'World literature', a term coined by
歌德創造的新詞
「我越來越相信，」歌德說道，「詩是人類的普遍財富，它無時無刻不在展現在成百上千的人身上……因此，我喜歡觀察周圍的外國，並建議每個人都這樣做。民族文學如今已是一個意義不明的術語；世界文學時代即將到來，每個人都必須努力加速它的到來。埃克曼於1835年（即詩人去世三年後）發表了《歌德與他在過去十年裡對話》（Gespräche mit Goethe in den L'énatzten Jahren seines Lebens），此後，「世界文學」一詞便開始流行。這個術語既體現了一種文學視角，也體現了一種新的文化意識，一種對全球現代性正在興起的感知，正如歌德所預言的，我們現在正身處其中。然而，自其提出之日起，這個術語也一直顯得格外難以捉摸：究竟什麼是「世界文學」？哪種文學？屬於誰的世界？它與那些即使在歌德宣布其已過時之後依然產量不減的民族文學有何關係？西歐與世界其他地區之間、古代與現代之間、新興的大眾文化與菁英作品之間，又有哪些新的關係？
如果我們以歌德為指導，困惑只會成倍增加，而這源於他不斷變化的個性——他那不穩定的混合體：謙遜與狂妄自大、世界主義與沙文主義、古典主義與浪漫主義、廣泛的好奇心與自我陶醉的教條主義。艾克曼的記述
既是對這位偉人的描繪，也記錄了他未能
掌握其主題的能力；艾克曼告訴我們，歌德是一顆鑽石，在每個方向都會投射出不同的色彩。而艾克曼則是一顆未經雕琢的鑽石：出身卑微，基本上自學成才，是一位有抱負的詩人和劇作家，他試圖以他所認識的歌德為榜樣，塑造自己的人生和作品。
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他永遠無法與之相比。 《與歌德對話錄》既是歌德的客觀寫照，也是埃克曼本人的主觀自傳，它如同一幅展現教誨、誘惑、影響和傳承場景的畫廊，所有這些都深刻地揭示了文學的世俗性。在埃克曼提供的多重框架下審視歌德的世界文學，我們已然能夠發現所有重要的複雜性、張力和機遇，而這些在我們今天試圖理解我們迅速擴張的世界及其剝落的文學時仍然會遇到。
事實上，對艾克曼而言，歌德是世界文學乃至整個世界文化的鮮活化身。在後半部分，他記錄了歌德的如下言論：「魔鬼為了戲弄和戲弄人類，在它們之中安置了一些如此誘人，以至於每個人都爭相追捧，而他們又如此偉大，以至於無人能及。」歌德列舉了拉斐爾、莫札特、莎士比亞和拿破崙作為例子。 「我默默地想，」艾克曼補充道，「那些惡魔也曾對歌德抱持類似的意圖——他魅力非凡，令人難以抗拒，他偉大非凡，令人難以企及」（271）。即使能與歌德如此親近，埃克曼也經歷了漫長的旅程。他出身貧寒的農村，後來在當地法院找到了一份辦事員的工作。 「那時我第一次聽到歌德的名字，也第一次得到了一本他的詩集。我讀他的詩，不斷地重讀，
那種愉悅難以言喻……我似乎在這些詩中，
反射出了我先前未知的本質（zurückgespiegelt）。 ……我整整幾個星期、幾個月地沉浸在這些詩中……我
所想所言，無一例外都是歌德。 」（Gespräche，21）1 宮廷裡的朋友們
為艾克曼安排了一項為期兩年的獎學金，讓他去哥廷根學習法律。
獎學金結束後，他無力再從事法律職業。他靠著僅剩的獎學金生活，寫詩，並創作了一部文學評論作品《詩歌貢獻，特別關注歌德》，
並將手稿寄給歌德，希望他能推薦給出版商。幾週過去了；埃克曼一無所獲，決定
孤注一擲，親自去拜見歌德。步行到魏瑪，耗時超過一週。 「一路上，天氣炎熱，我感到疲憊不堪，但我不斷
對自己說，我正受到仁慈神靈的特別庇護，而這趟旅程可能會對我的晚年生活產生重要的影響，這種感覺令人欣慰。 」（《演講》，30）
這番話實在太輕描淡寫了。艾克曼此時已經
2 引言
1 總的來說，我會引用
Goethe Coins a Phrase “I am more and more convinced,” Goethe remarked,“that poetry is the universal possession of mankind, revealing itself everywhere and at all times in hundreds and hundreds of men. . . . I therefore like to look about me in foreign nations, and advise everyone to do the same. National literature is now a rather unmeaning term; the epoch of world literature is at hand, and everyone must strive to hasten its approach.” Speaking to his young disciple Johann Peter Eckermann in January 1827, the seventy-seven-year-old Goethe used his newly minted term Weltliteratur, which passed into common currency after Eckermann published his Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens in 1835, three years after the poet’s death. The term crystallized both a literary perspective and a new cultural awareness, a sense of an arising global modernity, whose epoch, as Goethe predicted, we now inhabit.Yet the term has also been extraordinarily elusive, from the moment of its formulation onward: What does it really mean to speak of a “world literature”? Which literature, whose world? What relation to the national literatures whose production continued unabated even after Goethe announced their obsolescence? What new relations between Western Europe and the rest of the globe, between antiquity and modernity, between the nascent mass culture and elite productions? If we look to Goethe for guidance, the perplexities only multiply, fueled by his constantly shifting personality—his unstable mix of modesty and megalomania, cosmopolitanism and jingoism, classicism and Romanticism, wide-ranging curiosity and self-absorbed dogmatism. Eckermann’s account is both a portrait of the great man and the record of his inability to grasp his