World literature, canon, and literary criticism

Zhang Longxi

pp. 171-190

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

Abstract

Zhang maintains that world literature is on the rise in a globalized world. Now, all literary traditions, particularly non-Western and even "minor" European traditions, should introduce their works to a global readership. But not everything that circulates in the world is world literature; only the best or canonical works of the world's different literatures matter here. Given the imbalance of power in economic, political, and even military terms, what is now well known as world literature is still limited to major Western literary traditions. But by translating canonical works of non-Western literatures into a lingua franca like English, and following up with criticism and scholarship, we will be able to establish a set of canonical works that is truly world literature.