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World Literature in China: Aspiration, Anxiety and Some Theoretical Questions

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Universal Localities

Part of the book series: Schriften zur Weltliteratur/Studies on World Literature ((SWSWL,volume 13))

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Zusammenfassung

Since early 1827 Goethe repeatedly talked about “world literature”; he believed in this “hope-filled word that in view of the present extremely change-prone epoch and certainly facilitated communication, one could soon hope for a world literature.” Some 200 years later, Eurocentrism is critiqued everywhere in debates on world literature, and quite a few academics in the field seem to think that the time of real world literature may actually come soon. This is especially true in the case of Chinese scholars.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche, XXII, edited by Friedmar Apel, Hendrik Birus et al. (Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1986–1999), 427. (In German: […] hoffnungsreiches Wort: das bey der gegenwärtigen höchst bewegten Epoche und durchaus erleichterter Communication eine Weltliteratur baldigst zu hoffen sey […].).

  2. 2.

    Goethe, Sämtliche Werke, XII, 356. (In German: […] daß ich überzeugt sei, es bilde sich eine allgemeine Weltliteratur, worin uns Deutschen eine ehrenvolle Rolle vorbehalten ist.).

  3. 3.

    Cf. Fang, Weigui “Introduction: What Is World Literature?,” in Tensions in World Literature: Between the Local and the Universal, ed. Weigui Fang (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 15–16.

  4. 4.

    Shunqing, Cao and Qi Siyuan, “Zhengyi zhong de “shijie wenxue”—dui “shijie wenxue” gainian de fansi [World Literature Debated: Reflections on the Concept of ‘World Literature’],” Wenyi zhengming [Literature and Art Forum] 6 (2017): 153.

  5. 5.

    Daiyun, Yue. “Bijiao wenxue fazhan de disan jieduan [The Third Stage of Comparative Literature Development],” Shehui kexue [Journal of Social Sciences] 9 (2005): 170.

  6. 6.

    Jianjun, Liu. “Guanyu “shijie wenxue” deng wenti de fansi [Reflections on Issues Concerning “World Literature”],” Waiyu yu waiyu jiaoxue [Foreign Languages and Their Teaching] 1 (2018): 134.

  7. 7.

    Goethe, Sämtliche Werke, XII, 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.).

  8. 8.

    Quoted from the letters exchanged between Zeng Pu and Hu Shi in 1928; see Pu, Zeng. “Fulu: Zeng xiansheng da shu [Appendix: Mr. Zeng Answers],” in Hu Shi wenji [Collected Works of Hu Shi] 4, ed. Ouyang Zhesheng (Peking: Peking University Press, 1998): 619.

  9. 9.

    Chen Jitong was primarily concerned with the notion of Chinese culture in the West; he has written, translated or edited several works on Chinese culture and literature in French, including Les Chinois peints par eux-mêmes (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1884), Le théâtre des Chinois: étude de mœurs comparées (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1886), and also Contes chinois (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1889) as well as Les Plaisirs en Chine (Paris: Charpentier, 1890). It can be seen that he considers the matter primarily from the perspective of human life, humanity and general humaneness. And that is also the starting point of his idea of world literature.

  10. 10.

    Cf. Fang, Weigui. Der Westen und das Reich der Mitte. Die Verbreitung westlichen Wissens im spätkaiserlichen China [The West and China. The Dispersion of Western Knowledge in Late Imperial China] (Wiesbaden and New York: Harrassowitz, 2013).

  11. 11.

    Guowei, Wang. “Lun jinnian zhi xueshujie [On the Academic Circles in Recent Years],” in Wang Guowei yishu [Wang Guowei’s Posthumous Works] 5 (Shanghai: Shanghai Classics Bookstore, 1983), 283.

  12. 12.

    Cf. Zhengwen, Pan. “Zhongguo “shijie wenxue” guannian de “nixiang fazhan” yu “zheng xiang fazhan” [The ‘Retrogression’ and ‘Progression’ of the Concept of ‘World Literature’ in China],” Waiguo wenxue yanjiu [Foreign Literature Studies] 6, 2006: 159–168.

  13. 13.

    Guowei, Wang. “Renjian shihao zhi yanjiu [Study on human inclination],” in Wang Guowei lun xue ji [Essays of Wang Guowei], ed. Fu Jie (Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1997): 306.

  14. 14.

