NOTES ON WORLD LITERATURE AND TRANSLATION

Ástráður Eysteinsson

Abstract

This essay inquires into the interrelationship and mutual dependency of the terms and phenomena of world literature and translation. It opens with a discussion of two conflicting views of translation (textual vs. humanist/universalist), arguing that neither can cope with salient issues of cultural borders and the values at stake, values that have a great deal to do with'world views'. 'World literature' tends to rest on notions of classics and canons, while promising to open up new horizons, but both these aspects of 'world reading' involve a reliance on translation, even though translation tends to be looked upon as 'minor literature'. Observing the context of Goethe's most influential statement about world literature, while also looking to Benjamin's classic essay on translation, the author explores the implications of world literature in its canonized and open forms, and the challenges and anxieties that the hybrid form of translation has in store as it facilitates the mobility of literature.