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Weltliteratur and Its Others: The Serbian Poem in Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2021

Ena Selimović
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Abstract

A critical account of the Serbian poem in Goethe's conversations with Eckermann reveals the place of Balkan folk poetry in the discourse on world literature and adds a neglected narrative to the myriad genealogies of comparative literature. Building on Laura Doyle's concept of inter-imperiality, the essay foregrounds how language politics manifest the variegated contours Europe takes in Goethe's formulation of world literature. While recent scholarship in comparative literature largely examines Goethe's Eurocentrism through his invocation of an unnamed Chinese novel, an analysis of the inter-imperial and translational project of world literature gives form to multiple spheres of Orientalism.

Type
Essays
Information
PMLA , Volume 136 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 356 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Modern Language Association of America

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