The Limits of World Literature. Issue 9 (September 2016)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- The Limits of World Literature. Issue 9 (September 2016)
- Main Title:
- The Limits of World Literature
- Authors:
- Holmes, Christopher
- Abstract:
- Abstract: This essay examines recent work on world literature theory, with a particular focus on those theorists who treat individual texts as in dialogue with the circulations of linguistic and cultural translation. I treat world literature as the theory without an object and make the counterintuitive claim that its objectlessness makes it well suited for leaving behind antiquated modes of categorizing and canonizing so‐called world texts, in order to make room for new kinds of structured thinking about the world. The essay begins with an introduction to the manifold interconnections of the new world literature, including its broad overlap with fields of globalization, translation studies, comparative literature, and postcolonialism. I position four key theorists of 21st century world literature –Emily Apter, Rebecca Walkowitz, Berthold Schoene, andDavid Palumbo‐Liu – in oppositional pairs in order to show the underlying commonality in their thinking about the value of a literature of and for the world. My entry point into the "thinking machine" of the world literature text is the concept of the limit. Far from the commonplace understanding of limit as a limitation or boundary, I argue that understanding world literature at the limit allows literary texts and theory to be read as an event of thinking that is in‐process, in‐common, and incomplete, an analogue to the necessary impossibility of knowing the world.
- Is Part Of:
- Literature compass. Volume 13:Issue 9(2016)
- Journal:
- Literature compass
- Issue:
- Volume 13:Issue 9(2016)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 13, Issue 9 (2016)
- Year:
- 2016
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 9
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2016-0013-0009-0000
- Page Start:
- 572
- Page End:
- 584
- Publication Date:
- 2016-09
- Subjects:
- English literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
American literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Littérature -- Périodiques
Arts and Humanities -- Literature
Electronic reference sources
805 - Journal URLs:
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1741-4113 ↗
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent?func=showIssues&code=lico ↗
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1111/lic3.12338 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1741-4113
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 5276.720880
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 217.xml