Reexamining World Literature

Challenging Current Assumptions and Envisioning Possibilities

Richard Serrano

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000038248
• Subtopic: Historical Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Serrano calls for a reassessment of the practice of World Literature with six case studies taken from the Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Korean and Latin American traditions. Although in recent years the field has adopted more inclusive and wide-ranging criteria for college-level anthologies of World Literature, and has seen the collection and publication of critical readers, book-length introductions, and even a history, the theoretical predisposition of most of its practitioners paradoxically has led to a shrinking of its horizons and a narrowing of its vision. Reexamining World Literature asks scholars to look beyond the current dominant definition of World Literature (works in English with broad reach or works in other languages with significant circulation in English translation) in order to engage with a range of complex texts that elude the field's assumptions. World Literature need not be a we-are-the-world of shared values, but instead should ask readers to question what those values are.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Sun Yunfeng (1764–1814): Woman out of Place
• 2 Paul Claudel (1868–1955): Lost before Translation
• 3 Esteban Echeverría (1805–1851): La Cautiva Lost to History
• 4 Jamīl Buthayna (7th c.) in the Book of Songs (10th c.): Man out of Poetry
• 5 Friedrich Rückert’s (1788–1866) Unnachahmlich Qur’ān
• 6 Yi Ok (1760–1815): Man out of Time
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index