World Literature.

On February 25th Professor [Fiedler], M.A., read a paper on World Literature.

At the outset of his paper Professor [Fiedler] said that the term world-literature had first been used by Goethe. In a note on the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews^** The Edinburgh Review (published from 1802 to 1929) and its rival journal the Quarterly Review (published from 1809 to 1967) were two leading literary and political periodicals of Goethe's time., in which he {Goethe} discussed the higher aims of such journals, the following passage occurred : As these journals win, step by step, a larger public, they will contribute in a most effectual way to what we hope for—a universal world literature. Nations must become aware of, and understand one another, and if they cannot attain to mutual love, they must at least learn to bear with one another.^**** Fiedler refers here to Goethe's comment in his journal Über Kunst und Altertum: These journals, as they gradually reach a wider audience, will contribute most effectively to the universal literature we hope for; we repeat however that there can be no question of the nations thinking alike, the aim is simply that they shall grow aware of one another, understand each other, and, even where they may not be able to love, shall at least tolerate one another. See Fritz Strich, Goethe and World Literature, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949), p.350. Later, Goethe had returned again and again to this idea of his, working it out and becoming more and more fascinated by it ; and in the closing years of his long life he had dimly divined the dawn of an age in which the civilized nations would form one great confederation, bound to joint action and working towards a common ideal ; a confederation whose members, while continuing to live their separate national lives, would also live the larger life of mankind, sharing one another's thoughts and aspirations and possessing in addition to and above their several literatures of a purely national character, one literature in common, in which their larger common life would find its expression—a world literature.

The lecturer then proceeded to consider whether since Goethe's days we had come any nearer to the realization of such an ideal, and to discuss the obstacles in the way. Reviewing the various opinions held as to the importance of foreign criticism, he came to the conclusion that no man should be too confident that he could do absolute justice to poetry in a tongue he was not born to, and that one could not accept as final any critical opinion on a poem based on a knowledge of a translation only. Proceeding, he considered the various causes which worked together to make a book world-famed, pointing out that 4they are often quite apart from the intrinsic value of the work.

Having discussed the various lists of the world's best books compiled in different countries, he attempted such a list himself. He only admitted works of which it could be said that every educated man in our western world had become familiar, one way or other, with all that is most essential in them, with the characters they present, the leading ideas they contain, and of which he felt that they had contributed to the mental atmosphere in which he was living, he readily understanding allusions to any episode or character in them. Professor [Fiedler] included the Bible, Homer, Æsop's Fables, Dante, the wealth of legendary lore bequeathed by the Middle Ages, Don Quixote, Shakespeare, Molière and Goethe, and dwelt on the fact that within the last thirty years voices from Russia, Scandinavia, Hungary and Poland had gained admission to the European concert of literature.

It might thus seem that, to a certain extent, we had attained to a world literature such as Goethe longed for. The greatest blessing, however, which Goethe had expected from it, namely, that there should spring up a real fellow-feeling among nations, had not yet been vouchsafed. He (the lecturer) had often wondered whether something could not be done towards removing international prejudice by a more comparative study of European literature in our schools and Universities. It would take the student beyond the limits of his own nationality, would lead him better to understand the ideals and aspirations of other nations and make him conscious of the solidarity of mankind ; and as the progress of the world was not made by converting the old but by educating the young,^****** This phrase is presented as a quotation from an external source in an earlier article by Fiedler, upon which he may have based the lecture described here. However, the source has not been identified. See H.G. Fiedler, World Literature. Part Ⅱ, The University of Birmingham Magazine, 2.3 (1902), pp. 72–77 (p.77). he did not think it was too much to hope that such understanding would be a pledge for the peace of the world and would make war more and more impossible.