World Literature After Empire - Rethinking Universality in the Long Cold War

This book makes the case that the idea of a "world" in the cultural and philosophical sense is not an exclusively Western phenomenon. During the Cold War and in the wake of decolonization a plethora of historical attempts were made to reinvent the notions of world literature, world art, and philosophical universality from an anticolonial perspective. Contributing to recent debates on world literature, the postcolonial, and translatability, the book presents a series of interdisciplinary and multilingual case studies spanning Europe, the United States, and China. The case studies illustrate how individual anti-imperialist writers and artists set out to remake the conception of the world in their own image by offering a different perspective centered on questions of race, gender, sexuality, global inequality, and class. The book also discusses how international cultural organizations like the Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau, UNESCO, and PEN International attempted to shape this debate across Cold War divides.

List of contents

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE – China and the Restaging of Afro-Asian World Literature
CHAPTER TWO – Moravia’s Presidency of PEN International
CHAPTER THREE – Translating Anticolonial Universality in Gramsci and Pasolini
CHAPTER FOUR –The Singular Universal in Sartre’s Lumumba Preface
CHAPTER FIVE –Malraux’s Imaginary Museum of World Art
CHAPTER SIX –Huang Yong Ping’s Competing Universalities
CONCLUSION

About the author

Pieter Vanhove is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University. He holds a Ph.D. in Italian and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Pieter’s publications include articles in Critical Asian Studies, estetica: studi e ricerche, Senses of Cinema, and Studi pasoliniani.

Summary

This book makes the case that the idea of a "world" in the cultural and philosophical sense is not an exclusively Western phenomenon. During the Cold War a plethora of historical attempts were made to reinvent the notions of world literature, world art, and philosophical universality from an anticolonial perspective.

Product details

• Authors: Pieter Vanhove
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.07.2021
• EAN: 9780367655204
• ISBN: 978-0-367-65520-4
• No. of pages: 212
• Series: Routledge Studies in Comparative Literature
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Cultural Studies, PHILOSOPHY / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events, Literary studies: post-colonial literature, Literary studies: postcolonial literature