Universal Localities

Book excerpt: The volume features the work of leading scholars from the US, UK, Germany, China, Spain, and Russia and presents an important contribution to current debates on world literature. The contributions discuss various facets of the historically changing role and status of language in the construction of notions of universality and locality, of difference, foreignness, and openness; they explore the relationship between world literature and bilingualism, supranational languages, dialects, and linguistic inbetweenness. They also examine the larger social and political stakes behind both foundational and more recent attempts to articulate ideas of world literature. Mapping the space between philology, anthropology, and ecohumanities, the essays in this volume approach world literature with sophisticated methodological toolkits and open up new opportunities for engaging with this important discursive framework.