M.A.R Habib: The Ideology of World Literature
The Ideology of World Literature
This talk will argue that the notion of world literature is premised on the facts that globalization is (a) unidirectional, moving from West to East, (b) an intrinsic function of the movement of capital and its imperialistic expansion, (c) driven by Western narratives of subjectivity, and (d) underlain by an irreducibly Western concept of “world.” World literature implies “world” as viewed from Western vantage points. A Hegelian framework helps us to understand both this asymmetry and also world literature as comprising not a conversation between equals but as governed by hierarchies of power.
M.A.R. Habib is a scholar in the areas of literary criticism, theory, and philosophy, and Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Sharjah. Among his publications are: Hegel and the Foundations of Literary Theory; Hegel and Empire: From Postcolonialism to Globalism; The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 6, The Nineteenth Century, c.1830–1914.
Professor Habib's discussant will be Thorsten Botz-Bornstein.
The lecture will be hybrid. Venue: GUST, Room N1-004.
Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81708697858?pwd=cVM2ZFlSVTlTa0dkNmJzMVpReWhGQT09
This talk will argue that the notion of world literature is premised on the facts that globalization is (a) unidirectional, moving from West to East, (b) an intrinsic function of the movement of capital and its imperialistic expansion, (c) driven by Western narratives of subjectivity, and (d) underlain by an irreducibly Western concept of “world.” World literature implies “world” as viewed from Western vantage points. A Hegelian framework helps us to understand both this asymmetry and also world literature as comprising not a conversation between equals but as governed by hierarchies of power.
M.A.R. Habib is a scholar in the areas of literary criticism, theory, and philosophy, and Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Sharjah. Among his publications are: Hegel and the Foundations of Literary Theory; Hegel and Empire: From Postcolonialism to Globalism; The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism: Volume 6, The Nineteenth Century, c.1830–1914.
Professor Habib's discussant will be Thorsten Botz-Bornstein.
The lecture will be hybrid. Venue: GUST, Room N1-004.
Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81708697858?pwd=cVM2ZFlSVTlTa0dkNmJzMVpReWhGQT09
Sunday, October 30, 2022 - 18:00