ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author use the term 'literary space' to denote the spaces in which literature circulates, as well as the spatial constitution of literary fields. With the introduction of the concept of world literature, the focus of scholarship on literature shifted from the temporal to the spatial. Different variants can be distinguished: the binary of 'the West' versus 'the Rest', the dialectics of national and world literature, the colonial and post-colonial establishment of linguistically bound literatures, and the postulation of a transnational literature. Hence, in Casanova's model, the world literature and national literature fields exist in a complex relationship to each other. Conversely, national literatures nearer the heteronomous pole have less capital, thus being less well represented in the world literature field. In Casanova's model, the world literature field determines the rank and prestige of national literatures. Hence, world literature becomes a phenomenological, descriptive, as well as a performative category through which literary scholars can design future models.
