define world literature essay

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section World Literature

Introduction, general overviews.

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World Literature by Sowon Park , Jernej Habjan LAST REVIEWED: 25 July 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 25 July 2023 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0025

As a global academic branch of studies, world literature emerged around the turn of the millennium, though thinking about literature with reference to “world,” however defined, can be traced back to at least two hundred years earlier. The underlying factors for the emergence of world literature studies are many. The end of the Cold War and the rise of non-Western economies, the advent of a global literary marketplace, and the proliferation of digital platforms are seen as some of its preconditions. In general terms, the expansion of world literature can be seen to reflect the rapid integration of the world into a single market. As a field of inquiry, world literature continues to grow in response to the problems encountered by teachers, students, and readers in their daily contact with literature from around the world. Historically, a prevalent way of thinking about world literature in the Western literary tradition was as the selection of masterpieces from around the world. This serviceable notion was, however, shown to fall below its own theoretical requirement and to be clearly in need of revision, since the “world,” in practice, referred to the “First World,” and world literature had simply been another name for the classics from the five major European states—Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy—and from Russia and the United States. The urgent need to acknowledge and validate occluded regions of the non-Western world as unique literary and historical spaces that contribute to the whole has necessitated an altogether different framework for theorizing concepts such as language, nation, and masterpieces. In its current form, world literature studies aspires to overcome some of the problems that have arisen from the methods and procedures of traditional nation-based literary studies, as well as to address unresolved tensions within comparative literary studies, which have sometimes implicitly equated world literature with European literature. In this it overlaps with critiques of cultural imperialism and Eurocentrism raised by postcolonial studies. Where it differs markedly is in its thinking about the global system of literary production, dissemination, and evaluation beyond Europe and its former colonies, and in its focus on the methodological issues that emerge from the barely manageable inundation of literary texts now made available by digital multimedia platforms. In this effort, world literature studies is often joined by other recently established disciplines, especially globalization studies, translation studies, cosmopolitanism studies, and transnationalism studies.

Scholarly work on world literature often takes the form of either anthology or theoretical study. General overviews, which are limited to either cumulative sampling or theoretical reflection, are thus rare. The renewed interest in world literature around 2000, however, has resulted in monographs that can serve also or primarily as general overviews of world literature. This is the main aim of D’haen 2012 , a detailed history of the terminological, conceptual, pedagogical, and geopolitical aspects of world literature; Goethe’s definitions, Pascale Casanova’s and Franco Moretti’s theories, and European and US-American academe are given special attention. Similarly, Pizer 2006 focuses on the theoretical reception and pedagogical institutionalization of Goethe’s notion of world literature. The problem of teaching world literature is also a concern of Damrosch 2009 , where readers of world literature are offered ways of appreciating texts linguistically or culturally, or formally challenging them while learning to recognize their universal features. Gupta 2009 examines the roles of English studies, world literature studies, and translation policies in the collaboration between globalization scholars and literary scholars; it adds to the dialogue by focusing on the relation between globalization and literature. Globalization is also at the center of Helgesson and Thomsen 2020 , a more recent introduction to world literature and globalization that examines new approaches to digital humanities and world literature, ecologies of world literature, translation, and race and political economy.

Damrosch, David. How to Read World Literature . Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

A practical companion to Damrosch 2003 (cited under Turn of the Millennium ), where world literature is defined primarily as a mode of reading across national boundaries, this book suggests ways of reading literary works whose language, cultural context, or genre seems foreign to the contemporary English-language reader.

D’haen, Theo. The Routledge Concise History of World Literature . London: Routledge, 2012.

This compendious and accessible presentation of world literature traces the history of the notion, its recent theorizations, and its institutionalization in comparative literary studies, world literature courses, and translation studies. It also addresses the relationship between world literature and postcolonial and postmodern literatures.

Gupta, Suman. Globalization and Literature . Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009.

Gupta presents and intervenes in the recent debates in globalization studies and literary studies. Focusing on the relationship between the two disciplines, as well as between their respective objects of study, he addresses the lack of scholarly collaboration and sees in globalization both the prevalent condition for and a theme of contemporary literature.

Helgesson, Stefan, and Mads Rosendahl Thomsen. Literature and the World . London: Routledge, 2020.

Helgesson and Thomsen provide a brief history of world literature studies as well as a series of case studies from around the world. They discuss world literature in relation to digital humanities, ecology, literary form, translation, and political economy. Their concluding dialogue is dedicated to the future of world literature studies.

Pizer, John. The Idea of World Literature: History and Pedagogical Practice . Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.

Combining historical presentation with programmatic intervention, Pizer argues for and exemplifies the adoption of a Goethean dialectical approach to world literature in US academia. To this end, he offers concise accounts both of the academic reception of Goethe’s approach and of contemporary courses on world literature in English translation.

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What Is World Literature?

• David Damrosch

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What Is World Literature?

• David Damrosch
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Copyright year: 2003
• Audience: General/trade;
• Main content: 336
• Keywords: Poetry ; World literature ; Literature ; Literary theory ; Comparative literature ; Picaresque novel ; Essay ; Imperialism ; G. (novel) ; Novel ; Novelist ; Creative nonfiction ; Gilgamesh ; Bei Dao ; Existentialism ; Novelization ; Mark Twain ; How It Happened ; Orientalism ; Edition (book) ; Historia Calamitatum ; The Tale of the Heike ; Postmodernism ; P. G. Wodehouse ; English poetry ; John Barth ; Hafez ; Petrarchan sonnet ; Romanticism ; David Stoll ; Decolonization ; Utnapishtim ; En route (novel) ; Erudition ; Uqbar ; Psmith ; Post-structuralism ; Hack writer ; Narcissism ; Ezra Pound ; Modernism ; Radicalism (historical) ; Jingoism ; Malcolm Muggeridge ; Literary realism ; English novel ; Don Quixote ; Medieval Latin ; Liberation theology ; Literary criticism ; Epigraph (literature) ; Metonymy ; Critical theory ; Splintered (novel series) ; Western literature ; Hebraist ; The New York Review of Books ; Writer's block ; Indian literature ; Cultural homogenization ; Franz Kafka ; Author ; New Historicism ; Vladimir Nabokov ; Literary agent ; New Criticism ; Medieval Hebrew ; S. (Dorst novel) ; Ethnography ; Miguel Ángel Asturias
• Published: June 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9780691188645

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Writing about World Literature

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The diversity of stories and poems available from around the world makes writing a world literature paper a fascinating experience. At the same time, dealing with texts from different cultures, languages, and time periods presents challenges. Here are six questions to help you through the writing process. Click the link at the top of the page to find a worksheet that will help you organize your notes when writing a world literature paper.

1) What is the assignment?

Make sure you understand what the assignment is asking you to do. Here is a list of common world literature papers (adapted from Karen Gocsik’s Writing about World Literature ):

Literary Analysis

Goal: Explore an image, theme or other element in a text and come to a conclusion about how that element relates to the work as a whole. See the OWL's PowerPoint workshop on literary analysis .

Historical Analysis

Goal: Demonstrate the relationship between a text and its political, cultural, or social environment and argue for the significance of this relationship.

Comparison Paper

Goal: Compare or contrast two texts in order to draw a conclusion about their worldviews, values, rhetorical aims, or literary styles. The following two assignments are types of comparison papers.

Writing about Adaptation

Goal: Compare a literary work to a later work that creatively responds to it (e.g., Disney’s The Lion King as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet ). Make an argument about the significance of the similarities and differences between the original and the adaptation.

Writing about Translation

Goal: Compare two or more different translations of a work. Evaluate the translators’ decisions about certain textual aspects and make an argument about how these decisions exemplify different perspectives on the text as a whole.

2) What are the social and historical contexts?

Research the author and time period, consulting, for example, the introduction in an anthologyor The Dictionary of Literary Biography . Make sure that your interpretation of the text makes sense in light of its contexts. Be careful not to make blanket assumptions about cultures, countries, or time periods, and remember that literary movements are expressed in different ways by different writers. American romanticism is not the same thing as German romanticism.

3) What is the genre?

A genre is a type of composition that has its own characteristic forms, styles, and themes. Genres can vary across cultures.

4) Are you reading the text in translation?

If so, consider what may have been lost in translation. When using a translation as your source text, do not ground your argument on word choice, sentence structure, or rhyme scheme unless you can refer back to the original language.

5) What is your thesis?

