Challenges and Possibilities for World Literature, Global Literature, and Translation

In her article "Challenges and Translation" Kathleen Shields argues that Goethe translation practice: in creating a canon representing the best of each nation, translation occupied centre stage. Nation-building in Europe in the nineteenth century transnational literature where translation as a way of decentering from a strong monolingual base. There are four challenges for comparative literature now. Firstly, the nation state is weakening. Secondly, despite the growing interest in literature since the 1990s, Goethe's idea of as a lingua franca and pivot language for translations. Thirdly, asymmetries in relations between languages, and the very small number of trans digital reading means that literary products are simply canons with no visible means of mediation. What then are the opportunities offered by the European tradition of translation studies? Could polysystem theory help to re asymmetric relations that exist between producers and consumers of literary texts? Can translation studies map relations of prestige to arrive at not only an ethics b > ISSN 1481-4374 Issue 7 (December 2013) Article 7 Kathleen Shields, , and Translation b.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol15/iss7/7> 15.7 (2013) Comparative Literature in Europe.