Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 34: World Literature: Perspectives and Debates - Paperback

by Andrew Rubin (Editor)

As one of the first non-European journals to critically address the category of Weltliteratur bilingually from the perspective of the Global South, this special issue of Alif addresses this problem theoretically and empirically. The critical conversation about the problem of the category of Weltliteratur is not only extended beyond the European and North American sphere that has largely dominated and framed the discussion of Weltliteratur, but is juxtaposed formally in a way that permits us to understand that there are other "world literatures" that allow us to reexamine the contending theories, practices, and underlying assumptions of Weltliteratur. Essays in this volume emphasize in different ways the inherent tension between postcolonial studies and "world criticism," and to that extent open up new realms for the discovery of new knowledges, new epistemes, modes of conversation, and communication.

Author Biography

Andrew N. Rubin is scholar in residence at Georgetown University. He is the author of Archives of Authority: Empire, Culture, and the Cold War and the co-editor of Adorno: A Critical Reader and The Edward Said Reader. He has published on the subject of twentieth century culture in magazines and journals including The South Atlantic Quarterly, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, The Journal of Palestine Studies, The Nation, The New Statesman, and Al-Ahram.