Your thesis should put forward an argument rather than merely offer a description or observation. Ask the following questions: What is the significance of your interpretation? How does your interpretation help us to better understand the work as a whole?

Here is an example of a descriptive thesis . It is too obvious and does not constitute a real argument.

Here is an example of an argumentative thesis . It offers an interpretation of the characters of Achilles and Hector that sheds light on the meaning of the work as a whole.

6) Are your citations correct?

When you quote from your sources, be sure to cite correctly.

Here is an example that shows how to quote a primary source from an anthology in MLA style.

Then, in the Works Cited , provide full bibliographic information for the source:

Works Consulted

Damrosch, David. How to Read World Literature . Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

---, ed. Teaching World Literature . New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009.

---. What Is World Literature? Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Gocsik, Karen. Writing about World Literature. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012.

*Special thanks to the World Literature teachers of Purdue University for sharing their insights.

• What Is World Literature?

In this Book

• David Damrosch
• Published by: Princeton University Press
• Series: Translation/Transnation

World literature was long defined in North America as an established canon of European masterpieces, but an emerging global perspective has challenged both this European focus and the very category of "the masterpiece." The first book to look broadly at the contemporary scope and purposes of world literature, What Is World Literature? probes the uses and abuses of world literature in a rapidly changing world. In case studies ranging from the Sumerians to the Aztecs and from medieval mysticism to postmodern metafiction, David Damrosch looks at the ways works change as they move from national to global contexts. Presenting world literature not as a canon of texts but as a mode of circulation and of reading, Damrosch argues that world literature is work that gains in translation. When it is effectively presented, a work of world literature moves into an elliptical space created between the source and receiving cultures, shaped by both but circumscribed by neither alone. Established classics and new discoveries alike participate in this mode of circulation, but they can be seriously mishandled in the process. From the rediscovered Epic of Gilgamesh in the nineteenth century to Rigoberta Menchú's writing today, foreign works have often been distorted by the immediate needs of their own editors and translators. Eloquently written, argued largely by example, and replete with insightful close readings, this book is both an essay in definition and a series of cautionary tales.

Table of Contents

• Title and Copyright
• pp. vii-viii
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Goethe Coins a Phrase
• Part One. Circulation
• 1. Gilgamesh’s Quest
• 2. The Pope’s Blowgun
• 3. From the Old World to the Whole World
• pp. 110-144
• Part Two. Translation
• 4. Love in the Necropolis
• pp. 147-169
• 5. The Afterlife of Mechthild von Magdeburg
• pp. 170-186
• 6. Kafka Comes Home
• pp. 187-206
• Part Three. Production
• 7. English in the World
• pp. 209-230
• 8. Rigoberta Menchú in Print
• pp. 231-259
• 9. The Poisoned Book
• pp. 260-280
• Conclusion: World Enough and Time
• pp. 281-304
• Bibliography
• pp. 305-318
• pp. 319-324

Additional Information

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• A Research Guide
• Literary Movements

What is World Literature

What is world literature, other necessary literary terms you must know, the norton anthology of world literature, the iliad literary analysis.

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How to Write World Literature  – Basic Tips Where to Start

• Assign yourself a topic: world literature is bulky and in order to simplify your task, you need a specific topic. Ascertain your topic and comprehend the task(s) before you. It is after you have ascertained and understood your assigned topic that you can move to the next phase.
• Get resourceful materials that are related to the topic and Analyze: while writing world literature, you will need to explore many materials, their structure and concept. After getting your facts right; try relating it to your aim and stances.
• Whatever your topic is, analyze the history of your subjects: give your work a historical basis by citing historical stances and relating your stances with political, cultural, or social references.
• Make reasonable Comparison in your paper: in order to bring out differences between two or more concepts or subject, you will have to compare and contrast them—so as to bring a very logical conclusion. Comparing helps to draw valid conclusions about global views, ethics, rhetorical goals or literary techniques.

Read also: Research paper on Their Eyes Were Watching God .

Below are the two types of comparison papers:

• Writing on Translation: the aim of writing on translation is to compare various translations of the same work. Thereby, allowing you to evaluate the translator’s view on specific aspects of the texts. Also, it exposes the ways individual perspective influence the judgment of a text.
• Writing on Adaptation: the main goal of such comparison is to put two literary works—in which one is a creative response to the other. Ore example The Lion King, made by Disney is an adaptation of Hamlet, the original work of Shakespeare. Writing on adaptation fully aims at bringing up a valid argument on the possible similarities and differences between the authentic work and the adaptation.

Read also: Literary analysis of Gone With The Wind .

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World Literature: Theories in the Context of Globalization

Image credit: Greg Gershman via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

When we think of globalization and forms of entertainment, we immediately think of the Internet, social media, movies, or television shows.  But, contrary to popular belief, literature also holds an important place in the flow of entertainment media that is coursing through the veins of public consumption in our globalized world.  The technological advances that are connecting people worldwide through shared information are also serving as a medium to disseminate books across national and cultural boundaries.

The term “world literature” was first used by the German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, referring to the dissemination of literature from and to countries across the globe.  Goethe famously stated in letters to Johann Eckermann in 1827 , “National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.”  World Literature, in the modern sense, refers to literary works that are translated into multiple languages and circulated to an audience outside their country of origin.

World literature is not a new concept, but as new media technologies explode, so do new ways of disseminating books across national boundaries.  And as new ways emerge of delivering world literature to readers worldwide, many scholars are examining the implications of translations on literature, the impact that literature has on culture, and the ways that cultures can transform books.  World literature can be an amazing tool for analyzing globalization because it provides a wonderful example of the ways that information is shared across languages and cultures.

Valerie Henitiuk, a professor of Literature and Translation at the University of East Anglia, in a compelling 2012 essay , explored the process of translation and the meanings that it holds.  She posits that “texts become successfully worlded only through interpretive acts of mediation profoundly bound up in aspects of culture.”  In other words, a text can never truly be independent of its translation.  As literature moves across boundaries of culture and language, it is, in a way, transformed into a unique cultural artifact.

While some believe that world literature gains value in translation, some scholars, such as Gayatri Chakrovorty Spivak, hold the alternate view that the study of world literature often ignores the power of a work in its own language.  Spivak believes that scholars must take care to avoid homogenizing cultures and languages when undertaking the study of translated texts, and that consideration must be given to protecting the diversity of languages and cultures present in literary works.

Image credit: John Blyberg via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Venkat Mani, in an essay published in 2014 , submits that world literature is best understood in the larger context of global media dissemination.  Mani points out that in the globalized world that exists today, the place of origin of a literary work does not necessarily define the cultural or national context of the work.  He believes that modern world literature is being created and disseminated in a public sphere, aided by new media technologies and the interconnected nature of the Internet and social media. Mani’s viewpoint mirrors Goethe’s statement that “national literature is now a rather unmeaning term,” but takes on new meaning as, almost 200 years later, the world is more connected than ever before through modern technology.

The study of world literature is a powerful tool for global studies because it encompasses so many themes that are important to understanding globalization.  World literature can show us how information is shared between cultures and nations. It provides insight into how cultural artifacts are transformed as they traverse languages and boundaries. It also can help us to understand the ways that new media technologies could be facilitating globalization by creating a public space for the transmission of literature and other information across the globe.

Want to delve deeper into this topic? Check out the sources below!

Web Resources

Top 100 Works in World Literature  – InfoPlease

Into to World Literature – Penn State

Words Without Borders

Books Set In…  – This service lets you search geographically for books set in particular regions, countries, and cities.  It even has a Google Maps feature that lets you browse the map for books from a particular area.

Articles (Available through UIUC Online Journals and Databases )

Hamilton, Grant. (2014). On world literature: when Goethe met Boltzmann . Textual Practice, 28:6, 1015-1033

Henitiuk, Valerie. (2012).  The Single, Shared Text? Translation and World Literature. World Literature Today, (86)1,  30-34.

Mani, Venkat. (2014).  A Pact With Books: The Public Life of World Literature .   Global E-Journal. 8(1). 

Books (Available through UIUC Libraries )

Apter, Emily. (2011). The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature . Princeton : Princeton University Press.

Damrosch, David. (2003). What is world literature? Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Soret, Frédéric Jacob, Oxenford, John,Eckermann, Johann Peter. (1901). Conversations with Eckermann: being appreciations and criticisms on many subjects. Washington, M.W. Dunne.

