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TUHI reads: Rethinking World Literature

TUHI reading group

continues its discussion of recent debates on world literature and translation studies on Wednesday, 17 February 6 pm with texts by Erich Auerbach and Edward Said.

To join the group please contact Miriam Rossi (miriam.rossi@tlu.ee).

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Goethe's concept of world literature, widely perceived as old-school in the second half of the 20th century, has gained new relevance and meaning in recent debates on literature. From the 1970s, feminist and postcolonial literary studies argued that world literature was nothing more than the limited number of texts of the Western canon. They demanded the widening of that exclusive canon to include other literatures of the world. Since the 1990s, scholars and critics have encountered methodological difficulties arising from the study of this enlarged field and its vast body of texts. Do comparative literary studies need to change their approach in order to come to terms with the new situation? What are the new methodologies of comparative literature? 

Are literatures and the concepts we use to study them always translatable? How could translation studies be of help in imagining new approaches to literature? This reading group will focus on key texts in the recent debate on world literature and translatability by authors such as Franco Moretti, Pascale Casanova, Emily Apter, Gayatri Spivak, David Damrosch, Erich Auerbach, Edward Said.

Our reading group is a non-formal and unites both TU staff and postgraduate students. We meet up twice a month on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The texts to be discussed are chosen based on the interest of the individual members of the group. The working language is English. 

Reading group is organised by Miriam Rossi, Eneken Laanes and Daniele Monticelli.  

Everybody welcome!