French Literature Reviews - 2026

What Is World Literature?
Comparative and World Literature

David Damrosch, What Is World Literature?, Princeton UP, 2003, 336 p.
ISBN: 0-691-04986-6

Publisher's description:

World literature was long defined in North America as an established canon of European masterpieces, but an emerging global perspective has challenged both this European focus and the very category of "the masterpiece." The first book to look broadly at the contemporary scope and purposes of world literature, What Is World Literature? probes the uses and abuses of world literature in a rapidly changing world.

In case studies ranging from the Sumerians to the Aztecs and from medieval mysticism to postmodern metafiction, David Damrosch looks at the ways works change as they move from national to global contexts. Presenting world literature not as a canon of texts but as a mode of circulation and of reading, Damrosch argues that world literature is work that gains in translation. When it is effectively presented, a work of world literature moves into an elliptical space created between the source and receiving cultures, shaped by both but circumscribed by neither alone. Established classics and new discoveries alike participate in this mode of circulation, but they can be seriously mishandled in the process. From the rediscovered Epic of Gilgamesh in the nineteenth century to Rigoberta Menchú's writing today, foreign works have often been distorted by the immediate needs of their own editors and translators.

Discussions surrounding the scope and definition of global literary studies have long engaged scholars seeking to understand how texts cross linguistic and national boundaries. As international exchanges reshape the academic landscape, researchers examine the ways works are selected, edited, and received in new cultural environments. David Damrosch probes the uses and abuses of world literature in a rapidly changing world. Presenting world literature not as a canon of texts but as a mode of circulation and of reading, Damrosch examines how works change as they move from national to global contexts.

Readers interested in the circulation of translated texts and the history of global literary traditions may find this volume relevant. David Damrosch looks at the ways works change as they move from national to global contexts, using case studies ranging from the Sumerians to the Aztecs and from medieval mysticism to postmodern metafiction. The study shows how foreign works can be distorted by the immediate needs of their own editors and translators, operating within an elliptical space created between the source and receiving cultures.