Theory of world literature used to stand extensively on the premises of translatability and readability through which works of literature become recognized as world literature. However, one alternative avenue of theoretical investigation for the ways literatures achieve global avowal is through the other chances offered by ‘misreading’ ‘mistranslation’ and ‘untranslatability.’ Untranslatability is a relatively new means of inspection in literary studies and criticism, which revisits the act of translation by re-considering the moments of failure, resistance, and impossibility of translation. If translatability has been regarded as the only and secure road to synthesize globally recognized literature, yet untranslatability might also enhance the possibility of supplementing literary worldliness. The article tests and investigates the chances of universalizing and canonizing literature through the spectrum of misreading and mistranslation by applying such notions in the cases of Borges and Kafka.

Genocide. Specicide. Ecocide. Tierracide: these paradigms involving the massive devastation of our planet in the Anthropocene haunt contemporary cultural production and, as I want to show in this paper, reflect what the Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht calls ‘perverse resilience’ and the ‘death of resilience.’ My paper traces this death of resilience via scenarios of human/non-human animal entanglements in the biopolitically real convergence of mass slaughter of animals and human genocide and how world literature responds to this. In "The Rings of Saturn" (1995), for example, a literary perambulation across East Anglia, the German-British author W.G. Sebald compares the mass extermination of herrings with the horrors of colonialism in Belgian Congo and the Holocaust. In North American fiction, genocide of the Indigenous people and the near-extinction of the bison come together in John Williams’s "Butcher’s Crossing" (1960), Michael Blake’s "Dances with Wolves" (1988), and in Louise Erdrich’s novel "Roundhouse" (2012). Doris Pilkington’s/Nugi Garimara’s memoir "Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" (1996) explores the interface of the eradication of Australian Indigenous culture and rabbits, a species imported by Europeans and then declared as vermin, and the Chinese author Jian Rong’s novel "Wolf Totem" (2004) deplores the environmental devastation, eradication of wolves, and subsequent destruction of culture in Inner Mongolia as a form of colonial ethnocide.

My work draws on Glenn Albrecht’s discussion of Earth emotions and his negative outlook on any kind of resilience in an age in which eco-alienation keeps increasing in devastating proportions. I do, however, also wish to invoke counter-philosophies such as George Monbiot’s activism for rewilding the planet, Baptiste Morizot’s Wild Diplomacy, and Canadian First Nations scholar Tasha Hubbard’s work on "Singing Back the Buffalo". What are their messages of hope and does contemporary literature also develop these?

The American Sinologist Benjamin Schwartz remarks that the Axial Age is “the age of transcendence”. In line with Schwartz’s argument, Ying-shih Yü observes that, in the Chinese breakthrough, the contrast between the actual world and the transcendental world is much less radical and absolute than that found in other civilizations. Yü considers inwardness to be the defining characteristic of the Chinese conception of transcendence and thus speaks of an “inward transcendence”. Upon closer examination, however, Yü’s rigid dichotomy between the Chinese and Western views of transcendence proves simply unfounded. The notion of inward/immanent transcendence can be considered as a common concept shared by both Chinese and Western intellectual tradition—a rigorous study on its varying forms of concretization in Chinese and Western literary texts will lead us further towards fully understanding its connotations and possible implications for our thinking patterns. In the German novel Zauberberg, Castorp’s is by no means an external transcendence—there is, throughout the story, no indication of the existence of the metaphysical world. The transcendence is immanent in the physical world. The argument that the immanent/inward transcendence is exclusive to the Chinese mind is but another example of essentialist dichotomy.

Contemporary realist writing faces the challenge of reconnecting mimesis with ontology. Historically, as seen in Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis, mimesis has been deeply tied to human life-worlds. However, in its current urgent connection with ontology, the focus shifts: life-worlds no longer belong exclusively to humans, nor are they necessarily meaningful in relation to humans. Now, especially after a decisive environmental turn in millennial fiction, one aspect that stands out to me as particularly vital is to pinpoint the writing in which the environment returns in mimesis. A literary theory, challenging human-character-centered approach to literary analysis, favorable to appreciating the form of things-clustered fiction needs to be secured. This project will read three exemplary novels, including Barkskins (2016) by Annie Proulx, The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers and Migrations (2020) by Charlotte McConaghy. These contemporary novels are mainly realistic in tenor, distinct from the speculative fiction, elevating environmental writings in the novels under discussion to the analysis that can pay due attention to agencies and affordances of human environments. I will explore the argument that the novels under discussion are things-centered fiction, especially in the sense of form. They place the realism of environments at the center and other formal elements such as characterization, and plotting can be understood as derivatives. This things-centered form challenges a blasé cohabitation with environments and in turn highlights the human characters’ capacities—or limitations—for change.

It is rare for a poem to make it into national, let alone international news, and go viral on social media. In 2021, a 22-year-old poet accomplished this: Amanda Gorman recited her spoken word poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. Gorman’s occasional poem calls for unity, collaboration, and healing after a period of political turmoil and division. It urges overcoming past difficulties and trauma, honouring history, and moving toward a brighter, more utopian future.

The poem was not only a response to the contested 2020 presidential election and the escalating culture wars; significant parts were written and rewritten in reaction to the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6. Gorman’s vision of hope draws on Afrofuturism and the literary traditions of the African American community, such as signifyin(g)—a hallmark of African American expression—and the religious language of Black sermons. It simultaneously references historical documents, political discourse, and pop culture, creating a blend of pathos and progressiveness. On one hand, the poem resonates with the nation’s past; on the other, it embodies a youthful spirit. As Brandy E. Underwood observes, referencing a popular Twitter hashtag, Gorman’s work delivers “a healthy dose of Black Girl Magic.”

The poem’s impact stemmed not only from the text but also from its connection to a specific moment and place in time, Gorman’s powerful recitation, her symbolic appearance, and persona. These elements coalesced, intertwining intra-, inter-, and extratextual layers in an inseparable way. Given its viral popularity, translations were quickly commissioned worldwide. In Europe, in particular, debates arose over who should translate the poem, raising questions about (i) a translator's ability to translate the poem accurately, (ii) translation ethics, and (iii) the role of identity in both of these. The controversy peaked with the Dutch and Catalan translations, as original translators Marieke Lukas Rijneveld and Víctor Obiols stepped down or withdrew.

This paper explores the aesthetics, politics, and ethics of translating Gorman’s poem, focusing on the role of identity. It examines how elements of Gorman’s work—including her recitation, symbolic appearance, and persona—can be adapted into text. It addresses translational challenges and ethics, referencing debates around Rijneveld and Obiols, and analyses strategies by European publishers in Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Expanding on the political and ethical implications of translator selection, the paper then focuses on the German translation by Uda Strätling, Hadija Haruna-Oelker, and Kübra Gümüşay to highlight discursive and linguistic challenges related to race and African American literary traditions.

By reflecting on these aesthetic, political, and ethical dimensions, the paper aims to provoke debate on the translation process. It asks three central questions: (i) To what extent can or should the translator’s identity translate Gorman’s persona? (ii) How do these considerations affect the poem’s interpretation and reception? (iii) Are these issues distinctly European, shaped by colonial and post-colonial dynamics, revealing underlying cultural attitudes toward race and translation ethics?