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SoSe 20: S-Lit. Stud.: Periods-Genres-Concepts: What is World Literature?

Peter Löffelbein

Kommentar

What is world literature? Literary works of global importance? Timeless masterpieces of humankind? The world’s bestselling books? Works transcending language barriers? Or a mere label, a marketing device for selling books? Ever since Goethe spoke of a coming age of world literature 200 years ago, the question of how to define the term conceptually has spawned debate in literary studies. In recent years, this debate has been enriched by postmodernist and postcolonial discourse, focusing on, among other things, the notion’s often implied – and at times even explicit – Eurocentrism, its (supposedly) quintessential modernity, and its links to the idea of an ever-accelerating economic globalisation.

In this course, we will look at different meanings and usages of the term ‘world literature’, exploring the ways scholars define it conceptually: What criteria include (or exclude) literary works into (from) world literature? What premises about literature – and ‘the world’ – inform the different understandings of the term? Which questions are currently under discussion? And to what extent is the term an actually useful device in literary scholarship, considering that it is defined in multifaceted, conflicting, and often ambiguous ways?

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