and debates on the nature of translation.The fascination of Malayali readers with Garcia Marquez has resulted in the translation of his entire corpus into Malayalam.Magic realism as pioneered by Garcia Marquez liberated the Malayalam novelistic narrative from social realist and modernist dogmas.The colonial disruption of oral narratives,the consequent cultural amnesia and the struggle to reclaim one's forgotten past are themes that struck a chord in Malayalam writers of fiction.Through a detailed discussion of the novel,Moustache by S.Hareesh,the interface between novelistic discourse and world literature is mapped in the latter part of the essay.展开更多
With remarkable force,"decolonization"re-entered the academic agenda some ten years ago.Having been an ambivalent historical experience undergirding postcolonial studies in its emergence in the 1980s,"d...With remarkable force,"decolonization"re-entered the academic agenda some ten years ago.Having been an ambivalent historical experience undergirding postcolonial studies in its emergence in the 1980s,"decolonization"today is wielded as a concept and a rallying call.One of its rhetorical purposes is to set up an opposition between morally objectionable and morally progressive ways of constructing and sharing knowledge,yet the content of the term is often vague.In this context,world literature has much to contribute,both methodologically and critically.If,on the one hand,there is a decolonizing potential in the very ambition to make the world's literary cultures visible,the critical dimension of world literature scholarship makes us aware of its colonial genealogy.Taking Mazisi Kunene's epic poem from South Africa,Emperor Shaka the Great,as its key example,this article discusses how the dual potential of world literature might contribute to a"decolonized"'mode of literary reading.展开更多
Translation has been a major bone of contention in comparative literature studies.For the longest time it was looked down upon by bona fide comparatists,who insisted on studying literary works in the original.World li...Translation has been a major bone of contention in comparative literature studies.For the longest time it was looked down upon by bona fide comparatists,who insisted on studying literary works in the original.World literature scholars,on the contrary,have from the beginning acknowledged that,given the multiplicity of the world's languages and their literatures,it was inevitable that one resort to translation to access all but a handful of literatures.The final decades of the 20th century saw the rise of translation studies.Adopting insights and methods from descriptive translation studies might help bridge any putative gap between comparative and world literature studies,also when it comes to transcultural studies.展开更多
As one considers the concept of comparative world literature,one may ponder on how widening the perspective from an all-English area of studies to other languages promotes different worldviews and descriptions of the ...As one considers the concept of comparative world literature,one may ponder on how widening the perspective from an all-English area of studies to other languages promotes different worldviews and descriptions of the status quo.In this article,we take into consideration the perspective of literature written in Portuguese,be it European,Brazilian,African of even Asian,in order to demonstrate how rich such other points of view are for the discipline.We also engage the concept of defamiliarization(ostranenie),proposed by Russian Formalist,Viktor Shklovsky,as a central tool to consider cosmopolitanism and the dialogue between different literatures.展开更多
In terms of translation theory today, the essential discussions of "otherness", coupled with the agenda of bilateral approaches to its untranslatability, are much more intense than ever. The stereotypical images of ...In terms of translation theory today, the essential discussions of "otherness", coupled with the agenda of bilateral approaches to its untranslatability, are much more intense than ever. The stereotypical images of Japan as something quite alien yet enchanting in Japanese literature, in The Tale of Genji for instance, are drastically different from those in modem novels, where the experience of conflicts with the West in the course of modernization could not be ignored. Shusaku Endo's Silence for example, paradoxically questions the translatability of Christianity in the historical context of the Japanese mind. By reading some translated texts of Japanese literature, we come to be aware of the essential factors of"otherness" inherent in Japanese culture and language which, in some socio-cultural ways, has had an interesting effect on Japanese minds. With the growing interest in "world literature," "otherness" and "untranslatability" illuminated in the translations of Japanese literature offer a new perspective with which we can re-think our sense of history of modernization on the one hand; and re-evaluate the uniqueness of Japanese language on the other. The remarkable influence of translators whose mother tongue is not Japanese, but who have an excellent command of the language, enables a new Japanese culture to emerge. This is evident in the works of Arthur Binard, an American poet and translator, who enthusiastically criticizes the Japanese policy of atomic energy in his translations of the Japanese poems after World War II, and in the very inspiring essays on Japanese by Roger Pulvers, an Australian writer and playwright who won prizes for his translations of Kenji Miyazawa. Along with such new trend of translations of Japanese literature, how it affects the Japanese mind will be discussed.展开更多
