World Literature in Motion

Institution, Recognition, Location

Edited by Flair Donglai Shi and Gareth Guanming Tan

ibidem Press

By bringing in different degrees of circulation in different regions and languages, this collection shows that while literary centers do exist in what Pascale Casanova calls “the international literary space,” their power does not operate unilaterally and modes of intercultural circulation do exist beyond their control. The title World Literature in Motion highlights the fact that world literature is always already the product of certain modes of conceptual and material mobility and mediation.

In the ongoing consolidation of world literature studies, World Literature in Motion provides a much-needed elaboration of sociological methods of inquiry. Up-to-date and theoretically savvy, yet attentive to the complexities of doing research across languages and continents, this volume contributes substantially to making literary studies relevant in our global age. Stefan Helgesson, Stockholm University

Ranging across linguistic and national boundaries, and bridging disciplinary divides, World Literature in Motion is a model for how to tackle the immense challenge of a holistic sociology of world literatures. Taken together, its chapters provide comprehensive insight into the way that the circulation of world literature is mediated by institutional forces—forces that themselves mediate political and economic pressures. This is an essential teaching and research resource for anyone who has lamented the Eurocentrism of the book history establishment. Sarah Brouillette, Carleton University

About the Author

Flair Donglai Shi (施东来) is a DPhil candidate in English at the University of Oxford. His thesis focuses on the Yellow Peril as a traveling discourse in modern Anglophone and Sinophone literatures. His research interests include postcolonial and queer theories, Victorian literature, and modern East Asian literatures. His articles have been published in many academic journals.

Gareth Guangming Tan (陈光明) is a researcher at the Asia Competitiveness Institute of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He holds a Master of Studies in World Literatures in English from the University of Oxford. His research interests include postcolonial narratives in new media, narratology and ludology, and the intersections of the postcolonial and posthuman. He served as the editor-in-chief for the journal Oxford Research in English. His current projects include op-eds in Singapore’s national newspaper, the Straits Times, and upcoming books on the competitiveness of subnational economies in China and the Southeast Asian region.

Subjects

Series

Studies in World Literature