Zusammenfassung
In his late essay “Philologie der Weltliteratur” (1952), Erich Auerbach warned of the danger that in the coming era of global English, “the idea of world literature would simultaneously be realized and destroyed.” In the seventy years since then, however, the spread of global English has not in fact led to the loss of linguistic difference. Drawing on the work of Herder, Pascale Casanova, and René Étiemble, I will argue in this essay that minor linguistic communities have always coexisted, often productively, with hegemonic languages. An openness to the foreign is best achieved in today’s global age through an intensive engagement with multiple languages and also with translation into English and other global languages, as only through translation can local cultures be opened to foreign understanding beyond specialist circles.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Erich Auerbach, “The Philology of World Literature.” Time, History, and Literature: Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach. Ed. James L. Porter, tr. Jane O. Newman, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, p. 254 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 2.
George Steiner, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd ed., 1998, pp. 212–13.
- 3.
For more on Herder and Étiemble, see my Comparing the Literatures (2020), from which the present discussion is adapted, with some material also drawn from an essay on Casanova, “La République mondiale des lettres in the World Republic of Scholarship.”.
- 4.
Pascale Casanova, La Langue mondiale: Traduction et domination, Paris: Seuil, 2015, p. 129 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 5.
Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, trans. M. B. DeBevoise, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 52 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 6.
Antonio de Nebrija, “Prologue to Grammar of the Castilian Language,” trans. Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra, PMLA, 2016, Vol. 131, No. 1, p. 202 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 7.
Johann Gottfried Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, ed. Heinz Stolpe, Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau, 1965, Vol. 2, p. 270.
- 8.
Johann Gottfried Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, ed. Hans Dietrich Irmscher, in Werke, Vol. 7, ed. Martin Bollacher et al., Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1991, p. 572 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 9.
Johann Gottfried Herder, “Shakespeare,” in Selected Writings on Aesthetics, ed. and trans. Gregory Moore, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 295 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 10.
René Étiemble, Ouverture(s) sur un comparatisme planétaire, Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1988, pp. 20–21 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 11.
André Karátson, “Étiemble et les langues,” in Étiemble et al., Le Mythe d’Étiemble: Hommages, études et recherches inédits, Paris: Didier Érudition, 1979, p. 132 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 12.
René Étiemble, The Crisis in Comparative Literature, trans. Herbert Weisinger and Georges Joyaux, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1966, p. 20 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 13.
Sándor Márai, Memoir of Hungary, 1944–1948, trans. Albert Tezla, Budapest: Corvina, 1996, p. 316.
- 14.
Harald Weinrich, “Chamisso, Chamisso Authors, and Globalization,” trans. Marshall Brown and Jane K. Brown, PMLA, 2004, Vol. 119, No. 5, p. 1343.
- 15.
See Lawrence Venuti, Translation Changes Everything: Theory and Practice, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2013, p. 101 (further references in brackets in the main text).
- 16.
Muriel Détrie, “Connaissons-nous Étiemble (né en 1909)?”, Revue de Littérature Comparée, 2000, Vol. 74, No. 3, p. 419n.
- 17.
Miguel Léon-Portilla, Aztec Thought and Culture: A Study of the Ancient Nahuatl Mind, trans. Jack Emory Davis, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963, p. 72.
References
Apter, Emily. 2013. Against world literature: On the politics of untranslatability. London: Verso.
Auerbach, Erich. 2014. The philology of world literature. In Time, history, and literature: Selected essays of erich auerbach, Eds. James L. Porter, tr. Jane O. Newman, 253–265. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Casanova, Pascale. 2004. The world republic of letters. Tr. M. B. DeBevoise. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (La République mondiale des Lettres. Paris: Seuil, 1999. Rev. ed. 2008).
Casanova, Pascale. 2015. La Langue mondiale: Traduction et domination. Paris: Seuil.
Coe, Michael D., and Gordon Whittaker. 1982. Aztec sorcerers in seventeenth century Mexico: The treatise on superstitions by Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón. Albany: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York.
Damrosch, David. 2020a. Comparing the literatures: Literary studies in a global age. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Damrosch, David. 2020b. La République mondiale des lettres in the world republic of scholarship. Journal of World Literature 5 (2):174–188.
Détrie, Muriel. 2000. Connaissons-nous Étiemble (né en 1909)? Revue De Littérature Comparée 74 (3):413–425.
Du Bois, W. E. B. 1986. The souls of black folk. In Writings, Ed. Nathan Huggins, 357–548. New York: Library of America.
Étiemble, René. 1966. The crisis in comparative literature. Tr. Herbert Weisinger and Georges Joyaux. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. (Comparaison n’est pas raison: La crise de la littérature comparée. Paris: Gallimard, 1963. Repr. in Ouverture(s) sur un comparatisme planétaire, 59–146).
Étiemble, René. 1974. Essais de littérature (vraiment) générale. Paris: Gallimard.
Étiemble, René. 1980. Comment lire un roman japonais (Le Kyôto de Kawabata). Paris: Eibel-Fanlac.
Étiemble, René. 1988. Ouverture(s) sur un comparatisme planétaire. Paris: Christian Bourgois.
Étiemble, René et al. 1979. Le Mythe d’Étiemble: Hommages, études et recherches inédits. Paris: Didier Érudition.
Herder, Johann Gottfried. 1965. Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, 2. vols Ed. Heinz Stolpe. Berlin: Aufbau.
Herder, Johann Gottfried. 1991. Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität. Ed. Hans Dietrich Irmscher. In Werke, Eds. Martin Bollacher et al., vol 7. Frankfurt a. M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.
Herder, Johann Gottfried. 2006. Shakespeare. In Selected writings on aesthetics, Ed. and tr. Gregory Moore, 291–307. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Karátson, André. “Étiemble et les langues.” In René Étiemble et al., Le Mythe d’Étiemble Hommages, études et recherches inédits, Paris: Didier Érudition, 1979, 123–132.
Léon-Portilla, Miguel. 1963. Aztec thought and culture: A study of the ancient nahuatl mind. Tr. Jack Emory Davis. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Márai, Sándor. 1996. Memoir of Hungary, 1944–1948. Tr. Albert Tezla. Budapest: Corvina.
Nebrija, Antonio de. 2016. Prologue to Grammar of the Castilian language. Tr. Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra. PMLA 131 (1):202–208.
Steiner, George. 1998. After babel: Aspects of language and translation, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Venuti, Lawrence. 2013. Translation changes everything: Theory and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.
Venuti, Lawrence. 2019. Contra instrumentalism: A translation polemic. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Weinrich, Harald. 2004. Chamisso, Chamisso authors, and globalization. Tr. Marshall Brown and Jane K. Brown. PMLA 119 (5):1336–1346.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Damrosch, D. (2022). Toward a Global Philology. In: Tihanov, G. (eds) Universal Localities. Schriften zur Weltliteratur/Studies on World Literature, vol 13. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-62332-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-62332-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-62331-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-62332-9
eBook Packages: J.B. Metzler Humanities (German Language)