What is World Literature?

 World literature is the totality of all national literatures.

 refers to the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin.
 Is a category of literary production, publication, and circulation that has "legs." This
means that it is a work of literature that is a touchstone of local culture; in other words,
it becomes a standard for a local culture. It then becomes an influence on a regional
culture, and later a part of the fabric of global community. It moves from local to
regional to global.
 Four Regions of World Literature: African Literature, American Literature,
European/British Literature, and Asian Literature.

History of World Literature

The term “world literature” was first used by the German writer and statesman Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe, referring to the dissemination of literature from and to countries across the
globe. He used the word “Weltliteratur” in 1827. Goethe studied the characteristic features and
interrelationships of different national literatures, the tendencies of their development and their
achievements. He studied the works of famous writers which presented different literary
phenomena of different historic periods.
Goethe famously stated in letters to Johann Eckermann in 1827,
“I am more and more convinced that poetry is the universal possession of mankind,
revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. ... I therefore like
to look about me in foreign nations, and advise everyone to do the same. National literature is
now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive
to hasten its approach.”
Importance of World Literature
World literature is the cultural heritage of all humanity. It is essential to study world
literature as it helps us understand the life of different people from all over the world, forms our
world-outlook and acquaints us with the masterpieces of literature.
Concepts of World Literature

1. World Literature as a comprehensive corpus of all literary texts in all languages of the
world.
 probably the easiest to grasp: world literature is simply all of the world's literature.
On the other hand, it is the most unwieldy to work with in practice.
2. World Literature as an anthropological comparison of how different cultures develop
literary forms.
 should be thought of in opposition to #4: rather than thinking about how literary
forms or ideas move from one culture to another, we instead look at cultures that
have no contact, but notice that each has developed myths, or each has developed
lyric poetry, etc. In actual fact, there are literary forms such as myth and lyric that
 seem to be universal, whereas others, such as the novel or tragedy, seem to have
developed in a specific regions and been introduced elsewhere through processes
of globalization.
3. World Literature as a hypercanon of "the best that has been thought and said" by selected
writers of the world.
 A "canon" is a group of approved or highly regarded, "must-read" texts. Any
literary anthology, since it obviously must make selections, posits its own canon,
but the idea of canon invoked in #3 is more that of a national literary canon, those
texts that have proven enduring and have continued to "live" in the culture. The
"hyper-" of "hypercanon" in #3 indicates that WL is composed of a canon of the
best of various national canons, the best of the best.
4. World Literature as the process of diffusion of texts around the globe through translation,
adaptation, rewriting, etc.
 focuses on the fact that when literary forms or works "travel" from one part of the
globe to another, they are inevitably changed -- and they also alter the receiving
culture's literary canon. World Literature is that process of continual travel,
rewriting, and mediation of literary texts across cultural boundaries.