World Literature in the Soviet Union

Khotimsky's chapter, "The Treasure Trove of World Literature: Shaping the Concept of World Literature in Post-Revolutionary Russia," examines Vsemirnaia Literatura (World Literature), an early Soviet publishing house founded in 1919 in Petersburg that advanced an innovative canon of world literature beyond the European tradition. It analyzes the publishing house's views on translation, focusing on book prefaces that reveal a search for a new evaluative system, adaptation to changing socio-cultural norms and reassessing the roles of readers, critics, and the very endeavor of translation.

From Summer 2024 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News).