"Goethe as World Literature"
Panel sponsored by the Goethe Society of North America

 Virtually every reflection on the history of the concept of world literature includes an obligatory reference to Goethe’s Conversations with Eckermann. These theoretical discussions, however, tend to pay less attention to the transnational histories of Goethe’s own works and to how situating them in their global contexts might enhance our understanding of what world literature is or can be. This panel seeks to open up new perspectives on the world literature debate by focusing on Goethe’s works as world literature, whether the concept is understood in the author’s original sense, or as “a mode of circulation and reading” (Damrosch), a marker of prestige for texts that receive consecration in the “world republic of letters” (Casanova), a utopian space of cross-cultural exchange and understanding (Ngũgĩ) or a label best suited to describe such new international genres as “the dull global novel” (Parks). We invite submissions that consider the global reception of specific works by the author, whether in the original or in translation, especially submissions that focus on circulation outside of Europe. But we are also interested in innovative approaches to less familiar global afterlives of Goethe’s publications – anthologizations, popularizations, adaptations, remediations, etc. Whatever the specific texts and contexts under investigation, however, the analysis should be anchored in a set of reflections on how the approach can further develop our grasp of world literature as an analytical and ethical category.

Please submit a 250-word abstract to Matt Erlin at merlin@wustl.edu.

Deadline for submissions is 15 March 2025.