The location of world literature

Galin Tihanov

Queen Mary University of London

pp. 77-91

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

Abstract

In his chapter, Tihanov reflects upon world literature as a socio-cultural construct behind which one can discern particular historical dynamics and tensions. In the first part, he seeks to locate the Anglo-Saxon discourse of world literature vis-à-vis three major reference points: time, space and language. This chronotopic examination allows him to identify focal points of dissent from the currently prevalent liberal mobilizations of "world literature." The second part of the chapter is dedicated to the location of world literature on the level of literature's self-reflection. This is a specific meta-location of world literature, which Tihanov examines through close attention to a 1930s novel. This allows him to think about skepticism and dissent as a meta-reflexive position, from which literature itself skeptically relates to the notion of "world literature."