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23 - Oceanic Comparativism and World Literature

from Part IV - Cartographic Shifts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

By
Debjani Ganguly
Edited by
Debjani Ganguly
Debjani Ganguly
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
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Summary

If world literature is conceived as a network of transregional, multi-local and transnational nodes stretching back to antiquity, oceanic worlds can be seen to offer a generative frame for literary history. The world’s oceans gird the shores of cities, nations, islands and continents. They generate contact zones that are multilingual, demographically mixed, economically varied and culturally hybrid. Further, much like world literature, the historicity of the oceans can scarcely be contained within the temporality of transatlantic capitalism from the eighteenth century to the present. This chapter explores literary works across several oceanic zones and offers oceanic comparativism as a rich cartographic frame for world literature.

Keywords

oceansterraqueous transregionalismliterary flowsIndian OceanAtlantic Ocean
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge History of World Literature , pp. 429 - 457
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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