Reconceptualizing ‘world literature’ : a bilingual platonic dialogue between literary and translation studies

There can be no world literature without translation. Even before Goethe coined the term Weltliteratur in 1827, Schleiermacher in his 1813 treatise ‘Über die verschiedenen Methoden des Übersetzens’ had argued the importance of translating foreign texts so that the German language and nation might benefit from exposure to alterity. Schleiermacher also discussed which translation approach or method would best ensure the success of this endeavour; variations on Schleiermacher’s distinction between leaving the author or the reader in peace (foreignisation vs. domestication) continue to shape modern debates on the objectives and ethics of translation. Now that Translation Studies is firmly established as an academic discipline, it is time to examine the contribution that it might make to the discussion on conceptualisations of world literature, a discussion that up until now has been the preserve of Literary Studies. This article takes the form of a bilingual (German-English) “Platonic” dialogue between a Literary Studies scholar and a Translation Studies scholar, and attempts to bridge the discursive gap between the two disciplines on the subject of world literature. It looks at key figures from within Literary Studies and key figures from within Translation Studies who have made pronouncements – implicit or explicit – on world literature, and investigates how the theory and practice of literary translation might change our current understanding of the term