Overcoming Thresholds and the Mysterious Travels of Literary Influence: Why National Canons Cannot Be Projected onto the Big Canvas

Abstract

World literature studies has to navigate between idealism and realism: the idealism of creating a broader and more inclusive understanding of the world’s literature, and the realism of how literature circulates and has to overcome many thresholds to change canonization. The increased recognition of how translation is a necessary part of world literature has done much to lay the grounds for an increased engagement with literature in non-European languages. I propose that an understanding of key patterns in the international circulation of literary works can provide a better critique of the imbalances of canonization, and the inspiration for the inclusion of neglected works in the future.