Against World Literature

By: Emily Apter

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Synopsis: Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability argues for a rethinking of comparative literature focusing on the problems that emerge when large-scale paradigms of literary studies ignore the politics of the "Untranslatable"--the realm of those words that are continually retranslated, mistranslated, transferred from language to language, or especially resistant to substitution.In the place of "World Literature"--a dominant paradigm in the humanities, one grounded in market-driven notions of readability and universal appeal--Apter proposes a plurality of "world literatures" oriented around philosophical concepts and geopolitical pressure points. The history and theory of the language that constructs World Literature is critically examined with a special focus on Weltliteratur, literary world systems, narrative ecosystems, language borders and checkpoints, theologies of translation, and planetary devolution in a book set to revolutionize the discipline of comparative literature.