Global Literature

Circulation of Literature beyond its Country of Origin:

• World literature refers to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin.
• A work enters into world literature by a double process: first, by being read as literature; second, by circulating out into a broader world beyond its linguistic and cultural point of origin.
• World literature is driven by a new world market in literature, as well as developments in print culture.
• The study of comparative and world literature was revived in the United States in the postwar era, with a focus on the Greek and Roman classics and the literature of major, modern Western-European powers.
• The end of the Cold War, the growing globalization of the world economy, and new waves of immigration led to several efforts to expand the study of world literature.
• The explosive growth in the range of cultures studied under the rubric of world literature has inspired a variety of theoretical attempts to define the field and to propose effective modes of research and teaching.
• Works that thrive as world literature are ones that work well and even gain meaning through translation.
• Critics such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak argue that too often the study of world literature in translation smooths out both the linguistic richness of the original and the political force a work can have in its original context.
• World literature series are now being published in China and Estonia, and a new Institute for World Literature is offering month-long summer sessions on theory and pedagogy.
• World literature is understood to encompass classical works from all periods, including contemporary literature that is written for a global audience.
• The field of world literature continues to generate debate among scholars and critics.
• Valuable collections of essays and individual studies are available for the study of the history of world literature and the current debates.