World Literature in Theory and Practice.doc

World Literature in Theory and Practice “The age of world literature is at hand,” the 77-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe proclaimed to his young disciple Eckermann in 1827, “and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.” Were he to survey the scene today, Goethe would likely feel that his prophecy has come true, but he might wonder whether he’d gotten more than he’d bargained for. Goethe hoped that the age of world literature would be an era of international exchange and mutual refinement, a cosmopolitan process in which Germany would assume a central role as a translator and mediator