    Cf. Li-wei, Chen. “‘Gongchandang xuanyan’ de fanyi wenti—you banben de bianqian kan yici de jianruihua [Translation of The Communist Manifesto: The Rhetorical Radicalizaton as Reflected in Different Translated Versions],” Twenty-First Century (Bimonthly), Februar 2006: 102.

  15. 15.

    Yuanpei, Cai. “Hei’an yu guangming de xiaozhang—zai qingzhu xieyueguo shengli dahuì shang de yanshuoci [The Ebb and Flow of Darkness and Brightness: A Speech on the Convention Celebrating the Victory of the Triple Entente],” Peking University Daily, Nov. 27, 1918: 1.

  16. 16.

    Zuoren, Zhou. “Xin wenxue de yaoqiu [Requirements of the New Literature].” Peking Morning News, Jan. 8, 1920: 7.

  17. 17.

    Yanbing, Shen (Mao Dun). “Wenxue he ren de guanxi ji zhongguo gulai duiyu wenxue zhe shenfen de wuren [The Relationship between Literature and Man, and the Misunderstanding of the Writer’s Identity since Ancient China],” The Short Story Monthly 12, no.1 (Jan. 10, 1921): 10.

  18. 18.

    Literature Research Association, ed., “Xuanyan [Declaration],” Literature 1, May 10, 1921.

  19. 19.

    Ibid, ed., “Wenxue yanjiuhui congshu bianli [Guidelines (Programmatic editorial) of the Literature Research Association Series],” The Short Story Monthly 12, no. 8 (Aug. 10, 1921).

  20. 20.

    Zhenduo, Zheng. “Wenxue dagang xuyan [Preface to Outline of Literature],” in Zheng Zhenduo quanji [Complete Works of Zheng Zhenduo] 10 (Shijiazhuang: Huashan Art and Literature Press, 1998): 1.

  21. 21.

    Zhenduo, Zheng. ibid:1.

  22. 22.

    The decision-making body probably did not know the latest trends in international comparative literature, as exemplified by Charles Bernheimer’s book Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995) that portrayed the pluralistic trend of comparative literature and its attempt to break with West-centrism. Since the publication of this book, world literature in the United States has changed a lot. One tries to broaden the horizon to Asia, Africa and Latin America with regard to masterpieces of world literature. Ten years later, Haun Saussy’s book Comparative Literature in An Age of Globalization (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) elaborates on various comparative challenges in the era of globalization and a number of relevant action points.

  23. 23.

    Nietzsche, Friedrich. Zur Genealogie der Moral, in Nietzsche’s Werke VIII (Leipzig: Naumann, 1906): 320.

  24. 24.

    Hirakawa, Sukehiro. “Japanese Culture: Accommodation to Modern Times,” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 28 (1979): 47.

  25. 25.

    Friederich, Werner. “On the Integrity of Our Planning,” in The Teaching of World Literature, ed. Haskell Block (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960): 15.

  26. 26.

    Cf. Atkinson, William. “The Perils of World Literature,” World Literature Today 80, no. 5 (2006): 43–47.

  27. 27.

    Cf. Étiemble, René. “Should We Rethink the Notion of World Literature? (1974),” in World Literature in Theory, ed. David Damrosch (Chichester, West Sussex UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2014): 85–98.

  28. 28.

    Mufti, Aamir R. “Orientalism and the Institution of World Literatures,” Critical Inquiry 36, no. 3, Spring 2010: 465.

  29. 29.

    Culler, Jonathan. “Comparative Literature, at Last,” in Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization, ed. Haun Saussy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006): 244.

  30. 30.

    D’haen, Theo. “Worlding World Literature,” Recherches littéraires/Literary Research 32 (2016): 14.

  31. 31.

    Nietzsche, Genealogie der Moral, 332.

  32. 32.

    The above views have been excerpted from recent articles by Wang Ning, the incumbent president of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association.

  33. 33.

    Ning, Wang. “Shijie wenxue de zhongguo banben [The Chinese Version of World Literature],” Academic Research 4 (2014): 135.

  34. 34.

    Jameson, Fredric. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism,” Social Text, no. 15 (Autumn, 1986): 69.

  35. 35.

    Moretti, Franco. “Conjectures on World Literature,” in ibid, Distant Reading (London: Verso, 2013): 46.

  36. 36.

    Moretti, “Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur,” in Studying Transcultural Literary History, ed. Gunilla Lindberg-Wada (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2006): 115.

