World Literatures In Temporal Perspective,
2013
Harvard University
World Literatures In Temporal Perspective, David Damrosch
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "World Literatures in Temporal Perspective" David Damrosch discusses the vexed problem of how to shape a literary history into definable and meaningful periods without simply projecting old Western patterns onto new ages and distant areas of the world. This problem becomes acute when one seeks to create a genuinely global literary history. Damrosch surveys some early periodizations according to patterns of infancy, growth, maturity, and decline, and discusses the often unrealized persistence of biblical and classical models in modern accounts of the literary histories of Egypt, Mesoamerica, and India.
Towards A Symbiotic Coexistence Of Comparative Literature And World Literature,
2013
University of Tartu
Towards A Symbiotic Coexistence Of Comparative Literature And World Literature, Jüri Talvet
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "Towards a Symbiotic Coexistence of Comparative Literature and World Literature" Jüri Talvet postulates that comparative literature has really never enjoyed a pivotal or central status in the broad field of literary studies, yet at the same time specialized studies of separate literary traditions have not been able to fill numerous gaps in the understanding of literary creation as a broader cultural phenomenon influencing (although often invisibly) the world-view and axiological attitudes of entire societies and vast communities of people. Developing some ideas presented in his book A Call for Cultural Symbiosis (2005) and in his article " …
Transcultural Literature And Contemporary World Literature(S),
2013
University of South Australia
Transcultural Literature And Contemporary World Literature(S), Arianna Dagnino
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "Transcultural Literature and Contemporary World Literature(s)" Arianna Dagnino argues that within the emerging field of transcultural literary studies and despite the inevitable issues raised by categorization, we may classify transcultural literature within the wider domain of world literature(s). Dagnino presents a brief overview of the growing importance of a transcultural perspective in the fields of (comparative) cultural studies and literary studies and proceeds by outlining the main contours of transcultural literary theory and its main differences in respect to (im)migrant and postcolonial literary theories. Further, Dagnino analyzes the contemporary understanding of the field of world literature(s) and …
World Literatures, Comparative Literature, And Glocal Cosmopolitanism,
2013
National University of Ireland Galway
World Literatures, Comparative Literature, And Glocal Cosmopolitanism, Paolo Bartoloni
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "World Literatures, Comparative Literature, and Glocal Cosmopolitanism" Paolo Bartoloni reflects on the topos of the crisis of literature and the humanities. An urge to question the status and the relevance of literature; to investigate the relation between literature and literary studies; and the location of literature within the context of a transforming world has emerged in the last three decades. Assuming that a bond exists between literature and the world, what is its nature? Is it possible to take an interest in literature without knowing its potential relevance or its world? These questions are related to the …
Major Histories, Minor Literatures, And World Authors,
2013
University of Leuven
Major Histories, Minor Literatures, And World Authors, Theo D'Haen
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "Major Histories, Minor Literatures, and World Authors" Theo D'haen discusses how the idea of world literature has made a remarkable comeback in literary studies. A major feature of this revival has been increased attention from a "world perspective" to literatures until recently little studied beyond disciplinary boundaries, particularly so some "major" literatures such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and various Indian-language literatures. As such, these literatures have come to join what has usually been thought of as "European" world literature. What this move, however to be welcomed in itself, obscures is the even further peripheralization of a number …
Worlding Literatures Between Dialogue And Hegemony,
2013
University of Ljubljana and Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Worlding Literatures Between Dialogue And Hegemony, Marko Juvan
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "Worlding Literatures between Dialogue and Hegemony" Marko Juvan claims that during its late capitalist renaissance, the Goethean idea of Weltliteratur is interpreted either in terms of intercultural dialogism or hegemony embodied in the asymmetrical structure of the world literary system. Launching the concept of Weltliteratur during the emergence of the early industrial globalization, Goethe initiated a long-lasting transnational meta-discourse that influenced the development of transnational literary practices. In his aristocratic, cosmopolitan humanism, Goethe expected world literature to open up an equal dialogue between civilizations and languages encouraging cross-national networking of the educated elite. However, his notion of …
National Literature, World Literatures, And Universality In Romanian Cultural Criticism 1867-1947,
2013
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
National Literature, World Literatures, And Universality In Romanian Cultural Criticism 1867-1947, Andrei Terian