The series A Study on Ethical Literary Criticism exhibits key achievements in the major program of national social sciences by scholars headed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao,who are devoted to the research of foreign liter...The series A Study on Ethical Literary Criticism exhibits key achievements in the major program of national social sciences by scholars headed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao,who are devoted to the research of foreign literatures,studies in philosophy and social sciences,and interdisciplinary study of world literature,who dedicated themselves to the construction of the ethical literary critical theory and methodology with the application of ethical literary criticism in practice.This series organically combine the generality of ethical literary criticism with the individuality of specific writers and combine the theoretical guidance with realistic practicality in academic research,which will be conducive to the development of world literary criticism and region and country-specific studies in the new era.展开更多
In this interview,Helena Carvalhao Buescu develops her unique approach to comparative world literature,as she has proposed to reframe the concept.Within the scope of her approach,translation is given a new place in co...In this interview,Helena Carvalhao Buescu develops her unique approach to comparative world literature,as she has proposed to reframe the concept.Within the scope of her approach,translation is given a new place in comparative literature,widening the horizons of literary experience.展开更多
In this interview,David Damrosch ties the ends of his prolific and relevant contribution to literary studies.From the modern development of the concept of world literature to the organization of ambitious projects of ...In this interview,David Damrosch ties the ends of his prolific and relevant contribution to literary studies.From the modern development of the concept of world literature to the organization of ambitious projects of World Literature anthologies;from the embracing of many worlds of world literary scholarship to the consideration of the emergence of A.I.and its possible consequences for the literary experience.展开更多
This essay reviews Zhang Longxi's A History of Chinese Literature.The book covers Chinese literature from its very beginning to modern times.It emphasizes texts'literary and aesthetic qualities when evaluating...This essay reviews Zhang Longxi's A History of Chinese Literature.The book covers Chinese literature from its very beginning to modern times.It emphasizes texts'literary and aesthetic qualities when evaluating and historicizing literature.The book demonstrates the importance of canons in literary history,using Chinese tradition as an example.Therefore,it also brings the Chinese tradition into the broader framework of world literature.Reading Zhang's concise historical overview of Chinese literature,we can better understand the interplay between literary tradition and the individual talent.Zhang Longxi has skillfully combined the writing of a history of literature with literary criticism in this book.Zhang's successful attempt informs literary scholars of possible paradigms of compiling literary history in a post-cultural-studies theoretical context.展开更多
In this interview,Zhang Longxi explores topics and approaches that have made him one of the leading scholars on cross-cultural studies in the world.Longxi's innovative understanding of both the relationship betwee...In this interview,Zhang Longxi explores topics and approaches that have made him one of the leading scholars on cross-cultural studies in the world.Longxi's innovative understanding of both the relationship between East and West and literary hermeneutics is clarified in his latest contribution,World Literature as Discovery:Expanding the World Literary Canon,which aims at suggesting that world literature may favor a productive way to return to the reading of literature.展开更多
An analysis of Helena Buescu's book The Experience of the Uncommon and Good Neighborhood:Comparative Literature and World Literature,published in Portuguese by Porto Editora,is undertaken as the best way of introd...An analysis of Helena Buescu's book The Experience of the Uncommon and Good Neighborhood:Comparative Literature and World Literature,published in Portuguese by Porto Editora,is undertaken as the best way of introducing her work to an international readership.A pride of place is given to the broadening of the concept of world literature as well as to the importance of translation.展开更多
