THE RELEVANCE OF WELTLITERATUR

Weltliteratur as Goethe called for in the 1820s is now on the rise and invigorates literary studies in much of the world today. It is important to note that Goethe talked about the advent of Weltliteratur when he was reading a Chinese novel in translation, and that his appreciation of non-European literature formed the background for his cosmopolitan vision of poetry as universal. Much of comparative literature after Goethe has remained, however, largely Eurocentric, and even influential scholars proposing models for the study of world literature today are still, despite their good intentions, unable to rid themselves of Eurocentric biases and limitations. By revisiting Goethe's concept and the development of comparative literature since the nineteenth century, and by commenting on Pascale Casanova's understanding of the history of world literary centers and on Franco Moretti's center-and-periphery model in the development of the modem novel as a world literary genre, this essay calls for a truly global understanding of Weltliteratur as well as its relevance for our world today.