How Is World Literature Made?

The debate over the concept of world literature, which has been taking place with renewed intensity over the last twenty years, is tightly bound up with the issues of global interconnectedness in a polycentric world. Most recently, critiques of globalization-related conceptualizations, in particular, have made themselves heard: to what extent is the concept of world literature too closely connected with the political and economic dynamics of globalization? Such questions cannot be answered simply through theoretical debate. The material side of the production of world literature must therefore be more strongly integrated into the conversation than it has been.
Using the example of Latin American literatures, this volume demonstrates the concrete construction processes of world literature. To that purpose, archival materials have been analyzed here: notes, travel reports, and correspondence between publishers and authors. The Latin American examples provide particularly rich information about the processes of institutionalization in the Western world, as well as new perspectives for a contemporary mapping of world literature beyond the established dynamics of canonization.
Gesine Müller, University of Cologne, Germany.