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The
World Literature/s Research Workshop Open to Faculty, Graduate Students and Staff at UW-Madison
The World Literature/s Research Workshop aims to identify and explore the distinctions, implications, and the tensions underlying the conceptualization of "World Literature/s" - in singularity and plurality. Along with promoting new research in the field through a dialogue across departments of literature, the workshop seeks to facilitate pedagogical innovations in both graduate and undergraduate curricula at UW-Madison. Organizers
Schedule and Venue (for readings see below) We will meet at 3:00 - 5:00 pm on:
At the:
Co-sponsored and Related Events
Overview The recent history of our world is marked by escalation of migration and the amplification of technological and financial interdependence between nations. The present stories of our world consequently capture the collaborative as well as confrontational interactions that we as residents of the world create and inhabit. Contemporary literature has registered, documented, and creatively interpreted such moments of collaboration and confrontation. The intensification of cross-cultural and transnational dialogues and conflicts - captured in innumerable novels, short stories, and poems during the last three decades - has demanded newer modes of disciplinary evaluation and critique of this body of literature. From migratory and/or minoritarian contexts within national literary traditions, from recognition of transcendence of national canons, recent literary criticism has seen an unprecedented expansion of scale and scope. This expansion is evident in the resurgence of discussions around the term “World Literature/s” and publication of a number of volumes on the topic since 2000. A careful examination of these discussions reveals the emergence of two distinct sets of texts. World Literature - in the singular - seems reserved for the repository of the timeless wisdom of the world, the best representation of the multitude of narrative forms and traditions around the world from the antiquity to the present. World Literatures - in the plural - however, is unreflectively used for contemporary literature written in and/or translated into English and other languages of European descent. Marketed as exemplars of the contemporariness of the world, such literary works make their way into the classroom through courses and series on “World Literatures.” The seemingly democratic plurality ascribed to the noun, however, does not guarantee this body of works the singularity reserved for the repertoire of “World Literature.” The contemporariness of “World Literatures” creates the impression of their being ephemeral; their multifaceted and purportedly chaotic ambition is often measured against the timeless and eternal value inscribed to representative works of a national or a linguistic canon assembled under the rubric “World Literature.” The purpose of the World Literature/s Research Workshop is to identify and explore the distinctions, implications, and the tensions underlying the conceptualization of “World Literature/s”—in singularity and plurality. The workshop will investigate historical and contemporary conceptualizations of the category “World Literature.” To this end, members will read and discuss theoretical reflections on the concept of “World Literature” since Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s inception of the term Weltliteratur in 1827 and move to current debates. The workshop aims to benefit from the expertise of its members in order to isolate debates on “World Literature/s” in multiple linguistic, national, and literary contexts. Along with promoting new research in the field through a dialogue across departments of literature, the workshop seeks to facilitate pedagogical innovations in both graduate and undergraduate curricula at UW-Madison. Readings
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