Review of free-write
question: What is
world literature?
WRONG ANSWER: “literature
that appeals to everyone”
Damrosch suggests the opposite: that other countries choose works of
world literature that appeal to their own sensibilities. These works
may or may not appeal to readers in the author’s home country.
Damrosch also calls world literature “all literary works that
circulate beyond their country of origin” (Damrosch 4); a way of
reading and classifying literature; and “a mode of circulation and
reading” (Damrosch 5).
World literature used to mean a selection of works from the canon (of
existing literature), the 19th-century concept of literary
masterpiece (Damrosch 6).
See also my page on this subject: http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/worldlit.html
Problems with reading world literature, according
to Damrosch:
- translation of cultural information
- inauthenticity of selection/world literature
- elitism
Neocolonialist Readings
- unequal # of translations of world literature into
English
- world literature becomes an "exotic version of our own"
(113)
- Western views of the other culture dominate
According to Damrosch, how can we
solve some of the problems of
reading world literature?
Work Cited:
Damrosch, David. What is World
Literature?
Princeton and
Oxford: Princeton UP, 2003.