Chinese literature as part of world literature

Karl-Heinz Pohl

pp. 265-286

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

Abstract

Today, the defining Western understanding of literature is fiction, as in novels and drama. But differing non-Western concepts of literature should be taken note of when discussing any national literature in the context of world literature, as also Chinese literature where poetry reigns as the most sublime literary expression. Pohl's paper traces a Chinese understanding of literature from pre-modernity to modernity. In a historical overview, trends are identified from which an approach to a traditional Chinese concept of literature might be possible. Against this backdrop, the relevance of Chinese literature within a (Western) concept of world literature is discussed on the basis of a representative collection, The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Even Goethe's idea of world literature was mainly formed due to his encounter with Chinese literature.

Cited authors

Goethe Johann Wolfgang