Abstract
This paper claims that Franco Moretti's "New Theory of Literary Evolution" as one of the subjectivity theories behind the reconstruction of world literature history could be viewed as the reproduction in the postindustrial era of the evolution theory of literature in the 19th-century West. Although Darwin's evolution theory had profound impacts in the Western theory of social sciences, its limitations in epistemology and methodology have long been exposed and challenged. Moretti's plot-style interaction proposition takes into consideration formalist theory and the Western theory of world system, trying to reconstruct an innovative theory of world literature. The paper concludes that Moretti's proposition implies a breakthrough to the prevailing synchronic concept of literary history since structuralism and may push forward the research of literary history and criticism.
First Page
27
Last Page
34
Recommended Citation
Wu, Yuping, and Hanwen Fang. 2013. "Franco Moretti's Reconstructionist "New Theory of Literary Evolution" and World Literary History." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (5): pp.27-34. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss5/8
