Pascale Casanova’s World of Letters and Its Legacies proposes a wide-ranging appraisal of the work, influence and intellectual profile of a major figure in the humanities and social sciences, from sociology to literary theory and criticism. Both a tribute to the life and work of Pascale Casanova and a critical examination of the dissemination of her theoretical ideas around the world and in fields as diverse as world literature, comparative literature, translation studies, and the sociology of literature, the essays selected here are signed by leading scholars in these disciplines including David Damrosch, Claire Ducournau, Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Tiphaine Samoyault and Jing Tsu among others.
Gisèle Sapiro is Professor of Sociology at EHESS and at the CNRS, author of The French Writers’ War (2014), La Responsabilité de l’écrivain (2011), La Sociologie de la littérature (2014 ; forth. Stanford UP), Les Ecrivains et la politique en France (2018), and Peut-on dissocier l’œuvre de l’auteur? (2020).
Delia Ungureanu is Associate Director of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature and associate professor at the University of Bucharest. She is the author of Time Regained: World Literature and Cinema (2021), From Paris to Tlön: Surrealism as World Literature (2017), and of Poetica Apocalipsei: Războiul cultural în revistele literare românești (1944–1947) (2012).
1 Introduction Gisèle Sapiro and Delia Ungureanu
2 Critical Writing: The Value and Cost of Pascale Casanova’s Combative Ethos Claire Ducournau
3 Preface to the 2008 Edition of La République mondiale des lettres Pascale Casanova; translated by David Damrosch
4 La République mondiale des lettres in the World Republic of Scholarship David Damrosch
5 Reading Pascale Casanova’s World Republic of Letters in Eastern Europe Magdalena Răduță; translated by Oana Fotache-Dubălaru
6 Heralded Heroes Mads Rosendhal Thomsen
7 Pascale Casanova’s Exiles Laurent Jeanpierre
8 Samuel Beckett and the World Republic of Letters Thirthankar Chakraborty
9 For a Theory of Relay Translations Tiphaine Samoyault; translated by Paul Chouchana
10 Linguistic Areas of Literature: Between the World and the Nations Tristan Leperlier
11 A Rare Pearl Passed from Hand to Hand: Cosmopolitan Orders and Pre-modern Forms of Literary Domination Michiel Leezenberg
12 When Literary Relations End Jing Tsu
13 Prizing Francophonie into Existence: The Usurpation of World Literature by the Prix des Cinq Continents Madeline Bedecarré
Academic libraries, scholars and students of world literature, comparative literature, translation studies, postcolonial studies, and the sociology of literature.