Haen, Theo d’. (2012). The Routledge concise history of world literature.   London : Routledge.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. (2003) Death of a discipline. New York : Columbia University Press.

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What is Essay? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Essay definition.

An essay (ES-ey) is a nonfiction composition that explores a concept, argument, idea, or opinion from the personal perspective of the writer. Essays are usually a few pages, but they can also be book-length. Unlike other forms of nonfiction writing, like textbooks or biographies, an essay doesn’t inherently require research. Literary essayists are conveying ideas in a more informal way.

The word essay comes from the Late Latin exigere , meaning “ascertain or weigh,” which later became essayer in Old French. The late-15th-century version came to mean “test the quality of.” It’s this latter derivation that French philosopher Michel de Montaigne first used to describe a composition.

History of the Essay

Michel de Montaigne first coined the term essayer to describe Plutarch’s Oeuvres Morales , which is now widely considered to be a collection of essays. Under the new term, Montaigne wrote the first official collection of essays, Essais , in 1580. Montaigne’s goal was to pen his personal ideas in prose . In 1597, a collection of Francis Bacon’s work appeared as the first essay collection written in English. The term essayist was first used by English playwright Ben Jonson in 1609.

Types of Essays

There are many ways to categorize essays. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, determined that there are three major groups: personal and autobiographical, objective and factual, and abstract and universal. Within these groups, several other types can exist, including the following:

• Academic Essays : Educators frequently assign essays to encourage students to think deeply about a given subject and to assess the student’s knowledge. As such, an academic essay employs a formal language and tone, and it may include references and a bibliography. It’s objective and factual, and it typically uses a five-paragraph model of an introduction, two or more body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Several other essay types, like descriptive, argumentative, and expository, can fall under the umbrella of an academic essay.
• Analytical Essays : An analytical essay breaks down and interprets something, like an event, piece of literature, or artwork. This type of essay combines abstraction and personal viewpoints. Professional reviews of movies, TV shows, and albums are likely the most common form of analytical essays that people encounter in everyday life.
• Argumentative/Persuasive Essays : In an argumentative or persuasive essay, the essayist offers their opinion on a debatable topic and refutes opposing views. Their goal is to get the reader to agree with them. Argumentative/persuasive essays can be personal, factual, and even both at the same time. They can also be humorous or satirical; Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay arguing that the best way for Irish people to get out of poverty is to sell their children to rich people as a food source.
• Descriptive Essays : In a descriptive essay, the essayist describes something, someone, or an event in great detail. The essay’s subject can be something concrete, meaning it can be experienced with any or all of the five senses, or abstract, meaning it can’t be interacted with in a physical sense.
• Expository Essay : An expository essay is a factual piece of writing that explains a particular concept or issue. Investigative journalists often write expository essays in their beat, and things like manuals or how-to guides are also written in an expository style.
• Narrative/Personal : In a narrative or personal essay, the essayist tells a story, which is usually a recounting of a personal event. Narrative and personal essays may attempt to support a moral or lesson. People are often most familiar with this category as many writers and celebrities frequently publish essay collections.

Notable Essayists

• James Baldwin, “ Notes of a Native Son ”
• Joan Didion, “ Goodbye To All That ”
• George Orwell, “ Shooting an Elephant ”
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, “ Self-Reliance ”
• Virginia Woolf, " Three Guineas "

Examples of Literary Essays

1. Michel De Montaigne, “Of Presumption”

De Montaigne’s essay explores multiple topics, including his reasons for writing essays, his dissatisfaction with contemporary education, and his own victories and failings. As the father of the essay, Montaigne details characteristics of what he thinks an essay should be. His writing has a stream-of-consciousness organization that doesn’t follow a structure, and he expresses the importance of looking inward at oneself, pointing to the essay’s personal nature.

2. Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”

Woolf’s feminist essay, written from the perspective of an unknown, fictional woman, argues that sexism keeps women from fully realizing their potential. Woolf posits that a woman needs only an income and a room of her own to express her creativity. The fictional persona Woolf uses is meant to teach the reader a greater truth: making both literal and metaphorical space for women in the world is integral to their success and wellbeing.

3. James Baldwin, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”

In this essay, Baldwin argues that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin doesn’t serve the black community the way his contemporaries thought it did. He points out that it equates “goodness” with how well-assimilated the black characters are in white culture:

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with Little Women. Sentimentality […] is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel; […] and it is always, therefore, the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty.

This essay is both analytical and argumentative. Baldwin analyzes the novel and argues against those who champion it.

Further Resources on Essays

Top Writing Tips offers an in-depth history of the essay.

The Harvard Writing Center offers tips on outlining an essay.

We at SuperSummary have an excellent essay writing resource guide .

Related Terms

• Academic Essay
• Argumentative Essay
• Expository Essay
• Narrative Essay
• Persuasive Essay

Introduction: What Is World Literature?

• First Online: 29 September 2018

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• Weigui Fang 2  

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The introduction by Fang Weigui discusses the key subject of the book, world literature, largely from the point of view of historical semantics, but it also touches upon the dialectics of the universal and the local, world literature and national literature, the question of “minor literatures,” literatures that appear as hybrid, “bi-national” or “cross-cultural,” and so on.

It also gives an overview of the approach chosen to the subject by the contributors to the book and offers some comments.

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Cf. David Damrosch, What is World Literature? , Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003; Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters , transl. by M.B. DeBevoise, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2004 (Original version: Pascale Casanova: La République mondiale des lettres , Paris: Le Seuil, 1999); Emily Apter, The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature , Princeton: The Princeton University Press, 2006; John Pizer, The Idea of World Literature: History and Pedagogical Practice , Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006; Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Mapping World Literature: International Canonization and Transnational Literatures , New York: Continuum, 2008; Dieter Lamping, Die Idee der Weltliteratur: Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere , Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner, 2010; Peter Goßens, Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert , Stuttgart: Metzler, 2011; Franco Moretti , Distant Reading , London: Verso, 2013; Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability , London: Verso, 2013; Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature: From Antiquity to the Present Day , London: Verso, 2015.

Matthias Freise, “Four Perspectives on World Literature: Reader, Producer, Text and System”, in this book, p. 202.

Édouard Glissant, “Àpropos de Tout-Monde. Ein Gespräch mit Ralph Ludwig” (Aug. 17, 1994), quoted from: Tout-Monde: Interkulturalität, Hybridisierung , Kreolisierung : Kommunikations- und gesellschaftstheoretische Modelle zwischen “alten” und “neuen” Räumen , ed. by Ralph Ludwig and Dorothee Röseberg, Bern: Peter Lang, 2010, p. 10. In their interpretation of Tout-Monde , Ludwig and Röseberg have especially clarified the following point in an enlightening manner: Glissant, they say, is consciously embracing a view of the world that is replacing the negative and thus problematic tendencies inscribed in globalization by a positively characterized chaos model that makes possible non-hierarchical relationships between the elements of the Diverse, while the net is not rigid but a continuous process. A basic experience that serves as a starting point of Tout-Monde is discovered in the Babylonian multiplicity of communications and languages that is seen as liberated from the “odiousness of the Negative.” Seen abstractly and generalized in the form of a social model, Tout-Monde signifies exactly the repudiation of the identitaire , of hierarchically structured notions of culture, and of a closed, rigid social order. (R. Ludwig and D. Röseberg, “Einleitung” (Introduction), in: Tout-Monde: Interkulturalität …, ibidem, p. 9, 10.)

Cf. Martin Kern, on “Ends and Beginnings of World Literature,” in his Beijing talk. His essay will be published in the journal POETICA, Vol. 49, ISSN: 0303-4178; E-ISSN: 2589-0530 (forthcoming).

Franco Moretti , Distant Reading , ibidem, p. 46.

Cf. David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (2003); Franco Moretti , “Conjectures on World Literature,” in: New Left Review 1 (Jan.–Feb. 2000), pp. 54–68.

Franco Moretti , “Modern European Literature: A Geographical Sketch,” in: F. Moretti , Distant Reading , ibidem, p. 39.

Franco Moretti , “Conjectures on World Literature,” in: F. Moretti , Distant Reading , ibidem, p. 46.