  37. 37.

    Cf. Casanova, Pascale. The World Republic of Letters, trans. M. B. DeBevoise (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2004): 11, 46–47.

  38. 38.

    Casanova, “Literature as a World,” New Left Review 31 (January–February 2005), 83n20.

  39. 39.

    Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” New Left Review, no. 146 (July–August 1984): 57.

  40. 40.

    Damrosch, David. “Frames for World Literature,” in Tensions in World Literature, ed. Weigui Fang, 94.

  41. 41.

    Moretti, “Conjectures,” 46.

  42. 42.

    Cf. Ruprecht, Hans-George. “Weltliteratur vue du Mexique en 1826,” Bulletin hispanique 73 (1971): 307–318; Retamar, Roberto Fernández. “Para una theoría de la literatura hispanoamericana,” in ibid, Para una teoría de la literatura hispanoamericana e otras aproximaciones (La Habana: Casa de las Américas, 1975), pp. 41–52, both quoted in Youssef, Magdi. “Decolonizing World Literature,” in Major versus Minor?—Languages and Literatures in a Globalized World, ed. Theo D’haen et al. (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2015): 125.

  43. 43.

    Cf. Saussy, Haun. “World Literature as a Comparative Practice,” in Introducing Comparative Literature: New Trends and Applications, ed. César Domínguez, Haun Saussy, and Darío Villanueva (New York: Routledge, 2015): 57.

  44. 44.

    Koppen, Erwin. “Weltliteratur,” in Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, ed. Klaus Kanzog and Achim Masser (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1984): 815.

  45. 45.

    Moretti, “Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur,” 113.

  46. 46.

    Damrosch, David. What Is World Literature? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003): 281.

  47. 47.

    Cf. D’haen, Theo. “Mapping World Literature,” in The Routledge Companion to World Literature, ed. Theo D’Haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir (London: Routledge, 2012): 413–422.

  48. 48.

    Damrosch, What Is World Literature?, 281.

  49. 49.

    Damrosch, “World Literature in a Postcanonical, Hypercanonical Age,” in Comparative Literature in an Era of Globalization, ed. Haun Saussy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006): 43–54.

  50. 50.

    Damrosch, What Is World Literature?, 283.

  51. 51.

    Damrosch, “Introduction: World Literature in Theory and Practice,” in World Literature in Theory, ed. D. Damrosch (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014): 3.

  52. 52.

    Moretti, “Evolution, World-Systems, Weltliteratur,” 120.

  53. 53.

    Cf. Birus, Hendrik. “Goethes Idee der Weltliteratur. Eine historische Vergegenwärtigung,” in Weltliteratur heute. Konzepte und Perspektiven, ed. Manfred Schmeling (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1995): 11.

  54. 54.

    Saussy, Haun. “World Literature as a Comparative Practice,” 56–67.

  55. 55.

    Casanova, Pascale. “Literature as a World,” 72–73.

  56. 56.

    Freise, Matthias. “Four Perspectives on World Literature: Reader, Producer, Text and System,” in Tensions in World Literature, ed. Weigui Fang, 191; emphasis mine.

  57. 57.

    Freise, ibidem, p. 204.

  58. 58.

    Tihanov, Galin. “The Location of World Literature,” in Tensions in World Literature, ed. Weigui Fang, 77 (this is an abridged version of Tihanov’s article; the full version was published uner the same title in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, 2017, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 468–481; for a Chinese translation, see Journal of Foreign Literary Studies and Comparative Poetics (Zhejiang UP), 2018, Vol. 5, pp. 15–30).

  59. 59.

    Tihanov, Galin. ibidem, 83.

  60. 60.

    Tihanov, Galin. “Beyond ‘Minor Literatures’: Reflections on World Literature (and on Bulgarian)”, in Bulgarian Literature as World Literature, ed. M. Harper and D. Kambourov, London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020, pp. 259–266.

  61. 61.

    Huilin, Yang. ““Shijie wenxue” heyi “fasheng”: Bijiao wenxue de renwenxue yiyi [Why “World Literature” Happens: The Humanistic Significance of Comparative Literature],” Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 1 (2017): 111–115.

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  1. School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal Uiversity, Beijing, China

    Weigui Fang

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  1. Weigui Fang
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  1. School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Galin Tihanov

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Fang, W. (2022). World Literature in China: Aspiration, Anxiety and Some Theoretical Questions. 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_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-62332-9_4

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