World Literature

World Literature is an increasingly influential subject in literary studies, which has led to the re-framing of contemporary ideas of ‘national literatures’, language and translation.
World Literature: A Reader brings together thirty essential readings which display the theoretical foundations of the subject, as well as showing its conceptual development over a two hundred year period.
The book features:


an illuminating introduction to the subject, with suggested reading paths to help readers navigate through the materials


texts exploring key themes such as globalization, cosmopolitanism, post/trans-nationalism, and translation and nationalism


writings by major figures including J. W. Goethe, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Longxi Zhao, David Damrosch, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Pascale Casanova and Milan Kundera.

The early explorations of the meaning of ‘Weltliteratur’ are introduced, while twenty-first century interpretations by leading scholars today show the latest critical developments in the field. The editors offer readers the ideal introduction to the theories and debates surrounding the impact of this crucial area on the modern literary landscape.

Theo D’haen is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at K.U. Leuven University, Belgium and has also worked in Holland, France and America. He is Editor-in-Chief of the European Review, and President of FILLM (Fédération Internationale de Langues et Littératures Modernes) 2008-2012.

César Domínguez is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. He is a member of boards of the Spanish Comparative Literature Association and the European Network for Comparative Literary Studies, Chair of the ICLA Research Committee, and member of the ICLA Coordinating Committee and the Academia Europaea.
Mads Rosendahl Thomsen is Asscociate Professor in Comparative Literature at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the author of Mapping World Literature: International Canonization and Transnational Literatures.

1. Origen, progresos y estado actual de toda la literatura Juan Andrés 2. On World Literature J. W. Goethe 3. The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels 4. Present Tasks of Comparative Literature Hugo Meltzl de Lomnitz 5. Weltlitteratur Georg Brandes 6. World Literature and Its Place in General Culture Richard Moulton 7. Weltliteratur und Vergleichende Literaturgeschichte Fritz Strich 8. Preface to World Literature Albert Guérard 9. Philology and Weltliteratur Erich Auerbach 10. On the Integrity of Our Planning Werner P. Friederich 11. Writing Histories of World Literature Jan C. Brandt Corstius 12. Faut-il réviser la notion de Weltliteratur? René Étiemble 13. Dialectics of Historical Development of National and World Literature Irina Grigorevna Neupokoyeva 14. A Footnote to Weltliteratur George Steiner 15. The Reemergence of World Literature A. Owen. Aldridge 16. The Tao and the Logos Longxi Zhang17. The Challenge of Comparative Literature Claudio Guillén 18. World Literature as a Target Literary-Historical Category Dionýz Ďurišin 19. Conjectures on World Literature & More Conjectures Franco Moretti 20. World Literature and Global Theory: Comparative Literature for the New Millennium Vilashini Cooppan 21. What is World Literature? David Damrosch 22. Death of a Discipline Gayatri Ch. Spivak 23. World Literature and World Politics: In Search of a Research Agenda Gerard Holden 24. Anthologizing "World Literature" Sarah Lawall 25. Global Literature and Technologies of Recognition Shu-Mei Shih 26. Literature as a World Pascale Casanova 27. Die Weltliteratur Milan Kundera 28. The Scale of World Literature Nirvana Tanoukhi 29. Canonization and World Literature: the Nobel Experience Horace Engdahl 30. The Globalization of the Novel and the Novelization of the Global: A Critique of World Literature Mariano Siskind