Review Essay: World Literature

Abstract

For the past 15 years the rapidly advancing field of World Literature has revitalized comparative literary studies, given rise to a series of on-going debates, and also brought about a noticeable increase in university offerings and publishing ventures focused on that elusive concept. Besides the substantive books that have been steadily coming out ever since David Damrosch dusted off the notion of World Literature – then mostly a preserve of publishers of anthologies – we have also seen several readers, companions and introductions being published to serve what clearly is perceived as a rising and expanding market. In part this has to do with the varying, sometimes conflicting, forms of conceptualizing the field. Even if most still refer back to Goethe’s notions of an idealized Weltliteratur, twenty-first-century interpretations necessarily expand and problematize the basic concept from a variety of comparative and theoretical perspectives. This could not but be considering the claims made in the name of World Literature to reshape literary studies, especially in relation to the discipline of Comparative Literature and the field of Postcolonial Studies.