Emigrant Literature, World Literature, National Literature

This article examines Georg Brandes’ comparative method and notions of emigrant literature, world literature, and national literature, comparing them to Goethe’s and Milan Kundera’s ideas of world literature, and drawing on Emily Apter’s concept of untranslatability. It is argued that Brandes, like Apter, valorizes an untranslatable dimension of language in his paradoxical notion of world literature as the most national literature, whereas Goethe and Kundera consider translations to be unproblematic as a result of their belief in linguistic transparency. Where Goethe accentuated cultural similarities and universalism, Brandes was keen to stress cultural differences. His cosmopolitanism was firmly rooted in the local, national, and regional. The article further argues that Goethe’s concept of Weltliteratur was centered on a theory of circulation and infrastructure. In contrast, both Brandes and Kundera placed emphasis on intra-literary qualities, Brandes primarily linguistic qualities, Kundera more specifically existential and formal newness. Each of the three positions has its merits and supplement each other. Together, they provide us with an understanding of the significance of the field of world literature as both an aesthetic and sociological phenomenon.