“볼록거울 속의 자화상＂ - 노튼판 세계문학 선집들에 나타난 미국중심적 세계관 연구

Abstract

Since the first Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces was published in 1956, Norton Anthology of World Literature has been getting bigger and bigger to include more literatures of the world. Yet even in the latest six-volume edition of Norton Anthology of World Literature(2002), no Korean literature in translation can be found in the table of contents. Giventhe general editor’s apparent respect for East Asian literature embodied in the covers of two volumes of Norton Anthology of World Literature, why does Korean literature not have any presence in the topography of world literature? This essay starts its discussion from this query. Especially, witnessing the global influence of English as lingua franca and the emerging global power of the multinational publishing house, W.W.Norton, this essay makes an issue of the fact that Norton editors, who are affiliated to the esteemed universities of t he USA, cannot but draw the topography of world literature reflecting the USA’s geopolitical concerns and national interests. To be specific, this essay explores the ties between the USA’s myth of frontier and the Norton’s myth of the pioneering the frontier of world literature genre and then traces the correlations between the changes of the political ideologies of the USAandtheensuingrevisionsofNorton’s anthologies from 1956 to 2002. By analyzing the history of Norton’s anthologies of world literature, this essay aims to call for attention to the Anglo-American centered atlas of world literature and to invite further discussion of how to participate in and even to change the editing process of anthologies of world literature.