Can World Literature Be Coded——Literary Ideas in an Age of Functional Differentiation
Abstract: Whether world literature can be coded means whether world literature constitutes a self-guiding operational system,an unavoidable question in the theory of world literature. This question follows up on the once hotly debated issue of coding in art and literature within German theoretical circles,and it may be possible to find an answer by following this line of inquiry. In the 1980s and 1990s,German literary theorists began to view literature as an autonomous communication system,with the possession of an independent code serving as the hallmark of systemic autonomy. Various proposals have been put forward regarding the nature of this code,such as beautiful ／ ugly,interesting／ boring,and literary／ non-literary. The collaborative nature of this debate reinforces a consensus that literature is codable. Furthermore,Roberts,Lehmann and others have revealed the world dimension implicit in artistic codes. If literature as such can be coded,it logically follows that world literature can be coded too. From a broader socio-historical perspective,the question of the coding of literature—or world literature—constitutes a response to contemporary discourses on the crisis in literature,reaffirming,in a post-metaphysical manner,the reality,unity and universality of literary practice.
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