world literature

Definitions

1. 1

   Comparative literature.

2. 2

   The world's national literature collectively, especially the circulation and appreciation…

   The world's national literature collectively, especially the circulation and appreciation of works beyond their country of origin.

   • Goethe's notion of world literature, therefore, is linked in an important way to the internationalization of culture that resulted from the emergence of capitalism as the dominant mode of production in modern Europe.
   • In 1827, fresh from his reading of a Chinese novel, Goethe pronounced to Eckermann that "national literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.

The neighborhood