Home Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability by Emily Apter (ISBN: 9781844679706)

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Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability Paperback - 2013 - 1st Edition

Name: Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability
Price: 13.70 GBP
Availability: InStock
Author: Apter, Emily
ISBN: 9781844679706

by Emily Apter

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From the publisher

Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability argues for a rethinking of comparative literature focusing on the problems that emerge when large-scale paradigms of literary studies ignore the politics of the "Untranslatable"--the realm of those words that are continually retranslated, mistranslated, transferred from language to language, or especially resistant to substitution.

In the place of "World Literature"--a dominant paradigm in the humanities, one grounded in market-driven notions of readability and universal appeal--Apter proposes a plurality of "world literatures" oriented around philosophical concepts and geopolitical pressure points. The history and theory of the language that constructs World Literature is critically examined with a special focus on Weltliteratur, literary world systems, narrative ecosystems, language borders and checkpoints, theologies of translation, and planetary devolution in a book set to revolutionize the discipline of comparative literature.

Details

Title Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability
Author Emily Apter
Binding Paperback
Edition number 1st
Edition 1
Pages 384
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Verso, London
Publication date 2013-04-23
Features Bibliography, Index, Table of Contents
ISBN 9781844679706 / 1844679705
Weight 1.35 lbs (0.61 kg)
Dimensions 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 in (23.37 x 15.49 x 3.05 cm)
Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
Library of Congress subjects Translating and interpreting
Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2013409447
Dewey Decimal Code 800

Media reviews

“Just following Emily Apter’s dizzying array of texts from diverse traditions and times (including a tightly argued discussion of the philosophicality of Simone de Beauvoir, lost in translation to the best of US feminists), embracing much experimental material, all read with meticulous care, is an education. No one has thought the question of world literature in greater depth, at once re-thinking Comparative Literature as translatability studies.”—Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

“Rarely does one read a book with the title Against that is so much for important causes and ideas: writing, translation, worldliness, diversity, cosmopolitanism, while fully aware of their promises and threats. In this moment of dispossession of the Humanities, we needed just that book to clarify matters and move beyond the contradictions.”

About the author

Emily Apter is Professor of Comparative Literature and French at New York University. Her published works include The Translation Zone: A New Comparative Literature and Continental Drift: From National Characters to Subjects.