Literary Materiality as a challenging space of a global “conviviality”. Elena Poniatowska and Gabriel García Márquez

Abstract

This paper takes the premise that issues of “conviviality” on a global level are very meaningfully reflected in the current debate around world literature, especially in regard to specific actors’ impact on the literary landscape. In this context, “conviviality” should not be interpreted primarily as a political program. Instead, the focus here is on an analytical and descriptive definition of the term. On the descriptive level, the paper calls for according greater consideration within this debate to material realities. As it explores the possibilities for a critical, materially grounded vision of world literature that transcends the market-centric dynamics of globalization, the paper combines recent sociological considerations of the concept of world literature with details of concrete publishing and literary industry practices. Using two examples from twentieth-century Latin American literature – the testimonial literature of Elena Poniatowska, which was largely overlooked at first, especially in Germany, and the international editions of García Márquez’s novels, which circulated widely by contrast – it contemplates how a materials-based approach can contribute to the study of world literature as a convivial space.