Scientification and Popularization in the Historiography of World Literature, 1850-1950

In 1827, in one of his best known quotations, Goethe said:

I am more and more convinced […] that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere, and at all times, in hundreds and hundreds of men. […] National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of World literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach. ²