翻譯與世界文學

The foremost German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe predicted the imminent arrival of the age of world literature (Weltliteratur), after reading a Chinese story in translation. The notion of “world literature” was thus intertwined with the translation of literature from the very beginning. Comparative literature, a discipline that emerged in Europe in the nineteenth century, highlights the importance of the original texts and overlooks translations; with its scope confined to European languages, comparative literature thus became a Eurocentric discipline. The rapid development of world literature in recent years has helped displace this Eurocentrism and brought with it a renewed interest in translations. The present paper criticizes the Eurocentric comparative literature and argues that the rise of world literature offers an excellent opportunity for non-European
literature as well as canonical works in minor European languages to break through their original language confines and be circulated worldwide by means of translation, thus becoming a part of the world literature. Nevertheless, some contemporary
Western scholars has underlined the impossibility of translation, or opposed the so-called hegemony of English and were against the idea of translating non-Western literature into English. This paper disapproves this concept of untranslatability, pointing out that the seemingly politically correct argument has in fact impeded non-Western literature from becoming a part of the world literature, thereby reinforcing the hegemony of Western literature. As world literature develops, one should reconsider the issue of literary translation and acknowledge the contribution and significance of translation in the studies of world literature.