World Literature as Discovery

World Literature as Discovery argues that world literature for our time must go beyond Eurocentrism and expand the canon to include great works from non-European and "minor" European literatures. Zhang Longxi proposes a new and liberating concept of world literature that will shape world literature worthy of its name.

The rise of world literature is the most noticeable phenomenon in literary studies in the twenty-first century. However, truly well-known and globally circulating works are all canonical works of European or Western literature, while non-European and even "minor" European literatures remain largely unknown beyond their culture of origin.

World Literature as Discovery: Expanding the World Literary Canon argues that world literature for our time must go beyond Eurocentrism and expand the canon to include great works from non-European and "minor" European literatures. As much of the world's literature remains untranslated and unknown, the expansion will be an exciting process of discovery. By discussing fundamental questions around canon, circulation, aesthetic values, translation, cosmopolitanism, and the literary universal, Zhang Longxi proposes a new and liberating concept of world literature that will shape world literature worthy of its name.

This book speaks for a more inclusive idea of world literature and shows students and scholars alike that all the literary traditions, particularly non-European traditions, will be able to make important contributions and expand the canon of world literature.

Autorentext

Zhang Longxi is Xiaoxiang Chair Professor of Comparative Literature at Hunan Normal University in Changsha, China, and Chair Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Translation at the City University of Hong Kong. He is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and of Academia Europaea, and he was President of the International Comparative Literature Association for 20162019. He serves as an Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of World Literature and Advisory Editor of New Literary History. His publications include The Tao and the Logos: Literary Hermeneutics, East and West (1992); Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West (2005); Unexpected Affinities: Reading across Cultures (2007); From Comparison to World Literature (2015); and A History of Chinese Literature (Routledge, 2023).

Inhalt

Preface

1. Goethe and Weltliteratur

2. The Return to (World) Literature

3. Circulation and Value Judgment

4. Canon and the Classic

5. World Literature as Discoveries

6. Language, (Un)translatability and World Literature

7. The Challenge of Writing a World Literary History

8. Literary Universals

9. The Mirror of Enigma and the Mirror of Magic

10. Potion and Poison: Chinese and Shakespearean Dialectics

11. Conclusion: World Literature and Cosmopolitanism
    Bibliography

Index