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "National Literature, World Literatures, and Universality in Romanian Cultural Criticism 1867-1947" Andrei Terian analyzes the relevance of systematizing international literary relationships in current theories of world literatures. Terian criticizes the "naturalist" reductionism that still dominates many contemporary studies in the field of world literatures and asserts that a particular feature of the interliterary processes is that they occur not only at the level of mere "facts," but also at the level of cultural "representations" thus supporting various strategies through which national literatures attempt to acquire more favorable positions within world literatures. Terian presents a systemic classification of …
World Humanism(S), The Divine Comedy, Lao She's "灵的文学与佛教" ("Literature Of The Soul And Buddhism"), And Gao's Soul Mountain,
2013
University of London
World Humanism(S), The Divine Comedy, Lao She's "灵的文学与佛教" ("Literature Of The Soul And Buddhism"), And Gao's Soul Mountain, Letizia Fusini
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "World Humanism(s), the Divine Comedy, Lao She's "灵的文学与佛教" ("Literature of the Soul and Buddhism"), and Gao's Soul Mountain" Letizia Fusini analyzes the Lao She's and Xingjian Gao's conceptions of literature as an activity concerning the realm of the spirit. Fusini utilizes Dante's Divine Comedy for comparison between the literary ideals pursued by the two Chinese writers and regards Lao She's and Gao's humanist and non-political approach underlying their respective notions. Considering Lao She's call for the emergence of a "Chinese Dante" (1941), Fusini contends that China might have found its own "Dante" in …
From Cultural Third-Worldism To The Literary World-System,
2013
Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
From Cultural Third-Worldism To The Literary World-System, Jernej Habjan
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "From Cultural Third-Worldism to the Literary World-System" Jernej Habjan links the debate on Franco Moretti's distant reading to the debate on Fredric Jameson's "third world culture." In and around this debate, Aijaz Ahmad both critiqued close reading and rejected Jameson's "Third-Worldism." What Jameson's and Ahmad's interventions into literary theory meant at the end of the real-socialist alternative and what Moretti's meant at the end of the US-American alternative to real-socialism, a synoptic reading of all three interventions might help achieve at the end of what seemed the European alternative to the US-American alternative.
Western And Oriental Worlds Of Literature And Modern Greek Literature,
2013
University of Paris III Sorbon Nouvelle
Western And Oriental Worlds Of Literature And Modern Greek Literature, Maro Kalantzopoulou
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "Western and Oriental Worlds of Literature and Modern Greek Literature" Maro Kalantzopoulou explores the extent to which modern Greek literature can be seen as linked to Western and Oriental literary cultures. She discusses examples of literary phenomena featuring Western influences, as well as works which are linked in different ways to Southeastern Europe in general, the Ottoman world, and Oriental literary cultures. Kalantzopoulou's claim is that scholarship tends to associate modern Greek literature with Western literary cultures and dismisses non-Western contributions and influences. Kalantzopoulou suggests that by acknowledging the historical situatedness of such assumptions and by examining …
The Pan-Asian Empire And World Literatures,
2013
University of Oxford
The Pan-Asian Empire And World Literatures, Sowon S. Park
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "The Pan-Asian Empire and World Literatures" Sowon S. Park argues that world literature studies have been limited to "Europe and its Others." That is to say, while there has been an increasing preoccupation with literary networks beyond the Western canon since the middle of the last century, the investigations have been restricted to the colonial world and the postcolonial states of the Western powers. The non-Western colonial field of the Pan-Asian empire (1894-1945) — Imperial Japan, colonial Korea, semi-colonial China, and Taiwan — has been not so much relegated to the margins as just passed over. Park …
The Persistence Of "Cathay" In World Literature,
2013
Hong Kong
The Persistence Of "Cathay" In World Literature, Eugene Eoyang
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "The Persistence of 'Cathay' in World Literature" Eugene Eoyang argues that China has only recently begun to occupy a place in world literatures as evidenced by the absence of Chinese literature from the early editions of the widely adopted Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces and its token representations in subsequent editions. "Orientalized" images of China still persist partly stemming from the continuing currency of stereotyped images of the Chinese promoted by publishers, by Western Sinologists, and even by expatriate Chinese. A cottage industry has developed which privileges the study of images of China (however distorted and oversimplified) …
Precarious Cosmopolitanism In O'Neill's Netherland And Mpe's Welcome To Our Hillbrow,
2013
Monash University South Africa and University of Johannesburg
Precarious Cosmopolitanism In O'Neill's Netherland And Mpe's Welcome To Our Hillbrow, Pier Paolo Frassinelli, David Watson
