You may be asking what is world literature and where to begin. In short, it is writing that circulates beyond its country and language of origin. Pick one translated book and start there.
This guide sits within our wider reading on literature and society.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Goethe’s remark on world literature to Eckermann | January 1827 |
| Eckermann’s published conversations with Goethe | 1835 |
| Communist Manifesto uses the term | 1848 |
| Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, expanded edition | 1995 |
| Damrosch’s book What is World Literature? | 2003 |
| Damrosch awarded the Balzan Prize | 2023 |
These dates come from Wikipedia’s World literature and David Damrosch entries. Figures and details can change, so check the sources before you rely on them.
A plain definition of world literature
Wikipedia describes world literature as the world’s total national literature plus the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin, as its entry on the topic explains. That gives you two ideas: everything written, and the part of it that travels.
Many scholars say that circulation is what makes a work count. David Damrosch puts it this way: a work enters world literature by being read as literature, and then by circulating out into a broader world beyond its linguistic and cultural point of origin.
So the label describes what happens to a book, not only where it was written. The same entry says that today the term takes in:
- classical works from all periods;
- contemporary literature written for a global audience;
- the wide range of global works readers can now find in translation.
Where the idea of world literature came from
According to Wikipedia’s World literature entry, Johann Wolfgang Goethe used the concept in several essays to describe the international circulation and reception of literary works in Europe, including works of non-Western origin. The concept achieved wide currency after his disciple Johann Peter Eckermann published a collection of conversations with Goethe in 1835. In those talks Goethe spoke of the excitement of reading Chinese novels and Persian and Serbian poetry.
In January 1827 he predicted that world literature would replace national literature as the major mode of literary creativity. He said that “national literature is now a rather unmeaning term” and that “the epoch of world literature is at hand”. A journal article from Berkeley’s TRANSIT dates the conversation to January 31, 1827 and links it to an unnamed Chinese novel.
Other thinkers soon gave the idea their own spin:
- Marx and Engels used the term in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Wikipedia notes, arguing that “from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature”. Their view was economic, built on trade and exchange.
- H. M. Posnett, an Irish scholar, argued in 1886 that world literature first arose in ancient empires such as the Roman Empire, long before the rise of modern national literature, as the same entry records.
- Venkat Mani ties the “worlding” of literature to information transfer, largely generated by developments in print culture. In his account, publishers, booksellers and public libraries all play a part.
Anthologies show how the field widened. Wikipedia says the first edition of The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces in 1956 featured only Western-European and North American works, while a new expanded edition in 1995 included non-Western selections. It ties wider efforts to expand the field to the end of the Cold War, the growing globalization of the world economy, and new waves of immigration.
The same entry adds that major survey anthologies today, including those published by Longman, Bedford and Norton, showcase several hundred authors from dozens of countries.
Damrosch and world literature as a mode of reading
The scholar most tied to the modern debate is David Damrosch. His 2003 book What is World Literature? defines the field not as a set canon of texts but as “a mode of reading”, according to Wikipedia’s entry on Damrosch. He followed it with How to Read World Literature? (2009), Comparing the Literatures (2020) and Around the World in 80 Books (2021).
In that study he describes world literature in three parts:
- an elliptical refraction of national literatures;
- writing that gains in translation;
- a mode of reading, a form of detached engagement with worlds beyond our own place and time.
The Berkeley article sums up his view as world literature being “less a set of works than a network”. For you as a reader, that means no official shelf exists. What matters is how you meet a book from somewhere else.
Damrosch’s standing in the field is clear. He received the Balzan Prize in 2023 for his work on world literature. In 2010 he founded the Institute for World Literature, a monthlong summer program, which as of 2024 counted “some 1,500 alumni from about 40 countries”.
Why scholars still disagree about it
The definition is widely cited but not settled. Wikipedia’s account of Damrosch lists several challenges:
- Emily Apter’s Against World Literature criticizes market-driven notions of readability and easy circulation, and focuses on the politics of the “Untranslatable”.
- The Warwick Research Collective uses a Marxist framework to argue that world literature is “a creature of modernity”.
- The Berkeley article notes criticism of Damrosch’s model for still operating under Eurocentric assumptions about the goodness of translations.
These disputes matter to a beginner in one practical way. A translation is a choice made by someone, and it never carries a book across unchanged. Keep that in mind and you will read more carefully, not less enthusiastically.
How to start reading world literature
You do not need a syllabus. A few habits are enough to turn reading translated books into a steady practice:
- Choose one book that interests you, from a country or language you have not read before.
- Look at who translated it, and read any translator’s note or introduction.
- Read it as literature first, then look up the history around it.
- Follow one thread, such as a theme, a region or a form, into your next book.
- Borrow before you buy, since public libraries exist to make books available to people who cannot afford to buy them.
Since print culture shapes how books travel, you may also like our look at oral storytelling traditions, which work without print at all. For a genre-led route, our piece on dystopian fiction and society shows how stories speak to the societies around them.
Frequently asked questions
Is world literature the same as translated literature?
Show answer
Not exactly. Damrosch lists writing that gains in translation as one part of his definition, but he also describes world literature as a mode of reading and as a network.
Who first used the term?
Show answer
Goethe used the concept in several essays on the international circulation of literary works. It gained wide currency after Eckermann published his conversations with Goethe in 1835, according to Wikipedia’s World literature entry.
Do I have to start with the classics?
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No. Wikipedia says the term today covers classical works from all periods and contemporary literature written for a global audience. Begin with whatever draws you in.
Is there a fixed list of world literature books?
Show answer
No. Damrosch defines it not as a set canon of texts but as “a mode of reading”. Anthologies such as the Norton one grew in range over time, as the 1956 and 1995 editions show.
