Postcolonialism and World Literature

Abstract

The disciplinary fields of postcolonialism and world literature are currently engaged in some sharp exchanges over the global study of literature. With Mia Couto and Assia Djebar as its test cases, this essay assesses and expands the debate. While postcolonial and world literature scholars clearly share some common ground, misunderstandings as well as disagreements prevail. More importantly, however, there are evident disciplinary blind spots on both sides that call for a combination of methodologies to account for literature as grounded in local, conflictual histories and as a circulational phenomenon that moves across languages and literary fields. Insofar as literature is a globally transportable institution, it cannot be understood exclusively in terms of political power and domination, but also as a world of its own and an enabling alternative to other domains of power. Conversely, the essay argues, given the tensions between their subjective position and the transnational valency of literature, writers from colonies and postcolonies are of specific and paradigmatic importance to the theorization of world literature.