World Literature: A Reader : Routledge : 9780415602990 : 0415602998 : 31 May 2012 : World Literature is an increasingly influential subject in literary studies, which has led to the re-framing of contemporary ideas of ?national literatures', language and translation. World Literature: A Reader brings together thirty essential readings which display the theoretical foundations of the subject, as well as showing its conceptual development over a two hundred year period. The book features: an illuminating introduction to the subject, with suggested reading paths to help readers navigate through the materials texts exploring key themes such as globalization, cosmopolitanism, post/trans-nationalism, and translation and nationalism writings by major figures including J. W. Goethe, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Longxi Zhao, David Damrosch, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Pascale Casanova and Milan Kundera. The early explorations of the meaning of ?Weltliteratur' are introduced, while t