This is a position shared by Theo D’haen when he states that “World literature […] is no longer literature that matters in Europe […].” Theo D’haen, “World Literature, Postcolonial Politics, French-Caribbean Literature”, in: Jean Bessière, Littératures francophones et politiques. Paris: Éditions Karthala, 2009, p. 64. See also: Cosmopolitanism and the postnational: literature and the New Europe. Ed. by César Domínguez and Theo D’haen. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

Franco Moretti , “Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur,” in: Studying Transcultural Literary History , ed. by Gunilla Lindberg-Wada, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006, p. 120.

Erwin Koppen, “Weltliteratur”, in: Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte , ed. by Klaus Kanzog and Achim Masser, Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984, p. 815. – The German text says, “Wie die meisten Begriffe und Kategorien des Literaturwissenchaftlers, entzieht sich auch die Konzeption der Weltliteratur einer verbindlichen Definition oder präzisen inhaltlichen Festlegung.”

David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (2003), ibidem, p. 281.

David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (2003), ibidem, p. 4.

David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (2003), ibidem, p. 300.

Cf. Gesine Müller, “Einleitung: Die Debatte Weltliteratur  – Literaturen der Welt ”, in: Verlag Macht Weltliteratur: Lateinamerikanisch-deutsche Kulturtransfers zwischen internationalem Literaturbetrieb und Übersetzungspolitik , ed. by Gesine Müller, Berlin: Tranvía-Walter Frey, 2014, p. 7.

See David Damrosch, What is World Literature? (2003), p. 70.

Cf. Gesine Müller, “Einleitung: Die Debatte Weltliteratur  – Literaturen der Welt ”, ibidem, p. 7–8.

David Damrosch, “Frames for World Literature”, in this book, p. 95.

See Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature after 2000”, in this book, p. 156.

See David Damrosch, “World Literature and Nation-building”, in this book, pp. 311ff.

Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters , Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004, pp. 46–47.

Cf. Christopher Prendergast, “The World Republic of Letters,” in: Debating World Literature , ed. by Ch. Prendergast , London and New York: Verso, 2004, pp. 1–25.

Cf. Pascale Casanova, La République mondiale des lettres , Paris: Le Seuil, 1999, p. 64.

Manfred Koch, Weimaraner Weltbewohner. Zur Genese von Goethes Begriff “Weltliteratur” , Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002.

Norbert Christian Wolf, “De la littérature nationale à la littérature mondiale: la trajectoire de Goethe ”, in: Champ littéraire et nation , ed. by Joseph Jurt, Freiburg: Frankreich-Zentrum, 2007, pp. 91–100.

Cf. Joseph Jurt, “Das Konzept der Weltliteratur – ein erster Entwurf eines internationalen literarischen Feldes?”, in: “Die Bienen fremder Literaturen”: der literarische Transfer zwischen Großbritannien, Frankreich und dem deutschsprachigen Raum im Zeitalter der Weltliteratur (1770–1850) , ed. by Norbert Bachleitner, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012, pp. 31–32.

Alexander Beecroft, “World Literature without a Hyphen. Towards a Typology of Literary Systems,” in: New Left Review 54 (Nov.–Dec. 2008).

Alexander Beecroft, “World Literature without a Hyphen. Towards a Typology of Literary Systems,” ibidem, p. 100.

Regarding Beecroft’s idea of world literature, see also Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature: From Antiquity to the Present Day . Ibidem.

Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability , ibidem, p. 6.

Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability , ibidem, p. 3.

Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability , ibidem, p. 16.

Emily Apter, Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability , ibidem, pp. 320–342.

With regard to the wide-ranging and prolonged debate on world literature, see, in addition to the already mentioned scholarly works, Debating World Literature , ed. by Christopher Prendergast, London: Verso, 2004; The Routledge Companion to World Literature , ed. by Theo D’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2012; World Literature in Theory , ed. by David Damrosch, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, in: Übersetzer als Entdecker: Ihr Leben und Werk als Gegenstand translationswissenschaftlicher und literaturgeschichtlicher Forschung , ed. by Andreas F. Kelletat and Aleksey Tashinskiy, Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2014, pp. 352–353.

Many scholars, thus for instance Bernard Franco, David Damrosch and Zhang Longxi in this book, refuse to acknowledge a Eurocentric tendency that may be implied in Goethe’s concept of literature, and they emphasize above all his cosmopolitanism.

See Hans J. Weitz , “‘Weltliteratur’ zuerst bei Wieland ”, in: Arc adia 22 (1987), pp. 206–208.

Cf. Wolfgang Schamoni, “‘Weltliteratur’ - zuerst 1773 bei August Ludwig Schlözer”, in: Arcadia 43, no. 2 (2008), pp. 288–298; Schamoni notes that the Scandinavian scholar Gauti Kristmannsson had pointed out already in 2007 in his essay “The Nordic Turn in German Literature” ( Edinburgh German Yearbook , vol. 1, 63–72) that Schlözer had used the term. The decisive quotation of Schlözer had been included and appraised decades earlier in Sigmund von Lempicki’s Geschichte der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1920, new and expanded edition 1968, p. 418.

August Ludwig von Schlözer , Isländische Litteratur und Geschichte , Göttingen, Gotha: Dieterichs, 1773.

August Ludwig Schlözer, Isländische Litteratur und Geschichte , quoted from Wolfgang Schamoni, “‘Weltliteratur’ – zuerst 1773 bei August Ludwig Schlözer”, p. 289. In German, he said: Es gibt eine Isländische Litteratur aus dem Mittelalter, die für die gesamte Weltlittteratur eben so wichtig, und großenteils außer dem Norden noch eben so unbekannt, als die Angelsächsische, Irrländische, Rußische, Byzantinische, Hebräische, Arabische, und Kinesische, aus eben diesen düstern Zeiten, ist. Emphasis by me.

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, pp. 359–360; Galin Tihanov, “The Location of World Literature,” in this book, p. 87.

Johann Gottfried Herder, “Ueber die neuere Deutsche Litteratur. Erste Sammlung von Fragmenten. Eine Beilage zu den Briefen, die neueste Litteratur betreffend (1767)”, in: Sämtliche Werke I , ed. by Bernhard Suphan, Berlin 1877, p. 148.

Cf. Manfred Koch, Weimaraner Weltbewohner , p. 89.

Manfred Koch, Weimaraner Weltbewohner , p. 116.

Cf. Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, ibidem, pp. 75–81.

Cf. Andreas F. Kelletat, Herder und die Weltliteratur. Zur Geschichte des Übersetzens im 18. Jahrhundert , Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1984.

Cf. Joseph Jurt, “Das Konzept der Weltliteratur - ein erster Entwurf eines internationalen literarischen Feldes?”, p. 23.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe (Frankfurt edition)], 40 vols., ed. by Friedmar Apel, Hendrik Birus [et al.], Frankfurt/Main 1986–1999, Vol. 14, p. 445.

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, p. 355.

Bernard Franco, “Comparative Literature and World Literature: From Goethe to Globalization,” in this book, p. 68.

Fritz Strich, Goethe und die Weltliteratur , Bern: Francke, (1946) 1957, p. 31.

Egon Friedell, Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit , München: dtv, 1976, Vol. 2, p. 883.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches , in: F. Nietzsche , Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe , ed. by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, München: dtv, 1980, II, p. 448f. (The quoted passage says in German: Wie Beethoven über die Deutschen hinweg Musik machte, wie Schopenhauer über die Deutschen weg philosophierte, so dichtete Goethe seinen Tasso, seine Iphigenie über die Deutschen hinweg. Ihm folgte eine sehr kleine Schar Höchstgebildeter, durch Alterthum, Leben und Reisen Erzogener, über deutsches Wesen Hinausgewachsener: – er selber wollte es nicht anders.)

Dieter Lamping, Die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere , ibidem, p. 11. (In German, this passage maintains that Goethe “den Ausdruck bei verschiedenen Gelegenheiten ins Spiel gebracht und es dabei durchweg bei knappen Andeutungen belassen [hat]. Mustert man seine verstreuten Bemerkungen, so wird schnell deutlich, dass er Verschiedenes unter ‚Weltliteratur‘ verstand, wenngleich er ein Verständnis deutlich vorzog.”)

Dieter Lamping, Die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere , ibidem, p. 11. (In German: Diese Vieldeutigkeit mag mitunter etwas verwirrend sein, zumal wenn der Ausdruck selbst von Literaturwissenschaftlern in ganz unterschiedlichen Bedeutungen, aber immer unter Berufung auf Goethe verwendet wird. Seine Äußerungen über Weltliteratur lassen sich jedoch durchaus in eine sinnvolle Ordnung bringen.)

