MACMILLAN Worlding a Peripheral Literature (Canon and World Literature)

Bringing together the analyses of the literary world-system, translation studies, and the research of European cultural nationalism, this book contests the view that texts can be attributed global importance irrespective of their origin, language, and position in the international book market. Focusing on Slovenian literature, almost unknown to world literature studies, this book addresses world literature’s canonical function in the nineteenth-century process of establishing European letters as national literatures. Aware of their dependence on imperial powers, (semi)peripheral national movements sought international recognition through, among other things, the newly invented figure of the national poet. Writers central to dependent national communities were canonized to represent their respective cultures to the norm-giving Other – the emerging world literary canon and its aesthetic ideology. Hence, national literatures asserted their linguo-cultural individuality through the process of worlding; that is, by their positioning in the international literary world informed by the supposed universality of the aesthetic. Review “A timely, lively and highly engaging reflection on how so-called ‘small’ literatures fit into the ongoing debate on world literature raging at present – a must-read for all scholars of literature seeking to keep abreast of where literary studies is heading right now.” (Theo D’haen, full professor, KU Leuven, Belgium, and author of The Routledge Concise History of World Literature ) “Deriving the worlding of literature from the contest of nations for the canonic status of their literatures, Juvan emphasizes the asymmetry between the center and peripheries inherent in it. Whereas the dominant nations engaged the worlding of their literatures to assert their human universality, the dominated ones took advantage of it to affirm their literatures’ nationality. A sobering insight!” (Vladimir Biti, Distinguished Chair Visiting Professor, Zhejiang University; Visiting Chair Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and author of Tracing Global Democracy) “In Worlding a Peripheral Literature, Marko Juvan provides a very much needed corrective to mainstream world literature studies, namely, national and world literature are not two distinct entities, but rather they constitute a web of mutually reinforcing relations. Juvan elaborates his persuasive argument upon Slovenian literature, which precisely has remained unknown to the field of world literature studies so far, through an innovative perspective, the figural node of the national poet.” (César Domínguez, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) From the Back Cover Bringing together the analyses of the literary world-system, translation studies, and the research of European cultural nationalism, this book contests the view that texts can be attributed global importance irrespective of their origin, language, and position in the international book market. Focusing on Slovenian literature, almost unknown to world literature studies, this book addresses world literature’s canonical function in the nineteenth-century process of establishing European letters as national literatures. Aware of their dependence on imperial powers, (semi)peripheral national movements sought international recognition through, among other things, the newly invented figure of the national poet. Writers central to dependent national communities were canonized to represent their respective cultures to the norm-giving Other – the emerging world literary canon and its aesthetic ideology. Hence, national literatures asserted their linguo-cultural individuality through the process of worlding; that is, by their positioning in the international literary world informed by the supposed universality of the aesthetic. About the Author Marko Juvan is Head of the Institute of Sl