World Literature as Process and Relation: East Asia's Russia and Translation

This talk discusses world literature models through an examination of Russian and East Asian literary relations and translation-related issues. Through the discussion of recent world literary theories with a focus on East Asia-Russia literary interactions, translation, circulation, literary prizes, and ethical approaches to world literature, this talk argues that we are best served by thinking of world literature not as an entity that operates by inclusion and exclusion or as a single diffusion network defined by hierarchical and competitive relations but as a totality of entangled literary and cultural relations and processes through which new meanings and implications are generated. Rethinking world literature as a new lens, rather than as an object to know, also provides new perspectives that allow us to understand the world better through various literatures and their connections.

Heekyoung Cho is associate professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the author of Translation’s Forgotten History: Russian Literature, Japanese Mediation, and the Formation of Modern Korean Literature (2016). Her articles discuss topics on translation and the creation of modern fiction, translation and censorship, serial publication, world literature, and webcomics. Her current research focuses on seriality in cultural production in both old and new media, including digital serialization and transmedial production, as well as graphic narratives and media platforms.

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