Ends and Beginnings of World Literature

The essay posits “world literature” and “global literature” as opposites: where the former thrives on intraand intercultural alterity, the latter conforms to global market demands that erase the distinctions between the local and the global. By way of examples from classical and contemporary Chinese poetry, “world literature” is conceptualized anew through Adorno’s idea of the nonidentical both at home and abroad. To maintain and express this dual alterity is the ultimate responsibility of the translator.