A világirodalom kanonikussága és a nemzeti költők

Absztrakt

The Canonicity of World Literature and National Poets

In this excerpt Marko Juvan investigates the phenomenon of world literature in view of its canon-forming function in nineteenth-century European national movements. Highlighting the newly invented figure of the national poet as a key element in establishing national literatures, the argument demonstrates a mutuality between the universal aesthetic values of world literature and the striving for a unique, national literariness. In this process, minor and/or dominated nations tended to elevate the national poet to the position of a cultural saint in order to prove that the nation’s cultural output would meet the standards of the hyper-canonical space of world literature.