Frames for world literature

David Damrosch

pp. 93-112

in: Weigui Fang (ed), Tensions in world literature, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

Talking about world literature and nation building, Damrosch noted the interaction of national literatures with the wider world as their outer frame, before focusing on the way world literature interacts with national literatures and thus on the fact that often those who seek to build their national literature look to the wider world for inspiration. This has sometimes been seen as dependent or derivative, but actually in the hands of really creative artists, the inspirations from outside are always transformed fundamentally and become something new. Indeed, no national literature has ever developed independently of world literature, or at least independently of the literature of the wider region beyond the immediate nation. Damrosch provided the examples of Nguyễn Du, Hu Shi, and Lu Xun, and of the Caribbean author Derek Walcott.