By establishing a critical dialogue with the observations of David Damrosch in Comparing the Literatures:Literary Studies in a Global Age concerning the challenges posed to Comparatism by the current state of the disc...By establishing a critical dialogue with the observations of David Damrosch in Comparing the Literatures:Literary Studies in a Global Age concerning the challenges posed to Comparatism by the current state of the discipline,the question that we will address in the present work is,above all,a position on what it means to make a comparative study in a scenario marked by the reemergence of the phenomenon of world literature in literary studies.After directing our attention to The Longman Anthology of World Literature and The Norton Anthology of World Literature,we were able to see how both still describe an unequal system of legitimation and aesthetic configuration based on a Eurocentric division between the"inside"and the"outside."And it is precisely in the ethical and political implications of this process of opening"'to the world that lies our proposal for approaching world literature.展开更多
The idea of the world is a dynamic phenomenon,and the development of world literature is tied to both literary and extra-literary events.Worldwide literary centers can be found in many locations spanning both time and...The idea of the world is a dynamic phenomenon,and the development of world literature is tied to both literary and extra-literary events.Worldwide literary centers can be found in many locations spanning both time and space.The concept of the world,or Visva(Sanskrit),is considerably older even if world literature has been a discursive framework that has affected the literary structures of many languages around the world since the 19th century."Vasudhaiba Kutumbakam,"or the universal neighborhood,is a term from ancient Indian literature that attests to the age of the concept of Vasudha,or the world.As a result of numerous trade routes,cultural interactions,the expansion of ancient and medieval kingdoms,and the transit of literary writings,cosmopolitan literary spaces were created in various parts of t8he world.Additionally,the absence of modern cartography and the sovereign state system enabled constant changes in the borders of the empires,resulting in spaces with many languages.India has connections to several Asian nations dating back to ancient times,as well as to Europe since the medieval period.The diverse traditions of human thought from various parts of the world are carried in Indian literature.Significant literary contacts and the ongoing formation of new literary legacies were witnessed in the East,Middle East,South East,and South Asia of the present.The Sufi and Bhakti traditions,the reception of Indian epics as oral,written,and performative texts in South-East Asia,and the role of the royal courts as multilingual literary spaces continue to broaden the intellectual traditions of Bharat(India).Thus,the pre-modern development of world literature seemed intriguing and a subject worth exploring for literary professionals.This essay contends that ancient and medieval India and Bengal,particularly their languages,continually bargained to expand their intellectual frontiers.展开更多
This essay considers the main features and status of contemporary Zapotec literature,an"ultraminor"Indigenous literature in southern Mexico.Tracing its modern emergence through 20th century literary circuits...This essay considers the main features and status of contemporary Zapotec literature,an"ultraminor"Indigenous literature in southern Mexico.Tracing its modern emergence through 20th century literary circuits that were preeminently local and politically-rooted,Zapotec literature has taken what Laachir et al.describe as a"groundup and located approach"to literary production and circulationone that clashes against the globalizing,capitalist,Western-centric relations prevalent in the field of World Literature.Shaping g/local readers and raising cultural and linguistic awareness,Zapotec authors write in their linguistic variant and self-translate their work and worldviews into Spanisha major Western language with a strong colonialist legacy and presence in the field of World Literature.Although they translate their work as a form of authorial validation within the nation,they primarily seek to nurture autochthonous forms of expression and circulation that are key in Indigenous-led cultural revitalization processes in their territory.As examples of literary worlding,I engage two contemporary Zapotec texts:Victor de la Cruz's seminal anthology of Zapotec literature Guie'sti'didxaza/La flor de la palabra and Natalia Toledo's poem"Ni guicaa T.S.Eliot/A T.S.Eliot,"published in her bilingual collection Guie'yaase'/Olivo negro.展开更多