Those 20 instances where we see Goethe using the term Weltliteratur have been listed systematically in Fritz Strich, Goethe und die Weltliteratur , ibidem, pp. 369–372 and in Xavier Landrin, “La semantique historique de la Weltliteratur: Genèse conceptuelle et usages savants”, in: L’Espace culturel transnational , ed. Anna Boschetti, Paris: Nouveau Monde Editions, 2010, pp. 96–99.

Goethe was in close touch with the French journal Le Globe . It has been shown that 295 articles in his copy of Le Globe have doubtless been read by Goethe ; 202 of these articles are graced by his marginalia. See Heinz Hamm, Goethe und die französische Zeitschrift “Le Globe”. Eine Lektüre im Zeitalter der Weltliteratur , Weimar: Böhlau, 1998, p. 15. This remarkable French journal was only one of several that dominated the literary and artistic debate in France between the demise of Napoleon’s empire and the revolution of 1830. As John Boening notes, the period “between 1818 and the late 1820s” saw the formation of various conservative and liberal literary and artist groups in France. Thus, the royalist and Christian romantics clustered “around the Conservateur littéraire ” founded in 1820, with Victor Hugo and his brother as dominant figures, and around the equally conservative Muse française (founded in 1823), which motivated a “counter grouping by the liberals, including Stendhal” to start the journal Mercure du XIX siècle also in 1823. Le Globe was founded by liberals a year later. See John Boening, “The Unending Conversation. The Role of Periodicals in England and on the Continent during the Romantic Age”, in: Steven P. Sondrup, Virgil Nemoianu in collaboration with Gerald Gillespie (eds.), Nonfictional Romantic Prose: Expanding Borders. Amsterdam NL / Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2004, p. 294. It was in Le Globe that Prosper Duvergier wrote that in the arts and literature, “as elsewhere, the Ancient Regime battles against the new.” See Benjamin Walton, “The Professional Dilettante: Ludovic Vitet and Le Globe ”, in: Roger Parker, Mary Ann Smart, Reading Critics Reading: Opera and Ballet Criticism in France from the Revolution to 1848, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 75. According to Walton, we can find many statements by contemporaries that underline “ Le Globe ’s seriousness and quality […], most famously from the ageing Goethe ,” who told Eckermann that he counted it “among the most interesting periodicals” and that he “could not do without it.” Walton points out that the journal, which was noted widely at the time for “its very fair-mindedness, combined with its eclecticism,” was compelled to remain “officially apolitical until the relaxation of government censorship in July 1828,” but nonetheless it “struck a distinctive political tone” very early on. He adds, “This perceptible stance was in part a consequence of the period, when politics infected every corner of intellectual production.” See Benjamin Walton, ibidem, p. 73.

Goethe : Werke [Weimarer Ausgabe (Weimar edition)], München: dtv, 1987, Vol. 11, p. 8. (In German: An Schuchardt diktirt bezüglich auf französische und Welt-Literatur.)

“Goethe an Cotta ” (26. 1. 1827), in: Goethe: Werke [Weimarer Ausgabe], Vol. 42, p. 27. (In German: Auf die ausländische Literatur muß man besonders jetzt hinweisen, da jene sich um uns zu bekümmern anfangen.)

“Goethe an Streckfuß ” (27. 1. 1827), in: Goethe : Werke [Weimarer Ausgabe], Vol. 42, p. 28. (In German: Ich bin überzeugt daß eine Weltliteratur sich bilde, daß alle Nationen dazu geneigt sind und deshalb freundliche Schritte thun.)

His journal On Art and Antiquity ( Über Kunst und Alterthum ), founded in 1816, was for a period of 16 years an important means of communication which made possible numerous contacts, but which also intended to exert a normative function. It was clearly his publication; two-thirds of the contributions were by him. Goethe saw it as an essential task of all the freshly thriving journals to dedicate themselves to the translation, interpretation and criticism of foreign literatures. In his journal, he did not only inform about foreign poesy, but he told his audience continually how German works were received abroad.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 356. (In German: Die Mittheilungen, die ich aus französischen Zeitblättern gebe, haben nicht etwa allein zur Absicht, an mich und meine Arbeiten zu erinnern, ich bezwecke ein Höheres, worauf ich vorläufig hindeuten will. Überall hört und lies’t man von dem Vorschreiten des Menschengeschlechts, von den weiteren Aussichten der Welt- und Menschenverhältnisse. Wie es auch im ganzen hiemit beschaffen seyn mag […], will ich doch von meiner Seite meine Freunde aufmerksam machen, daß ich überzeugt sei, es bilde sich eine allgemeine Weltliteratur, worin uns Deutschen eine ehrenvolle Rolle vorbehalten ist.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 952. (In German: Ich sehe mich daher gern bei fremden Nationen um und rate jedem, es auch seinerseits zu tun. National-Literatur will jetzt nicht viel sagen, die Epoche der Welt-Literatur ist an der Zeit und jeder muß jetzt dazu wirken, diese Epoche zu beschleunigen.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 724–725. With regard to the early use of the concept of world literature, cf. Hendrik Birus, “Goethes Idee der Weltliteratur. Eine historische Vergegenwärtigung”, in: Weltliteratur heute. Konzepte und Perspektiven , ed. by Manfred Schmeling, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1995, p. 11–12, and the relevant passages in Bernard Franco, “Comparative Literature and World Literature: From Goethe to Globalization,” in this book.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 13, p. 175. (In German: “Chinesische, Indische, Ägyptische Alterthümer sind immer nur Curiositäten,” notierte er. “Es ist sehr wohlgethan sich und die Welt damit bekannt zu machen; zu sittlicher und ästhetischer Bildung aber werden sie uns wenig fruchten.”)

“Goethe an Riemer” (25. 5. 1816), in: Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 7, p. 594. (In German: Verbleiben Sie in den griechischen Regionen, man hat’s nirgends besser; diese Nation hat verstanden aus tausend Rosen ein Fläschchen Rosenöl auszuziehen.)

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, ibidem, p. 362.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 225. (In German: Aber auch bei solcher Schätzung des Ausländischen dürfen wir nicht bei etwas Besonderem haften bleiben und dieses für musterhaft ansehen wollen. Wir müssen nicht denken, das Chinesische wäre es, oder das Serbische, oder Calderon , oder die Nibelungen; sondern im Bedürfnis von etwas Musterhaftem müssen wir immer zu den alten Griechen zurückgehen, in deren Werken stets der schöne Mensch dargestellt ist. Alles übrige müssen wir nur historisch betrachten und das Gute, so weit es gehen will, uns historisch daraus aneignen.)

Wilhelm von Humboldt an Goethe (15. 5. 1821), in: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Briefwechsel mit Wilhelm und Alexander von Humboldt , ed. by Ludwig Geiger, Berlin: Bondy, 1909, p. 247f. (In German: Ich kann ihr keinen Geschmack abgewinnen, und bleibe immer dabei, daß das Griechische und Römische gerade die Höhe und Tiefe, die Einfachheit und die Mannichfaltigkeit, das Maß und die Haltung besitzt, an die nichts anderes je reichen wird, und über die man nie muß hinausgehen wollen [...].)

Wilhelm von Humboldt an Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (Anfang 1826), in: Wilhelm von Humboldt, Briefe an F. G. Welcker , ed. by Rudolf Haym, Berlin: Gärtner, 1859, p. 134. (In German: ich hoffe Gelegenheit zu finden, es einmal recht ordentlich zu sagen, daß die Griechische Sprache und das Griechische Alterthum das Vorzüglichste bleiben, was je der menschliche Geist hervorgebracht hat. Was man vom Sanskrit rühmen mag, das Griechische erreicht es nicht, auch ganz einfach, als Sprache, nicht. Das wird immer mein Glaubensbekenntniss sein [...].)

Regarding the ways this concept is used in comparative literature, see Landrin, “La semantique historique de la Weltliteratur: Genèse conceptuelle et usages savants”, ibidem, pp. 79–95.

Cf. Joseph Jurt, “Das Konzept der Weltliteratur - ein erster Entwurf eines internationalen literarischen Feldes?”, ibidem, p. 43–44.

Cf. René Étiemble, Essais de littérature (vraiment) générale , Paris: Gallimard, 1974, p. 15.

See Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 938.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 427. (In German: […] hoffnungsreiches Wort: das bey der gegenwärtigen höchst bewegten Epoche und durchaus erleichterter Communication eine Weltliteratur baldigst zu hoffen sey […].)

“Goethe an Zelter ” (4. 3. 1829), in: Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 11, p. 99.

The other term that he employs in such a context is communication, in the dual sense of material (economic) and intellectual exchange.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 866. (In German: Wenn nun aber eine solche Weltliteratur, wie bey der sich immer vermehrenden Schnelligkeit des Verkehrs unausbleiblich ist, sich nächstens bildet, so dürfen wir nur nicht mehr und nichts anders von ihr erwarten als was sie leisten kann und leistet.) Goethe went on by saying: was der Menge zusagt, wird sich grenzenlos ausbreiten und wie wir jetzt schon sehen sich in allen Zonen und Gegenden empfehlen; dies wird aber dem Ernsten und eigentlich Tüchtigen weniger gelingen.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 866–867. (In German: Die Ernsten müssen deshalb eine stille, fast gedrückte Kirche bilden, da es vergebens wäre der breiten Tagesfluth sich entgegen zu setzen; standhaft aber muß man seine Stellung zu behaupten suchen bis die Strömung vorüber gegangen ist.)

Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei , in: Marx -Engels -Werke, Vol. 4, Berlin: Dietz, 1974, p. 466. I quote the relevant passage from the English-language edition: “The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, […] has resolved personal worth into exchange value […] [F]or exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation. […] It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science , into its paid wage labourers. The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation . […] The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. […] [I]t has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. […] In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature. The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. […] It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.” Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), URL https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm , accessed Aug. 30, 2016. Emphasis by me.

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, ibidem, p. 356–357.

David Damrosch, What is World Literature? , ibidem, p. 4.

Cf. Gauti Kristmannsson, “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur”, ibidem, p. 357.

Cf. Erich Auerbach, “Philologie der Weltliteratur”, in: Weltliteratur: Festgabe für Fritz Strich zum 70. Geburtstag , ed. by Walter Muschg and Emil Staiger, Bern: Francke, 1952, p. 39–50.

Hendrik Birus, “Goethes Idee der Weltliteratur. Eine historische Vergegenwärtigung”, ibidem, p. 11. This “communicative dimension of the term world literature as used by Goethe ” has been emphasized especially by Peter Weber, “Anmerkungen zum aktuellen Gebrauch von ‘Weltliteratur’”, in: Günther Klotz, Winfried Schröder and Peter Weber (eds.), Literatur im Epochenumbruch. Funktionen europäischer Literaturen im 18. und beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert , Berlin, Weimar 1977, p. 533–542, especially p. 536–539.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 957. When Goethe spoke of such a “mehr oder weniger freyen geistigen Handelsverkehr,” this echoes in a way the free trade debate in England (where “most remnants of old dirigisme were gradually removed from the 1820s,” see Lars Gustafson, Nation, State and the Industrial Revolution: The Invisible Hand. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 86). And it anticipates the connection that Marx and Engels established in 1848 between a bourgeoisie that “got the upper hand,” free trade, Western bourgeois commercial penetration of the world market, and world literature.

Cf. Hans-Joachim Schrimpf, Goethes Begriff der Weltliteratur , Stuttgart: Metzler, 1968, p. 45–47.

Cf. Conrad Wiedemann, “Deutsche Klassik und nationale Identität. Eine Revision der Sonderwegs-Frage”, in: Klassik im Vergleich. Normativität und Historizität europäischer Klassiken , ed. by Wilhelm Vosskamp, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1993, p. 562.

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 491. (In German: Diese Zeitschriften, wie sie nach und nach ein größeres Publikum gewinnen, werden zu einer gehofften allgemeinen Weltliteratur aufs Wirksamste beitragen. Goethe added, daß nicht die Rede sein könne, die Nationen sollen überein denken, sondern sie sollen nur einander gewahr werden, sich begreifen und, wenn sie sich wechselseitig nicht lieben mögen, sich einander wenigstens dulden lernen.)

Dieter Borchmeyer, “Welthandel - Weltfrömmigkeit - Weltliteratur. Goethes Alters-Futurismus” (Festvortrag zur Eröffnung des Goethezeitportals in der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München am 19.01.2004). p. 3; see Goethezeitportal. URL: http://www.goethezeitportal.de/db/wiss/goethe/borchmeyer_weltliteratur.pdf , accessed Aug. 31, 2016.

Dieter Borchmeyer, “Welthandel – Weltfrömmigkeit – Weltliteratur. Goethes Alters-Futurismus,” ibidem, p. 3. (In German: Deutlich ist hier wie immer, daß Weltliteratur für Goethe noch nichts Erreichtes ist, daß sie nicht nur die Vertrautheit des Gebildeten mit der Tradition fremdsprachiger Poesie meint - sie gab es schon seit Jahrhunderten -, also weder die Gesamtheit noch den kanonischen Höhenkamm der Nationalliteraturen bezeichnet, in welchem Sinne Goethes Begriff oft mißverstanden wird. Seine „Statuierung der Weltliteratur“ ist weder eine kumulative noch qualitative Bestandsaufnahme, sondern Ankündigung eines „Gehofften“, die Utopie einer erst in Ansätzen vorhandenen, noch zu „bildenden“ gemeinsamen nationenübergreifenden Literatur – die modern gesagt aus der Interaktion der Literaturproduzenten hervorgeht und ein neues Ethos weltweiten gesellschaftlichen Zusammenwirkens fördert.)

In his essay “Die Entdeckung der Weltliteratur” (p. 350), Gauti Kristmannsson has criticized the fact that most recently published research has failed to deal in more detail “with the immense theoretical works of translation science produced during the last decades.” He added, “It does not suffice to point, here and there, to Walter Benjamin and George Steiner, before speaking extensively about world literature and translation.”

In: Wolfgang Runkel, “Im Wort stehen”, in: Die Zeit , No. 43, 10/1997, p. 14.

David Damrosch, “Frames for World Literature,” in this book, p. 95.

William Franke, “World Literature and the Encounter with the Other: A Means or a Menace?” in this book, p. 139.

Regarding the following, cf. Joseph Jurt, “Das Konzept der Weltliteratur - ein erster Entwurf eines internationalen literarischen Feldes?”, ibidem, p. 37.

“Goethe an Carlyle ” (20. Juli 1827), in: Goethe Werke (Weimarer Ausgabe), Vol. 42, p. 270. (In German: Und so ist jeder Übersetzer anzusehen, daß er sich als Vermittler dieses allgemein geistigen Handels bemüht, und den Wechseltausch zu befördern sich zum Geschäft macht. Denn, was man auch von der Unzulänglichkeit des Übersetzens sagen mag, so ist und bleibt es doch eins der wichtigsten und würdigsten Geschäfte in dem allgemeinen Weltwesen.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 428. (In German: Goethe betont aber nicht nur den Gewinn, den die Übersetzung für die Kultur bringt, in die übersetzt wird, sondern auch den Gewinn, den der neue Blick der Übersetzung für die Kultur bringt, aus der übersetzt wird. Diese fremde Perspektive bringt eine Auffrischung der eigenen Texte, die einem zu vertraut sind: „Eine jede Literatur ennüyirt sich zuletzt in sich selbst, wenn sie nicht durch fremde Theilnahme wieder aufgefrischt wird. Theilnahme can be understood in the sense of Anteilnahme (emotional and intellectual involvement) and in the sense of participation .)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 949. (In German: In England hat […] Soane meinen Faust bewunderungswürdig verstanden und dessen Eigenthümlichkeiten mit den Eigenthümlichkeiten seiner Sprache und den Forderungen seiner Nation in Harmonie zu bringen gewusst.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 490. (In German: Nun aber trat es mir auf einmal in der Sprache Shakespeare’s entgegen, die große Analogie zweyer vorzüglicher Dichterseelen ging mir lebhaft auf; es war das erste frischer wieder, dasselbe in einem andern, und so neu, dass es mich wieder mit seiner völligen Kraft ergriff und die innerlichste Rührung hervorbrachte.) This may help to elucidate Franke’s view: “There is a necessary letting go of one’s own culture in order to let great works operate as world literature. Only when we receive our own literature back from others has it truly become world literature for us, too. But then it comes back to us radically changed in its fundamental significance.” (William Franke, “World Literature and the Encounter with the Other: A Means or a Menace?” in this book, p. 139.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 935. (In German: denn eben diese Bezüge vom Originale zur Übersetzung sind es ja, welche die Verhältnisse von Nation zu Nation am allerdeutlichsten aussprechen und die man zu Förderung der vor- und obwaltenden Weltliteratur vorzüglich zu kennen und beurtheilen hat.)

