World Literature in Theory [Paperback]

World Literature in Theory provides a definitive exploration of the pressing questions facing those studying world literature today.

• Coverage is split into four parts which examine the origins and seminal formulations of world literature, world literature in the age of globalization, contemporary debates on world literature, and localized versions of world literature
• Contains more than 30 important theoretical essays by the most influential scholars, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hugo Meltzl, Edward Said, Franco Moretti, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gayatri Spivak
• Includes substantive introductions to each essay, as well as an annotated bibliography for further reading
• Allows students to understand, articulate, and debate the most important issues in this rapidly changing field of study

Part One: Origins 13

1 Conversations with Eckermann on Weltliteratur (1827) 15
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

2 The Emergence of Weltliteratur: Goethe and the Romantic School (2006) 22
John Pizer

3 Present Tasks of Comparative Literature (1877) 35
Hugo Meltzl

4 What Is World Literature? (1886) 42
Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett

5 World Literature (1907) 47
Rabindranath Tagore

6 A View on the Unification of Literature (1922) 58
Zheng Zhenduo

Part Two: World Literature in the Age of Globalization 69

7 Reflections on Yiddish World Literature (1938–1939) 71
Melekh Ravitsh and Borekh RivkinlãÏ