Introduction

Abstract

This chapter outlines the significant resurgence of epistolary conventions and techniques at the end of the long twentieth century. Bower develops a unique model of comparative criticism in response to this epistolary revival, combining an epistolary Ansatzpunkt (starting point) with archival research and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the literary field. By taking the epistle as the starting point and pursuing Erich Auerbach’s speculative ideal of Weltliteratur, this chapter argues for a turn away from the dominant trend of ‘distant reading’, arguing that it is in the close situated analysis of form and composition that the concept of world literature emerges most clearly. This is much needed in current epistolary scholarship. The chapter make a compelling case for the need to attend closely to fine decisions about literary form and technique, without turning away from the literary, socio-political and historical contexts in which literary works are produced. The aim is to overcome the apparent divide between formal analysis and historical description. By combining Ansatz and field, Bower creates a series of ‘comparable’ situated readings, raising the possibility of comparing works produced in different places and times. The chapter therefore seeks to rethink the ways in which we read world literature and shows how the literary letter, in old and new forms, speaks powerfully again in this period.