Abstract
This chapter sketches the genealogy of the modern concept of literature as imaginative fiction. It retraces its origins in the European enlightenment and points to the fact that, from the beginning, this notion of literature-as-art was systematically related to the concept of national literature. Literature was seen to be national in its primary alignment; the international dimension of literary communication, as codified by Goethe’s concept of ‘world literature,’ played a secondary role. This chapter proceeds to demonstrate, first, how the European concept of literature was globalized in the wake of Western colonial and imperial rule; second, how it has been transformed, on its part, as a result of recent processes of economic, political, cultural and communicative globalization. This transformation is shown to have taken place on three different levels: (1) the level of literary institutions; (2) the level of literary forms, techniques and topics; and (3) the conceptual level (the concept of ‘world literature’ progressively giving way to ‘global literature’).
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Notes
- 1.
See René Wellek, What Is Literature?, in: Paul Hernadi (ed.), What Is Literature?, Bloomington/London: Indiana University Press, 1978, p. 20. On the genesis of the modern concept of literature, see the synopsis by Rainer Rosenberg, Literarisch/Literatur, in: Karlheinz Barck et al. (eds.), Ästhetische Grundbegriffe. Historisches Wörterbuch in sieben Bänden, Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 665–693; Klaus Weimar, Literatur, in: Harald Fricke et al. (eds.), Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Neubearbeitung des Reallexikons der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1997 sqq., vol. 2, pp. 443–448.
- 2.
Johann Gottfried Herder, Shakespeare, in: Idem., Selected Writings on Aesthetics, Princeton (NJ)/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 297 (German original: Johann Gottfried Herder, Shakespear [sic!], in: Idem., Werke in zehn Bänden, vol. 2: Schriften zur Ästhetik und Literatur 1767–81, ed. Gunter E. Grimm, Frankfurt/Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1995, p. 507.)
- 3.
‘[O]riginal art and original nations grew up together’. Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Born Translated. The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 2015, p. 26.
- 4.
According to Alexander Beecroft, the paradigm of national literature is ‘the only [literary] ecology to have evolved in a single region of the world and then to have been exported universally’: Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature. From Antiquity to the Present Day, London/New York: Verso, 2015, p. 203.
- 5.
See Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Bezüge nach außen, in: Idem., Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens. Münchner Ausgabe, ed. Karl Richter et al., vol. 18.2, Letzte Jahre 1827–1832, Munich: Carl Hanser, 1996, p. 99.
- 6.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, On World Literature, in: Theo Dʼhaen/César Domínguez/Mads Rosendahl Thomsen (eds.), World Literature: A Reader, London/New York (NY): Routledge, 2013, p. 14 (German original: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Thomas Carlyle. Leben Schillers, in: Idem, Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens, op. cit., p. 181).
- 7.
On the evolution of the concept of world literature in the nineteenth century see Peter Goßens, Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2011.
- 8.
See Ibid., p. 307.
- 9.
On the concept of ‘global literature’ see Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature, op. cit., pp. 243–299.
- 10.
See Suman Gupta, Globalization and Literature, Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press, 2009, pp. 151–170.
- 11.
See Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Born Translated, op. cit., pp. 1–3.
- 12.
Suma Gupta, Globalization and Literature, op. cit., p. 161.
- 13.
Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature, op. cit., p. 250, pp. 261–262.
- 14.
Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Born Translated, op. cit., pp. 20–21.
- 15.
On the idea of the immanent globalization of literature see John Pizer, Goethe’s World Literature Paradigm and Contemporary Cultural Globalization, in: Comparative Literature 52 (2000), p. 213.
- 16.
See Christian Moser/Linda Simonis, Einleitung: Das globale Imaginäre, in: Moser, Christian/Simonis, Linda (eds.), Figuren des Globalen. Weltbezug und Welterzeugung in Literatur, Kunst und Medien, Göttingen: Bonn University Press, 2014, pp. 11–22.
- 17.
See Alexander Beecroft, An Ecology of World Literature, op. cit., p. 281.
- 18.
See Franco Moretti, Modern Epic. The World System from Goethe to Garcia Márquez, London/New York: Verso, 1996.
- 19.
See Pascale Casanova, The World Republic of Letters, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- 20.
See Franco Moretti, Conjectures on World Literature, in: New Left Review 1 (2000), 55–67; Franco Moretti, Distant Reading, London/New York: Verso, 2013.
