Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review

Based on the historical and cultural connections between Russia and East Asia, this article explores how the literary relations between these regions complicate current discussions about “world literature.” The case of Russia, East Asia, and their leftist literary relations refute the diffusion model of world literature and the perspective that sees literary works as embedded in the competitive relations of national literatures. Through a discussion of recent world literary theories, the author argues that we would be better served by thinking of world literature less as an entity made up of certain literary works which must, by its nature, operate by inclusion and exclusion or a single diffusion network defined by hierarchical and competitive relations than as a totality of entangled literary and cultural relations and processes through which new meanings and implications are generated. Rethinking world literature as a methodology, not merely as an object to know, also provides new perspectives that allow us to understand the world better through literatures and their connections. Keywords: world literature, literary relations, Korean literature, East Asian literature, Russian literature, translation