Zusammenfassung
The birth of World Literature (throughout this Introduction I use capital letters to refer to the discourse on world literature [World Literature] and small letters to refer to world literature as a body of literary texts [world literature]) as a field of reflection and study has little to do with academic literary scholarship. In fact, the beginnings of this discourse in the 18th century go back to work that would be undertaken outside the university, or to academic pursuits in areas where literature was but a secondary concern.
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
Notes
- 1.
Throughout this Introduction I use capital letters to refer to the discourse on world literature (World Literature) and small letters to refer to world literature as a body of literary texts (world literature).
- 2.
August Ludwig von Schlözer : Isländische Litteratur und Geschichte. Erster Teil. Göttingen/Gotha 1773. Unpaginated “Vorrede”.
- 3.
Ibid., p. 2. On Schlözer (and Wieland ) as pre-Goethean users of the word Weltliteratur, see Peter Goßens: Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart 2011 (with helpful references to earlier literature on both Schlözer and Wieland ).
- 4.
See above all Michael J. Franklin: Orientalist Jones. Sir William Jones, poet, lawyer, and linguist, 1746–1794. Oxford 2011.
- 5.
On Herder ’s role, see, amongst others, Ritchie Robertson: Weltliteratur from Voltaire to Goethe. In: Comparative Critical Studies 12/2 (2015), pp. 163–181, esp. pp. 171–173. For the wider context of literary cosmopolitanism in the late 18th and early 19th c., see Galin Tihanov: Cosmopolitanism in the Discursive Landscape of Modernity. Two Enlightenment Articulations. In: David Adams/Galin Tihanov (eds.): Enlightenment Cosmopolitanism. London 2011, pp. 133–152.
- 6.
See on this also Ton van Kalmthout: Scientification and Popularization in the Historiography of World Literature, 1850–1950. A Dutch Case Study. In: Rens Bod/Jaap Maat/Thijs Weststeijn (eds.): The Making of the Humanities. Vol. 3: The Modern Humanities. Amsterdam 2014, pp. 299–311.
- 7.
For a comparison between Babits and Szerb on world literature, see Galin Tihanov: Foreword. In: Antal Szerb: Reflections in the Library. Selected Literary Essays, 1926–1944. Ed. by Zsuzsanna Varga. Trans. by Peter Sherwood. Cambridge 2016, pp. IX–XI.
- 8.
On Gorky ’s project, see most recently Maria Khotimsky: World Literature, Soviet Style. A Forgotten Episode in the History of an Idea. In: Ab Imperio 3 (2013), pp. 119–154, and Sergey Tyulenev: Vsemirnaia Literatura: Intersections between Translating and Original Literary Writing. In: Slavic & East European Journal 60/1 (2016), pp. 8–21. See also the Epilogue (“A Fast-Forward to ‘World Literature’”) in Galin Tihanov: The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond. Stanford 2019.
- 9.
For an insightful summative discussion of Goethe on world literature, see Dieter Lamping: Die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere. Stuttgart 2010.
- 10.
References
Franklin, Michael J.: Orientalist Jones. Sir William Jones, poet, lawyer, and linguist, 1746–1794. Oxford 2011.
Goßens, Peter: Weltliteratur. Modelle transnationaler Literaturwahrnehmung im 19. Jahrhundert. Stuttgart 2011.
Kalmthout, Ton van: Scientification and Popularization in the Historiography of World Literature, 1850–1950. A Dutch Case Study. In: Rens Bod/Jaap Maat/Thijs Weststeijn (eds.): The Making of the Humanities. Vol. 3: The Modern Humanities. Amsterdam 2014, pp. 299–311.
Khotimsky, Maria: World Literature, Soviet Style. A Forgotten Episode in the History of an Idea. In: Ab Imperio 3 (2013), pp. 119–154.
Kliger, Ilya/Maslov, Boris (eds.): Persistent Forms. Explorations in Historical Poetics. New York 2016.
Lamping, Dieter: Die Idee der Weltliteratur. Ein Konzept Goethes und seine Karriere. Stuttgart 2010.
Robertson, Ritchie: Weltliteratur from Voltaire to Goethe. In: Comparative Critical Studies 12/2 (2015), pp. 163–181.
Schlözer, August Ludwig von: Isländische Litteratur und Geschichte. Erster Teil. Göttingen/Gotha 1773.
Schüttpelz, Erhard: Die Moderne im Spiegel des Primitiven. Weltliteratur und Ethnologie (1870–1960). München 2005.
Tihanov, Galin: The Birth and Death of Literary Theory: Regimes of Relevance in Russia and Beyond. Stanford 2019.
Tihanov, Galin: Foreword. In: Antal Szerb: Reflections in the Library. Selected Literary Essays, 1926–1944. Ed. by Zsuzsanna Varga. Trans. by Peter Sherwood. Cambridge 2016, pp. IX–XI.
Tihanov, Galin: Cosmopolitanism in the Discursive Landscape of Modernity. Two Enlightenment Articulations. In: David Adams/Galin Tihanov (eds.): Enlightenment Cosmopolitanism. London 2011, pp. 133–152.
Tyulenev, Sergey: Vsemirnaia Literatura: Intersections between Translating and Original Literary Writing. In: Slavic & East European Journal 60/1 (2016), pp. 8–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tihanov, G. (2019). Introduction. In: Lamping, D., Tihanov, G. (eds) Vergleichende Weltliteraturen / Comparative World Literatures. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04925-4_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04925-4_19
Published:
Publisher Name: J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart
Print ISBN: 978-3-476-04924-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-476-04925-4
eBook Packages: J.B. Metzler Humanities (German Language)