Mapping World Literature

Thomsen develops the concept of constellations of books based on particular formal and thematic traits and shows how this works in relation to literature written by migrant writers and literature on genocides, wars and catastrophes."Mapping World Literature" explores the study of literature and literary history in the light of globalization and argues that international canonization of books and authors can be used as an instrument for textual analysis of world literature. Thomsen uses a distinctive method in combining the concept of literary constellations and canonization, which allows for literary analysis that balances the formal and thematic elements of texts with their impact on the international literary scene. This is introduced through an overview of the concept of world literature including a discussion of present critical positions and then a specific analysis of two cases, literature written by migrant writers and the literature of genocide, war and disaster.Through the concept of constellations in literary studies, the book offers a nuanced understanding of the mechanism of canonization in the international sphere, especially in terms of how texts overcome contextual obstacles to understanding in other cultures, and it provides a balanced critical perspective on the present and future of world literature. Of interest to advanced students and researchers in comparative and world literature, it suggests new approaches to the analysis of emerging patterns in world literature, in particular those of post-national literatures.

Mads Rosendahl Thomsen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. He has been a Visiting Scholar and guest lecturer at Stanford University and is editor of the academic journal Passage.