The World Republic of Letters

by Casanova, Pascale

• ISBN13: 9780674013452
• ISBN10: 067401345X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-31
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

The "world of letters" has always seemed a matter more of metaphor than of global reality. In this book, Pascale Casanova shows us the state of world literature behind the stylistic refinements--a world of letters relatively independent from economic and political realms, and in which language systems, aesthetic orders, and genres struggle for dominance. Rejecting facile talk of globalization, with its suggestion of a happy literary "melting pot," Casanova exposes an emerging regime of inequality in the world of letters, where minor languages and literatures are subject to the invisible but implacable violence of their dominant counterparts. Inspired by the writings of Fernand Braudel and Pierre Bourdieu, this ambitious book develops the first systematic model for understanding the production, circulation, and valuing of literature worldwide. Casanova proposes a baseline from which we might measure the newness and modernity of the world of letters--the literary equivalent of the meridian at Greenwich. She argues for the importance of literary capital and its role in giving value and legitimacy to nations in their incessant struggle for international power. Within her overarching theory, Casanova locates three main periods in the genesis of world literature--Latin, French, and German--and closely examines three towering figures in the world republic of letters--Kafka, Joyce, and Faulkner. Her work provides a rich and surprising view of the political struggles of our modern world--one framed by sites of publication, circulation, translation, and efforts at literary annexation.

Table of Contents

Preface to the English-Language Edition	xi
Introduction. The Figure in the Carpet	1	(6)
PART I. THE LITERARY WORLD	7	(166)
Principles of a World History of Literature	9	(36)
The Bourse of Literary Values
Literature, Nation, and Politics
The Invention of Literature	45	(37)
How to ``Devour'' Latin
The Battle over French
The Cult of Language
The Empire of French
The Herderian Revolution
World Literary Space	82	(44)
Roads to Freedom
The Greenwich Meridian of Literature
Literary Nationalism
National versus International Writers
Forms of Literary Domination
The Fabric of the Universal	126	(38)
The Capital and Its Double
Translation as Litterarisation
Language Games
The Importance of Being Universal
Ethnocentrisms
Ibsen in England and in France
From Internationalism to Globalization	164	(9)
PART II. LITERARY REVOLTS AND REVOLUTIONS	173	(175)
The Small Literatures	175	(30)
Literary Destitution
Political Dependencies
National Aesthetics
Kafka and the Connection with Politics
The Assimilated	205	(15)
Naipaul: The Need to Conform
Michaux: What Is a Foreigner?
Cioran: On the Inconvenience of Being Born in Romania
Ramuz: The Impossible Assimilation
The Rebels	220	(34)
Literary Uses of the People
National Tales, Legends, Poetry, and Theater
Legacy Hunting
The Importation of Texts
The Creation of Capitals
The International of Small Nations
The Tragedy of Translated Men	254	(49)
Thieves of Fire
Translated from the Night
Comings and Goings
Kafka: Translated from Yiddish
Creators of Languages
Literary Uses of the Oral Language
Andrade: The Anti-Camoes
Swiss Creoleness
The Irish Paradigm	303	(21)
Yeats: The Invention of Tradition
The Gaelic League: Recreation of a National Language
Synge: The Written Oral Language
O'Casey: The Realist Opposition
Shaw: Assimilation in London
Joyce and Beckett: Autonomy
Genesis and Structure of a Literary Space
The Revolutionaries	324	(24)
Dante and the Irish
The Joycean Family
The Faulknerian Revolution
Toward the Invention of Literary Languages
Conclusion. The World and the Literary Trousers	348	(9)
Notes	357	(46)
Index	403