Does it make sense to talk about Australian Literature, or English Literature, in the age of globalisation? As far back as 1848, Marx and Engels argued that international trade would mean national literatures would be superseded by a Weltliteratur. To what extent might the aesthetic features of the texts you work on actually be local registrations of vast global phenomena? What might be the role of the particular national literatures that you work on in a world-literary system? How has the global publishing industry shaped what we think of as other countries’ ‘national’ canons? Could we recast our feminist readings of texts in a global context, helping to produce transnational forms of consciousness and solidarity through literary studies? 

In this workshop, we will explore some key concepts from World-Literary studies. 

No preparation is required; please just come ready to engage with some short extracts on method, and consider as part of a group how this material might help reframe some of the texts you work on.

Dr Josh Jewell is a Lecturer in the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. His work focuses on the impact of uneven and combined global development on the world-novel. His first monograph Economic Informality and World Literature is out now with Palgrave.