In their dialogue, Peter Hajdu and Meng Xiangchun focus on the integration of national literature into world literature and the roles of translation and ideology in the process. Peter Hajdu's major ideas include: 1...In their dialogue, Peter Hajdu and Meng Xiangchun focus on the integration of national literature into world literature and the roles of translation and ideology in the process. Peter Hajdu's major ideas include: 1) the selection of a foreign piece of literature mostly depends on the target culture's demands, of which the reception of Petbfi Soindor's "Liberty and Love" is a good example; 2) it is usual that smaller literary communities translate from another smaller community's literature what already had a success in a major market. Peripheries do not communicate directly, but via a center, and this practice also reinforces the privileged position of the center; 3) the hermeneutic circle may help us understand domestication and foreignization in translation. We understand something strange though the familiar and complete strangeness cannot be understood. Therefore it is theoretically possible that making something more familiar helps one understand its otherness; 4) Readers of translatedcontemporary Chinese literature tend to be particularly interested in the representation of social reality and political/ideological issues; and 5) Mo Yan's works travel well because they also make use of various Western literary traditions. Meng Xiangchun puts forward a theory that he tentatively terms "the theory of translation dynamics" or "translation interactology" and it will focus on how the numerous factors and considerations in translation act on one another within the target/source language and across languages. Within the framework of translation dynamics, he offers a descriptive parallel comparative 7W approach to integrated translation studies by juxtaposing the 7Ws of the original and target texts and identifying/decoding the nexus among these Ws vertically (of both the original text and the target text) and horizontally (within the same text), the 7Ws referring to "in what context for what who says what to whom in what way with what effect and feedback".展开更多
The story of Goethe’s invention of'world literature'while reading a Chinese novel is an interesting one,for it prefigures the presence of alterity in the very formation of the concept.Whether we consider worl...The story of Goethe’s invention of'world literature'while reading a Chinese novel is an interesting one,for it prefigures the presence of alterity in the very formation of the concept.Whether we consider world literature as a theoretical recognition of writing to be literature or as a body of actual texts,we often frame our discussion in a language of duality:self/other,culture/cosmopolitanism,nation/world,etc.While the force of world literature has always been its alluring ideal of'one-world-ness',it is time for us to better account for its embedded alterity,which is what energizes world literature as a discipline of study in the 21stcentury.The place to start,this essay will argue,is translation/reading.Translation as reading is not only the material condition for world literature,where texts of different language congregate to form a'republic of letters',but also creates the site of an'afterlife'in which the textuality of world literature becomes visible and realized.Like writing itself,however,translation is not a transparent text for meaning.It is an exchange of alterity,but not its equivalent.The varying strategies in translation deal with alterity,thus invigorate the discourse of sameness and difference in the concept of world literature.展开更多
文摘This article looks at how cosmopolitanism--the notion of universality within a diversity of multi-cultures---has been shaping the discipline of world literature. The article encompasses chiefly three parts. The first part offers an overview of the debates on the discipline widely discussed by literary scholars such as Franco Moretti, David Damrosch and Emily Apter. I take issue with the harmonic co-existence of both local and global elements---and what I define as "glocality"---in literatures to exhibit the inevitable trend of the trans-cultural, supranational and cross-historical interactions among multiple centres and/or various cities especially in the twenty-first century. I thereby argue in the second part using Leung Ping Kwan (1949-2013)'s "Images of Hong Kong" (1992) and Louise Ho's two poetry pieces written in 1994 to prove how Kantian Cosmopolitan elements have deeply embedded in the poem written in a city where the West frequently interacts with the East. I conclude by stepping in further to argue that only through tolerating and mediating between the region and the globe can world literature as a discipline find its way out without fear for marginalising any of the literary pieces.
文摘Due to the vagueness of the teaching characteristics in the world literature and in some other English courses, thefeatures of the literary courses itself that can be used effectively are also easier to be ignored. As a result, theteaching model is solidified and rigid. This paper, based on the standpoint of the POA theory, demonstrates theeffective ways in teaching the world literature courses. While using some literature works, the awareness ofidiology should be emphasied. It is essential to design and implement appropriate tasks for the students at differentstages, and put forward practical curriculum plans for the new international situation.