Cf. Fawzi Boubia, “Goethes Theorie der Alterität und die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Beitrag zur neueren Kulturdebatte”, in: Gegenwart als kulturelles Erbe , ed. by Bernd Thum, München: Iudicium, 1985, p. 272.

Fritz Strich, Goethe und die Weltliteratur , ibidem, p. 11. (In German: die Erkenntnis der allgemeinen, ewigen Menschlichkeit als des Bandes der Völker […].)

Fritz Strich, Goethe und die Weltliteratur , ibidem, p. 51. (In German: Es ist der allgemeinen Menschlichkeit, in der die reine Quelle der Weltliteratur zu finden ist, eine allgemein menschliche Kunst und Wissenschaft […].)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 12, p. 223. (In German, he said that the Chinese […] denken, handeln und empfinden fast ebenso wie wir, und man fühlt sich sehr bald als ihresgleichen […].)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 433. (In German: durch Nationalität und Persönlichkeit hin jenes Allgemeine immer mehr durchleuchten und durchscheinen sehen.)

Goethe , Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche [Frankfurter Ausgabe], Vol. 22, p. 964. (In German he said that poetry is: weltbürgerlich und um so mehr interessant als sie sich national zeige.)

David Damrosch, “Frames for World Literature,” in this book, p. 94.

See Fawzi Boubia, “Goethes Theorie der Alterität und die Idee der Weltliteratur: Ein Beitrag zur neueren Kulturdebatte”, ibidem, p. 279–296.

Martin Kern, on “Ends and Beginnings of World Literature,” ibidem.

Erich Auerbach, “Philologie der Weltliteratur,” ibidem, p. 39. (In German: damit wäre der Gedanke der Weltliteratur zugleich verwirklicht und zerstört.)

Martin Kern, “Ends and Beginnings of World Literature,” ibidem.

Fritz Strich, Goethe und die Weltliteratur , ibidem, p. 14.

Focused on this theme, a conference took place on Nov. 13 and 14, 2014 at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen. It was entitled “Slavische Literaturen der Gegenwart als Weltliteratur. Hybride Konstellationen.” On the recent development of Slavic literatures, see Die slavischen Literaturen heute , ed. by Reinhard Lauer, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000 (Opera Slavica NF 36).

Cf. Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature after 2000,” in this book, p. 164, footnote 9; cf. also Ivo Pospíšil and Miloš Zelenka (eds.), Centrisme interlittéraire des littératures de l’Europe centrale , Brno: Masarykova universita, 1999; Dionýz Ďurišin and Armando Gnisci (eds.), Il Mediterraneo. Una rete interletteria , Roma: Bulzoni Editore, 2000. See also: Armando Gnisci, Studi europei e mediterranei , Roma: Bulzoni, 2008.

Hugo Dyserinck, Komparatistik. Eine Einführung (1977), Bonn: Bouvier, 1981, p. 70. (In German, Dyserick’s text referred to Ďurišin’s hypothesis of a Synthese der sozialistischen Literatur, in order to then speak of a Modell der multinationalen Einheit von einzelliterarischen Entitäten in einem supranationalen Rahmen […].)

Matthias Freise, “Four Perspectives on World Literature: Reader, Producer, Text and System,” in this book, p. 191.

Gnisci writes that it is necessary to oppose “the universal circulating of injustice, discrimination and oppression that is called ‘global market & unified thought’” (“la circolare universale dell’ingiustizia, della discriminazione e dell’oppressione che si chiama ‘mercato globale & pensiero unico’”). Armando Gnisci, Una storia diversa . Roma: Meltemi, 2001, p. 8.

See Armando Gnisci, Una storia diversa . Ibid., p. 8.

“La letteratura delle migrazione e un fenomeno che interessa i mondi e i rapporti tra i mondi del mondo della fine del XX secolo dell’era cristiana e dell’inizio del XXI. […] Un fenomeno che si puo cogliere e studiare, scorgere e definire, assecondare e concorrerne la corsa, solo se si possiede e si pratica una poetica interculturale.” (“Literature of migration is a phenomenon that concerns the worlds and relations between worlds of the late twentieth century of the Christian era and of the early twenty-first century. […] A phenomenon that one can only get hold of and study, decipher and define, support and accompany in its course if one possesses and practices an intercultural poetics.”) Armando Gnisci, Creolizzare l’Europa: Letteratura e migrazione . Roma: Meltemi editore, 2003, p. 8. Such an intercultural poetics also implies that we must tackle “the theme of identity or rather, deconstruction of identity.” Franca Sinopoli, “Migrazione/letteratura: due proposte di indagine critica”, in: http://ww3.comune.fe.it/vocidalsilenzio/sinopoli.htm . Accessed Jan. 12, 2017. Franca Sinipoli collaborated with Armando Snisci on several books on migrant literature and also on the literature of the world/world literature, thus La letteratura del mondo nel XXI secolo , Milano: Mondadori, 2010.

Armando Gnisci, Creolizzare l’Europa: Letteratura e migrazione . Roma: Meltemi editore, 2003. Gnisci has tackled the “literature of migration” and of migrants in a number of books. See also: Armando Gnisci, Nora Moll, Diaspore europee & lettere migranti: Primo Festival Europeo degli Scrittori Migranti, Roma, giugno 2002 . Roma: Edizioni Interculturali, 2002; Armando Gnisci, Nuovo planetario italiano: geografia e antología della letteratura della migrazione in Italia e in Europa . Troina: Città Aperta Ed., 2006. His book La letteratura italiana della migrazione (Roma, 1998) was perhaps the first one in Europe on this subject of literature of migrants living in (at least) two “worlds.”

Cf. the “Conference Manual” of the above-mentioned conference on “Slavische Literaturen der Gegenwart als Weltliteratur. Hybride Konstellationen,” and Reinhard Lauer (ed.), Die slavischen Literaturen heute . Ibidem.

Cf. David Damrosch, What is World Literature?, ibidem; Ottmar Ette, Über Lebenswissen. Die Aufgabe der Philologie , Berlin: Kadmos, 2004; Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Mapping World Literature: International Canonization and Transnational Literatures . London: Continuum, 2008.

Dieter Lamping, Die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere , ibidem, p. 66. (In German, the author speaks of the rückwärtsgewandten “altdeutsch patriotischen” Kunst.)

Peter Goßens, Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert , ibidem, p. 24. (In German: Dieser Ruhm, der auf handwerklichem Können und dem unterhaltenden Wert eines literarischen Werkes beruht, ist vergänglich und für den Gedanken der Weltpoesie nicht weiter von Bedeutung. Entscheidend ist hier vielmehr die Frage, ob es dem Dichter und seinem Werk gelingt, die nationalkulturellen Grenzen, von denen seine literarische wie künstlerische Praxis geprägt ist, zu überwinden.)

Peter Goßens, Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert , ibidem, p. 24. (In German: Nur mit dem frühzeitigen Blick auf seine transnationale Rolle hat der Dichter schon bei der Entstehung des Werkes die Möglichkeit, dieses zu einem Bestandteil der Weltliteratur zu machen.)

Cf. Bernard Franco, “Comparative Literature and World Literature: From Goethe to Globalization,” in this book, p. 68.

Cf. Gesine Müller, “Einleitung: Die Debatte Weltliteratur  – Literaturen der Welt ”, ibidem, pp. 10–11.

Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature after 2000,” in this book, p. 158.

Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature after 2000,” ibidem, p. 159.

Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature after 2000,” ibidem, p. 160.

Wang Ning , “For Whom Did the Bell Toll? – The Nationality and Worldliness of Comparative Literature,” in: Exploration and Free Views , 2016, No. 7, p. 38. (Original:王宁:《丧钟为谁而鸣——比较文学的民族性与世界性》,载《探索与争鸣》2016年第7期.)

Wang Ning , “For Whom Did the Bell Toll? – The Nationality and Worldliness of Comparative Literature,” ibidem, p. 37.

Liu Hongtao , “How to Become World Literature? Chinese Literature’s Aspiration and Way to ‘Step into the World’,” in this book, p. 291.

