Studies in World Literature

ISSN 2365-3817 (Print)  
ISSN 2940-3820 (Online)

Editors: Chris Ringrose and Janet Wilson

The book series Studies in World Literature (SWL) is devoted to the analysis—in both singular and comparative terms—of global literature, and the multiple, sometimes contradictory, tendencies it accommodates. Its field of enquiry is the ‘new’ world literature, a category currently emerging through multiple changes from the old Romantic concept of Weltliteratur, attuned to the challenges posed by postcolonialism and multiculturalism, the increasing globalisation of literature (but also its reverse trend, regionalisation), and the diversification of the market place. Studies in World Literature aims to be a dynamic response to the greater academic purchase this concept is acquiring; it will encourage and promote research which celebrates and critically assesses a phenomenon that can be understood, as Pheng Cheah points out, as the ‘literature of the world—imaginings and stories [...] that track and account for contemporary globalization as well as older historical narratives of worldhood’.

World Literature is a body of work that can be brought into dialogue with postcolonial writing through scrutiny of how it is written, read, circulated, and received transnationally, and considered in terms of the translation it requires to facilitate integration within the contemporary circuit of global cultural capital. There is also a need to examine its inherent contradictions and dependence on a hegemonic (often English-centred) literary and critical discourse.

The series seeks to address these tensions, and will consequently welcome:

  1. publications which debate such matters theoretically (including definitions of what counts as ‘world literature’ and the place of postcolonial literary production within this larger category);
  2. comparative studies between texts and genres from different countries and cultures under common headings or concepts such as memory, ethics, and human rights.

Volumes on national literatures, when these are set in a world/comparative or generic context, will also be considered, and the series will include discussions of other complementary aspects of discourse, narratology, and media (such as comparisons between literature and film, journalism, political discourse, the literary and the poetic). While writing by ‘canonical’ authors will be covered, the series will additionally bring to light and propose wider cultural and intellectual genealogies for ‘minor’ or occluded writers, promoting ways in which they can be read in terms of World Literature. Finally, although being inevitably oriented towards the anglophone study and translation of World Literature, the series will pay attention to the inherent problems that this universalist, hegemonic tendency raises for a linguistically-complex and polyglot globe; consideration will be given to questions raised by translation, aesthetics, and the challenges of distribution and reception in the global market place.

Please adhere to SWL's publication ethics and publication malpractice statement.

10 Item(s)

  1. Entanglements: Envisioning World Literature from the Global South

    Andrea Gremels, Maren Scheurer, Frank Schulze-Engler, Jarula M.I. Wegner

    Entanglements: Envisioning World Literature from the Global South

    €34.90
    ibidem
    308 Pages
    Entanglements: Envisioning World Literature from the Global South scrutinizes current debates to bring historical and contemporary South-South entanglements to the fore and to develop a new understanding...
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  2. Creative Lives

    Chandani Lokuge, Chris Ringrose

    Creative Lives

    Interviews with Contemporary South Asian Diaspora Writers
    €29.90
    ibidem
    310 Pages
    South Asian Diasporic Writing—poetry, fiction literary theory, and drama by writers from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka now living in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA—is one of the...
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  3. World Literature in Motion

    Flair Donglai Shi, Gareth Guangming Tan

    World Literature in Motion

    Institution, Recognition, Location
    €49.90
    ibidem
    530 Pages
    By bringing in different degrees of circulation in different regions and languages, this collection shows that while literary centers do exist in what Pascale Casanova calls “the international literary...
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  4. Janet Frame’s World of Books
    €34.90
    ibidem
    238 Pages
    This study investigates how Janet Frame weaves together literary sources from her extensive reading to create a web of intertextual relationships. Patricia Neville traces Frame’s passion for books beginning...
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  5. Re-forming World Literature

    Gerri Kimber, Janet Wilson

    Re-forming World Literature

    Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Short Story
    €34.90
    ibidem
    313 Pages
    The ground-breaking essays gathered in this volume argue that global paradigms of World Literature, often referencing the major metropolitan centres of cultural and literary production, do not always accommodate...
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  6. The Social Work of Narrative

    Gareth Griffiths, Philip Mead

    The Social Work of Narrative

    Human Rights and the Cultural Imaginary
    €45.90
    ibidem
    408 Pages
    This book addresses the ways in which a range of representational forms have influenced and helped implement the project of human rights across the world, and seeks to show how public discourses on law...
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  7. The Rise of Autobiographical Medical Poetry and the Medical Humanities
    €29.90
    ibidem
    264 Pages
    In this fascinating book, Johanna Emeney examines the global proliferation of new poetry related to illness and medical treatment from the perspective of doctors, patients, and carers in light of the growing...
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  8. Dynamics of Distancing in Nigerian Drama

    Nadia Anwar

    Dynamics of Distancing in Nigerian Drama

    A Functional Approach to Metatheatre
    €29.90
    ibidem
    272 Pages
    Nadia Anwar presents a compelling reading framework for the study and analysis of selected post-independence Nigerian dramas, using the conceptual parameters of metatheatre, a theatrical strategy which...
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  9. Recognition and Ethics in World Literature

    Vincent van Bever Donker

    Recognition and Ethics in World Literature

    Religion, Violence, and the Human
    €34.90
    ibidem
    280 Pages
    Recognition and Ethics in World Literature is a critical comparative study of contemporary world literature, focused on the importance of the ethical turn (or return) in literary theory. It considers the...
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  10. From New National to World Literature

    Bruce King

    From New National to World Literature

    Essays and Reviews
    €99.00
    ibidem
    644 Pages
    From New National to World English Literature offers a personal perspective on the evolution of a major cultural movement that began with decolonization, continued with the assertion of African, West Indian,...
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10 Item(s)