- 21.
See Elke Sturm-Trigonakis, Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013; Ulf Reichardt, Globalisierung. Literaturen und Kulturen des Globalen, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010.
- 22.
See Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 1994, p. 12.
- 23.
See Erhard Schüttpelz, World Literature from the Perspective of longue durée, in: Christian Moser/Linda Simonis (eds.), Figuren des Globalen, op. cit., pp. 141–155.
- 24.
See Christian Moser, Globalisierung und Komparatistik, in: Rüdiger Zymner/Achim Hölter (eds.), Handbuch Komparatistik. Theorien, Arbeitsfelder, Wissenspraxis, Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2013, pp. 161–164.
Literature
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Goßens, Peter, Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2011.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Bezüge nach außen, in: Idem, Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens. Münchner Ausgabe, ed. Karl Richter et al., vol. 18.2: Letzte Jahre 1827–1832, Munich: Carl Hanser, 1996a, pp. 97–99.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Thomas Carlyle. Leben Schillers, in: Idem, Sämtliche Werke nach Epochen seines Schaffens. Münchner Ausgabe, ed. Karl Richter et al., vol. 18.2: Letzte Jahre 1827–1832, Munich: Carl Hanser, 1996b, pp. 179–183.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, On World Literature, in: Dʼhaen, Theo/Dominguez, César/Rosendahl Thomsen, Mads (eds.), World Literature: A Reader, London/New York (NY): Routledge, 2013, p. 9–15.
Gupta, Suman, Globalization and Literature, Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press, 2009.
Herder, Johann Gottfried, Shakespeare, in: Idem, Selected Writings on Aesthetics, Princeton (NJ)/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006, pp. 291–307 (German original: Herder, Johann Gottfried, Shakespear [sic!], in: Idem, Werke in zehn Bänden, vol. 2: Schriften zur Ästhetik und Literatur 1767–81, ed. Gunter E. Grimm, Frankfurt/Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1995, pp. 498–521).
Moretti, Franco, Conjectures on World Literature, in: New Left Review 1 (2000), pp. 55–67.
Moretti, Franco, Distant Reading, London/New York: Verso, 2013.
Moretti, Franco, Modern Epic. The World System from Goethe to Garcia Márquez, London/New York: Verso, 1996.
Moser, Christian, Globalisierung und Komparatistik, in: Zymner, Rüdiger/Hölter, Achim (eds.), Handbuch Komparatistik. Theorien, Arbeitsfelder, Wissenspraxis, Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler, 2013, pp. 161–164.
Moser, Christian/Simonis, Linda, Einleitung: Das globale Imaginäre, in: Moser, Christian/Simonis, Linda (eds.), Figuren des Globalen. Weltbezug und Welterzeugung in Literatur, Kunst und Medien, Göttingen: Bonn University Press, 2014, pp. 11–22.
Pizer, John, Goethe’s World Literature Paradigm and Contemporary Cultural Globalization, in: Comparative Literature 52 (2000), pp. 213–227.
Reichardt, Ulf, Globalisierung. Literaturen und Kulturen des Globalen, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2010.
Rosenberg, Rainer, Literarisch/Literatur, in: Barck, Karlheinz et al. (eds), Ästhetische Grundbegriffe. Historisches Wörterbuch in sieben Bänden, Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 665–693.
Schüttpelz, Erhard, World Literature from the Perspective of longue durée, in: Moser, Christian/Simonis, Linda (eds.), Figuren des Globalen. Weltbezug und Welterzeugung in Literatur, Kunst und Medien, Göttingen: Bonn University Press, 2014, pp. 141–155.
Sturm-Trigonakis, Elke, Comparative Cultural Studies and the New Weltliteratur, West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2013.
Walkowitz, Rebecca L., Born Translated. The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
Weimar, Klaus, Literatur, in: Fricke, Harald et al. (eds.), Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft. Neubearbeitung des Reallexikons der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, vol. 2, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1997 sqq., pp. 443–448.
Wellek. René, What Is Literature?, in: Hernadi, Paul (ed.), What Is Literature?, Bloomington/London: Indiana University Press, 1978, pp. 16–23.
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Moser, C. (2019). Literature. In: Kühnhardt, L., Mayer, T. (eds) The Bonn Handbook of Globality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90382-8_13
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