World Literature

Watch

• Why should you read “Crime and Punishment”? - Alex Gendler ↗TED-Ed
• How Literature Can Change Your Life | Joseph Luzzi | TEDxAlbany ↗TEDx Talks
• A (Very) General Overview of British Literary History ↗Illustrated & Explained
• LITERATURE - Voltaire ↗The School of Life
• Karl Marx: The Most Dangerous Philosopher in History | A Bedtime History Documentary ↗History After Dark

Read

• What Is World Literature? ↗This foundational text deftly navigates the complexities of defining and studying literature beyond national borders, offering a pragmatic framework for a global canon.David Damrosch
• Conjectures on World LiteratureA provocative, data-driven analysis that employs quantitative methods to map the uneven development and circulation of literary forms across the globe.Franco Moretti
• The World Republic of Letters ↗An ambitious cartography of the global literary field, revealing the hierarchies, power struggles, and mechanisms that determine literary recognition and circulation.Pascale Casanova
• Orientalism ↗A seminal critique demonstrating how Western scholarship and literature constructed the 'Orient,' profoundly influencing the reception and understanding of non-Western cultures.Edward W. Said
• Translation Studies ↗An indispensable introduction to the theory and practice of translation, illuminating its pivotal role in enabling literary works to transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries.Susan Bassnett

Voices to follow

• David Damrosch ↗A leading theorist of 'world literature', he offers a foundational framework for understanding how texts travel and transform across cultures.Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
• Emily Apter ↗Her incisive analyses of untranslatability and the politics of language illuminate the complex pathways of literary exchange across borders.Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ↗Her pioneering work on postcolonial theory and translation critically examines the power dynamics inherent in the global dissemination of literature.University Professor, Columbia University
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o ↗A towering figure in postcolonial literature, he compellingly argues for linguistic decolonisation and the vital role of indigenous languages in global literary discourse.Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine

Glossary

• AdaptationChanging a story, play, or poem into a different form or for a different audience, often in another country or culture. This could be turning a book into a movie, a play, or even a comic. For example, many Indian folk tales have been adapted into animated TV shows for children, making them accessible to a new generation and wider audience.
• AnthologyA collection of selected writings, such as poems, stories, or essays, by different authors or from different periods. Anthologies often help bring diverse literature to new readers. For example, a "World Poetry Anthology" might include poems from India, China, Brazil, and Nigeria, allowing students to read them all in one book.
• CensorshipWhen an authority (like a government or a school) removes or blocks parts of a book, or the entire book, because they consider it offensive, harmful, or inappropriate. This can stop literature from circulating freely. For example, some books have faced censorship in certain countries and were not allowed to be sold or read there because of their political messages.
• Cultural ExchangeWhen ideas, customs, and artistic works (like literature) are shared between different groups of people or countries. It helps people understand other cultures better. For example, when Indian stories become popular in other countries, and stories from those countries become popular in India, it's a form of cultural exchange.
• Global ReadershipThe worldwide audience who reads and enjoys literature from different countries. It means a book isn't just popular in its home country but also in many others. For example, the Harry Potter series has a huge global readership because children and adults all over the world have read the books.
• Literary InfluenceWhen one piece of literature, or an author's style, inspires or affects other writers and their works, often across different countries or cultures. For example, ancient Greek myths have had a literary influence on countless stories, movies, and plays written much later in different parts of the world.
• Original LanguageThe language in which a book, poem, or play was first written by its author. For example, the original language of Shakespeare's plays is English, even though they are now performed and read in many other languages.
• ReceptionHow a piece of literature is understood, reviewed, and generally accepted by readers and critics in a particular place or time, especially when it travels to a new country. For example, a novel might be very popular in its home country but receive a mixed reception when it's translated and published in another country with different cultural values.
• TranslationThe process of changing a text from its original language into another language. This allows people who speak different languages to read the same story. For example, a book originally written in Hindi might be translated into English so that students in America can read it.
• World LiteratureLiterature from all over the world, not just one country. It includes stories, poems, and plays that are read and appreciated globally. For example, reading a novel by a Japanese author, a play by an English writer, and a poem by an Indian poet all counts as engaging with world literature.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Social Psychology Psychology

  Studies show that reading literary fiction measurably boosts your ability to guess what other people are thinking and feeling. Living inside characters' heads is basically a workout for empathy. World literature stretches that muscle even further by throwing you into minds shaped by totally different cultures.

• GIS and Spatial Analysis Geography

  The same clever trickster character keeps popping up in folktales from India to West Africa, and that's not a coincidence. Stories traveled with traders, hitching rides along the same routes as spices and cloth. So tracing where a folktale shows up can actually map the ancient roads humans walked and traded on.

• Evolution Science

  A giant flood, a hero who dies and comes back, a great fall from paradise: these same stories pop up in cultures that never met. That's suspicious. It hints the plots aren't copied, but built from mental shapes every human brain seems to come pre-loaded with.

• Recommendation Algorithms Media

  You can only read the foreign novels that someone chose to translate, publish, and push toward a prize. A tiny handful of publishers and translators act like customs officers, deciding which stories from other countries even reach your shelf. Most of world literature never makes it through that gate to you.