Diagnostic Writing Activity (English 12)

In the book “Tensions in World Literature between the local and universal,” Fang (2017) stated that world Literature was popularized by Johann Wolfgang Goethe in the early 1820s and publicly declared that its era is near in time. The emergence of comparative literature began in the 19th century but had hills and valleys due to Eurocentric paradigm- a belief that the works of Europe were superior compared to the “rest” of the world. As a result, it needs to disintegrate from the literature itself resulted to crisis of identity as scholarly discipline. The development of world literature nowadays occurred to address issues in literary studies and a humanistic response to horrible discrimination of race, conflicts of cultural differences and ethical practices, subjective concept of justice, indigenous experiences and urban living, and conflicting state interests clearly observed in the world. It forms tension between “the local and the universal”. To holistically discuss and resolve these issues and tensions, the Beijing Normal University (BNU) School of Chinese Language and Literature conducted conference entitled “Ideas and Methods: International Dialogue and Forum” on October 16–17, 2015. The conference was attended by Twenty (20) foreign and Chinese scholars that includes Prof. David Damrosch and Prof. Zhang Longxi, who debated the theory and practice of world literature. 

The main problem of world literature had been the lack of concrete agreement on what should be the definition and what should be included. In early 2000, there were studies on world literature based on post-colonial perspectives and literature circulation. Stanford Scholar Franco Moretti developed the world literary system based on evolution and systems theory. He asked, “Weltliteratur: world literature, human literature? Or the literature of imperialism?” on his essay on “Modern European Literature: A Geographical Sketch” in 1994. 

If Moretti focused on theoretical aspect, Harvard scholar David Damrosch focused on “circulation” of world literature considering production, translation, and reception. He defined world literature as follows, 

1. World literature is an elliptical refraction of national literatures.
2. World literature is writing that gains in translation.
3. World literature is not a set canon of texts but a mode of reading; a form of detached engagement with worlds beyond our place and time.

The world literature proposed on this reading is a type of literature that breaks cultural boundaries and context that may benefit the whole world. A world literature that can be interpreted based from deconstruction paradigm.  

William Franke stated “World literature [is] a means […] of undermining and breaking up national literary traditions and challenging their self-serving canons…world literature, as literature with an afterlife, is uprooted from its culture of origin and follows its trajectory to infinity in shedding light purely as literature unbounded by any specific context […].”