21 USA
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David Watson
Abstract
This chapter sums up the various ways whereby American literature can be understood as world literature. It begins by exploring current attempts to position American literature in the world, arguing that this move is prompted both by developments in contemporary American literature, and by the turn toward the transnational in American studies, which has reframed American literary history as the history of its interconnections with the world outside of the United States. It argues that to understand the worlding of American literature, we need to attend to the literary strategies, genres and forms whereby literary texts articulate transnational networks, as well as the transnational public spheres through which people and texts circulate, and the influence of the United States as an imperial and economic power. Finally, it suggests that it has become necessary to recalibrate the relation between theoretical accounts of American and world literature, two fields that have rarely been in dialogue. Such a recalibration would counter a tendency within transnational American studies to imagine American literature as a macrocosm of the globe, and would prompt the field of world literature to engage with its own entanglements with the United States and its institutions.
Abstract
This chapter sums up the various ways whereby American literature can be understood as world literature. It begins by exploring current attempts to position American literature in the world, arguing that this move is prompted both by developments in contemporary American literature, and by the turn toward the transnational in American studies, which has reframed American literary history as the history of its interconnections with the world outside of the United States. It argues that to understand the worlding of American literature, we need to attend to the literary strategies, genres and forms whereby literary texts articulate transnational networks, as well as the transnational public spheres through which people and texts circulate, and the influence of the United States as an imperial and economic power. Finally, it suggests that it has become necessary to recalibrate the relation between theoretical accounts of American and world literature, two fields that have rarely been in dialogue. Such a recalibration would counter a tendency within transnational American studies to imagine American literature as a macrocosm of the globe, and would prompt the field of world literature to engage with its own entanglements with the United States and its institutions.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0 Introduction 1
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Part I: Historical Approaches – Genealogies of World Literatures
- 1 The Beginnings of the Concept (Goethe, Marx, Said) – Readings from a Postcolonial Perspective 15
- 2 Re-Reading Classical Approaches from a Postcolonial Perspective: Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, David Damrosch 31
- 3 Macaulay’s Magic Hat: The Colonial Education System and the Canon of World Literature 41
- 4 The King’s English and the Mother Tongue 53
- 5 Rethinking English Studies 67
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Part II: Concepts and Methods of Anglophone World Literatures
- 6 Global Literature, World Literature and Worlding Literature: Some Conceptual Differences 85
- 7 Barbarians: Cosmopolitanism Beyond the Center-Periphery Model 103
- 8 Anglophone World Literatures and World Ecologies (Environmental Humanities) 119
- 9 Anglophone World Literatures and Transcultural Memory 133
- 10 Anglophone World Literatures and Translation 149
- 11 Comparative Literature 161
- 12 Genres of Anglophone World Literatures 175
- 13 Decolonizing World Literature through Orality 193
- 14 Intermediality and Remediation 209
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Part III: Sociological Approaches – Distribution, Reception and Translation of Anglophone World Literature
- 15 Marketing Anglophone World Literatures 229
- 16 Canons and Canonicity in Anglophone Literature 245
- 17 Teaching Anglophone World Literature 263
- 18 Anglophone World Literatures, the Internet and the Digital Humanities 275
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Part IV: Literary Worlds – Locations and Orientations
- 19 Britain 291
- 20 Ireland 313
- 21 USA 333
- 22 Canada 355
- 23 The Oceans 375
- 24 The Caribbean 395
- 25 Southern Africa 415
- 26 West Africa 433
- 27 East Africa 451
- 28 South Asia 471
- 29 Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) 489
- 30 Australia 511
- 31 New Zealand Literature and the World 531
- Name Index 549
- Subject Index 567
- List of Contributors 579
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0 Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Approaches – Genealogies of World Literatures
- 1 The Beginnings of the Concept (Goethe, Marx, Said) – Readings from a Postcolonial Perspective 15
- 2 Re-Reading Classical Approaches from a Postcolonial Perspective: Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, David Damrosch 31
- 3 Macaulay’s Magic Hat: The Colonial Education System and the Canon of World Literature 41
- 4 The King’s English and the Mother Tongue 53
- 5 Rethinking English Studies 67
-
Part II: Concepts and Methods of Anglophone World Literatures
- 6 Global Literature, World Literature and Worlding Literature: Some Conceptual Differences 85
- 7 Barbarians: Cosmopolitanism Beyond the Center-Periphery Model 103
- 8 Anglophone World Literatures and World Ecologies (Environmental Humanities) 119
- 9 Anglophone World Literatures and Transcultural Memory 133
- 10 Anglophone World Literatures and Translation 149
- 11 Comparative Literature 161
- 12 Genres of Anglophone World Literatures 175
- 13 Decolonizing World Literature through Orality 193
- 14 Intermediality and Remediation 209
-
Part III: Sociological Approaches – Distribution, Reception and Translation of Anglophone World Literature
- 15 Marketing Anglophone World Literatures 229
- 16 Canons and Canonicity in Anglophone Literature 245
- 17 Teaching Anglophone World Literature 263
- 18 Anglophone World Literatures, the Internet and the Digital Humanities 275
-
Part IV: Literary Worlds – Locations and Orientations
- 19 Britain 291
- 20 Ireland 313
- 21 USA 333
- 22 Canada 355
- 23 The Oceans 375
- 24 The Caribbean 395
- 25 Southern Africa 415
- 26 West Africa 433
- 27 East Africa 451
- 28 South Asia 471
- 29 Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) 489
- 30 Australia 511
- 31 New Zealand Literature and the World 531
- Name Index 549
- Subject Index 567
- List of Contributors 579
