Title: The Future of Comparative Literature

Abstract: Goethe’s term “Weltliteratur” (World Litrature) has served, for a long time, as a central guideline for Comparative Literature. His much-discussed statement of January 31, 1827, however, is based upon a specific temporality conceived as epochal, i.e. including a clear beginning as well as a clear end. This article discusses the ongoing radical transformations of “World Literature” towards a new understanding of the “Literatures of the World,” characerized by different logics at the same time in a multipolar literary world. This implies new orientations for the study of Comparative Literature.

Keywords: Goethe, World Literature, polylogics, Literatures of the World, Comparative Literature

Author: Ottmar Ette, Professor, Foreign Languages College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.02.008