文摘Press & Publishing Journal (PPJ),March 6,1991:Upon PPJ edit-orial office's request,Institute of Scientific and Technological lnfor-mation of China (ISTTC) made a survey on the situation that how manytheses from China scientific and technological journals have been sele-cted by the 6 most important search systems (Science Literature Index,
文摘The present essay examines two moments from the evolution of the modern Malayalam novel,in relation to the reception of two classics in world literature,namely Victor Hugo's Les Miserables translated into Malayalam between 1925 and 1927 and Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude translated in 1984.The translation of Hugo's novel energized the scene of Malayalam fiction by infusing new modes of representation and widening the intellectual horizons of writers in general,and novelists in particular.The echoes of Les Miserables could be heard in Malayalam fiction well into the 1950s.The struggles against colonial and feudal authorities in Kerala,provided a fertile context for the imaginative interpretation of Hugo's humanist vision.The paper illustrates this point through close readings of critical essays,autobiographical narratives and debates on the nature of translation.The fascination of Malayali readers with Garcia Marquez has resulted in the translation of his entire corpus into Malayalam.Magic realism as pioneered by Garcia Marquez liberated the Malayalam novelistic narrative from social realist and modernist dogmas.The colonial disruption of oral narratives,the consequent cultural amnesia and the struggle to reclaim one's forgotten past are themes that struck a chord in Malayalam writers of fiction.Through a detailed discussion of the novel,Moustache by S.Hareesh,the interface between novelistic discourse and world literature is mapped in the latter part of the essay.
文摘With remarkable force,"decolonization"re-entered the academic agenda some ten years ago.Having been an ambivalent historical experience undergirding postcolonial studies in its emergence in the 1980s,"decolonization"today is wielded as a concept and a rallying call.One of its rhetorical purposes is to set up an opposition between morally objectionable and morally progressive ways of constructing and sharing knowledge,yet the content of the term is often vague.In this context,world literature has much to contribute,both methodologically and critically.If,on the one hand,there is a decolonizing potential in the very ambition to make the world's literary cultures visible,the critical dimension of world literature scholarship makes us aware of its colonial genealogy.Taking Mazisi Kunene's epic poem from South Africa,Emperor Shaka the Great,as its key example,this article discusses how the dual potential of world literature might contribute to a"decolonized"'mode of literary reading.
文摘Translation has been a major bone of contention in comparative literature studies.For the longest time it was looked down upon by bona fide comparatists,who insisted on studying literary works in the original.World literature scholars,on the contrary,have from the beginning acknowledged that,given the multiplicity of the world's languages and their literatures,it was inevitable that one resort to translation to access all but a handful of literatures.The final decades of the 20th century saw the rise of translation studies.Adopting insights and methods from descriptive translation studies might help bridge any putative gap between comparative and world literature studies,also when it comes to transcultural studies.
文摘As one considers the concept of comparative world literature,one may ponder on how widening the perspective from an all-English area of studies to other languages promotes different worldviews and descriptions of the status quo.In this article,we take into consideration the perspective of literature written in Portuguese,be it European,Brazilian,African of even Asian,in order to demonstrate how rich such other points of view are for the discipline.We also engage the concept of defamiliarization(ostranenie),proposed by Russian Formalist,Viktor Shklovsky,as a central tool to consider cosmopolitanism and the dialogue between different literatures.
文摘In terms of translation theory today, the essential discussions of "otherness", coupled with the agenda of bilateral approaches to its untranslatability, are much more intense than ever. The stereotypical images of Japan as something quite alien yet enchanting in Japanese literature, in The Tale of Genji for instance, are drastically different from those in modem novels, where the experience of conflicts with the West in the course of modernization could not be ignored. Shusaku Endo's Silence for example, paradoxically questions the translatability of Christianity in the historical context of the Japanese mind. By reading some translated texts of Japanese literature, we come to be aware of the essential factors of"otherness" inherent in Japanese culture and language which, in some socio-cultural ways, has had an interesting effect on Japanese minds. With the growing interest in "world literature," "otherness" and "untranslatability" illuminated in the translations of Japanese literature offer a new perspective with which we can re-think our sense of history of modernization on the one hand; and re-evaluate the uniqueness of Japanese language on the other. The remarkable influence of translators whose mother tongue is not Japanese, but who have an excellent command of the language, enables a new Japanese culture to emerge. This is evident in the works of Arthur Binard, an American poet and translator, who enthusiastically criticizes the Japanese policy of atomic energy in his translations of the Japanese poems after World War II, and in the very inspiring essays on Japanese by Roger Pulvers, an Australian writer and playwright who won prizes for his translations of Kenji Miyazawa. Along with such new trend of translations of Japanese literature, how it affects the Japanese mind will be discussed.
