Description
This cross-disciplinary approach to literary reading of any provenance based on an “experimental cosmopolitan” epistemology de- and recontextualizes the texts from the points of view of multiple cultures and historical moments, enriching interpretation and aesthetic experience beyond the backgrounds of the present reader and the origin of a particular literary discourse. Trusting the authority of an author or an “original” text and ignoring the fundamental plurilingualism of the literary experience obstructs the wealth of cosmopolitan reading in a globalized and fragmented world. A thorough critique of both local and overarching theories in clear dissent from the binaries of “decolonial theory” and the overextension of “nomadic theory” supports a precise research and teaching methodology at variance with past trends of Comparative and World Literature. Considering literature as the aestheticized use of language, which is universal, the many analyses provided can be extrapolated to other genres, eras, and cultural areas.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Cosmopolitan Reading, How and Why?
PART 1
Theory in Motion
1 "Power Failure in Paris": Against Local Theory
2 Locations and Dis-Locations of Theory: Toward a Theory without a Fixed Address
PART 2
Universals and World Literature
3 Universals in Theory and Practice
4 The World Literature Controversy
5 Worlding and Localizing Fiction
PART 3
Cosmopolitanism Revisited
6 Cross-Cultural Negotiation, Comparison, Comprehension
7 Cultural Cosmopolitanism as Experiment
8 The Literary Construction of Cosmopolitan Consciousness
PART 4
Elusive Identities, Deceptive Origins and Destinations
9 Unselfing Literary Studies: Against "Idemtity"
10 The Ironies of Authenticity
11 Ambiguous Mobilities: How Cosmopolitan is Nomadism?
12 A Labyrinth of Margins: Mimetic Desire and Native Impersonation
PART 5
The Pragmatics of Outgoing and Incoming
13 Exos as Eros, and Vice Versa
14 Heteroglossia as Experiment and Cosmopolitan Performance
Excipit: The Personal Touch
Bibliography
Index
