Galin Tihanov

The volume features the work of leading scholars from the US, UK, Germany, China, Spain, and Russia and presents an important contribution to current debates on world literature. The contributions discuss various facets of the historically changing role and status of language in the construction of notions of universality and locality, of difference, foreignness, and openness; they explore the relationship between world literature and bilingualism, supranational languages, dialects, and linguistic inbetweenness. They also examine the larger social and political stakes behind both foundational and more recent attempts to articulate ideas of world literature. Mapping the space between philology, anthropology, and ecohumanities, the essays in this volume approach world literature with sophisticated methodological toolkits and open up new opportunities for engaging with this important discursive framework.

The Languages of World Literature

Universal Localities

Alastair Renfrew

The traditional view that the rise of Western theoretical thought in the 1960s and 1970s could be traced back to the Soviet 1920s, once accepted in Russia and the West alike because it directly associated the academic prestige of contemporary Western theory with the intellectual climate of post-revolutionary Russia, is increasingly challenged today. With the gradual retreat in recent years of theory from the high ground of the Western humanities, new work has emerged to suggest unexpected parallels and to undermine others. This book, with contributions from some of the most visible specialists in the field, re-examines the significant transfers, cross-fertilisations and synergies of cultural and literary theory between Russia and the West, from the 1920s through to the present day. It focuses primarily on those tendencies which have made the most significant contribution to critical theory over the last century, and looks ahead at the theoretical paradigms that are most likely to shape the future dialogue between Russia and the West in the humanities.

Critical Theory in Russia and the West

"Lukacs and Bakhtin emerge from the book as thinkers, whose intellectual careers followed strikingly similar paths. They both were confronted with similar agendas and questions posed for them by their time. Bakhtin, however, had to find answers not only for this common agenda but also to the answers that Lukacs himself had already provided."--BOOK JACKET.

Lukács, Bakhtin, and the Ideas of Their Time

The Master and the Slave

Graham Bartram

Sarah McGaughey

Hermann Broch (1886-1951) is best known for his two major modernist works, The Sleepwalkers (3 vols., 1930-1932) and The Death of Virgil (1945), which frame a lifetime of ethical, cultural, political, and social thought. A textile manufacturer by trade, Broch entered the literary scene late in life with an experimental view of the novel that strove towards totality and vividly depicted Europe's cultural disintegration. As fascism took over and Broch, a Viennese Jew, was forced into exile, his view of literature as transformative was challenged, but his commitment to presenting an ethical view of the crises of his time was unwavering. An important mentor and interlocutor for contemporaries such as Arendt and Canetti as well as a continued inspiration for contemporary authors, Broch wrote to better understand and shape the political and cultural conditions for a postfascist world. This volume covers the major literary works and constitutes the first comprehensive introduction in English to Broch's political, cultural, aesthetic, and philosophical writings. Contributors: Graham Bartram, Brechtje Beuker, Gisela Brude-Firnau, Gwyneth Cliver, Jennifer Jenkins, Kathleen L. Komar, Paul Michael Lützeler, Gunther Martens, Sarah McGaughey, Judith Ryan, Judith Sidler, Galin Tihanov, Sebastian Wogenstein. Graham Bartram retired as Senior Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Lancaster, UK. Sarah McGaughey is Associate Professor of German at Dickinson College, USA. Galin Tihanov is the George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

A Companion to the Works of Hermann Broch

Dieter Lamping

Das Konzept der Weltliteratur ist über die Komparatistik hinaus zu einem grundlegenden Paradigma für die Erforschung der Literatur avanciert, das sich neben dem lange herrschenden nationalen etabliert hat. Die gerade durch neue literarische Entwicklungen komplexer gewordene Logik des Begriffs ‚Weltliteratur‘ reflektiert die verschiedenen Aspekte literarischer Internationalisierung. Sie verweist auch auf theoretische Differenzen, die zugleich eine historische und kulturelle Signatur haben und die deshalb nur komparativ-differenzierend beschrieben werden können. In diesem Sinn stellt die Pluralität der Weltliteratur als Begriff wie als Sache den Ausgangspunkt der Überlegungen des Symposions dar, die sich als in einem starken Sinn vergleichend verstehen und dabei auch über die europäische Literatur und den europäischen Kontext hinausgehen.

DFG-Symposion 2018

Vergleichende Weltliteraturen / Comparative World Literatures

Evgeniĭ Aleksandrovich Dobrenko

This volume assembles the work of leading international scholars in a comprehensive history of Russian literary theory and criticism from 1917 to the post-Soviet age. By examining the dynamics of literary criticism and theory in three arenas—political, intellectual, and institutional—the authors capture the progression and structure of Russian literary criticism and its changing function and discourse. For the first time anywhere, this collection analyzes all of the important theorists and major critical movements during a tumultuous ideological period in Russian history, including developments in émigré literary theory and criticism. Winner of the 2012 Efim Etkind Prize for the best book on Russian culture, awarded by the European University at St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Soviet Age and Beyond

A History of Russian Literary Theory and Criticism

Junior Research Fellow in Russian and German Intellectual History Galin Tihanov

Lecturer in Russian Studies David Shepherd

David Shepherd

Craig Brandist

The Russian philosopher and cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin has traditionally been seen as the leading figure in the group of intellectuals known as the Bakhtin Circle. The writings of other members of the Circle are considered much less important than his work, while Bakhtin's achievement has been exaggerated in proportion to the downgrading of the thinkers with whom he associated in the 1920s. This volume, which includes new translations and studies of the work of the most important members of the Circle, sets out to correct the distortions in the established representations of its activity. The original contributions to literary and linguistic theory made by Valentin Voloshinov and Pavel Medvedev (but frequently credited to Bakhtin) are assessed, and the distinctiveness of their approaches is highlighted.

In the Master's Absence

The Bakhtin Circle

Philip Payne

A fresh and extensive look at the works of the great Austrian novelist in the context of the German and Austrian culture of his time.

Galin Tihanov

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