Olga Szmidt

In contemporary discussions on the condition and further perspectives of World Literature the moods of disappointment and disillusionment seem to dominate. Reservations concern World Literature in its complexity – its canon, potential multilingualism, existing hierarchies and often contradictory conceptualizations. The crisis of World Literature is not, however, the result of any given scandal, but rather of many years of progressive petrification resulting in actual monolingualism, formulaic narrative patterns, consolidation of the center-periphery hierarchy and abandonment of the real pluralism of interpretation. One of the areas that seems to meet the challenge of World Literature is undoubtedly translation criticism. Therefore, the aim of the article is to reflect on how contemporary theories and conceptualizations of World Literature as well as its farfetched utopia can benefit from translation criticism’s input. The article also argues that translation criticism may become a field that dynamizes contemporary World Literature and restores its reordering or even revolutionary potential.

FRAGMENT
Problemy oscylujące wokół kwestii polityczności literatury stały się w pewnym momencie, a myślę tu szczególnie o przełomie lat 2009/2010, obowiązkowym zestawem zagadnień podejmowanych przez krytyków i literaturoznawców w Polsce. Jak łatwo przewidzieć – dyskusja się nie zakończyła (raczej trudno sobie wyobrazić, co mogłoby ją zwieńczyć), zyskuje inne odcienie, pojawiają się kolejne publikacje, a rewolucyjnie usposobieni dyskutanci nie odpuszczają. W dotąd nieustających rozważaniach przoduje „Krytyka Polityczna”, która w ciągu kilku lat okazała się ważnym uczestnikiem gry – także tej krytycznoliterackiej. Wydawane przez nią książki w rozmaitych seriach mają być – z jednej strony – głosami w aktualnych (a jak woleliby powiedzieć pewnie członkowie Zespołu KP: inicjowanych przez nich) dyskusjach, z drugiej zaś – dostarczać intelektualnych pożywek, którymi karmią się wielokrotnie także stroniący od tej formacji. W roku 2009 Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej zaproponowało dwie – istotne dla omawianego tematu – pozycje: tzw. przewodnik Polityka literatury i książkę Igora Stokfiszewskiego Zwrot polityczny, w którym zebrane są – wcześniej już publikowane – artykuły tego krytyka

In contemporary discussions on the condition and further perspectives of World Literature, the mood of disappointment and disillusionment seems to dominate. Reservations concern World Literature in its complexity – its canon, potential multilingualism, existing hierarchies and often contradictory conceptualizations. The crisis of World Literature is not, however, the result of a scandal, but rather of many years of progressive petrification resulting in actual monolingualism, formulaic narrative patterns, consolidation of the center-periphery hierarchy and abandonment of the real pluralism of interpretation. One of the areas that seems to meet the challenge of World Literature is undoubtedly translation criticism. Therefore, the aim of the article is to reflect on how contemporary theories and conceptualizations of World Literature as well as its far-fetched utopia can benefit from translation criticism’s input. The article also argues that translation criticism may become a field that dynamizes contemporary World Literature and restores its reordering or even revolutionary potential.

The article’s main subject is the complex mechanism of observation and participation in the spectacles of sadism and cruelty prevalent during the Great Depression in the United States. A particular focus was given to They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? by Horace McCoy among other literary and art cases. Literary narratives focused on dance marathons are analyzed, apart from a literary-critical perspective, in the light of the history of theater and entertainment, and the history of economics. An in-depth presentation of the circumstances of the economic crisis allows us to see the dynamics of changes in literary conventions (including Hollywood narratives) as part of the historical-literary process, as well as the collapse of the American narrative about success and liberation through a career in the entertainment industry. The article proposes to consider cultural representations of the dance marathon as a sadistic spectacle in which the suffering of others becomes a short-term entertainment – enabled by a clear division between participants and spectators, and the common understanding of the competition as a springboard to success in Hollywood. Tracing the collapse of this narrative (as well as the lethality of this promise) is an essential point in the essay’s conclusion.