The Global Novel ― Writing the World in the 21st Century

Global literature was hailed by Goethe as long ago as 1827, when he announced, "National literature is now a meaningless term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach." Yet almost two hundred years later, the notion of global literature remains surprisingly elusive. At a time when many other aspects of culture and society have been effectively globalized, from finance to the visual arts, it is an open question whether literature can or should follow the same path. Is there such a thing as "world literature" and what are the ways of imagining the global fiction? Poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch goes in search of the global novel in the 21st century, paying tribute to Orhan Pamuk, Haruki Murakami, Roberto Bolano, Margaret Atwood, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Michel Houellebecq, Mohsin Hamid, and Elena Ferrante.

Adam Kirsch is the author of three books of poems and several books of criticism and biography, including most recently The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature (W.W. Norton). His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Tablet, and other publications. He is director of the M.A. program in Jewish Studies at Columbia University and lives in New York City.