Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret
Literary Studies and Cosmopolitan Desire With a focus on Swedish and English translations of the Brazilian war narrative Os sertões (1902) by Euclides da Cunha, this essay begins by exploring the conditions of possibility for the transnational circulation of this Brazilian national classic as ”world...
Published in: | Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | Danish English Norwegian Swedish |
Published: |
Föreningen för utgivande av Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap
2013
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 https://doaj.org/article/aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 2023-11-12T04:22:07+01:00 Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret Stefan Helgesson 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 https://doaj.org/article/aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 DA EN NO SV dan eng nor swe Föreningen för utgivande av Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap https://publicera.kb.se/tfl/article/view/10885 https://doaj.org/toc/2001-094X doi:10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 2001-094X https://doaj.org/article/aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap, Vol 43, Iss 1 (2013) cosmopolitanism translation vernacular language literary studies geopolitics Euclides da Cunha Language and Literature P article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 2023-10-22T00:42:41Z Literary Studies and Cosmopolitan Desire With a focus on Swedish and English translations of the Brazilian war narrative Os sertões (1902) by Euclides da Cunha, this essay begins by exploring the conditions of possibility for the transnational circulation of this Brazilian national classic as ”world literature”. A cosmopolitan, North Atlantic literary network – in which the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was an influential figure (even posthumously) – is shown to have been instrumental in drawing the Swedish translator Thomas Warburton’s attention to Os sertões in the 1940s. Having traced the outlines of this translation history, the essay provides a theoretical excursus on the dynamic of cosmopolitan and vernacular tendencies in literary history and in the history of literary studies, especially the Swedish discipline of litteraturvetenskap. The underlying argument is that literary studies in Sweden has been shaped by a combination of methodological nationalism (with regard to primary sources) and methodological eurocentrism (in terms of its historical and theoretical horizon). The particular cosmopolitanism of literary studies in Sweden has in this way been expressive of Sweden’s position in a specific configuration of geopolitical power relations – a configuration that is currently undergoing significant changes and could be seen to motivate Dipesh Chakrabarty’s call to ”provincialize Europe”. In closing, it is therefore claimed that the case of Os sertões and its Swedish translation can be read in two ways: as an affirmation of a twentieth-century North Atlantic hegemony (and its corresponding form of cosmopolitanism) but also, if we close read the text itself, as a challenge to that very hegemony, potentially enabling a redistribution of the cosmopolitan desire of literary criticism. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 43 1 81 93 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
Danish English Norwegian Swedish |
topic |
cosmopolitanism translation vernacular language literary studies geopolitics Euclides da Cunha Language and Literature P |
spellingShingle |
cosmopolitanism translation vernacular language literary studies geopolitics Euclides da Cunha Language and Literature P Stefan Helgesson Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
topic_facet |
cosmopolitanism translation vernacular language literary studies geopolitics Euclides da Cunha Language and Literature P |
description |
Literary Studies and Cosmopolitan Desire With a focus on Swedish and English translations of the Brazilian war narrative Os sertões (1902) by Euclides da Cunha, this essay begins by exploring the conditions of possibility for the transnational circulation of this Brazilian national classic as ”world literature”. A cosmopolitan, North Atlantic literary network – in which the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig was an influential figure (even posthumously) – is shown to have been instrumental in drawing the Swedish translator Thomas Warburton’s attention to Os sertões in the 1940s. Having traced the outlines of this translation history, the essay provides a theoretical excursus on the dynamic of cosmopolitan and vernacular tendencies in literary history and in the history of literary studies, especially the Swedish discipline of litteraturvetenskap. The underlying argument is that literary studies in Sweden has been shaped by a combination of methodological nationalism (with regard to primary sources) and methodological eurocentrism (in terms of its historical and theoretical horizon). The particular cosmopolitanism of literary studies in Sweden has in this way been expressive of Sweden’s position in a specific configuration of geopolitical power relations – a configuration that is currently undergoing significant changes and could be seen to motivate Dipesh Chakrabarty’s call to ”provincialize Europe”. In closing, it is therefore claimed that the case of Os sertões and its Swedish translation can be read in two ways: as an affirmation of a twentieth-century North Atlantic hegemony (and its corresponding form of cosmopolitanism) but also, if we close read the text itself, as a challenge to that very hegemony, potentially enabling a redistribution of the cosmopolitan desire of literary criticism. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stefan Helgesson |
author_facet |
Stefan Helgesson |
author_sort |
Stefan Helgesson |
title |
Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
title_short |
Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
title_full |
Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
title_fullStr |
Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
title_full_unstemmed |
Litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
title_sort |
litteraturvetenskapen och det kosmopolitiska begäret |
publisher |
Föreningen för utgivande av Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 https://doaj.org/article/aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap, Vol 43, Iss 1 (2013) |
op_relation |
https://publicera.kb.se/tfl/article/view/10885 https://doaj.org/toc/2001-094X doi:10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 2001-094X https://doaj.org/article/aca55eeb08fa46309ee65f22e1076cb8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v43i1.10885 |
container_title |
Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap |
container_volume |
43 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
81 |
op_container_end_page |
93 |
_version_ |
1782337260330418176 |