The Cambridge history of world literature /
World literature dwells in our time and in times past. As a treasured heritage of artistic expression in oral, visual and written forms, it is an indelible part of the story of evolution of human civilization. As a scholarly field, however, world literature has had a rather sporadic presence in the...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
[2021].
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| Summary: | World literature dwells in our time and in times past. As a treasured heritage of artistic expression in oral, visual and written forms, it is an indelible part of the story of evolution of human civilization. As a scholarly field, however, world literature has had a rather sporadic presence in the disciplinary landscape of modern universities, surging and receding in accordance with political and sociocultural transformations. The contemporary era is witnessing one such resurgence. The term world appears to have made a spectacular reentry as a literary critical rubric in the twenty-first century. One hears of the 'world' all too frequently in academic circles, and in ways that mark our current global conjuncture as, perhaps, the most apposite moment for its articulation. One is reminded of Walter Benjamin's phrase 'the now of knowability' when certain historical periods offer just the right temporal traction for an idea to gain rhetorical currency. The term 'world' now appears to inhabit its true potential as the philological and literary home of maximal extension and maximal connectivity. |
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| Physical Description: | 2 volumes : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781108557269 1108557260 9781108493581 1108493580 9781108493567 1108493564 |