Liu Hongtao , “How to Become World Literature? Chinese Literature’s Aspiration and Way to ‘Step into the World’,” ibidem, pp. 291f.

On resentment in modern Chinese history, see Fang Weigui , “Nach der Verletzung des nationalistischen Prinzips – 150 Jahre Ressentiment in China,” in Minima Sinica. Zeitschrift zum chinesischen Geist , 2/2002, pp. 1–27. Also: Fang Weigui , “After the Nationalism Principle Has Been Humiliated: 150 Years of Chinese Resentment,” in: Journal of Social Sciences (05/2006), pp. 18–31.(Originally published in Chinese: 方维规:《民族主义原则损伤之后:中国一百五十年羡憎情结》,载《社会科学》2006年第5期,第18–31页.)

Lu Jiande , “The Interactions between the Local and the Universal,” in this book, p. 328.

Wang Ning , “For Whom Did the Bell Toll? – The Nationality and Worldliness of Comparative Literature,” ibidem, p. 38.

Wolfgang Kubin, “World Literature from and in China,” in this book, p. 302.

Wolfgang Kubin, “World Literature from and in China,” ibidem, p. 304.

William Franke, “World Literature and the Encounter with the Other: A Means or a Menace?,” in this book, p. 132.

William Franke, “World Literature and the Encounter with the Other: A Means or a Menace?,” ibidem, pp. 138f.

William Franke, “World Literature and the Encounter with the Other: A Means or a Menace?,” ibidem, p. 139.

Wolfgang Kubin, “World Literature from and in China,” ibidem, p. 305.

Fang Weigui , “The Tide of Literature,” in: Chinese Literary Criticism , 3/2016, p. 105.(Original:方维规:《文学的潮汐》,载《中国文学批评》2016年第3期.)

Martin Kern, “Who Decides the ‘United Nations of Great Books’,” in this book, p. 350.

Martin Kern, “Who Decides the ‘United Nations of Great Books’,” ibidem, pp. 350f.

Martin Kern, “Who Decides the ‘United Nations of Great Books’,” ibidem, p. 353.

Fang Weigui , “Einführung des Übersetzers”, in: Hugo Dyserinck, Komparatistik. Eine Einführung [Comparative Literature: An Introduction], translated to Chinese by Fang Weigui , Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, 2009, p. 13. (方维规“译序”, 狄泽林克:《比较文学导论》, 方维规译, 北京师范大学出版社, 2009年.)

Marián Gálik, “Some Remarks on the Concept of World Literature After 2000”, in this book, p. 148.

Liu Hongtao, “How to Become World Literature? Chinese Literature’s Aspiration and Way to ‘Step into the World’,” in this book, p. 291.

Zhang Longxi , “World Literature: Significance, Challenge, and Future”, in this book, p. 338.

Theo D’haen, “World Literature, Postcolonial Politics, French-Caribbean Literature”, in: Jean Bessière (ed.), Littératures francophones et politiques , Paris : Éditions Karthala, 2009, p. 65. As editor, Theo D’haen has come back to the problem of a possibly very different empirical importance of the world’s languages in the book Major versus Minor? Languages and literatures in a globalized world , edited by Theo D’haen, Iannis Goerlandt and Roger D. Sell. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2015.

Theo D’haen, “World Literature, Postcolonial Politics, French-Caribbean Literature”, ibid, p. 66.

Theo D’haen, “World Literature, Postcolonial Politics, French-Caribbean Literature”, ibid, p. 65.

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Fang, W. (2018). Introduction: What Is World Literature?. In: Fang, W. (eds) Tensions in World Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0635-8_1

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We in the Israel-politics ‘sandwich generation’ need our Jewish institutions to change how they define antisemitism

( JTA ) — I am the only Jewish elected official in Rochester, the third-biggest city in New York State. I am 38 years old, which when it comes to Israel can feel like the political “sandwich generation” — old enough to know that Israel was once seen as vulnerable, and young enough to understand that many cannot remember an Israel before Benjamin Netanyahu. The generational differences can feel massive at times, including at this moment when communities like Rochester are struggling to define and explain antisemitism.

Rochester has a Jewish community of roughly 20,000, with strong, well-resourced institutions. Antisemitism lurks here like it does in many American cities. When an incident occurs, like swastika graffiti appearing in a Jewish cemetery, the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester typically takes the lead to publicly call out antisemitism and mobilize the community. The federation carved out a niche as the leading Jewish institution in the fight against antisemitism, even starting a Center to End Hate that strives to “unite the community in overcoming hate through education, dialogue and positive action.” 

But in recent years — and more acutely in recent weeks — the federation has not kept up with the changing political landscape affecting discussions and definitions of antisemitism.

In 2019, the Monroe County Republican Party sent out advertisements in support of their candidate for district attorney that included familiar antisemitic dog whistles. The ads depicted George Soros as the “globalist” pulling the strings of the Democratic nominee because he wanted to “buy this election to install a far-left puppet.”

I shared my anger and concern about this advertisement with the federation and Center to End Hate leadership. They promised to have private conversations with the GOP leadership, although if they did they never reported back to me. I co-wrote an oped about the subject with a local rabbi and attorney and asked the federation if they wanted to join. They declined. The GOP never apologized, and the federation never publicly uttered a word about this antisemitism. 

Last month the Rochester City Council, like so many other cities across the country, considered a symbolic ceasefire resolution . I was reluctant to welcome international politics into City Hall. When it became clear that a majority of the council wanted to pass a resolution, I decided to get involved in crafting the language to help ensure it did not include antisemitic language I had seen in other resolutions. 

I vetted resolution language with Jewish lay and religious leadership, academics and Israelis. I sought to avoid some of the specific language that has proven so divisive in the discourse about Israel, like apartheid and genocide, and focus narrowly on the goal of a ceasefire. I discussed the language with the federation multiple times to get feedback. I did not expect the federation to be supportive, but I was surprised to learn that they found the idea of a resolution antisemitic regardless of the language.  

The federation chose to rally against the idea of a resolution. Leadership sent talking points directly from the Jewish Federations of North America to members of the Jewish community here. These talking points, written far away from Rochester, stated: “the proposed resolutions City Council is being asked to consider are antisemitic at their core. The resolutions demonize, delegitimize and apply a double standard to Israel – the ‘three Ds of antisemitism.’ If these resolutions are adopted, City Council will be empowering terrorist sympathizers and Jew haters.” 

I found the “three D’s” — a formulation popularized by former dissident Natan Sharansky — to be an odd choice for a definition because it has rarely been cited in the last few months of very public, national discourse about antisemitism. But even by those standards the proposed resolution was not antisemitic. To many supporters of a ceasefire, it is not a double standard to ask Congress to stop shipping weapons to Israel while Gaza is facing imminent famine and a chronic shortage of medical supplies. I trust that my colleagues would demand the same of any country that was supplied with billions of dollars of armaments from the United States while civilians experienced dire humanitarian crises like famine.

Council members received hundreds of comments echoing the federation’s talking points and accusing the entire City Council of antisemitism for even considering the resolution. We also received hundreds of comments in favor of a ceasefire resolution, with many commenters citing their Jewish identity and values as reasons for support. (Ultimately, the council approved two non-binding resolutions, including one written and co-sponsored by me.)

We held a public meeting with so many speakers that it lasted over five hours. The meeting affirmed the challenges of being a leader in the sandwich generation. I watched as different generations spoke past each other with anger and sadness in their voice. It reminded me of Peter Beinart’s essay in the New York Times about the “great rupture in American Jewish life,” when he wrote, “ For many American Jews, it is painful to watch their children’s or grandchildren’s generation question Zionism … It is tempting to attribute all of this to antisemitism, even if that requires defining many young American Jews as antisemites themselves.”

The division in Rochester’s Jewish community is happening as we speak. It’s painful to experience. It must be confusing for our non-Jewish neighbors, who are left wondering what is or is not antisemitism. And the well-organized institution that once served as a leading voice has squandered credibility to arbitrate antisemitism.

I share these stories about the federation’s challenges because I suspect they are symptomatic of problems that other Jewish communities are facing today. If Jewish communities cannot properly diagnose antisemitism, then we cannot propose real solutions. And if leading Jewish institutions like federations cannot effectively identify antisemitism, how can we expect policymakers, community members, and activist groups to help us combat it?

This question is central to how we relate to the world around us, and how we understand each other within our own community. We in the sandwich generation have work to do.

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