文摘The series A Study on Ethical Literary Criticism exhibits key achievements in the major program of national social sciences by scholars headed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao,who are devoted to the research of foreign literatures,studies in philosophy and social sciences,and interdisciplinary study of world literature,who dedicated themselves to the construction of the ethical literary critical theory and methodology with the application of ethical literary criticism in practice.This series organically combine the generality of ethical literary criticism with the individuality of specific writers and combine the theoretical guidance with realistic practicality in academic research,which will be conducive to the development of world literary criticism and region and country-specific studies in the new era.
文摘In this interview,Helena Carvalhao Buescu develops her unique approach to comparative world literature,as she has proposed to reframe the concept.Within the scope of her approach,translation is given a new place in comparative literature,widening the horizons of literary experience.
文摘In this interview,David Damrosch ties the ends of his prolific and relevant contribution to literary studies.From the modern development of the concept of world literature to the organization of ambitious projects of World Literature anthologies;from the embracing of many worlds of world literary scholarship to the consideration of the emergence of A.I.and its possible consequences for the literary experience.
文摘This essay reviews Zhang Longxi's A History of Chinese Literature.The book covers Chinese literature from its very beginning to modern times.It emphasizes texts'literary and aesthetic qualities when evaluating and historicizing literature.The book demonstrates the importance of canons in literary history,using Chinese tradition as an example.Therefore,it also brings the Chinese tradition into the broader framework of world literature.Reading Zhang's concise historical overview of Chinese literature,we can better understand the interplay between literary tradition and the individual talent.Zhang Longxi has skillfully combined the writing of a history of literature with literary criticism in this book.Zhang's successful attempt informs literary scholars of possible paradigms of compiling literary history in a post-cultural-studies theoretical context.
文摘In this interview,Zhang Longxi explores topics and approaches that have made him one of the leading scholars on cross-cultural studies in the world.Longxi's innovative understanding of both the relationship between East and West and literary hermeneutics is clarified in his latest contribution,World Literature as Discovery:Expanding the World Literary Canon,which aims at suggesting that world literature may favor a productive way to return to the reading of literature.
文摘An analysis of Helena Buescu's book The Experience of the Uncommon and Good Neighborhood:Comparative Literature and World Literature,published in Portuguese by Porto Editora,is undertaken as the best way of introducing her work to an international readership.A pride of place is given to the broadening of the concept of world literature as well as to the importance of translation.
文摘By establishing a critical dialogue with the observations of David Damrosch in Comparing the Literatures:Literary Studies in a Global Age concerning the challenges posed to Comparatism by the current state of the discipline,the question that we will address in the present work is,above all,a position on what it means to make a comparative study in a scenario marked by the reemergence of the phenomenon of world literature in literary studies.After directing our attention to The Longman Anthology of World Literature and The Norton Anthology of World Literature,we were able to see how both still describe an unequal system of legitimation and aesthetic configuration based on a Eurocentric division between the"inside"and the"outside."And it is precisely in the ethical and political implications of this process of opening"'to the world that lies our proposal for approaching world literature.
文摘The idea of the world is a dynamic phenomenon,and the development of world literature is tied to both literary and extra-literary events.Worldwide literary centers can be found in many locations spanning both time and space.The concept of the world,or Visva(Sanskrit),is considerably older even if world literature has been a discursive framework that has affected the literary structures of many languages around the world since the 19th century."Vasudhaiba Kutumbakam,"or the universal neighborhood,is a term from ancient Indian literature that attests to the age of the concept of Vasudha,or the world.As a result of numerous trade routes,cultural interactions,the expansion of ancient and medieval kingdoms,and the transit of literary writings,cosmopolitan literary spaces were created in various parts of t8he world.Additionally,the absence of modern cartography and the sovereign state system enabled constant changes in the borders of the empires,resulting in spaces with many languages.India has connections to several Asian nations dating back to ancient times,as well as to Europe since the medieval period.The diverse traditions of human thought from various parts of the world are carried in Indian literature.Significant literary contacts and the ongoing formation of new literary legacies were witnessed in the East,Middle East,South East,and South Asia of the present.The Sufi and Bhakti traditions,the reception of Indian epics as oral,written,and performative texts in South-East Asia,and the role of the royal courts as multilingual literary spaces continue to broaden the intellectual traditions of Bharat(India).Thus,the pre-modern development of world literature seemed intriguing and a subject worth exploring for literary professionals.This essay contends that ancient and medieval India and Bengal,particularly their languages,continually bargained to expand their intellectual frontiers.
