ABSTRACT
In “Conjectures on World Literature,” Franco Moretti speaks of “the law of literary evolution” that dictates that the “diffusion” of the modern novel, in “cultures that belong to the periphery of the literary system,” arises “not as an autonomous development but as a compromise between a Western formal influence and local materials.” The “Eurocentrism” of World Literature, for Apter, discriminates against smaller nations by favoring critical lexicons that hail from the dominant ones.” Cross-border “circulation” in literature and in the arts generally depends on being wired into an empowering agency—a hegemonic nation, a stable government, a mighty corporation, an economic force –with the capacity to enforce and guarantee circulation. In a later self-correction Moretti acknowledged that his Core-Periphery formulations were inadequate because they “erased from the picture the transitional area where cultures move in and out of the core”.
