Aleksis Kivi and/as world literature / / by Douglas Robinson.

• Superior document: Approaches to Translation Studies, Volume 44
• VerfasserIn: Robinson, Douglas,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands ;, Boston, [Massachusetts] : : Brill Rodopi,, 2017.; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Approaches to translation studies ; Volume 44.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (390 pages).

Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872) is Finland’s greatest writer. His great 1870 novel The Brothers Seven has been translated 59 times into 34 languages. Is he world literature, or not? In Aleksis Kivi and/as World Literature Douglas Robinson uses this question as a wedge for exploring the nature and nurture of world literature, and the contributions made by translators to it. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of major and minor literature, Robinson argues that translators have mainly “majoritized” Kivi—translated him respectfully—and so created images of literary tourism that ill suit recognition as world literature. Far better, he insists, is the impulse to minoritize—to find and celebrate the minor writer in Kivi, who “ sends the major language racing .”

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- What is World Literature? Four Answers -- Metrics of World Literature -- Majoritizing Kivi: Towards nl Hypercanonization -- Transmajoritizing Kivi: Towards (Failed) wl Hypercanonization -- Transminoritizing Kivi: Towards wl Countercanonization -- Appendix 1 The Evidence -- Appendix 2 The Finnish Background -- Appendix 3 An English Translation of Kihlaus (1866) as The Troth-Plight -- Bibliography -- Index.