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In their article "Precarious Cosmopolitanism in O'Neill's Netherland and Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow" Pier Paolo Frassinelli and David Watson propose a comparative reading of two twenty-first century novels in light of recent debates on cosmopolitanism and precarity. They examine cosmopolitan articulations within a novel dealing with immigrant communities in post-9/11 New York and within a text narrating life in the metropolis of Johannesburg. Both Netherland and Welcome to Our Hillbrow are preoccupied with economic and political precarity in cosmopolitan cities and offer a rich inventory of forms of cosmopolitan desire rooted in modes of life. By aligning and …
Strangeness And World Literature,
2013
Aarhus University
Strangeness And World Literature, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "Strangeness and World Literature" Mads Rosendahl Thomsen argues that world literature has emerged as a supplement to the two dominant paradigms for studies of literature beyond the nation: comparative literature and postcolonialism. Key questions for all three paradigms are first, what kinds of otherness or strangeness are desirable in literature, and second, how literary circulation is dependent on the representation of otherness. Through a variety of literary examples, Thomsen discusses how strangeness is mediated through genres, bicultural references, and (im)migrant experiences, and how making the local enchanted makes the world stranger to everyone.
Limits To Transculturality: A Book Review Article Of New Work By Kimmich And Schahadat And Juvan,
2013
University of München
Limits To Transculturality: A Book Review Article Of New Work By Kimmich And Schahadat And Juvan, Hrvoje Tutek
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
No abstract provided.
Introduction To New Work About World Literatures,
2013
Pepperdine University
Introduction To New Work About World Literatures, Graciela Boruszko, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
No abstract provided.
National Literatures As Intimate Expression And The Problem Of Teaching World Literatures,
2013
Michigan Technological University
National Literatures As Intimate Expression And The Problem Of Teaching World Literatures, Kette Thomas
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "National Literatures as Intimate Expression and the Problem of Teaching World Literatures" Kette Thomas analyzes the fundamental tension embedded in the discourse on teaching world literatures. Thomas focuses on models which contextualize the problem around the subject of allegiance either to the reader or the author rather than the commonly limited geographical, national, and politically defined complex. Focus on the reader or author is often made at the expense of the "other," but it is the tension and communication between them that offers possibilities for the development of the discipline of comparative literature (against Eurocentrism and the …
New Technologies And Teaching Comparative Literature,
2013
Pepperdine University
New Technologies And Teaching Comparative Literature, Graciela Boruszko
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In her article "New Technologies and Teaching Comparative Literature" Graciela Boruszko discusses the use of new technologies in literary studies curricula. Innovative processes are becoming fundamental components of our educational systems as students challenge faculty to immerse themselves in their rapidly changing world. Learning in the twenty-first century is assisted by various information technologies because the networked information economy made possible by the Internet allows students to access a rich array of online resources including community based and collaborative knowledge exchange systems. Current students are "digital natives" grown up using a variety of digital platforms. Students multitask and process information …
African Literatures And Border Issues,
2013
University of Lagos
African Literatures And Border Issues, Chimdi Maduagwu
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In his article "African Literatures and Border Issues" Chimdi Maduagwu posits that borders or boundaries are constructions which have social and symbolic implications and that they are also relevant in a variety of social processes versus class stratification. Modern Africa is a political construction from European colonialism and what we have today as countries of Africa were closely knit nation states (which colonialists identified as tribes) who had their distinct features. However, the advent of colonialism tore into the original nation state structure based on given ethnic relationships and in its place constructed sovereign states or countries, which only considered …
Translation, Cross-Cultural Interpretation, And World Literatures,
2013
Beijing Language and Culture University
Translation, Cross-Cultural Interpretation, And World Literatures, Qingben Li, Jinghua Guo
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
In their article "Translation, Cross-cultural interpretation, and World Literatures" Qingben Li and Jinghua Guo discuss how to make what is national literature become part of world literatures and posit that there are at least two ways by this can be done: translation and cross-cultural interpretation. Translation covers not only the conversion of language, but also the selection and variation of culture. In the context of modern Chinese literature, cross-cultural interpretation often emerges in the form of applying Western theories to explain Chinese texts in order to facilitate appreciation by Western audiences and to support the need of the internationalization of …