文摘This essay considers the main features and status of contemporary Zapotec literature,an"ultraminor"Indigenous literature in southern Mexico.Tracing its modern emergence through 20th century literary circuits that were preeminently local and politically-rooted,Zapotec literature has taken what Laachir et al.describe as a"groundup and located approach"to literary production and circulationone that clashes against the globalizing,capitalist,Western-centric relations prevalent in the field of World Literature.Shaping g/local readers and raising cultural and linguistic awareness,Zapotec authors write in their linguistic variant and self-translate their work and worldviews into Spanisha major Western language with a strong colonialist legacy and presence in the field of World Literature.Although they translate their work as a form of authorial validation within the nation,they primarily seek to nurture autochthonous forms of expression and circulation that are key in Indigenous-led cultural revitalization processes in their territory.As examples of literary worlding,I engage two contemporary Zapotec texts:Victor de la Cruz's seminal anthology of Zapotec literature Guie'sti'didxaza/La flor de la palabra and Natalia Toledo's poem"Ni guicaa T.S.Eliot/A T.S.Eliot,"published in her bilingual collection Guie'yaase'/Olivo negro.
文摘In their dialogue, Peter Hajdu and Meng Xiangchun focus on the integration of national literature into world literature and the roles of translation and ideology in the process. Peter Hajdu's major ideas include: 1) the selection of a foreign piece of literature mostly depends on the target culture's demands, of which the reception of Petbfi Soindor's "Liberty and Love" is a good example; 2) it is usual that smaller literary communities translate from another smaller community's literature what already had a success in a major market. Peripheries do not communicate directly, but via a center, and this practice also reinforces the privileged position of the center; 3) the hermeneutic circle may help us understand domestication and foreignization in translation. We understand something strange though the familiar and complete strangeness cannot be understood. Therefore it is theoretically possible that making something more familiar helps one understand its otherness; 4) Readers of translatedcontemporary Chinese literature tend to be particularly interested in the representation of social reality and political/ideological issues; and 5) Mo Yan's works travel well because they also make use of various Western literary traditions. Meng Xiangchun puts forward a theory that he tentatively terms "the theory of translation dynamics" or "translation interactology" and it will focus on how the numerous factors and considerations in translation act on one another within the target/source language and across languages. Within the framework of translation dynamics, he offers a descriptive parallel comparative 7W approach to integrated translation studies by juxtaposing the 7Ws of the original and target texts and identifying/decoding the nexus among these Ws vertically (of both the original text and the target text) and horizontally (within the same text), the 7Ws referring to "in what context for what who says what to whom in what way with what effect and feedback".
文摘The story of Goethe’s invention of'world literature'while reading a Chinese novel is an interesting one,for it prefigures the presence of alterity in the very formation of the concept.Whether we consider world literature as a theoretical recognition of writing to be literature or as a body of actual texts,we often frame our discussion in a language of duality:self/other,culture/cosmopolitanism,nation/world,etc.While the force of world literature has always been its alluring ideal of'one-world-ness',it is time for us to better account for its embedded alterity,which is what energizes world literature as a discipline of study in the 21stcentury.The place to start,this essay will argue,is translation/reading.Translation as reading is not only the material condition for world literature,where texts of different language congregate to form a'republic of letters',but also creates the site of an'afterlife'in which the textuality of world literature becomes visible and realized.Like writing itself,however,translation is not a transparent text for meaning.It is an exchange of alterity,but not its equivalent.The varying strategies in translation deal with alterity,thus invigorate the discourse of sameness and difference in the concept of world literature.