subject; Goethe is a diamond, Eckermann tells us, that casts a different color in every direction. Eckermann, on the other hand, is a diamond in the rough: of humble origins, largely self-taught, an aspiring poet and dramatist, he seeks to model his life and work on Goethe, whom he knows © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. For general queries, contact webmaster@press.princeton.edu he can never measure up to. Both Bild and Bildungsroman—objective portrait of Goethe and subjective autobiography of Eckermann himself—the Conversations with Goetheis a gallery of scenes of instruction, seduction, influence, and transmission, all of which have much to tell us about the worldliness of literature. Looking at Goethe’s Weltliteratur within the multiple frames Eckermann provides, we can already find all the major complexities, tensions, and opportunities that we still encounter today as we try to grasp our rapidly expanding world and its exfoliating literatures. Indeed, for Eckermann Goethe is the living embodiment of world literature, even of world culture as a whole. Late in his account, he records Goethe’s remark that “the daemons, to tease and make sport with men, have placed among them single figures so alluring that everyone strives after them, and so great that nobody reaches them”; Goethe names Raphael, Mozart, Shakespeare, and Napoleon as examples.“I thought in silence,”Eckermann adds, “that the daemons had intended something of the kind with Goethe—he is a form too alluring not to be striven after, and too great to be reached” (271). Even to be as close to Goethe as he is, Eckermann has come a long way. Raised in rural poverty, he had managed to find a clerk’s job at the local court. “At this time I heard the name Goethe for the first time and first acquired a volume of his poetry. I read his poems, and constantly reread them, with a pleasure that no words can describe. . . . it seemed to me that in these poems my own hitherto unknown essence was reflected back to me [zurückgespiegelt]. . . . I lived for whole weeks and months in these poems.... I thought and spoke of nothing but Goethe” (Gespräche, 21).1 Friends at court arranged a two-year scholarship for Eckermann to study law at Göttingen. His fellowship ending, he could not bear to pursue a legal career. Living penuriously on the last remains of his fellowship, he wrote poems and composed a work of literary criticism, Contributions to Poetry, with Particular Attention to Goethe, and sent the manuscript to Goethe, hoping he would recommend it to his publisher. Some weeks passed; hearing nothing, Eckermann decided to risk everything and go see Goethe in person. It took over a week to walk to Weimar. “Along the way, often made wearisome by hot weather, I kept repeating to myself the comforting feeling that I was proceeding under the special protection of benevolent spirits, and that this journey might have important consequences for my later life” (Gespräche, 30). This is an extreme understatement. Eckermann at this point had no 2 INTRODUCTION 1 In general I will be quoting from the English translation of Eckermann’s book, but that translation is incomplete. Passages I’ve taken directly from the German will be labeled Gespräche. © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher
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